For continued worship, I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 59. It has been a blessing to be here this morning and see how that God brought all these different passages of scripture together, the devotional, the Sunday school, and the message. And I noticed even in the song, I was watching for it. The title to the message is Stand for Truth. Stand for Truth. And I noticed the one verse of song said, and loyally stand for the kingdom of truth. Now, when we're loyal to something, I'm not sure if I can give you the meaning of the word loyal. You know what it is. We are committed. We're dedicated to truth. And loyally stand for the kingdom of truth. Jesus said, if ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed. And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Truth brings freedom to our life and heart, freedom from sin, freedom from guilt. Today, truth is not very popular. You know, if it lines up with our way of thinking, then great. we want to take our own way. We don't necessarily align our lives, our thinking with truth. If they happen to cross, then it's fine, but we really do want to take our own way. And not only that, not only do we want to take our own way, we like for others to support that idea and bring them alongside our way of thinking. That's kind of what's going on today in society and sadly in some of our churches, in some of our own hearts maybe. Stand for truth. A year ago, a brother was taken from our midst that was an example of truth. Brother Andy was someone who was not afraid to stand for truth. If I have it correct, yesterday it was a year that he passed away. And our hearts, our sympathy to Liz again today, going through this time of being alone and trust that you are looking to God through this time. Isaiah 59, stand for truth. Let's read verses 1 through the end of the chapter. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness. None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth. They trust in vanity and speak lies. They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity. They hatch cockatrice eggs and weave the spider's web. He that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper. Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works. Their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Wasting and destruction are in their paths. The way of peace they know not, and there is no judgment in their goings. They have made them crooked paths. Whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace. Therefore is judgment far from us. Neither does justice overtake us. We wait for light, but behold obscurity. For brightness, but we walk in darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes. We stumble at noonday as in the night. We are in desolate places as dead men. We roar all like bears and mourn sore like doves. We look for judgment but there is none. For salvation but is far off from us. For our transgressions are multiplied before Thee, and our sins testify against us. For our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them. In transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off. For truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth. And he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey. And the Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment. And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore his arm brought salvation unto him, and his righteousness it sustained him. For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon his head. And he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and his clad was zeal as a cloak. according to their deeds. Accordingly, he will repay fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies, to the islands. He will repay recompense. So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the West and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up his standard against him, and the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from their transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord. As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord, my spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and forever." This chapter gives a clear picture of Israel's condition in Isaiah's time. Now something must have happened between Joshua 1 and Isaiah 59. This is the same people. that God is talking to. Their iniquities had separated them from God. Their sins had hidden His face from them. Because of their ungodly lifestyle and rejection of the truth, God was not even hearing their prayers anymore. According to verse 2. Isaiah further describes the transgressions of Israel in verse 14. And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off, for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Judgment is turned away backward. Judgment meaning the capacity to form an opinion by evaluating something. The ability to make sound and reasonable decisions. Good sense. We would say common sense. Discernment. Turned away backward. Common sense. Upright moral standards. Holy living were out the back door. They had turned their back on these things. It goes on to say that justice standeth afar off. Justice means that we conform to moral rightness, upright living, in action and attitude, doing what is right, being in the right, conforming to truth. Standeth afar off. Serving God from a distance. Maybe they appeared like they were serving God, but their heart was far from it. Standing afar off. And then it says, truth is fallen in the street. Truth is the state of being the case. It is the body of real things, events, facts, without distortion or falsehood or misrepresentation. The truth is today is Sunday and we met at Messiah to worship. You are sitting, I am standing. That's the truth. It's a fact. On a higher level, truth is a body of facts that has its roots in God, a God that cannot lie. There is no falsehood. God is a God of truth. We more directly understand truth by accepting the testimony of Jesus himself when he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. He also said that thy word is truth. God's word is truth. It is real. There's no falsehood, no distortion in the word of God. His Word tells us who God is, and it also has a way of revealing to us who we are. Truth reveals to us who we are. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, reveals and illuminates the Word of God to our hearts. But here it says, is fallen in the street. Truth faltered. Truth stumbled. Truth failed. Truth fainted. It hardly existed in Israel's day. In verse 15 it says, truth faileth and that means it is lacking or it is destroyed. Truth was missing. In the street indicates that it was an avenue or an area. That word is also used in the Song of Solomon and is translated there as the broad way. Truth was missing in the street. Equity cannot enter. The quality of being just, honest, righteous to stand for truth was not common or maybe even looked down on in Israel's day, in Isaiah's day. You know, it's easy for us to look back and say, yes, indeed, truth was in the street. It fell. Truth was destroyed. Israel fell. It's easy for us to say that truth is fallen in the streets of America today. But how is it when we bring it a little closer home? Is the truth of God's word prevailing at the church of Messiah this morning? Is truth prevailing in your homes this morning? How about bringing it just a little bit closer yet? Is truth prevailing in my heart this morning? Am I standing for truth in these perilous and uncertain times? Do I dare stand for truth when it seems like the whole world is giving in to their own ideas and the real truth of the word of God is falling in the streets? Are we as an individual, do we have the courage, like Marvin Joel said, to stand for truth? To stand for what we know God wants us to stand for? Or do we like to tweak the truth a little bit so that it's more comfortable for us? Is the truth of God doing a work in our lives to the point that our feet are turned in a certain direction, turned towards God? Is the truth of the word controlling our minds, our thought pattern? Or are we going with the trend? Are we turning it away backward like the children of Israel did? Or are hearts to the point where it cannot enter, like it says of equity? Are we embracing the truth, meaning that we hold on to it? Are we taking it to heart? Or do we stand far off, like it is said of justice? Where are we this morning? Are we being swept into the thought patterns and mindset of mainstream around us? Or are we rooted and grounded on the Word of God, on the truth, even when others are giving in? My friend, Satan is very real. He is busy these days. He specializes in destroying nations, In destroying churches, in destroying our homes, our marriage relations, He specializes in destroying individuals. He is the great underminer of truth. He is the father of lies, the Bible tells us. He loves to distort the truth and make it look more enticing to the carnal man. My encouragement is stand for truth. Stand for the truth of the word. Make no apologies. Make no excuses not to. Take no shortcuts. It will be worth it all. A long time ago, four young men in their mid-teens sat in a prison cell. They were prisoners of war. And of course, they were discussing all the things that had happened the previous couple days. The people back home had gone hungry to the point of starvation for a long time. Then one day, The city gates were broken down and the enemy rushed in, killing a bunch of people and taking the rest of them captive. The captives were marched across the hot desert to a foreign land. And that's where these four young men were. This is in my own words, story from the Bible. Suddenly the prison doors opened. And the officer walks in and he said, I have good news for you. Well, good news in a prison cell is something you want to hear for sure. He said, you four have been chosen to go to the best schools in this country. You will be trained to help the king with his work. Wow. That is good news for these four young men, teenagers, by the way. And I'm sure they thought, that's very kind of the king. But they might have began to wonder, will he make us worship his idols? Are we then going to have to eat the food that he might have sacrificed to idols? Or are we going to be able to continue worshiping the true God? Maybe while they were thinking these kind of thoughts, the officer said, by the way, your names will be changed. And he rattles off the new names and they start thinking, wow, they don't want us to be Israelites anymore. We're now to be Babylonians. Oh," said the officer, and the other thing is, you will be eating the king's food and drinking his wine. Well, it was a great honor to eat at the king's table, to eat the king's food, but I'm sure that Daniel and his three friends thought about the fact that this food was probably considered unclean by the Israelites, or at least some of it, and that the wine was probably strong enough to affect their thoughts, their mind. Daniel probably thought that, you know what, we can't do this. We can't be eating this food and drinking his wine and still serve our God faithfully. No thanks, said Daniel, we can't take the offer. But I'll tell you what, let us eat fruits and veggies. Oh, the officer replied, you can't do that because you'll end up being weak and sickly and the king will kill me for not taking proper care of you. I said, Daniel, let us try it for 10 days and we'll see how it works. So they agreed. They tried for 10 days and they ended up looking healthier and stronger than their classmates who were eating very possibly of the king's meat. It says that these young men put their hearts into learning. They went to school for three years. They put their heart into it. They learned everything they could learn in those three years. They graduated looking healthier. And it says they were 10 times wiser than their fellow classmates or anyone in the king's court. 10 times wiser eating food that really isn't all that good, especially if you'd ask the boys at home. Did they stand for truth? Somebody, somewhere, sometime had instilled into these young men's hearts truth, teaching about God, teaching about what is right. And they were not about to go back on it. They were not about to turn away backward, or to let it fall in the street, or not to let it enter. Their heart was open to truth, and God blessed their lives for their faithful obedience. In Daniel chapter 1, there's a verse. that says, but Daniel, remember what I found, he was approximately age 15. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat. And that's the first thing we read about Daniel. What's the first thing that people read about my life? Daniel purposed in his heart that he would stand for truth Even when he was presented all the delicacies of the kingdom of Babylon, he had made a choice in his heart to do what was right, to do what he knew God was asking him to do. You know, this decision could have cost him his life. He was going against the king's orders, but he chose to do it anyhow. Did you ever think about it? What would have happened if Daniel would have chosen to do what was convenient or easy instead of doing the right thing? It probably would have set a pattern in his life, leaving us with a Daniel that just could not stand for what was right any time in life. After all, he could have reasoned. I am in a strange land with strange customs and strange people. Surely God will understand my dilemma and I'll just kind of go with the flow. And one thing for sure, I can't be a living witness for you, God, if I'm killed for eating the wrong food. You know, if that had been Daniel's way of thinking and doing, we possibly would not have the verse in our Bible where it says, God gave them knowledge and skill, talking about Daniel and his friends. God gave them knowledge and skill. Because Daniel gave his highest loyalty to God, God not only protected him, but also made him flourish. Daniel flourished in the kingdom of Babylon. You know, had he not stood for truth when he was young, it could well have changed the course of events in his life later on. Would God have been able to use him to interpret two dreams for Nebuchadnezzar? Would he have been able to translate the handwriting on the wall? And one of our favorite Bible stories, Daniel in the lion's den, would probably be missing from history because Daniel just went with the flow. He stood for truth and God was with him the rest of his life. Did he have an easy life? No. He faced pressures like you and I and more severe. Do you think he had a longing to go back to his family in Israel? He never got that privilege. Yet he stood for truth in this foreign land. He faced the pressure numerous times to let the truth fall in the street. But he always stood firm. There's three things that we could learn from his life, at least three. I have three here. Number one is our attitude and character in our youth does set a pattern that we tend to follow the rest of our lives. What we choose to do when we're young usually follows us, or we usually follow that. It sets a pattern for us for the rest of our lives. If he would have chose at the age of 15 to not stand for truth, We probably wouldn't read much of Daniel in the Bible. The second thing is God expects His children to stand for right or for truth regardless of how difficult it may be. It's not always easy to stand for truth. And the third one is just because we choose to stand for truth doesn't mean That life will be easy. Everything will just be a bed of roses from here on out. In this day, in our land, we must, like Daniel, humbly stand, firmly stand for what is right. For what we know is God's will for our life. No, we don't. Today, there's a lot of pushing our agenda, a lot of stirring up the people. And I'm trying to get you all to think what I'm thinking and to do what I want to do and to believe what I believe. Daniel wasn't that way. He didn't go throughout the kingdom pushing his agenda, pushing his point, stirring up people. He just calmly stood for what is right when truth was at stake. Today, we like Daniel certainly face the pressure to give in to the easy thing, to let truth fall in the street. And sadly, many are doing just that. God desires of us that we are strong, that we are faithful builders in His church, and that we firmly stand on the teachings of the Scriptures without apologies. Dare to be a Daniel today. Dare to be a Daniel in this day. Truth. Back to verse 14. Truth is fallen in the street. How can truth fall? How can truth fail? How can truth be destroyed and perish when the Bible says that God is a God of truth in Deuteronomy 32 verse 4? How can truth fail and fall when Jesus said, I am the truth in John 14? How can truth fail when Jesus called the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Truth in John 17? How can truth fail when God's Word is truth? How can truth fail when the Bible says that the Lord is good, his truth endureth to all generations in Psalm 100? An unchanging God like we heard this morning already. How can truth fail? God is a God of truth. His word is truth. I read an article that Dennis Martin wrote on truth failing. And these are some of his thoughts included. Truth falls, fails, perishes when we refuse to buy it in the first place. Buy the truth and sell it not. Also, wisdom and instruction and understanding in Proverbs 23, 23. Truth is not inherited. We don't get truth from our dad. He might instill some truth in us, but we buy the truth when we sell our carnal desires. It is at the cost of our selfish will, our evil heart. Buy the truth. We buy it from God through His Word at the cost of carnal resistance. Once we have the truth, it needs to be cultivated and maintained or we lose it or it falls in the street. It is maintained by Bible reading and prayer. Keeping ourselves in the Word of God, maintaining truth. Truth fails. when we refuse to buy it, when we reject it, when we don't let it enter. Number two, truth fails. When we do not love it, when we do not love the truth, Zechariah 8, 19 talks about loving truth. When we do not love, we hate. And something that is hated is despised in the eyes of the hater. Today, truth is despised by many people. It is too revealing. It brings out the things in our lives that we'd like to hide. Truth shows us who we are. And so many people don't love the truth. because of it revealing to ourselves and others who we truly are. In contrast though, those who love the truth can say with David, oh, how I love thy law. It is my meditation all the day in Psalm 119. The third one, truth fails. when we do not desire it in our inward parts like David did in Psalm 51. Truth fails when we are too proud to acknowledge our sin, to repent, confess and forsake our sin. Truth will fail us. When we are too self-centered to ask God for cleansing by the blood of Jesus, truth will fail. The fourth one, truth fails or falls into street and perishes when we give heed to fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth in Titus 1 verse 14. Truth fails when we give heed to fables, to commandments of men that turn away the truth. Today, there is much information. out there, websites, books, all kinds of teaching on how to do religion. They are designed only to satisfy someone, someone's or some group's ideas or ungodly desires. I believe too many people today are being confused by listening to the wrong voices. 2 Timothy 3 says, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. There's so much information out there, but a lot of it is designed to make us feel good where we're at. And that's okay if we're in the right place, by the way. But a lot of it is designed to justify what we're doing if it lines up with the Word or not. You know, we can justify just about anything if we look at the right places. Are we daring to stand for truth? Do we look into the Word of God for direction? Some modern day examples of truth falling in the street. The truth of creation by the spoken word of God is being replaced with the lie of evolution. The truth that marriage is a bond between one man and one woman is considered too restrictive or too narrow The result is the approval of same-gender marriages. Truth fallen in the street. The truth that man is to have dominion over the fowl, the cattle, and over all the earth is being reasoned away in the minds of many today. Here's a quote. from a rights of nature group. Trees, oceans, animals, and mountains have rights just as human beings have rights." Truth fallen in the streets. Further, the truth that there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. is being watered down. It is falling in the street in favor of individualism. I can believe what I want and ignore the rest. I can do what I think is right and what feels best or what feels good. You can do the same for yourself and we still have valid pathways to the same God. Bypassing the fact that there is none other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved. We're trying to save ourselves by our own power, by doing our own thing. Maybe it is a bunch of good works that we're doing. Truth is fallen in the street. The narrow way that Jesus talks about is too restrictive. We need more space. We need a broader road to travel on with less restrictions. I'm afraid some of these things are growing on us. We're getting used to them. Maybe we're tolerating some of these things in our lives, in our churches, in our homes. Truth falls. Truth fails. Truth perishes on the broad way. God is calling His people to embrace the truth. He established truth. He has done everything that is needed for us to get a hold of truth as well as giving us power to maintain the truth or to hang on to it. Are we doing our part? He hath brought us salvation. In verse 1 it says, Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save us. In verse 16 it says, and he saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore his arm brought salvation. He has done all that is needed for us to get a hold of truth. And he has given us the power of the Holy Spirit to stand for truth when we do get a hold of it. Are we accepting that truth today? Do we have the door open or are we like it says of equity there in 14, it cannot enter? Only the word of truth, only the power of God is able to preserve us from the evils of our day. Stand for truth. Love the truth. Buy the truth. Hang on to it. Don't let it fall in the streets. Don't let the truth get away from you. Let it be your guide through life. Especially in these times that we're in, there's much confusion. People don't know where to turn. Let's go to the Word. Let's fill our hearts and minds with God's Word and stand for truth. Read the Word of Truth daily. Make it a priority. It is God's way of speaking to us. He wants us to be a beacon, a ray of hope in this dark world today in 2020. Truth is failing in many hearts today. Dare to be a Daniel. Dare to stand for what you know is right, for what you know God wants you to stand for. What is truth? I wonder how I could sum that up in just a few simple words. What is truth? Believe the Word of God and live it out. Believe the Word and live it out. In closing, I ask you to turn to Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 through 18. We're talking about standing for what is right, standing for the truth, and I'm going to ask you to stand as we read. Ephesians 6, 10 through 18. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. And notice the first piece of the garment in verse 14. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth. and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints." Let's bow our heads for prayer. Our Father in heaven, we come to you