Truth Be Told: The Truth About God's Greatest Promises

By Brandon McManus

Truth Be Told was birthed out of an encounter with a man who had lost it all because of a series of his own bad choices, but he was somehow clinging to one of Gods greatest promises in a way that made me feel that he expected God to bless him even though he continued to make poor choices. As I thought about the truth of that great promise that he wanted to pluck from its context, I realized that it is so easy to do. In fact, as I thought back over my years of ministry, I found that I too was guilty of misquoting verses and clinging to them in the wrong way just because I heard someone else do it. Too much of Christendom is groomed by poor theology and poor hermeneutical guidelines. This book will take some of the verses that have been misused and shine the light of proper interpretation upon them. You will see that encouragement and application from Gods eternal truth can come without the cost of compromising Scripture.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Sep 20, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512754414

Brandon McManus

Brandon McManus came to a saving faith at the age of eight and has been preaching since the age of fifteen. He has always been confident in what God had in store for him. He did not know when, where, or how, but he knew his purpose was preaching. Now he is seeking to broaden the pulpit through publishing his work. Brandon McManus served in youth ministry for about ten years and is now a pastor in South Carolina. No matter the age or the audience, he loves to teach and preach God’s Word. He graduated from Fruitland Baptist Bible College with an Associates degree, Appalachian Bible College with a Bachelors degree, and Liberty University with a Masters degree in Theological Studies. Brandon loves spending time with his wife Heather, and two sons; Keith and Mason. He loves engaging in epic hero vs. villain battles with his boys. He enjoys reading the Greatest Book, other good books, jogging, ping-pong, basket-ball and the great outdoors.

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Copyright © 2016 Brandon McManus.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

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Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (KJV) are taken from the King James Version.

Scripture quotations marked HCSB are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Holman CSB®, and HCSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

ISBN: 978-1-5127-5442-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-5443-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-5441-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016913901

WestBow Press rev. date: 9/20/2016

Contents

Special Thanks

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 1 Called to Rightly Discern

Chapter 2 The Promise of Success, Jeremiah 29:11

Chapter 3 The Promise of Strength, Philippians 4:13

Chapter 4 The Promise of Providence, Romans 8:28

Chapter 5 The Healing Promise, Isaiah 53:5

Chapter 6 The Promise of Integrity, 2 Corinthians 1:20

Chapter 7 Called to Rightly Divide

Footnotes

Bibliography

Dedication

I would like to dedicate this book to the late Dr. Kenneth Ridings. He was the professor of homiletics at Fruitland Baptist Bible Institute in Hendersonville, North Carolina, from 1968–2008, and served as its president for eleven years. I have had different preaching professors over the years, but Dr. Ridings, by far, was the preaching professor who had the greatest impact on my Bible study and preaching style. God used this great man to instill a passion in my heart for expository preaching. You burned brightly for God. Thank you for passing on the torch!

Special Thanks

I would like to say a special word of thanks to two sweet and godly women: Mrs. Brenda Driver and Dr. Lydia Moyer. These two servants of the Lord not only put up with my humble attempts at preaching God’s Word three times a week, but they also took the time to proofread and edit this book. Thank you so much for your time and your servant’s heart.

Foreword

I know of no other book that deals practically with the growing trend to distort the Word of God. Brother Brandon, in his book Truth Be Told: The Truth about God’s Greatest Promises, cautions that when the Word of God is mishandled and quoted out of context, we miss the true intent and blessing of God’s promises. Brother McManus challenges the church of our generation to look deeper than the bumper sticker theology that is pervasive in our culture. By doing this, Brother McManus corrects the course of those who are standing on the promises that will fail and leads them to a greater revelation of the promises that cannot fail! Second Timothy 2:15 seems to be the standard for this book. Study to show thy self approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightfully dividing the word of truth (KJV).

Brother McManus rightfully divides the word of truth. Literally, he cuts it straight and draws upon his deep love for the Word of God and his vast experience of preaching and teaching scripture to give us this formula:

1. Truth be told.

2. Truth be understood.

3. Truth be lived.

Then the Lord Jesus be glorified.

Be sure to have your highlighter pen handy as you read, for you will be amazed at the wisdom and clarity contained in this book and will surely want to return to the truths that seem to jump off these pages.

—Rev. Dr. Johnny Boggs Pastor, Mt. Hope Church

Introduction

I would like to introduce this book with an illustration that shows the impact of a few good people standing up for truth while the majority believes a lie. This shows us how that even though conservative thinkers and critical analyst may be on the decline, it is important that they still follow their convictions and take their stands. No matter what the majority says.

In 1938 The J. Paul Getty Museum in California was approached by an art dealer named Gianfranco Becchina with a marble statue dating from the sixth century B.C. It was known as a kouros—a statue of a male youth. It was an extraordinary find. This kind of statue is extremely rare and is usually damaged and fragmented. But this one was nearly perfect.

The museum began to investigate, assembling a team of experts to analyze and authenticate the piece. Core samples revealed that it was made of dolomite, an ancient marble from Greece. The surface was covered with a thin layer of calcite, which usually develops over hundreds if not thousands of years.

Researchers traced the statue’s ownership back to a Swiss physician named Lauffenberger in the 1930s and before him, a well-known Greek art dealer named Roussos. It seemed too good to be true, but the team agreed that this kouros was authentic, and the museum finally bought the piece for seven million dollars. The New York Times applauded the purchase, and art lovers began to travel from all over the United States to marvel at it.

But three people were not convinced that the statue was what it appeared to be.

Federico Zeri, who served on the museum’s board of trustees, found himself observing the statue’s fingernails. Something seemed wrong. Evelyn Harrison, an expert on Greek sculpture, had a hunch that something wasn’t right the moment she first saw the statue. Thomas Hoving, the former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, said the first word that came to his mind was fresh. And fresh isn’t a word you’d use to describe a 2,600 year-old statue. This fringe group put pressure on the museum to dig deeper.

Bit by bit, the truth began to unfold. Lawyers traced documents and letters and found that one of the letters dated 1952 had a postal code that didn’t exist until twenty years later. Another referred to a bank account that wasn’t opened until almost ten years later. Greek art analysts determined that the statue’s feet were definitely modern and British, not ancient and Greek. It was also discovered that the calcite on the surface had been created by soaking the marble statue in potato mold for a few months.

As it turned out, the museum had acquired an imposter from a forger’s workshop in Rome—that dated to the early 1980s. The truth had been protected by three people who stood firm in their knowledge of art and refused to be caught up in the enthusiasm of the crowd.

This story is a powerful picture for us as Christians. The path of least resistance is to go with the flow and follow the crowd, without stopping to ask, Is this really true? Those who love Christ and stand for Truth will always be a small minority. We are called to stand firm for that Truth, regardless of how few people may agree with us.¹

Those who came up with the counterfeit statue did so for the purpose of personal gain. Their product was polished and looked authentic. It misled a lot of people, but it only took a few people who were bold enough to stand up for the truth to make the difference. We are living in a world where the Word of God is being watered down and where it is not popular to preach passages in their proper context. We are living in a world where many claim to be preaching God’s Word, but in reality they are frauds that are misrepresenting the beautiful and glorious Word of God. These preachers may be doing the very same thing for the very same reason that the crooked artist did in the above illustration. They may be preparing a well-polished work of art that they call a biblical sermon manuscript for the purpose of selling it to the crowds instead of being true to the scriptures. It is much easier to preach passages out of their context, because it takes less study time and it allows the preacher to bend the passage to fit his own ideas that suit the people but are not true to the text.

I share the illustration at the beginning of this book just to say that those of the conservative mind-set are becoming fewer and fewer. Those who stand for biblical truth have become the minority. We are living in a world full of biblically illiterate believers because the pulpits are full of preachers who compromise the message in order to please the crowd. Jesus warned us of a time like this when he said, "For the