Evaders of Truth

Text: Galatians 1:1

Series: Restoration Sermons

Date:

Speaker: Ed Rangel

Location: Waupaca Church of Christ

Bible Version: NASB 1995

Sermon Type: Expository

Learning Objectives

By the close of this lesson the hearer should be able to:

1. Recognize the common ways people evade truth they actually see.
2. Distinguish a "professor" of truth from a practitioner of it.
3. Resolve to be a doer of the word, not an evader.

Thesis

People find many ways to evade truth they actually see — doubting the Bible, twisting its interpretation, claiming it no longer applies, acting by policy instead of principle, professing without practicing, or dismissing it as "mere ideals" — but to evade truth is to admit one has seen it, and Scripture calls us to be doers of the word.

Burden

To evade truth is different from failing to find it. Evasion implies the truth has been seen and is being dodged — slipped around, explained away, kept at arm's length. The outline catalogs the common dodges, and the uncomfortable thing about his list is how respectable most of them sound: "the translation is uncertain," "that passage doesn't apply today," "those are beautiful ideals, not rules," "I believe it, I just don't practice it." Each is a way of bowing to truth with the lips while escaping it with the life. The burden of this lesson is to strip the disguises off evasion, because the man who sees the truth and slips around it is in greater danger than the man who never saw it at all.

Introduction

There are many excuses for not accepting truth and many ways of evading it — and to evade truth implies that one has actually seen it. The outline names six classes of evaders: doubters, false interpreters, those who say it no longer applies, those who live by policy instead of principle, professors who do not practice, and those who reduce truth to mere ideals.

I. The Doubter (2 Timothy 3:7)

1. One class of evaders simply doubts the Bible.
2. They say the New Testament was not correctly translated — a convenient fog.
3. They ask, how do we even know the Bible is the word of God? — not to learn, but to delay.
4. At bottom they are not willing to accept the truth (cf. 2 Tim. 3:7, "always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth"). The doubt is a door held shut, not a question seeking an answer.

II. False Interpretations (2 Peter 3:16)

1. Some come with pre-conceived opinions.
2. They pervert the truth to sustain a theory they already hold.
3. They use the Bible to "prove" a doctrine rather than letting it teach them — twisting the Scriptures "to their own destruction" (2 Pet. 3:16). The text becomes a tool, not a master.

III. "It Does Not Apply Today" (Matthew 28:20)

1. Another class says Scripture does not apply to us.
2. They claim the Sermon on the Mount was only for the apostles, or for another age.
3. In practice they evade every truth that condemns what they want to do. The "doesn't apply" is selectively aimed — always at the commands that pinch. But Christ said to teach disciples "to observe all that I commanded you... to the end of the age" (Matt. 28:20).

IV. Policy Instead of Principle (Matthew 7:24)

1. Jesus taught principles that are meant to guide conduct (Matt. 7:24).
2. Policy is acting without conviction — doing the expedient thing rather than the right thing.
3. The telltale phrase is "honesty is the best policy" — honesty held for advantage, not for truth's sake. A man ruled by policy will abandon the principle the moment it costs him; he has evaded the truth even while appearing to keep it.

V. The Professor Who Does Not Practice (James 1:22)

1. A "professor" admits a principle is true.
2. But the professor may not practice it.
3. Scripture answers: "Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves" (Jas. 1:22).
4. A mere professor evades the truth — agreeing with it is his very way of avoiding obedience to it. To say "yes, that's true" and do nothing is one of the most respectable forms of evasion there is.

VI. "Just an Ideal" (Matthew 7:24-27)

1. A final class claims the New Testament offers only ideals.
2. They grant it presents "beautiful ideals" —
3. but insist these are not meant for actual practice.
4. Yet Jesus gave principles, not merely ideals — commands to be built upon, for the wise man "acts on" His words while the foolish man only hears them (Matt. 7:24-27). To file Christ's teaching under "inspiring but impractical" is simply evasion in its most cultured form.

Application

Run the list against your own heart, because evasion is subtle and respectable. Do you keep a question about the Bible alive mainly so you never have to obey it? Do you read your theory into the text instead of letting the text correct your theory? Do you quietly decide that the convicting passages "don't apply" to you? Do you act by what is advantageous rather than what is right? Do you agree that a truth is true and then simply not do it? Do you admire Christ's teaching as a lovely ideal you never intend to practice? Every one of these is a way of seeing the truth and slipping around it — and remember, to evade is to admit you saw. The only honest response to truth seen is truth obeyed: "be doers of the word, and not merely hearers."

Conclusion

Truth is not only doubted and denied; it is evaded — by the doubter, the twister, the "it-doesn't-apply" man, the man of policy, the professor who won't practice, and the admirer of "mere ideals." Each dodge admits the truth has been seen. Stop evading. Be a doer of the word.

Invitation

You may have seen the truth of the gospel and found ways to slip around it — but evasion only proves you saw. Stop evading and obey today: believe on the Lord Jesus, repent of your sins, confess His name, and be baptized for the remission of your sins (Acts 2:38). Be a doer of the word, not a hearer only. Come while we sing.

Word Study

Scripture Interlock Table

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Converted from H. Leo Boles, Outline 59. Doctrinal audit: no doctrinal issues; an analysis of the ways people evade truth they have seen, climaxing in the call to be doers of the word. Style audit: OCR cleanup. Text note: the source's stated text "Gal. 1:1" is retained as printed rather than altered; its connection to the sermon's theme runs through Galatians 1's argument against those who pervert the gospel (1:6-9) — noted, not changed, since it is a stated text. This outline carried few citations beyond the text and James 1:22; supporting references (2 Tim. 3:7; 2 Pet. 3:16; Matt. 28:20; 7:24-27) supplied and flagged to ground each "evader" class; James 1:22 is Boles' own.