I'll turn with me back in your
Bibles to John Chapter 18 and we want to have a look at this
wonderful, wonderful question that Pilate was led of the Lord
to ask. What Pilate didn't realise is
that the Lord had actually answered the question before. before he'd
even asked it. But Pilate asks the question
in response to the declaration of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
we looked at this last week in light of the fact that 1 Timothy
says that this is the good confession of the Lord Jesus Christ that
he gave before Pilate. And these words before us are
the second last words. He just has one more good confession
in John chapter 19 where he speaks of the fact that Pilate has no
power over him at all. And he speaks of the fact that
there are degrees of judgment. There is greater sin and there
is lesser sin. But these, extraordinarily when
you think about it, are the words the last public words he said
before he went to the cross. He spoke to the women, as you
know, walking along as he carried his cross along the streets of
Jerusalem, and he said, don't you weep for me, I'm not here
looking for pity. Don't you weep for me. But it's
such a great and significant question. What is truth? My kingdom,
this is what brought it on, my kingdom is not of this world.
If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight
that I should not be delivered to the Jews. It's interesting,
isn't it? The deliverance was a deliverance to the Jews even
though it was the Romans who were going to crucify him. It
was all at the behest and conspiracy of the Jews. But now is my kingdom
not from hence. It's not from here. My kingdom
is not from here. Pilate therefore said unto him,
Art thou then a king? Jesus answered, Thou sayest,
that I am a king, effectively you're saying what you're saying
is true. You've said it and I'm agreeing
with you. To this end, this is an extraordinary statement from
our Lord Jesus Christ. He's explaining why this universe
exists. He's explaining why He is here.
He's explaining why He's in this particular situation at this
particular time, standing before a crowd of people, crying out
to Pilate to crucify Him. standing before the Roman governor
who thinks that he has power over life and death and he has
none at all. My kingdom is not of this world. I'm sorry, to
this end, verse 37. To this end was I born, and for
this cause came I into the world that I should bear witness, and
that word witness is the word martyr. I will die for my testimony. of who the Lord God is and who
I am as his servant. I should bear witness unto the
truth. Then he makes a statement which
defines all of the children of God throughout time. Everyone,
everyone that is of the truth, everyone whose origin is of the
truth. My origin was not from this world.
Everyone whose origin is of the truth, everyone that he spoke
to Nicodemus of, everyone who sees the Kingdom of God, everyone
who enters the Kingdom of God, they must be born from above,
they must be born by God, they must be born from above. And
this is the This is the evidence and this is the work of God in
the hearts of his people. Everyone that is of the truth,
everyone whose origin is of the truth, heareth my voice. Everyone that is of the truth.
And of course, what we need to say at the outset is that God
is true. And the truth, the mistake that
Pilate made was, what is truth? The question will be answered
by who is the truth? That is the big question, isn't
it? the truth of who our God is, the truth of why the Lord
Jesus Christ is there, the truth of why he's going to be hung
on a cross in just a few hours' time. So we looked last week at something
of those questions, but I'm just fascinated by the fact that when
Pilate asked him, what have you done, where would the Lord start? He said, Before I created the
universe, I was in perfect, harmonious, loving relationship with the
Father and the Blessed Holy Spirit. And we lived in that delightful
communion and union before there was even time and before there
was even a creation. What have you done? I entered
into a covenant. I entered into a covenant to
be the surety for a people that God the Father gave into my hands
as an act of His love. to me and I took full responsibility
for them. I entered into a covenant. I was the surety for them. That's
what I did before the foundation of the world. I took full responsibility. I took 100% responsibility for
bringing them all back into heaven, to all back into the new creation. Every single last one of them
I took full responsibility for all of the sins that they I took
full responsibility for all the righteousness that they did.
I took full responsibility for all the law keeping they did.
This is what I did. This is what I did. This is him
declaring what he did and what he could have done. Then he said,
I created the universe and I created the angels and I flooded the
universe and I caused the testimony of God to be born in the creation
and written in history. You think of what he did, everything
that he does. And now he says, and I'm upholding
all things by the word of my power, as Hebrews chapter one
says. The very stones that you think you're standing on, Pilate,
are only there because they're upheld by the word of my power.
You're only there because of the word of my power. You're
only doing what you're doing because of the word of, what
have you done? I've come because of those covenant
engagements from before the foundation of the world. I've come for a
bride. I've come to purify my bride. And today it's going to be evident
to all that I will bear all of her sins in my own on the tree. That's what I'm here for, for
this cause. There is a cause. I love when
David went down to deal with Goliath. He went down to see
his brothers and the brothers mocked him for being there and
David who had been blessed with the the Holy Spirit coming upon
him when he was anointed by Samuel. You can read the story in 1 Samuel. 2 Samuel, David goes down there
and he hears the Philistines mocking the God of Israel and
he sees the Israelites all cowering in cowardice and David's first
words that we hear him say, is there not a cause? There is a
cause. There is a cause. There's a cause.
For us being here, there is a cause for the Lord Jesus Christ to
come into this world. And the cause and the reason
he came is that he would bear witness to the truth. He is a king of a kingdom. He has a kingdom that's not of
this world. And it's a kingdom that reigns
and rules over all things. And so what the Lord I believe
is instructing us here, and I pray that we would just get a hold
of it and keep a hold of it all the time, is that the spiritual
realities of what happened in eternity, the spiritual realities
of what is governing everything now, they come before all that's
physical. And they are over and above all
that's physical, and they superintend all that's physical. So behind
any physical event is a spiritual reality. Our God reigns. The heavens do rule. It's a wonderful thing to have
in mind when we're troubled in this world. And we find ourselves
wondering what on earth is going on and how on earth do we sort
of figure all of this out? The answer, the simple answer
that brings comfort to my heart is God did it. And God's doing
it. And we live in a world of chaos
and we live in a world where we are just absolutely surrounded
by lies on every possible way. And one of the glorious things
about the truth and especially the glorious thing about the
truth of the Lord Jesus Christ is that the more you examine
truth, don't forget the Lord Jesus Christ has now been examined
by these people and he's been examined by these people for
three and a half years and they've had Judas to help them and they've
watched everything that he's done and everything that he's
said and watched all of his acts and they've watched all of his
words and they've tried to catch him out, they've tried to deceive
him over and over again And they've examined him in the most minute
detail. When truth is examined, it just
stands as truth. And the more you examine it,
the more real it becomes, and the more solid it becomes, and
the more foundational it becomes. As what applies to the Lord Jesus
Christ personally applies to everything about him. You take
any particular doctrine, any particular attribute of God,
and you examine it more closely and it becomes more wonderful.
And then you go back and you turn it over and you examine
it again and it becomes more wonderful. It's like having this
beautiful diamond in your house, isn't it? And it reflects light. And it radiates light, and it
mirrors light, and each time you turn a facet it becomes more
beautiful. And there's another beautiful
thing, and there's another beautiful thing. We went to the Crown Jewels.
It's not that I advise anyone to go there, it's an idolatrous
place. We went to the Crown Jewels to take my niece and my granddaughter
there last year. And you walk past, they're ridiculously
amazing, these jewels. You walk past and they just sort
of sparkle with rainbows. And you turn your head a little
bit and there's more rainbows. All of our analogies come far
short of the glory of our great God in salvation. But I want
us to remember that the more you examine the truth, the more
real it becomes and the more solid it becomes, and the more
it withstands all of the errors that are cast at it, and it reigns
supreme. You start with a lie, and you
examine the lie and you'll find a little bit more deceit, and
then you examine that deceit and you'll find a little bit
more deceit, and you'll uncover more and more and more and more
corruption, such as it is when the Lord examines. I love the
fact that the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ and what he's
doing here and the reason he came is that he's taking this
bride and he's going to present that bride holy and unblameable
and unreprovable. But I love the next phrase, in
his sight. What does he see? He sees absolutely
everything, absolutely perfectly, all of the time, through the
eyes of holiness, through the eyes of justice, through the
eyes of glory. In his sight, you can read about
it in Colossians chapter 1, I think it's verse 23. So truth, truth,
what is truth? It's the glorious revelation
of God revealing himself. in all of his character, in all
of his mind, and all of his will, in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. What is truth? The Lord Jesus
Christ says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, John
14.6, no one comes to the Father but by me. But with me, it could
be translated. But in me, it could equally be
translated. No one comes to the Father. If
you get into heaven, you're going to have to be perfectly holy
as God is holy. There is a seriousness about
the truth that is authoritative. It just stabs itself and says,
this is where I am, and you can throw anything you like at me,
and I will remain perfectly true. And in heaven, one of the glorious
things about heaven, there are no lies in heaven. Twice at the
end of the testimony of God given to us in his holy word, he speaks
of the glory of heaven and then he says what won't be there. In verse 27 of Revelation 21,
he says, And there shall no wise enter into it, anything that
defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh
a lie. Lies are made by men. They are
made by men under the inspiration of the father of lies. We should
be dreadfully fearful of lies about anything, brothers and
sisters in Christ, because there is one father of them. Satan
is the father of lies. That's all he does. He speaks
his native language when he's lying. Or maketh a lie, but they
which are written in the Lamb's book of life. In the next chapter,
the last chapter, the Lord Jesus Christ says, Blessed are they
that do his commandments. This is in chapter 22, verse
14 of Revelation. Blessed are they that do his
commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life. How
do you do his commandments? perfectly, wholly, righteously. How do you do his commandments?
In the Lord Jesus Christ is how you do his commandments. He did
them all. They might have right to enter
to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the city
for without. On the outside are the dogs. And he's not talking
about physical dogs. He's talking about the dogs that
you can read about in Philippians chapter three. those who preach
legalistic works righteousness, without other dogs, and sorcerers,
and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever
loveth and maketh a lie. There will only be perfect truth
in heaven. Perfect truth. Perfect truth
as to who is the glory of heaven. Perfect truth as to why we're
there. Perfect truth. Perfect truth. Truth is a wonderful friend and
an implacable enemy. Truth stands to defend the people
of truth and truth is an enemy to all of those who are false. And truth brings a responsibility.
To hear the truth is to bear a responsibility, to have heard. If we preach the truth of Christ,
then before God, the truth has been sent and it's been declared
and it remains sealed eternally. Nothing is so vital and so important. So let's go back and have a look
at some of the scriptures that make the truth so important. Truth and salvation are linked
together. There is no salvation outside
of truth. Chapter 2 verse 4, he describes
salvation as coming into the knowledge of the truth. Faith. The faith. In Titus 1.1, Paul, a servant
of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith
of God's elect. These are the ones that hear
the voice. The ones that are born from above. The faith of
God's elect and the acknowledging of the truth. There is no true
faith if it's not grounded in the truth of who God is, the
truth of what the scriptures say about who God is, who we
are, and how the Lord Jesus Christ saved his people from their sins
on the cross. There is no repentance without
the truth. 2 Timothy 2 verse 25, in meekness
instructing those that oppose themselves, if God, per adventure,
will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.
That's what repentance is, isn't it? Repentance is turning from
lies and turning to the truth. All spiritual life and spiritual
birth is a begetting, a being born by the Word of Truth, as
James 1.18 says. We're born. He begatter he us
with the Word of Truth that we should be a kind of first fruits
of his creatures. He says the same in Ephesians
1 and Ephesians 2. All rejoicing that we have here
is rejoicing in the truth. 1 Corinthians 13 verse 6. We rejoice. What does love do? This is a great chapter on love.
It's a great chapter on the Lord Jesus Christ. It rejoices not in iniquity,
but rejoices in the truth. Salvation, faith, repentance,
all spiritual life, all rejoicing, Listen to the verse that we quote
out of 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13. Often it's a very significant
verse because of what lies before it, because there's a great but.
But we are bound to give thanks all the way to God for you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth. Beloved, brethren, beloved. Isn't that a great word? Brethren,
beloved. I'm looking at brethren. I want
to be a brethren, beloved of the Lord. I want to rejoice in
the sanctifying work of the Spirit, and I want to rejoice in the
belief of the truth. Listen to what he goes on to
say in verse 14. Whereunto he called you by our
gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. What a remarkable contrast it
is, if you go back, if you're in 2 Thessalonians in your Bible. But all the deceivableness, that
Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, verse 9, and
with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish. Why do they
perish? Because they have received not
the love of the truth that they might be saved. It's one thing
to know the truth, isn't it? To know He who is the truth.
It's another thing altogether to love the truth. For this cause,
God shall send them a strong delusion that they should believe. the lie. They should believe
the lie. God is not playing games with
the truth of his son. And I want us to be reminded
from these verses that we're looking at in John chapter 18
that the Lord Jesus Christ is on his way to the cross. And
so all of this centers on who the Lord Jesus Christ is and
what was going to happen that day on the cross according to
the truth of God's scriptures. It's the truth of the cross that
he's bringing these people to a knowledge of, and he's bringing
us to it, and how thankful we ought to be for Pilate's questions.
We've only got a little bit of time left and I don't want to
wear you out, but I wanted to spend a little bit of time going
through John's Gospel and looking at some of the declarations of
truth in John's Gospel. So if you turn with me back to
John Chapter 1, We have a glorious declaration of this truth. This is why he's come, for this
cause, and all of this relates to the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ, which is what is in view, both physically and in view of
the Lord's words. But he talks of truth in verse
14. The word was made flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. He's full of grace
and truth. How full is he of grace? He has
an infinite fullness of grace and an infinite fullness of truth,
as He has an infinite fullness of all of His attributes, which
means that He can love every one of His children infinitely
and perfectly and completely and still not be diminished in
any way at all. It's the fullness of grace and
truth. This is what he goes on to say in verse 17. This is a
wonderful, wonderful verse of scripture. For the law was given
by Moses. Was the law true? Every single
word of the law is true, and God's children love the law of
God. They love it. God's children
can go to Leviticus, which bores the living daylights out of most
people. I love it. I love reading the
law of God. And I particularly love reading
it because I know that in the Lord Jesus Christ I can say Amen
to all of them and I've completed and fulfilled all of them. In
God's side I have. Men can say what they like about
me, but the truth is what God says is in His side. That's why
this verse is so important, isn't it? The law was given by Moses. Grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. And it comes all the way to reach
down to the sinners that we are. If you turn over with me to John
chapter three, verse 21, it speaks of they that doeth the truth. If any of you are mindful, for
a moment of what you are in reality in your flesh. When he says something
like that, dear oh dear, how do I measure up to that? What's
he saying? He that doeth truth cometh to
the light, and listen to what the deeds are. His deeds are
what he doeth, isn't it? His deeds may be made manifest
that they are wrought in God. They are worked in God. This
is God's work causing us to do the truth. Is my faith come from
myself or is it God given faith? We do the truth. It's worked
by God. In chapter 4, In chapter four, we have that
glorious, glorious story of the woman at the well. I just love,
I love the words that she has declared to her, and I love the
response that the Lord brings as a result of her, his discussion
with her. But listen to what he says in
verse 23. He says, The hour cometh, and
now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth. There are true requirements for
worshipping God. It must be a spiritual worship.
It must come from the work of the Holy Spirit, taking the things
of the Lord Jesus Christ and revealing them to you. And it
must be truth. There is no worship of God where
there is any lie about God. It can't be according to what he's
just saying, is it? Where God is lied about, There
is no worship. True worshippers shall worship
the Father in spirit and in truth. Verse 23, for the Father seeketh
such to worship Him. How many people could bear before
God will have to bear the testimony in verse 22 that he said to this
woman, you worship what you know not. You worship what you know
not. You're worshipping the figment
of your imagination and most particularly you're worshipping
the figment of someone else's imagination. They worship Him,
they must worship Him in spirit and truth, and the Father seeks
them. Does He find them? Or is He still struggling to
find them? He finds them, of course He does. He creates them. They must worship Him in spirit
and in truth. John 8 verse 32. The Lord Jesus Christ is speaking
of those who continue in his word. And you shall know the
truth, and the truth shall make you free. Don't you love that? The truth shall make you free. Free, my sins are gone. The Lord
Jesus Christ put them away on the cross of Calvary. I'm free
from having to establish any righteousness of my own or to
defend any righteousness of my own. I love that freedom. All
of my righteousness is the Lord Jesus Christ. All of my acceptance
before God is the Lord Jesus Christ. I have a freedom. I have
a freedom. He'll make you free. The truth. He is the truth. He will make
you free. He'll make you free. He challenges those people who
didn't believe him. In John chapter eight, he says,
in verse 45, he says, and because I tell you the truth, you believe
me not. Which of you convinces me of
sin? Who on earth could say that?
before men who want his death. Who convinces me of sin? Who
convicts me of sin? And he says, And if I say the
truth, why do you not believe me? He that is of God heareth
God's words. It's the same as what he's saying,
isn't it? They that are of the truth hear the voice of the shepherd. We've already spoken about John
14 verse 6. I am the truth, I am the way,
I am the truth and I am the life. I am God who is the way to God. I am the truth of who God is
and I am the life of God. I am God's life. No man cometh
to the Father but by me. Verse 17 of John chapter 14.
This is a spiritual truth he's talking about, a spiritual kingdom. It's exactly what he said to
Pilate. My kingdom is not from here. The world cannot receive, because
it seeth neem not, neither knoweth him, but you know him, for he
dwelleth with you, he dwelleth alongside you, he dwelleth in
you, and shall be in you. and shall be in you. It's the
Spirit of Truth. The Holy Spirit is declared over
and over again in the Gospel of John to be the Spirit of Truth.
In John 15 verse 26, the Spirit of Truth is the Comforter. When
the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father,
even the Spirit of Truth which proceeds from the Father, he
shall testify of me. John 16, 13, how be it when He,
the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth. How dependent are we to be guided
into all truth by God Almighty Himself. In John chapter 17, his great
high priestly prayer in John 17 verse 17, he says, sanctify
them through thy truth, thy word is truth. Set them apart and
make them holy for me by your truth. And then in verse 19 he
says, for their sakes I sanctify myself that they also might be
sanctified through the truth. And we come to these verses here
before us and we'll have a break and come back and look at what
the Lord Jesus Christ was testifying as to his witness, his martyrdom. He signed his seal to all of
these truths that we've read about and all of these glorious
gifts by his own blood on the cross of Calvary. He's speaking
to Pilate about the cross and he's speaking to us about the
cross. Amen. Let's have a break.