Walk in Truth
About this sermon
Dean Odle teaches that walking in truth requires more than rejecting obvious lies: it means loving Christ, submitting to every word of Scripture, and allowing truth to sanctify conduct, doctrine, and church life. From John’s Gospel and letters, 1 Timothy, Psalms, and other passages, he identifies Jesus as the truth, the church as truth’s pillar, and the Holy Spirit as the Spirit who distinguishes truth from error.
Chronological teaching outline
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After worship exalts Jesus as God manifested in flesh, Odle says lying harms its target and therefore loves that person less than one should. He introduces a culture filled with concealed motives and disputed public claims, then asks Scripture to define truth.
Jesus’ claim to be the way, truth, and life establishes truth as personal and centered in Christ. John 17’s prayer that disciples be sanctified through truth leads Odle to connect cleansing by Jesus’ blood with the continuing washing and setting apart accomplished through God’s Word.
First Timothy 3:15 describes the church as the house of God and pillar and ground of truth, which Odle contrasts with churches that tolerate teaching they admit is false. Applications to sexuality, intoxication, honesty, and daily conduct culminate in Jesus’ statement that people live by every word of God.
Odle argues for word-level biblical preservation and criticizes modern translations for omissions and altered conditions. First John’s test of the Spirit of truth and spirit of error and the repeated language of truth in 2 John frame his pastoral duty to establish hearers in accurate doctrine.
John’s joy that his spiritual children walk in truth becomes Odle’s measure of successful pastoral care. He describes attacks on shepherds, testimonies from listeners changed by the teaching, and a congregation’s value as dependent on its hunger for truth rather than its size.
Psalm 40’s refusal to conceal God’s truth from the great congregation supports preaching subjects that bring ridicule, especially Odle’s biblical-cosmology teaching. He urges listeners to tremble at Scripture, flee any departure from it, and interpret intensifying wars as part of Jesus’ end-times warnings.
Video clips of a man associated with claims about the Islamic Mahdi are examined as a possible example of Jesus’ warning that false christs and prophets will deceive many. Odle rejects the man’s portrayal of Jesus and argues that believers, especially the young, need elders and a sound local church to recognize sophisticated error.
Odle asks for prayer over family and political threats and says Christians should take practical protection seriously. Accounts of stopping break-ins, an assault, and suspected trafficking explain his support for armed self-defense, while he warns that disorder or power failure could make police response slower.
Practical preparation for darkness gives way to John 8: those who continue in Jesus’ Word are disciples who know liberating truth. Odle calls hearers to repent, confess Jesus publicly, receive forgiveness, and make Him Lord rather than treating salvation as an unexpressed private idea.
Extended prayer asks the Lord to move the church out of sin, lukewarmness, bad attitudes, and doctrinal error. The service closes by asking the Holy Spirit to guide believers in Scripture, followed by ministry conversation and announcements.
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Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
- 0:00:21
Yes, give him praise this morning. Hallelujah. Praise you, Lord. We exalt you, almighty God, creator of heaven and earth. We exalt your name, Jesus, the name above every name.
- 0:06:03
God almighty who came in the flesh and died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead. We love you. We worship you. We exalt you today. King of kings and Lord of lords. We're thankful, we're thankful, God, that we can know you, that we can be saved, that our sins, the bad things in our heart, the evil things we've done, the things in rebellion against you, Lord, can be forgiven. They can be washed away by the precious blood you shed on the cross as the sacrifice for our sins. Lord, you just want us to ask you, just ask you to forgive us and to dedicate our lives to following you and obeying you. You want us to repent and believe. So, Lord, we pray that anybody here today, if they don't know you today, they will come to know you through your spirit and your truth, the truth of your word. In Jesus' name, everybody say, Amen. Alright, you may be seated this morning. We want to welcome everybody to Fire and Grace Church this morning. I felt led by the Lord to bring out the big book, the replica, the 1611 King James Bible they used to have in churches. They used to have these chained to the pulpit back in the day. They were huge and it's an exact replica. But I brought it out today because I'm going to talk to you about something that's very important, vitally important in your life. It's the truth, the truth. We're going to define what that is, but let me just say this. Any time that there is any kind of a lie, you can hear me, any kind of a lie in your life is to hide something. Lies are always to hide something. Now, sometimes the lies are simply to just hide the truth from you, right? But lies are never good. And let me just go on and tell you this. We got this terminology in America, half truths. There's no such thing as a half truth. If you mix a lie with the truth, it's still a lie. It's a deception. Actually, it's more evil because you're definitely trying to fool people when you mix a little truth in with a lie. There's a proverb that says that I can't remember where it is right now. You guys can find it for me. But that if you lie, you hate those that you are afflicting or putting the lie upon.
- 0:09:11
So if you lie to somebody, the Bible is telling you that you actually hate them. Now, some people say, I don't hate anybody. I hate a strong word. Well, the hate definition is I've given you many times from the Greek New Testament simply means to love less than you should. So if you lie to somebody, you love them less than you should. But let's define what is truth because we live in a world now that's full of lies everywhere. Media lies, Hollywood lies, the government lies, your doctors lie, pharmaceutical companies definitely lie. I mean, the biggest lie we've been told in recent years, it's safe and effective, right? Yeah, that one, that one right there. You know, I think I marveled at during that whole time period. I marveled at how many people trusted the government. I'm like, wow, yeah, I'm going to shoot something in my body that's never been done before. Let's go for it. Bad move. Let me establish this real quick. Jesus said this in John 14 six. Y'all can put this up. Oh, there it is. Lying tongue hated those that are afflicted by it and a flattering mouth working through. But let's put that up. Jesus said in John, the gospel of John, he said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the father but by me. So Jesus said, I am the truth. Now, another thing Jesus said, or it was said about Jesus to find him and go to John, the gospel. John, go to chapter one and verse one. I'm going to show you something here. Now we're going to ask a question. What would Jesus do? All right. Says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. Somebody say the word was God, but he was with God. Oh, so that's that whole Trinity thing, right? Now let's keep going. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made. So the word that was with God and the word that was God is also the creator of all things. So God, then we find out in verse 14, who is this word? Who is this word? And the word was made flesh or God was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory.
- 0:12:13
The glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth, truth. Let me let me just tell you how many times think about this, the gospel of John. You could call it really the truth gospel, not that they are not all truth. It's all the Bible is truth from Genesis to Revelation. But think about this. The gospel of John uses the word truth 27 times. Matthew uses truth only three times. Mark, truth, three times. Luke uses truth five times. But John, 27 times. Why do you think that? Just like that. Let's go to another one. I want to go to John, the gospel of John, chapter 17 and verse 17. So I want you to see what Jesus said about the word of God, the Bible. Genesis to Revelation, the 66 books we have right here in this good King James Bible. That is the truth. This is what Jesus said here and we're going to read. Just put up 17. We're going to go through 19. He says sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. Everybody see that sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. Let's go to the next one. As thou has sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. Verse 17 and for their sakes, I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Somebody say sanctified through the truth. What is sanctified mean? Sanctified means to be cleansed, to be set apart, to be holy, to be different, to be set apart for God's use, meaning he's cleaned you and made you holy. Now that only comes by faith in the blood of Jesus shed on the cross in his resurrection. But you have to exercise faith in that. But then he says this thing about what? That we need the washing of the water of the word. That's Ephesians chapter five. So here's the thing I'm making clear to you. You are sanctified by your faith in the word of God and faith that has enough true belief in the heart to actually act upon it, to obey it. Faith without works is dead being alone. Right? So then what? I have really got to be a person who is in the word, studying the word, meditating on the word,
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