I want you to take your Bibles
and turn with me to the gospel of John, John chapter 18. I'm
going to get out ahead of Dr. MacArthur just a little bit.
He's in chapter 10 and you'll be here in about seven years.
So, John chapter 18, what I want to talk to you today about is
what is truth? John chapter 18, I want to begin
in verse 36. My eye is on the middle of verse
38, but I want to begin reading in verse 36. The setting is our
Lord standing before Pilate. Jesus will endure six trials,
three religious and three civil trials. the day before He was
crucified, or the night before He was crucified. And He now
comes to His final interrogation by Pilate who has been placed
here by Rome. We read in verse 36, 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 to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth
hears my voice. Pilate then said to him, what is truth? This is the age-long
question that is voiced by Pilate when he stood before the Lord
Jesus Christ, what is truth? This is not an honest inquiry
by Pilate as he is desiring to know what truth is. No, this
is a defiant denunciation of it. It was spoken with a tone
of derision and contempt. This terse response was asserted
mockingly by Pilate. It was a dismissive chide, a
dripping with sarcasm. It was a caustic rebuttal intended
to belittle the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. What is truth? This is a barbed jab intended
to deflate and to denigrate any thought that anyone can know
what is truth. And Pilate rejected the very
idea of truth and he rejected that there is any such thing
as an exclusive truth claim. In fact, Pilate repudiated any
possibility that anyone could know the truth. This mocking
question, what is truth, is the malignant mantra of our day. The spirit of Pilate lives with
us. The spirit of Pilate lives on
our college campuses with professors and students who are mocking
the truth. The spirit of Pilate sits in
the halls of our government. The spirit of Pilate legislates
our moral code. It reigns in our media. It teaches
in many seminaries. It stands in many pulpits. We live in a culture in which
there has been a total repudiation of the very notion of truth.
We live in a day that is a-truth, anti-truth. And the only truth
there is today supposedly is that there is no exclusive truth. And so today, I want us to look
at this passage and I want us to consider this important subject
of the truth. The word truth is mentioned three
times in the verses that I just read. You'll note it is mentioned
twice in verse 37. It is mentioned once in verse
38. This little tight section is
about the truth. And there are three main headings
that I want to set before you, and you need to know what the
truth is, and you need to have deep convictions in the truth. The person who will not stand
for anything is so vulnerable these days. I want you to note
three things. I want you to see the rejection
of truth. We see that in verse 38, Pilate
said to him, what is truth? That is a stiff arm of truth. That is a total denial of truth,
the rejection of truth. And then second, I want you to
see the reality of truth. In verse 37, Jesus said, I have
come into the world to testify to the truth. And there are several
reasons why Jesus came. The foremost is to be the Savior
of sinners, to be lifted up upon the cross, and to bear the sins
of His people. But there were also other subordinate
reasons why He came, and this is among those of most importance,
it is to testify to the truth. That's the reality of truth.
And then third, I want us to see the reception. of truth. At the end of verse 37, Jesus
says, everyone who is of the truth hears My voice. So let's begin with the rejection
of truth. This is where Pilate is and he
represents the culture in which you and I live. He represents
the antagonistic society in which we find ourselves. And notice
in verse 38, Pilate said to Him, What is truth? This in reality is the mother
sin, namely the rejection of the truth of God. This is where
Pilate is, he is standing face to face with truth incarnate
and he rejects truth in its very presence. This is where sin begins. It begins with a repudiation
of the truth. In Romans chapter 1, as Paul
begins his extraordinary presentation of the gospel, he begins in Romans
1 verse 18 by making this statement, for the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
suppress the truth. in unrighteousness. To suppress
the truth means to hold it under, to put it away, to discard it. And then in verse 25 of Romans
1, it says, they exchange the truth of God for a lie. And that begins the downward
spiral of really any society and any culture, it is when you
exchange the truth for a lie. This is the demise of anyone's
life when they hear the truth and they walk away from the truth.
It is the destruction of any society. It is the departure
of any denomination. It all begins with the rejection
of the truth. And this is exactly the point
of attack that Satan launched in Genesis chapter 3 when he
slithered onto the page of human history and he said to Eve, indeed
has God said? It was a frontal attack on the
truth of God. Nowhere is this abandonment of
truth more clearly seen today than on college campuses. The fact is, a recent survey
has shown that the younger a person is, the more they are apt to
deny the truth. Two national surveys have been
recently conducted, one with adults, the other with older
teenagers. And the results are staggering.
Of adults 36 years and older, 64 percent said that there is
no such thing as moral absolutes or truth. Adults 18 to 36, meaning
younger than 36 years of age or older, the figure rose to
75 percent rejected any notion of truth. But when you drop down
to teenagers 18 or 19 years old, the number escalated to eighty-three percent of today's
young people deny that there is any such thing as absolute
truth. In other words, the younger you
are, the more likely you are to reject any notion of absolute
truth. Years ago, there was a very popular
book written by a professor at Notre Dame, Alan Bloom, entitled,
The Closing of the American Mind. And in this book, Bloom said
that ninety-five percent of all entering college students are
avowed relativists who reject any notion of unchanging absolute
truth. And by the time they graduate,
he estimates that the number increases from ninety-five percent
to ninety-seven percent. rejecting any notion of exclusive
truth whatsoever. One philosopher has said that
we are raising a generation of moral stutterers. In other words,
they are not definitive on what is right and what is wrong. Others have called it moral illiteracy. Yet another says there is a hole
in our moral ozone. The only absolute today seems
to be that there are no absolutes. The only truth is that there
is no truth. The only tolerance is there is
no tolerance for those who claim to hold to truth. All this gives
mounting, escalating popularity in our culture today to the approval
of abortion, homosexuality, lesbianism, pornography, and all kinds of
lewdness. And it all begins with the rejection
of truth. And that is what Pilate is saying,
and that is what so many are saying today. But I want you
to note second, the reality of truth. Because in verse 37, Jesus
said, I have come into the world to testify to the truth. When Jesus says this, He is saying
that one of the fundamental purposes for which He has come in the
incarnation is that He might bear witness to the truth. This word testify means to bear
witness as in a court of law. And Jesus, who is the truth,
has come to reveal the truth. Now, the question is, what is
truth? In one word, truth is reality. Truth is the way things really
are. Truth is that which conforms,
which corresponds to reality. It's not how things may appear
to be. It is not how we want things
to be. It is not what most people say
it is. Truth is not what the opinion
polls reveal that most people think. Truth is how things really
are. And so I want us to think now
for a moment under the reality of truth. I want to give you
some words to help define what truth is. I want to give you
eight words to lay out before you that will serve to bring
truth into focus. Number one, truth is divine truth. A truth does not come from this
world. A truth does not arise from the
culture or from the society. A truth does not come from ABC,
NBC, or CBS. A truth does not come from Hollywood,
or Wall Street, or Pennsylvania Avenue. A truth must come down
from above. Truth must come down from another
world. Truth must come from God Himself. God is the author of all truth. God is the source of all truth. God is the determiner of all
truth. Truth is whatever God says something
is. God is the governor of truth,
the arbitrator of truth. He is the ultimate standard of
truth. He is the final judge of truth. In fact, God Himself is truth. In Psalm 31 and verse 5 we read
that He is the God of truth. And Jesus said in John 14, 6,
I am the way and the truth. and the life, which is to say
you cannot be on the way without the truth and you cannot have
the life without the truth. Ephesians 4 verse 21, Paul writes,
truth is in Jesus. In other words, there is not
a drop of truth outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. All truth
is in Christ. And the Holy Spirit in John 14,
17 is the spirit of truth. John 15, 26, the Holy Spirit
is the spirit of truth. So also, John 16, 13, truth we could say is the self-expression
of God Himself. Truth is everything that is consistent
with the mind of God. Everything that is in alignment
with the character of God, everything that is consistent with the will
of God and with the being of God. As I said earlier, truth
is whatever God says something is. Sin is whatever God says
it is. Salvation is whatever God says
salvation is. A judgment is whatever God says
it is. Heaven and hell is whatever God
says that it is. The family is whatever God says
it is. Morality is whatever God says
it is. Romans 3 verse 4 says, let God
be found true though every man be found a liar. One ounce of
what God has to say is worth more than ten million tons of
what any man has to say. So number one, truth is divine
truth. Second, it is absolute truth. When we say absolute truth, we
mean that it is perfect. It is without limits. It is consummate. It is free from imperfection.
It is complete. It is perfect. It is unadulterated. It is pure. Truth is absolute
truth. And when you see in verse 37,
when Jesus speaks of truth, He always uses the definite article
in front of the word truth, the truth. Jesus never speaks of
a truth, but only the truth, meaning truth is exclusive. It is never inclusive. A truth
is discriminating. A truth excludes all that is
not true. Everything that is outside of
truth is a lie. Everything that is inside the
truth is true. A truth is never either or...or
excuse me, it's never both and, it is always either or. Truth
is never relative. Truth is never arbitrary. Truth
is never conditional. Truth is absolute. Whatever contradicts biblical
truth is by definition false and therefore an error and therefore
a lie. Jesus said in John 8 verse 44,
you are of 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 all lies. No, truth is the first word on
any subject on any matter. Truth is the last word on any
subject on any matter. And truth is everything in between. Everything in life is measured
by the truth. Everything in life is defined
by the truth and all else is a falsehood and is a lie. Third, not only is truth divine
and absolute, but third, truth is objective. That is to say,
truth is propositional. It is conveyed in clearly defined
words and words that have meaning. Truth is not a feeling. Truth
is a fact that is verified by God. Therefore, truth is conveyed
in words that have specific definable meaning. Truth is black and white. Truth is concrete. Truth is narrowly
defined by God's Word. Truth is cognitive. Truth is,
according to 2 Timothy 2 15, it is found in the word of truth. Psalm 119 verse 160, your word
is truth. Galatians 2 verse 5, the Bible
is the truth of The truth is found in specific words that
has specific meaning as they are spoken by God and contained
in His Word. It is true regardless of how
anyone feels about it. It is true whether it speaks
subjectively to anyone's inner person. Truth is never vague. Truth is never fuzzy. Truth is
razor-sharp like a surgeon's scalpel. Truth is a laser beam. It is explicit. It is exact. It is clear-cut in its meaning.
Truth never stutters. Truth never mumbles. Truth tells
it like it is. Truth puts it out there. If there's
any trouble with truth, it is not in understanding what it
says by what it means, or what it means by what it says. The
only problem with truth at times for us is to swallow it. Fourth, truth is singular. When we say truth is singular,
we mean it all fits together. It is one body of truth. It is one system of truth. Francis Schaeffer said years
ago, Christianity is not a series of truths in the plural, but
rather it is truth spelled out with a capital T, it is only
one truth. Because it all holds together. Truth never contradicts itself.
Truth never speaks out of both sides of its mouth. Truth never
says one thing to one group, then something else to another
group. No, truth is singular. James
Montgomery Boyce states, truth is singular. It is not in fragments
that would require us to speak of truths in the sense of unrelated
facts or items. Truth holds together," Boyce
writes, therefore, there is no phase of truth that is not related
to every other phase of truth, close quote. In other words,
it's like a beautiful tapestry with many threads running through
it, yet they all come together perfectly in place to convey
and to represent one plan of salvation, one history of redemption,
one diagnosis of man's problem, one solution to man's problem,
one remedy unto eternal life, Everything comes together when
truth speaks. Truth presents one worldview. It presents one way to look at
the world. There are not many different
ways to size things up. Truth speaks with one voice. Tell me what you believe about
one truth and I will tell you what you believe about twenty
other truths, because truth is never disconnected from another
truth. It all fits together. Listen,
when you pull a thread in the book of Genesis, Revelation crinkles. There's threads running all through
the Bible and it all hangs together and it speaks with one statement
of reality. Number five, truth is immutable. That is to say, truth never changes. What was true when I was a young
person is true today, will be true 10,000 years from today. What is true today was true 500
years ago. It was true 1,000 years ago. It was true 2,000
years ago. Truth never changes. Truth is fixed. Truth is established. Truth is constant. Truth is timeless. Truth is transcendent over the
generations. Truth is unvarying. Because God
does not change, neither does truth change. Truth is the same
yesterday, today, and forever. Right is always right. Wrong
is always wrong. Society may try to redefine morality. Culture may try to reclassify
what is right and what is wrong. But God's truth never changes. Therefore, truth is eternal.
Truth is transcendent. Truth is everlasting. We could say this, new truth
is old heresy. If it is new, it is not true. Psalm 119 verse 89. Forever, O Lord, Your Word is
settled in heaven. There are no additions to the
Word of God. There are no subtractions from
the Word of God. God's truth stands firm from
age to age, forever the same. Isaiah 40 verse 8, The grass
withers, the flower fades away, but the Word of our God stands
forever. After I graduated from college,
I entered into law school. I thought I wanted to be a lawyer.
I studied law. And for the whole first semester,
I studied case law, constitutional law, civil law. I stayed up nights
memorizing the law. My entire grade was the final
exam. And I remember by the time the
final exam came in December, they had changed the laws that
I had memorized. And I thought, this makes no
sense to me that I have poured my heart and soul and life into
learning and memorizing a law that is constantly changing. And it was part of what God used
in my life to redirect my life to study a law that is divine,
that is absolute. that is immutable, that never
changes, that when I study the Bible, when I study the Word
of God, I have it for the rest of my life and no matter where
I go, no matter what the circumstance I find myself in, truth is immutable. Jesus said in Matthew 5 and 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. In Luke 16 verse 17, it is easier
for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a
letter of the law to fail. What Jesus is saying is that
truth never changes. Truth is always contemporary. It is always up to date. It is
always relevant. It always speaks to the issues
of every generation. It is never outdated. It never
is no longer valid or of use. A truth, in fact, is more up
to date than tomorrow's newspaper. It is living and active and sharper
than any two-edged sword. Truth is the current word that
God has to say on any subject. It is never archaic. It is never
outdated. Do you want to attend a contemporary
church? Then find a church that preaches
the Bible because there is nothing more relevant and nothing more
up-to-date and nothing more contemporary than the Word of God. Now, I
want to give you a sixth word concerning what truth is. And
not only is truth immutable, but truth is authoritative. That
is to say, truth is sovereign. Truth makes assertive demands
upon us. A truth has the right to rule
our lives. A truth is never just interesting. A truth is never something to
solve our curiosity. A truth necessitates something
from us. A truth is demanding. Truth is
commanding. The life of every person is defined
by our relationship to the truth. You tell me your relationship
to the truth and I'll tell you who you are and what you are.
You cannot be satisfied without the truth. You cannot be saved
without the truth. You cannot be sanctified without
the truth. You cannot get there from here
without the truth. The truth has the full weight
of God's own authority behind it. When the truth speaks, God
speaks. When the truth commands, God
commands. Truth is authoritative. Truth is imperative. Truth speaks
to us with the very authority of God Himself. Number seven. Truth is powerful, and there
is nothing more powerful than the truth. A truth convicts. Truth converts. Truth saves. Truth judges. Truth damns. Truth sanctifies. Truth comforts. Truth cheers. Truth is so powerful that I want
to say again, no one can be saved apart from the truth. No one
can be satisfied or full of joy without the truth. No one can
be conformed into the image of Christ without the truth. And
it will be the truth on the last day by which we will be measured. Now, the eighth word is determinative. Truth determines your relationship
with God. Truth defines your life here. It is determinative. Truth will
determine where you will spend eternity. Truth will determine
whether you are in heaven or in hell. Truth will have the
final say on every aspect of your life. John MacArthur has
written this, authentic Christianity is concerned first and foremost
with truth. The Christian faith, MacArthur
writes, is not primarily about feelings. Although deep feelings
will surely result from the impact of truth on our hearts. It is
not about human relationships, even though relationships are
the main focus in many of today's evangelical pulpits. It's not
about success and earthly blessings, no matter how much one might
get that impression from watching Christian television. Biblical
Christianity, MacArthur writes, is all about truth. God's objective revelation, the
Bible interpreted rationally, yields divine truth in perfectly
sufficient measure. Everything we need to know for
life and godliness is here in the Scripture. God wrote only
one book, the Bible. It contains all the truth by
which He intended us to have in order to live our spiritual
lives. Scripture, MacArthur concludes,
is holy truth. It is the highest standard of
all truth. It is the rule by which all truth
claims must be measured. Every one of us in this room
today desperately needs the truth. The truth is the rudder of the
ship. that is to direct our lives. Truth is the steering wheel that
can alone direct us and lead us into the will of God. Truth is that which is our most
precious commodity. There is, Jesus said, the reality
of truth. Now finally, I want you to see
the reception of truth in verse 37. Why does not everyone receive
the truth? Why doesn't everyone believe
the truth? Why do some people reject the truth? Why do only
a few relatively receive it? Look what Jesus says at the end
of verse 37, and we have the answer. Everyone who is of the
truth hears My voice. To be of the truth means to be
sovereignly regenerated by the truth. It means to be birthed
by the truth into the spiritual kingdom of God. To be of the
truth means you are a believer in the truth. You have been made
a believer by the Holy Spirit. You belong to the truth. You
are owned by the truth. You are under the truth. Your
loyalty is to the truth. Your allegiance is to the truth.
That is what it means to be of the truth. It means that The
Holy Spirit has shined His light into your once darkened heart
and you now are able to see the truth. It is a work of God in
the darkness of your own human mind. To be of the truth means
that the Holy Spirit has illuminated your understanding and you are
enabled by God to see the truth. enabled by God to hear the truth
because without the work of the Holy Spirit, we are spiritually
deaf and we are spiritually blind. Now notice he says, everyone,
there are no exceptions. That is an all-inclusive statement. Everyone who is of the truth
hears my voice. He's not talking about hearing
an audible voice. It's much louder than that. He's
talking about receiving the truth into your heart and to hear it
with your spiritual ears and to see it with your spiritual
eyes. and to be made one who responds
to the truth and who embraces the truth because you now are
given ears to hear, you are given eyes to see, and by the sovereign
grace of God, you are made to hear the voice of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, this tells us that when
we have our Bibles, It is the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ
that is coming through the pages of Scripture and that we hear
with spiritual ears what He is saying to us. John 10 verse 27,
this morning, Dr. MacArthur preached on this verse
which says, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and I give
unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. And so those who are of the truth
hear my voice. I want to ask you, are you of
the truth today? Are you one who has believed
in the truth? Have you received the truth in
your heart and into your life? Are you persuaded that the Bible
is the Word of truth? Is your allegiance to the truth?
Is your loyalty to the truth? Surely, the fact that you're
here today would indicate that so many of you are of the truth. And when we are of the truth,
we are those who hear the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ as He
speaks through the truth of His Word. So let us take heart. In these days when the truth
is so under attack, nevertheless, the truth remains. The truth
endures. The truth is advancing. The truth
can never be snuffed out. The truth is indomitable. The
truth is triumphant. The truth is continuing to carry
out God's work here upon the earth. The truth can never be
snuffed out. The darkness can never extinguish
the light. And the truth will continue to
move forward in this generation just as it has in generations
past. So as you find yourself in this
ministry and in this church, and for many of you as you are
on college campuses, Make the truth your foundation. Make the
truth the chief cornerstone of your life. Know that there are
many pilots all around you who are saying, what is truth? Just
know that those who are of the truth, they hear the voice of
the Lord Jesus Christ and they are bound fast to the truth.
And the truth is exactly what you need to govern your life
and to help you make the decisions that you must make. As I bring
this to a close, as you find yourself here today, if you have
never believed the truth, the truth is that Jesus Christ has
come into this world to save sinners, that He is the only
way of salvation. that everyone born into this
world is in desperate need of grace, in desperate need of salvation. And the truth is that whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Jesus, the
truth is, was born of a virgin. He lived a sinless and perfect
life. He went to the cross. He was lifted up to die. There
He bore the sins of His people. He became our sin substitute
upon the cross. He became a curse for us. And
as He suffered and bled upon that cross, by the giving of
His life and the shedding of His blood, He propitiated the
righteous anger of God toward sinners. He reconciled holy God
and sinful man in the blood of His cross. And by the giving
of His life, He has redeemed sinners from the slave market
of sin. He offers salvation as a free
gift. And the truth is that we must
repent and we must believe upon Jesus Christ. And if we will
commit our life to Him and look to Him only and surrender our
lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and receive Him as our
own personal Lord and Savior, then the truth is, you will be
saved. Your sins will be forgiven. You
will become a new creature in Christ. As the old things passed
away, and behold, new things have come. You will be one who
will be on a new path now, the narrow path that leads to life. And one day when you die, the
Lord will receive you to Himself, and you will spend all eternity
with the Lord in heaven, around His throne of grace, with all
the throngs of the multitudes of those who have believed the
truth. But no one will ever find their
way to heaven except they are made of the truth and have believed
the truth and have received the truth. And so if you have never
believed the truth about Christ, the truth about yourself, and
the truth about salvation. I urge you today, this very moment,
to receive the truth of the gospel, to receive the truth of the Word
of God, and in so doing, to receive the Lord Jesus Christ Himself
into your very heart of hearts. Everything outside the truth. is a lie. Everything outside
the truth will damn. Everything outside the truth
condemns. But those who are in the truth
and who are of the truth are those who hear the voice of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and are those who are saved, and are those
who will spend all eternity with the Lord. If you've never believed
the truth, I would urge you this very moment today to commit your
life to Jesus Christ, to surrender your life to Him, to throw yourself
into His arms of mercy, and He will receive you Him who comes
unto Me, I will in no wise cast out. Let us pray. Father, how
we thank You that You have revealed the truth to us. Thank You that You are the truth.
We praise You and worship You that whenever You speak, You
speak only the truth. You tell it like it is. You make
known to us the reality about ourselves, about this world,
about the world to come, about Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, except You reveal
the truth to us, we could never know these things. I pray that
You will make our hearts so receptive to the truth. And may we invest
our lives, not in lies and not in falsehoods, but in that which
is the truth. Lord, I pray that all in this
room today will be of the truth and will be those who hear the
voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. If there be any outside the truth,
like Pilate who might say, what is truth? May you win their hearts
over today and may you bring them all the way to the truth
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank you that you have given
us ears to hear and eyes to see the truth. May we cling to the
truth and grow even deeper in the truth. We pray this in Jesus'
name. Amen.