Well, what a wonderful day we
have in store for us, and I'm very excited to be able to lead
as we begin this day together. I want to invite you to take
your Bibles and turn with me to the Gospel of John, John chapter
36. And in this opening session,
we want to talk about the moment of truth. In reality, what we
will be discussing is the subject of truth in an age and in a generation
that denies there is any absolute truth. Today, people speak of,
well, this is my truth, you have your truth, as though truth can
be true for one person but not true for someone else. This is
not new. And in John chapter 18, and I'm
going to begin in verse 36, our Lord is standing trial before
Pilate. Of course, the day is coming
when Pilate will stand trial before the Lord Jesus Christ.
And as Jesus stands before Pilate, it is the night before his, the
day before his crucifixion. He is standing trial. He will
be sentenced to death before Pilate and the sentence will
pass down that he is to be crucified before Pilate gives the final
verdict. In this one-on-one conversation
beginning in John chapter 18 in verse 36 we read, Jesus answered My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world,
then my servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed
over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not
of this realm. Therefore Pilate said to him,
so you are a king. Jesus answered, You say correctly
that I am a king. For this I have been born and
for this I have come into the world to testify, note this,
to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth
hears my voice. Pilate said to him, what is truth? This is the age-long question
voiced by Pilate when he stood before the Lord Jesus Christ
who was truth and is truth incarnate. This was not an honest question
by one searching to know the truth, but it was a defiant denunciation
of the truth. It was spoken with a tone of
derision. It was dismissive. It was spoken
with contempt. This terse response was asserted
mockingly by Pilate. What is truth? It was a dismissive
chide, dripping with sarcasm. It was a caustic rebuttal, intended
to belittle any notion that there is any such thing in this world
as a truth claim. What is truth? This was a barbed
jab by Pilate into the ribs of the Lord Jesus Christ, intended
to deflate him and denigrate any notion that Jesus could claim
to know the truth and to speak the truth. Pilate rejected the
very idea of an exclusive truth claim. And this question, what
is truth, has echoed down the centuries and down the corridors
of time. And it is growing louder and
louder. And in this very generation in which we live, we hear this
malignant mantra, what is truth? The spirit of Pilate lives in
our day. The spirit of Pilate is alive
and well on college campuses. It sits in the halls of our government.
It legislates our moral code. It reigns in our media. It teaches
in many of our seminaries. It stands in pulpits today. We live in a culture that is
defiant of any notion of truth. We live in a day not only of
all truth, but we are anti-truth. We are tolerant of anything and
anyone except one who claims to know the truth. I want us
to examine these verses and use them somewhat as a launching
pad. Today I want to set before you three main headings. I want
to talk to you about the rejection of truth. That is what we see
in verse 38 when Pilate says, what is truth? He is rejecting
truth. Second, I want to talk about
the reality of truth. For Jesus said, I have come into
this world to testify to the truth. What is truth? And then third, the reception.
of truth. Jesus said, everyone who is born
of the truth hears my voice. What is it to be born of the
truth that enables one to hear the voice of God? I want to begin first with the
rejection of truth. This is where we live. We are
surrounded on every side, top to bottom in this culture and
in this society in which we live. What is truth? This is really
the mother's sin. It is a setting aside and an
intentional rejection of the truth of God. This is the way
it was in the very beginning, was it not? In Genesis 3 verse
1, when Satan, the serpent, slithered onto the page of human history,
it was an attack on the truth. It was to create a world in which
there is the rejection of the truth. That was the wedge that
Satan inserted into Eve and then into Adam's heart. A separation
of the truth so that they would reject the truth. Satan said,
indeed, has God said? Do you hear the hiss of the serpent
in that? That was a frontal attack on
the truth. Has God said? It was to dismiss
the truth of God. And so the original sin was a
rejection of the truth, a rejection of God's way, that man would
go his own way, that he would make his own choice in defiance
of the truth. Romans 1 verse 18 says, For the
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness
and ungodliness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. That is what every generation
does apart from being born of the truth. It is inherent in
radical corruption and total depravity in the human nature
to suppress, to hold down the truth of God. And we read a few
verses later in Romans 1, verse 25, how they exchange the truth
of God for a lie. That is the hour in which we
live. We have a culture and a society
that has exchanged the truth of God for a lie and have suppressed
the truth. This is the demise of any life.
It is the departure of any denomination. It is the destruction of any
nation and any society. It begins with the rejection
of truth. Nowhere is this more clearly
seen than with our college students as they live in universities
that are established, so many of them, to undermine the truth. A survey was conducted recently
of adults 36 years and older in which 64% said there are no
moral absolutes. And only 22% claim that there
are any moral absolutes. But of those 18 years and in
their early 20s, the number of those who reject any moral absolutes
skyrocketed to 75%. They have no moral compass because
they have rejected the truth. And then when the survey was
conducted with teenagers, 16, 17, 18 years of age, the number
spiked at 83% today of teenagers say that morality and truth depends
upon one's individual preference and upon the circumstances. The
younger you are, the more you embrace the statement that there
is no truth today. We have seen this coming for
decades. Alan Bloom, a noted distinguished
college professor, wrote years ago a book entitled The Closing
of the American Mind. And as he instructed the brightest
students of some 30 years ago, he wrote that 95% of all entering
college students are avowed relativists who reject any notion of truth. Oh, it is coming like a tsunami. in the age in which we live and
its breakers have already hit the shores. The increasing beliefs
of the day is that the only absolute is that there are no absolutes.
The only truth is that there is no truth. The only intolerance
is there is no tolerance of intolerance. All this gives mounting, escalating
popularity today to the approval of abortion, to the approval
of homosexuality, to lesbianism, to euthanasia, to pornography,
to all kinds of lewd behavior. It is all traced back to this
point of departure, the rejection of the truth. We see it today. Humanism says man is the truth. Pragmatism says whatever works
is the truth. Pluralism says everyone has a
piece of the truth. Relativism says each situation
determines the truth. Mysticism says intuition is the
truth. Skepticism says no one can know
the truth. Hedonism says whatever feels
good is the truth. Existentialism says self-determination
is the truth. Secularism says this present
world is the truth. Positivism says whatever man
confesses is the truth. This is the world in which we
live. The rejection of the truth. Second, I want to talk about
the reality of truth. As we look at verse 37, Jesus,
as he stands trial before Pilate, affirms there is truth, and not
just truth, but the truth, the one and only truth. In verse
37, Jesus says, for this I have been born. For this I have come
into the world." Here, in part, is the reason for the incarnation. Ultimately, his reason is what
we looked at tonight, the cross upon which he died. But he also
came to bear witness of the truth. So Jesus said, for this I have
been born. For this I have come into the
world. Why? To testify. to bear witness, to teach, to
declare, to assert, to affirm the truth. You recall Jesus said, I am the
way and the truth and the life. And by that statement, Jesus
is claiming to have a monopoly on the truth. He is the truth. There is no truth outside of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is no way to be on
the way except to believe the truth. And there is no way to
have the life except to receive the truth. What is truth? In one word, to put it in the
vernacular, truth is reality. Truth is the way things really
are. Truth is not how things may appear
to be. Truth is not what we want things
to be. Truth is not what popular opinion
polls say they are. Truth is the way things really
are. I want to give you a few characteristics
that help distinguish and define the truth. Number one, truth
is divine. That is to say, truth does not
come from this world. Truth does not arise up from
the melu of society and culture. No, truth comes down from above. Truth comes from the God who
is truth, and He reveals His truth to us. Truth is the self-revelation
of God Himself. Truth is the self-disclosure
of God's own being and God's own nature. God is the author
of all truth because God is the truth. Truth is whatever God
says something is. God is the determiner of truth. God is the governor of truth.
God is the arbitrator of truth. God is the ultimate standard
of truth. All things are measured by God
Himself, by Himself, to determine what is in conformity with truth
and what is non-truth. God is the final judge of all
truth. We can say that truth is Trinitarian. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit are all distinguished as the truth. In Psalm 31, verse 5, we read
of the God of truth. Jesus is described in Ephesians
4 verse 21, truth is in Jesus, close quote. In other words,
all truth is in the Lord Jesus Christ, within his nature, within
his being, within his words, within his doctrine, within his
truth, and everything that is outside of the Lord Jesus Christ
that is contradictory to Christ is a lie. The Holy Spirit in John 14, 17
is the Spirit of Truth. John 15, 26, the Spirit of Truth.
John 16, 13, the Spirit of Truth. Truth is the self-expression
of God Himself. Truth is everything that is consistent
with the mind of God, the being of God, the will of God, the
character of God, the glory of God. Therefore, truth is whatever
God says something is. Sin is what God says it is. Heaven and hell is what God says
it is. Salvation is what God says it
is. Morality and the family is what
God says it is. Romans 3 verse 4 says, let God
be found true. Let every man be found a liar. So first, truth is divine. Second, it is absolute. Truth is sovereign. Truth reigns
over all. Truth is that which is the definitive
standard by which everything is measured. Truth is the highest
arbitrator that presides over every issue and over every life. Truth is exclusive, not inclusive. Truth is discriminating. Truth
is never both and. It is always either or. Truth
is never relative. It is never arbitrary. It is
never conditional. Truth is that which is absolute. Everything outside the truth
is a lie. Everything inside the truth and
that squares with the truth is the truth. And Jesus said in
John 8 verse 44, as he looked at the Pharisees and the religious
leaders of the day, and by that spoke to the nation that was
following them, you are your father the devil. He does not
stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever
he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar
and the father of lies. Ultimately, there are only two
fathers, and there are two families in the world. There is God the
father, and all those who are of God are in his family, and
they hear the truth. And there are those who are of
their father the devil, and they hear the lies of Satan. Truth is divine. Truth is absolute. Third, truth is objective. Truth
is propositional. Truth is conveyed in clearly
defined words and words that have meaning. Precise words with
precise meaning. Truth is concrete. Truth is black and white. Truth
is narrowly defined by God's Word. Truth is factual. Truth is rational. Truth is not
subjective, it is objective. Truth is fact, it is not feeling. Truth is tangible. Truth is contained
in the Word of God, the written Word of God. 2 Timothy 2 verse
15 identifies the scripture as the word of truth. Psalm 119
verse 160 says, your word is truth. Jesus says he prayed in
his high priestly prayer, John 17, 17, your word is truth. Truth is found in specific words
with specific meaning in the inspired, inerrant, infallible
word of the living God. As Titus 1-2 and Hebrews 6 says,
it is impossible for God to lie. When God speaks, God speaks only
that which is true and it is absolute and it is objective. God has not stuttered and God
has not mumbled. God has spoken truth. Fourth, truth is singular. As Jesus represents the truth
here in John 18, he speaks of the truth, definite article the. Not a truth, not some truth,
but the truth. And when he says the truth, not
only is he stating that it is objective and authoritative,
but he is saying that it is singular. All truth from the mind of God
perfectly fits together and there is never any contradiction. God never speaks out of both
sides of His mouth. And what God says to one generation
is true for every generation. The truth fits into one body
of truth. One system of truth. One body
of divinity. It's the truth. Truth is never
at odds with itself. Francis Schaeffer wrote years
ago, Christianity is not a series of truths in the plural. The
Bible never represents the scripture as containing truths, plural,
but the truth, singular, in that it all stands together. It's
all or nothing. James Montgomery Boyce, the great
expositor, states, Truth is singular. He says it is not in fragments
that would require us to speak of truths, plural, in the sense
of unrelated facts or items. Boyce says truth holds together. Therefore, there is no phase
of truth that is not related to every other phase of truth."
That is a profound quote. What Beuys is saying is that
all truth is wired together. You tell me what you believe
about one truth, I'll tell you what you believe about 40 other
truths. Because what you believe about
this truth is inseparably connected with 40 other truths. It all stands together. It is
indivisible. It is one truth. The Bible speaks
with one voice. It sets forth one plan of salvation. It makes one diagnosis of the
problem of the human condition. It presents one history of redemption. It offers one savior of sinners. It offers one remedy of eternal
life. It presents one self-consistent
worldview. When you pick up Genesis and
look through the lens of Genesis at the world, it is the same
lens when you pick up Revelation and look through that lens and
look at the world. Every one of the 66 books in
the Bible, they all hang together. They speak together. There are
threads running through all of Scripture. You pull a thread
in Genesis, your Bible crinkles in Revelation. There is the golden cord of God's
sovereign rule over the world. There is the red cord of redemption
that runs through the scripture. It all presents one consistent
presentation of the truth. Truth is singular. When you pack
your suitcase, and sometimes you can't get that last sweater
into the suitcase, and an arm hangs out and you get some scissors
and just cut it off so that everything will pack nicely. You never have
to do that with the Bible. You're never cutting off a few
chapters of Leviticus because it just doesn't square with Ephesians. No, though there are 40 plus
authors writing over a period of 1,600 years on three different
continents, most of whom never met the other authors, nevertheless,
as you pick up the Bible to read it, there is one author, capital
A, one primary author who used secondary authors, lowercase
a, to record what is in this book. It is the infallible truth
of God. Not only is truth singular, but
number five, truth is immutable. Truth never changes. What was
true in the Garden of Eden, is true throughout the Old Testament,
is true in the times of Christ, is true in the expansion of the
church, is true down through the centuries, and it is true
today because God never changes. I am the same forever, says the
Lord. Yesterday, today, and forever. The God who was and who is and
who shall be forever. And it is this eternal, immutable,
unchanging God who speaks truth. And when God speaks truth, it
flows from His own nature. And what God says never changes. The truth is always the same
from generation to generation. If it's new, it's not true. Right is always right. Wrong
is always wrong. Society may try to redefine morality. Culture may try to reclassify
right and wrong. But truth never changes. Truth
is fixed. Truth is established. Truth is
constant. Truth is unvarying. Truth is
transcendent over the generations. Truth is timeless. Truth is permanent. Truth is anchored. Truth is eternal. Psalm 119 verse 89. Forever, O Lord, your word is
settled in the heavens. Isaiah 40 verse 8, the grass
withers, the flower fades away, but the word of our God abides
forever. Don't you just love that? The
verses that you memorized as a child have never been more
relevant in your life than they are today. There's no augmentation
that is needed. After I graduated from college,
I went to law school. You would spend your entire semester
studying case law, constitutional law, and your entire grade would
be the final exam. At the end of the semester, you
never knew how you stood until you took the final exam. I would
stay up nights memorizing the law, studying case law, dissecting
case law, and then come to the final exam and write your answers
And one thing that I discovered that was so discouraging to me
is that after I would study the law and memorize the law and
learn the law, by the time I came to the final exam, they changed
the law. And I had invested all of this
time in a changing law. How frustrating that was for
me. And as I was first beginning to preach, and as I was first
beginning to minister God's Word, it struck me. The beauty of God's
Word in part is that it is immutable, that truth never changes. And
all the investment of my time in studying the Word of God,
it is with me forever. I will never wake up one day
and suddenly something that was true will be untrue. or that
there will be a new truth. Jesus said in Matthew 5 verse
18, for truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not
the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until
all is accomplished. Later he said it is easier for
heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter
of the law to fail. Therefore, truth is always up
to date. Truth is always contemporary. Do you want to have a contemporary
ministry? Do you want to have a contemporary church? Great. Preach the Bible. Nothing is
more contemporary than the Bible. Every little new trend that blows
onto the scene of evangelicalism, by the time it is incorporated
and put into practice, it's old news, and it just fades off the
scene. But the church that holds forth
the Word of God has the truth of God to every generation, to
every age group, and it will never change. Truth is always relevant. It
has an eternal shelf life. It is never outdated. It is never
archaic. It is immutable. Sixth, truth is authoritative. When the truth speaks, God speaks. John Calvin used to say, quoting
Augustine, that when the Bible speaks, God speaks. Sometimes I meet people who say,
I want to hear the voice of God. I say, you want to hear the audible
voice of God? They say, yes, I want to hear
the audible voice of God. I tell them, read your Bible
out loud. You will hear the voice of God.
Because God has spoken. And God has spoken in his written
word. And his written word is authoritative. It makes demands
upon our lives. Truth is never just interesting.
Truth is never intended to provoke our curiosity. We're never to
come to truth and just tip our hat at truth and say, well that's
nice, that's interesting. No, truth is assertive. Truth
is authoritative. Truth is sovereign. Truth is
commanding. Truth is imperative. Truth has
the right to make demands upon our lives because it is the truth
of God. Truth possesses the right to
rule our lives. And therefore, seventh, truth
is powerful. Truth alone convicts. The Word
of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword
and able to pierce the division of soul and spirit and to expose
the innermost thoughts of man. That's what truth does. Every
other statement just lays on the surface. It massages the
ego. Only truth can bore down and
penetrate into the very hearts of a person and expose their
hearts before God and allow themselves to see themselves as God sees
them. Truth saves. 1 Peter 1 verse 23 says that we
have been born again, not of seed which is perishable, but
imperishable by the living and abiding Word of God. There is
in truth the very germ of life. And when that seed of truth is
received into the heart by faith, it germinates. by sovereign regeneration
and there is life. Truth sanctifies. Truth conforms
us into the image of Christ. Truth encourages. Truth comforts. When I go into a hospital room,
I don't read a dying saint, the Wall Street Journal. There's
nothing wrong in reading the Wall Street Journal. I read it
this morning. But there's no anchor for the soul there. Only
truth can comfort. And finally, truth is determinative.
Your eternal destiny is determined by the truth. Thank you. Okay, RC said me too. Your relationship to the truth
will determine where you will spend all eternity. Your relationship
to the truth will determine whether you are in heaven or in hell
forever. Your relationship to the truth
will chart the course of your life in this world. Your relationship
to the truth will define your family. It will direct your business. It will be a lamp under your
feet and a light unto your path. Truth is determinative and your
entire life is marked by the truth. That is the reality of
truth. And I want you to know everything
that does not measure with the truth is a facade. And only once
the truth has spoken may we understand what true reality is. Now finally, we've spoken of
the rejection of truth. What is truth? We have spoken
of the reality of truth. For this reason, I have come
into the world that I might bear witness of the truth. Finally,
the reception of the truth. What is necessary in your life
and in anyone's life to receive the truth of God because we have
a natural aversion against the truth? The heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. Who can understand it? We all,
like sheep, have gone astray. Each one of us has turned to
his own way. There is none who seeks after God, no, not one.
We all have an aversion against the truth. What is necessary
to receive the truth? Jesus tells us in verse 37, and
I'm finished. Why does not everyone who hears
the truth receive the truth? Why do some people reject it?
Why do others receive it? Is it an IQ matter? No, verse
37. Everyone who is of the truth
hears my voice. What is it to be of the truth?
To be of the truth is to be birthed by the truth. It is to be born
again by the truth. It is to believe in the truth. It is to belong to the truth. To be of the truth means to be
sovereignly regenerated by the Spirit. and to be illumined by
the Holy Spirit of God to light up our understanding, to see
the truth where we were previously in darkness. God gives us eyes
to see the truth. He gives us a new mind to understand
the truth. He puts his resident truth teacher
inside of us, the Holy Spirit, to guide us into all the truth.
Everyone, therefore there are no exceptions to this, everyone
who is of the truth, hears my voice that speaks of the effectual
call of God. It speaks of the sovereign drawing
and calling of God, the Holy Spirit, by which the truth comes
crashing home in our minds, in our hearts. And suddenly, in
a moment, we see what we were previously blind to. I once was
lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. It is the
work of God the Holy Spirit in the heart that enables one to
hear the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said, My sheep
hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give
unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall
anyone pluck them from my Father's hand, for my Father who has given
them to me is greater than all, and no one shall pluck them from
his hand. I and the Father are one. It
is the sheep, it is the sheep who hear the voice of the Good
Shepherd speaking the truth. The goats remain deaf to truth. How we are dependent entirely
upon the giver of all truth to teach all truth. Are you of the
truth? Have you been born from above?
Have you been born of God? Are you converted to Jesus Christ? Have you come to believe upon
Christ and believe the truth that he says? Have you come to
believe the truth of what he says? That we have all sinned
and fallen short of the glory of God. That the wages of sin
is death. But that upon Calvary's cross,
the truth is that Jesus died in the place of sinners. And
that all of our sin, all of us who would believe upon Christ,
has been transferred to Christ. And him who knew no sin, God
made to be sin for us. That is the truth. And those
who believe upon Christ, His righteousness is given to us. And we are clothed from the top
of our head to the bottom of our feet with the perfect obedience
of God in Christ. That is the truth. And if you
will call upon His name, if you will commit your life to Him,
if you will deny yourself and take up a cross and become a
true follower of Christ, He will lead you all the way to His Father's
house. And one day you will be before
the throne of God singing the praises of Him who is the author
of all truth, who is the revealer of all truth. And you and I will
come to understand in even fuller and greater measure the truth
that is in Jesus Christ. As we live in this world of lies
and falsehoods, as people are saying, what is truth? We who
are of the truth know that Jesus came into this world to testify
of the truth and that you shall know the truth and the truth
shall set you free. Apart from the truth, one will
always be bound in sin and by Satan. Only the truth is so powerful
to unlock those chains and to set the prisoners free. Let us pray. Father in heaven,
thank you that you have taken the initiative to reveal the
truth to us. Without the truth, we would be
in darkness. Without the truth, we would be lost. Without the
truth, we would not know you, nor could we come to you. Now
we praise you that you have made the truth known to us and I ask
God for this precious body that is gathered this morning that
you will open our eyes yet fuller to the truth and that we will
come to know the truth. May the truth sanctify us. May
the truth conform us into the image of Christ. May the truth
comfort us. And for those here today who
have not yet come to a saving knowledge of Christ, may the
truth regenerate them and convert them. Father, we pray this in
Jesus' name. Amen.