Well, turn with me to John chapter
18 and verses 37 and 38. And the title of the message
this morning is the words of Pilate in verse 38. What is truth? What is truth? Good question
for these days. I don't know about you, but I've
never felt more clearly that we are living today in a world
of lies. It has always been such, but
it seems at a pinnacle at the moment. We're in Satan's kingdom,
this world. And if you look in John chapter
eight and verse 44, Jesus is speaking to the unbelieving Pharisees
and the scribes and the religious folk who scorned him and were
bitter towards him. And in verse 44, he tells them
the truth, are of your father the devil. You're not the children
of God, you're of your father the devil. And the lusts of your
father, the things he wants to do, you do those things that
the devil wants to do. He was a murderer from the beginning,
and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When
he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own. It's what he is,
for he is a liar, and the father of it. This is the world that
we live in, Satan's kingdom. It's a kingdom of lies. Politicians
habitually lie to us. You know, we've seen it, especially
over the last couple of years, how vivid has been the public-sponsored,
high-ranking lying that has been going on. Leaders in politics,
leaders in society, their mouths are filled with lies. They're
of their father, the devil. business directors. deceive and
don't tell the truth, on all sides. So-called scientists,
you know, Scripture calls so much of science, science falsely
so-called, because it isn't the truth, because it comes out of
a wicked, unbelieving heart. All of us, all of us, as the
Psalms tell us, Psalm 58 and verse 3 says, the wicked go astray
as soon as they be born, speaking lies. You say, I'm not wicked,
do you believe God? Do you believe God? If you don't
believe God, the scripture says you're wicked. Why? Because the
biggest wickedness is not to believe God. Unbelief is the
root of all sin. The wicked, those who do not
believe God, those who deny the truth of God, they go astray
as soon as they are born speaking lies, and that's all of us in
the flesh, until we're rescued from that, until we're saved,
until we're plucked as brands from the burning into the kingdom
of God. Yet, all of us, don't we? All
of us, believers and unbelievers, we all want to be treated truthfully. None of us want to be scammed,
which is to be lied to by others. We want laws of the land to uphold
truth, and to punish falsehood, and to maintain justice of right
and wrong. Is there an objective standard?
Is there? It seems to get more and more
blurred as this society goes on. The truth of God, the precepts
of God, the standards of God seem to be twisted and bent according
to the will of fallen sinful man. Here we are in John chapter
18 in the midst of an unjust trial of Jesus. We saw him last
week as the sovereign God. The other Gospels emphasize his
humanity, his manhood, the weight, the sweat as it were, great drops
of blood because of the anguish of that true man's soul under
the weight of what was coming his way when he who was the Holy
One of God was to be made sin the sin of His people, that He
might bear it, that He might pay for it, that He might redeem
His people from the curse of it. And now he's been taken. A sovereign God, he stepped forward.
Who are you seeking? Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I
am the name of God. I am. And they all fell backwards,
just exactly as Psalm 27 said they would. And here he's taken,
and there's an unjust trial, and he's passed from the high
priest to Ananias, to Caiaphas, to Pilate, because the Jews,
you know, they wanted to put Jesus to death. but they did not have the authority
to put to death delegated to them. It had to be the Romans
that would put him to death, so they had to bring him to the
Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, that he might be put to death,
tried and put to death under the law of the Romans, and the
Roman death was the death of crucifixion, i.e. if I be lifted
up, if I be lifted up, signifying the death that he would die.
Not the Jewish death of stoning, but the Roman death of being
lifted up on a cross to die. He's in the midst of an unjust
trial and now he's on his own with Pontius Pilate because these
Pharisees and scribes that sought his destruction would not come
into the Roman judgment hall, because it was the Passover.
And these holier-than-thou whited sepulchres would not defile themselves
by coming into the Roman place of judgment, because this was
a Gentile place and they wouldn't defile themselves, they couldn't
eat the Passover if they did that. So here is Jesus on his
own with Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. Lies have been
rampant. You read the other Gospel accounts.
I was reading Mark earlier, and the Gospel of Mark talks about
the different witnesses that the scribes and Pharisees brought
to the trial, and their testimonies didn't tally. Therefore, they
couldn't bring a solid case against him. their testimonies, one said
one thing and another said something that completely contradicted
it, so they couldn't convict him on the testimony of these
lying witnesses, because they were liars. Lies were rampant,
and here he is. We know there is a bitter cup,
a bitter cup of the sins of His people and the judgment of God
against that sin, which He must drain. You read about it in Zechariah,
that cup of the wrath of God against the sin of His people,
that the Messiah must drain. For the seed of the woman to
fulfill that which was said in Genesis 3.15, in him crushing
the serpent's head, in saving his people from their sins, he
must bear the justice of God in the place of the people of
his love. And we have here the dialogue
of Jesus and of Pilate. Pontius Pilate was a political
pragmatist. What did he want? I'll tell you
what he didn't want. He didn't want a riot. He didn't
want to have his reputation damaged in the Roman Empire by him being
the overseer when a riot took place in this Kingdom of Palestine. He didn't want that. That was
the last thing he wanted. He wanted to keep the peace.
He was a political pragmatist. let's find out what works, let's
keep the peace. In verses 37 and 38, look what
we read here, Pilate therefore said unto him, art thou a king
then? Why did he say that? Because
Jesus had just said, my kingdom, we're talking about kingdoms,
my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world,
then would my servants fight? They'd take up swords and fight,
but they don't. They don't. My kingdom is not from this world.
Pilate, therefore, said unto him, Oh, you have a king. You
have a kingdom then. Are you a king then? Jesus answered,
Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born. And for
this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto
the truth. Everyone that is of the truth
heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is
truth? I don't think that was a kind
of a, oh, that's interesting. What do you mean? What do you
mean by truth? I think Pilate was saying, oh,
for goodness sake, stop this philosophical nonsense. What
is truth? It's irrelevant to you at this moment. There's a
mob trying to have you killed by me, and all you can talk about
is some esoteric thing called truth. It was scornful. And when he had said this, look,
we know he meant this, he went out again unto the Jews. He didn't
stay to talk and to see what Jesus was meaning. He said to
them, I just don't find any fault in him. The purpose of Christ's
coming, he says here, was to bear witness unto the truth. And Pilate dismisses his words
as irrelevant. But I want to meditate for a
moment this morning about the truth that Jesus is speaking
about. It's divine truth. And I've got four points. I rarely
do this, mainly because I'm a person of limited imagination. There
are those preachers who can always think of points that have exactly
the same letter starting each point to try and enable you to
remember it. Well, this morning, I happen to have four points
that came to me. And about the truth of God, the
four points are these, the entrance of the truth of God, the enlightenment
brought by the truth of God, Sorry, the essence, first of
all, the essence. What is it? The essence of the
truth of God, the entrance of it into a person's life, the
enlightenment of it, and the emancipating effect of it. What
do we mean? That's a long word, emancipating
effect. When you think of emancipation, you think of the suffragettes
and votes for women. Well, it's liberty, the liberty,
the freedom that it brings. So first of all, the essence
of divine truth. What is it in its essence? I
would say it's this, it's the gracious revelation given by
God Himself of His character, of His mind, and of His will.
Without the being of God, there is no objective standard of truth. Without the being of God, there
is no objective standard of right or wrong, is there? If evolution
is why we are here, and it was random and without purpose, and
it just so happened to be, who's to say what is right? Surely,
surely, the law and justice of evolution is whoever's the strongest
wins. and whoever crushes the weaker
one, fair play to him, good for him, because that's what the
philosophy of evolution says. But it's God's world, it is God's
creation, and God is the objective standard of truth, and of right,
and of wrong. The answer to Pilate's question,
what is truth? It's this, God is truth. What is truth? God is truth. That's the answer. It's revealed
in Christ, the Son. That's firstly, where the truth
of God is revealed in Christ, the Son. He said, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father, but
by me. What is the truth? Where is it?
It's in the Son, number one. Number two, it's in this book,
in His Word. For in the beginning was the
Word, The Word was with God and the Word was God. This Word is
Christ. This is His Word. This is the
mind of God expressed through the inspiration by the Holy Spirit
through human writers, but nevertheless it is entirely consistent with
the will and purpose of God. The truth of God is revealed
in the Word of God. In Daniel chapter 10 and verse
21, in one of his visions, one of the angels is saying to him,
I will show thee, Daniel, that which is noted in the scripture
of truth. It's the scripture of truth.
It's in the sun, it's in the scripture of truth, and thirdly,
where is it? It's in the hearts of his believing
people. That's where God puts it in that
repository of the hearts of his believing people. In chapter
17 and verse 17, Sanctify them through thy truth,
thy word is truth. In other words, separate them
from the rest of mankind through thy truth, through thy word which
is truth. Put it in their hearts, put it
in their minds, in the hearts of his believing people. In Psalm
119 and verse 11, the psalmist writes this, thy word have I
hid in mine heart. I've taken it within me. I've
eaten it up. In Revelation, we see God standing
with a book, a little book, and come and take it and eat it,
and it's sweet in his mouth and bitter in his belly. Sweet because
the Word of God is sweet. The truth of God is sweet. It's
holy. It's pure. But why is it bitter
in his belly? Because it brings conflict with
the kingdom of Satan. It's pure, like pure water, like
the water that Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman about in
John 4.14. He said, who believes, who asks me for a drink, it will
be a well of living water, welling up inside, living water, not
stagnant well water, but living, fresh, pure water, this life
of God, the truth of God. It's not as an intangible philosophy. you know, there are the religious
folk who say, ah, to get at the truth, you need to come to this
church, and you need to go on a religious retreat, you know,
separate yourself from society for a few days, and go to this
lovely, quiet, old, old mansion, and it's in the middle of nowhere,
and you won't be distracted by the world around you, and you'll
have time to be quiet and to think, and if you go to this
place, oh, go to Holy Island, Ah, there's something about that
place. There's an aura about that place. Go to that place.
Oh, and go and visit this place. There's all these religious icons
there. There are these statues and these
stones and oh, it's such a place of spirituality and this is where
we get towards truth. No, it's not. It's a complete
delusion. It's a figment of man's imagination.
It's pure idolatry. That's what that is. Where is
it found? It's found in objective doctrine,
objective teaching. Without divine revelation, none
would know of God as a trinity, a tri-unity of persons, One God
manifested in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? Look,
how would we know this if it were not for the revelation of
the Scriptures? Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 1,
God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time
past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last
days spoken unto us by His Son. whom he has appointed heir of
all things, by whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness
of his glory." This is the Son of God. The brightness of the
glory of God. The express image of His person. You want to know what the unknowable
God is like? You look at Christ. Philip, have
I been with you so long and yet you have not seen me or known
me? He who has seen me has seen the Father. The express image
of His person. Listen, this is what He's doing
now. Upholding all things by the word of His power. When He
had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of
the Majesty on high." That's where He is now, reigning in
eternal glory. How would we know that were it
not for this Word, which is the repository, a repository, one
of the three, the Son, the Word, and the hearts of His people.
He's put that in the hearts of His believing people to believe
Him. How would we know about the person of Christ? that He
is two natures in one person. He is fully man, for He is the
Son of Mary, born of a woman, made of a woman, made under the
law, but at the same time He's the Son of God, who thought it
not robbery to be equal with God, but laid His glory aside
and came down to this earth to dwell as a man for the purpose
of death. For God, in the essence of the
nature of the Father, could not die. But God the Son, being made
man, could die and thereby, and thereby only, pay the penalty
for the sins of his people, and thereby clear the debt, and thereby
justify, and thereby qualify for his eternal kingdom. Two
natures in one person. the Son of God and the Son of
Man. His life as a man displaying divine grace as he walked the
earth. His sacrifice for sin, look, how would we know about
this were it not pointed out to us here in the Scriptures?
For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world.
That's the priests going on and on and on. But now, once in the
end of the world, hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. And in chapter 10 and verse 14
of Hebrews, for by one offering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. Are you sanctified? If you're
one of God's people. If you're of the truth, as he
says, everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice, he's
told you by his offering he has perfected you. Pursue holiness
without which no man shall see the Lord? There's only one place
to find it, that's in him. Because in him we who are sinners
by nature have had that sin taken by him and paid for and we as
a result are made the righteousness of God in him. It doesn't depend
on you being more sanctified. You cannot be more sanctified
than you are in the Lord Jesus Christ. He has sanctified His
people. He has made His people holy.
He has perfected by one offering. That's what it says. What do
words mean if they don't mean that? His death, His burial,
fulfilling the type of Jonah in the belly of the whale for
three days. His resurrection, declaring Him to be the Son of
God with power. We could never have thought these
things up were they not revealed to us. His office as a prophet,
speaking heavenly truth. How do we know the things of
that which is hidden in heaven. He came down from heaven to reveal
to us that truth. And he opened the understanding
of his people, the disciples on the Emmaus road after his
resurrection. He opened their understanding
that they might understand the scriptures. He's a prophet to
his people, the only prophet. He's priesthood to his people. In Hebrews chapter eight, here
we have it again, plainly, now of the things of which we have
spoken, this is the sum. We have such an high priest who
is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the
heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which
the Lord pitched and not man. That true tabernacle, It's His
church, it's His heaven, it's the abode of God and His people
together. We have Him as this High Priest,
with the sacrifice of His own blood, through the veil, into
the Holy of Holies, making intercession. Do you realize that there is
a man who is God, if you're a child of God, if you're saved from
your sins by Him, then there is a man who is perfectly acceptable
pleading on your behalf in heaven, pleading on the merits of his
shed blood and righteousness. His kingship, prophet, priest,
and king. He's a preeminent, supreme ruler. He said in Matthew 28, 18, the
last verse of Matthew's gospel, before he went back to glory,
the risen Christ said, all power is given unto me in heaven and
earth. Do you believe that today? I
do. Oh, you say, but look at the state of the world. It's
entirely in his hands. at His behest for His purposes
as shall be seen. He will come again in triumph.
He will come back to take His people to be with Him. So Christ,
Hebrews 9, 28, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins
of many and unto them that look for Him, are you looking for
Him? Shall He appear the second time
without sin unto salvation to take His people to be with Him
where He is. In 2 Thessalonians 1 verse 10,
when he shall come, Christ shall come again to be glorified in
his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe. Are
you looking for him to come because he's coming again? This is the
essence of divine truth. And Satan pours scorn, and the
world rejects and blasphemes, and the world tramples the pearls
of divine truth in the mud. You know, Jesus said, don't cast
your pearls before swine, pigs, They can't recognize a pearl,
they'll just trample it in the mud. Be careful with it. But
this is pure truth. This is the essence of truth,
revealed from heaven. As Jesus said to Peter, when
he said, who do men say that I am? And Peter said, you are
the Christ, the Son of the living God. You know, some say you're
Elijah, some say you're John the Baptist. What do you say
I am? You're the Christ, the Son of
the living God. Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah. For flesh and
blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is
in heaven. Have you had the essence of the
truth of God revealed to you? When it pleased God, said Paul
in Galatians, to reveal his Son in me. Has he been revealed in
you? The truth that is stored up in
Christ is accessible to those who hunger for it. If any man
thirst, let him come unto me and drink. Let him that is a
thirst come, and whosoever will, let him take of the water of
life freely. Let him take of the water of
life. I can't come, I haven't got wherewith
to pay. Let him take of the water of life freely. What a blessing
it is to hear those words from the Son of God. Ah, but there's
such a barrier to climb. The law, I'm not good enough.
The law was given by Moses to show how incapable we are, but
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. This truth of God, the
essence of it, embraces all the truths of grace, all the doctrines
of grace, the election of grace, particular redemption, that God
in Christ died for the people He loved and gave to Christ before
the foundation of the world, the complete justification by
all that Christ has done. So the law has no more charge
to bring against the elect of God, for there is therefore now
no condemnation to those who are in Him. There is salvation,
for by grace are you saved from your sins. Saved from your sins. Through faith. It's by faith
that you apprehend it, but it's the grace of God that's accomplished
it. Have you heard these things preached? Have you believed them
in your heart? Have you had the eyes of your
soul opened by God's Spirit? Have you been brought out of
darkness of this world into the marvelous light of the truth
of God? Has it entered your soul? Well, we better rush on because
the next point is the entrance of the divine truth. And I'll
try and be a bit quicker. The Pharisees' religion pilots
politics, and he's not wanting to upset the Roman Empire and
Caesar. The people's ignorance and their
worldly appetites, one minute loving the feeding of the 5,000
that they saw him do, and the next minute crying for him to
be crucified, It all kept their eyes blinded, and so the vast
majority today, I believe. But some are brought to hear
divine truth. Some are given spiritual life
graciously by God to believe it. Some, as Psalm 110 verse
3 said, are made willing by the Spirit of God made willing in
the day of his power, to call upon the name of the Lord, for
whosoever, whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall
be saved. Where there was deadness of soul,
in sum by the gift of God, now there is life. As James says,
James 1, 18, of his own will, God's own will. Who willed it?
Not of the will of man, not of the will of the flesh, but of
the will of God. Of God's own will begat he us, his believing
people. How did he do it? With the word
of truth. With the word of truth. We're
no different by nature to others. You who were dead in trespasses
and sins, children of wrath even as others, He has quickened. He has made alive. By God's Spirit,
he has opened the eyes. As Lydia's heart was opened,
Paul the Apostle went to Philippi in Greece, and there by a riverside,
some women who sincerely were seeking God, but they didn't
know how. And Paul preached the gospel of grace. And what did
he preach? We read it again and again in the Acts. He preached
that this man Jesus of Nazareth was the very Christ of God, the
promised seed who would come to redeem his people from the
curse of the law, and the Holy Spirit opened a door, and that
door was the door to Lydia's heart, and she believed. and
she embraced the Philippian jailer in the same place as they were
put into jail and they were cruelly treated and they sang hymns in
the night, Paul and Silas, and the Philippian jailer, there
was an earthquake and his heart was opened and he believed the
gospel of grace. Paul himself, when he was Saul
of Tarsus, on the road to Damascus to do damage and harm to the
people of God. In Galatians 1 he tells us about
the gospel. This man Saul of Tarsus, so opposed
to the gospel of Christ, he said, I neither received it of man,
neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. God revealed it to him. God revealed
it to him. Stopped him dead in his tracks.
Changed him. I find that one of the most,
if not the most, compelling logical reason, though it isn't by logic
that we believe the truth, but I just find that overwhelming,
that such a mind, such an intellect, so vehemently opposed to the
gospel of Christ, was stopped dead in his tracks, and became
his most ardent proclaimer. You know, to the Thessalonians,
Paul said, when I came and preached to you, 1 Thessalonians 1-10,
what manner of entry we had to you. Why? Because God opened
the door. And he says in Revelation 3, I've opened a door, no man
can shut it. And I've closed a door, no man
can open it. God opened the door to the Thessalonians' hearts.
What manner of entry. In chapter 2, verse 13 of 2 Thessalonians,
he says, I know that you're the elect of God. I know God has
chosen you from the beginning to salvation by sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. When we preached, you
believed. That's how I know. You're of those that God has
caused the truth to enter into your heart. And what is it that
entered? God's truth. The fact that there is a God,
you know it says in Hebrews 11, you must believe that he is,
that there is a God. It sounds the most basic thing,
but you must believe that he is. But not only he is what he
truly is, a God of holiness, a God of justice, a God that
we are called to fear, even as his loving children, the fear
of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, that we reverence
him. that we respect and honour Him,
that we put Him first in all things. You know, that He gives
us a sense of sin to know what we are by nature, a sense of
guilt before His justice, a dread of judgment that we deserve. And then He opens our eyes to
the blessed gospel of His grace, which has dealt with all of those
things on our behalf. A gracious pardon, our sins cleansed,
the life of God apprehended. A day came when, as Jeremiah
says, Jeremiah 15 and verse 16, a day came, are you a believer?
Is this true? A day came when you can say of
God, thy words were found and I did eat them. Joy and rejoicing
of my heart. Have you experienced that? The
joy and rejoicing of your heart that your sins are forgiven,
that you're cleansed from your sin, that you're accepted in
God's kingdom, that you have a hope of eternal life. And this
truth of God took first place in your experience, takes first
place now. Like Moses, Hebrews 11. You know
what it says of him in Hebrews 11? Just turn over there. Hebrews
11 and verse 25. Moses, when he had come to years,
he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing
rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy
the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ
greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect
and to the recompense of the reward. He was looking for an
eternal kingdom. That's where he was looking.
That's where his heart was set, for God had revealed it to him.
That was his objective. The majority around us despise
this divine truth. They want no part of it. Well,
I'm telling you, on the strength of God's Word, they will get
their desire to have nothing to do with it in a lost eternity. Thirdly, the enlightenment of
divine truth. In a dark place, when you're
trying to read details, you shine a torch and hidden details become
clear. You know what it's like when
you go out and you just cannot see a thing, and you put a light
on and, ah, right, that's what's there. Life is mysterious. But divine light reveals its
reality. God's word encapsulates God's
truth. And as Psalm 119 verse 130 says,
the entrance of thy words giveth light. When it comes into your
soul, it gives light. As he says in verse 105 of Psalm
119, your word, your truth, is as a lamp unto my feet and
a light unto my path in a dark world. Psalm 43 verse 3 says,
O send out thy light and thy truth, a prayer for God's light
of divine truth to shine in the heart. Gospel truth, the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Maybe you've heard divine truth
down many years, you've heard it preached. Some of you have
been listening for a long time. And you've got the knowledge
of it in your head, but you remain cold and unmoved till the truth
of the gospel comes. And then a day comes when God's
light is felt. Just as it was, Isaiah 9 verse
2, the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. Upon them a great light has shined,
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. He came, Jesus came. He said
it here in verse 37, I came to bear witness unto divine truth. He came to bear witness to that
which the natural man cannot see. If you are of the truth,
you will hear his word and believe it. Light will shine in your
soul. And that light shining there,
fourthly, the emancipating effect of divine truth. The emancipating
effect. What do I mean by the emancipating
effect? John chapter eight, verse 31 and 32. Jesus said to those
Jews which believed on him, if you continue in my word, then
are you my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free. You shall know the truth
and the truth shall make you free. This truth of God, of His
grace and of His gospel shall make you free. In what respect?
Here are some. It will free you from the bondage
of the law, that it must be by my efforts in some way that I
will attain unto eternal life. The true gospel of grace, the
truth of God, revealed in His Son, in His Word, and in the
hearts of His people, will free you. It will emancipate you from
the bondage of the law. It will show you that you are
free from it. It will free you from the superstition
of false religion. It will free you from all that
nonsense about icons and places and cathedrals having a special
goodness and that, oh yes, you know, we better be careful when
we go into this building because the presence of God is here.
No it's not, no more than anywhere else. No it's not. It will free
you, it will liberate you from deception by men's lies, especially
the lies of false religion. It's all around us, and it's
most subtle when it's false Christianity, when it sounds like the truth.
when it sounds so much like the truth. It's sufficient to deceive
even the elect if that were possible, but praise God it isn't. It will
free you from the fear of what man can do to me. It will free
you from the fear that grips this world in our day, which
is the fear of sickness and of dying. You know, man, through
fear of death, all his lifetime has been subject to bondage.
I had a medical investigative procedure done yesterday, and
the guy that did it, they treated me very well while they did it,
and I was conscious throughout, but he was trying to say to me,
you know, you really, really mustn't panic, you know, I'm
trying to calm you down, because the vast majority of people he
sees are in desperate fear of what might be discovered, and
what it might mean for their shortness of life left to live.
And I said to him, that's not how I think at all. Because this
is true. I'm not just trying to be pious.
This truth of God has emancipated me from the fear of death, the
fear of sickness, the fear of what man can do to me, the fear
of death and of judgment. It's appointed to man to die
once and then the judgment. But in Christ and His truth,
I don't fear those things. there are come and welcome. I know that the good of God is
waiting for all His people. You see, where the Spirit of
the Lord is, there is liberty, not bondage, liberty. You go
to most churches in this country that call themselves Reformed
and Orthodox, you won't find liberty there. You'll find nothing
other than bondage and obligation and burden. No, take my yoke
upon you, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light, said
Christ. The liberty in which God has put his people in Christ
is a privilege, such a privilege, that Paul says to us in Galatians
5 verse 1, stand fast. Therefore, in the liberty wherewith
Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the
yoke of bondage." It's a privilege, stand fast in it. Divine truth
frees God's people from the entrapments of the world, from the power
of sin, and from temptation. Pilate asked, what is truth?
What is truth? Scornfully, what is truth? It
is a gracious revelation given by God himself, of his character,
and his mind, and his will. Pilate, it seems, inquired no
more. But do you know something? He
did come to fear. In verse 7 of chapter 19, the
Jews answered him, we have a law, and by our law he ought to die,
because he made himself the Son of God. When Pilate therefore
heard that saying, he was the more afraid, for he knew that
there was a reckoning coming. not in the courts of Rome, but
in the courts of divine justice. What about you? Will you seek
the truth while it, or should I say while He, may be found? Will you hear, as John 5.25 says,
will you hear the voice of the Son of God and find life and
liberty in Him? Amen.