What is truth?
Who asked this question?

John 18:37
Here Jesus tells Pilate He came into the world to bear witness of the truth. Pilate’s response is in v38, “What is truth?”

Why did Pilate ask this question? Of course Pilate wasn’t asking because he actually wanted to know what truth was. He wasn’t looking for an answer. Because immediately after asking this question, he went out again to the Jews. He didn’t even bother to wait for Jesus’ answer. What Pilate had intended was most likely a rhetorical question. It’s asked with skepticism. In other words it means that it’s impossible to ascertain what truth is. He also most likely meant it as a mockery, because Pilate was skeptical of Jesus’ claim that He as a Man could testify of the truth.

In fact, Pilate’s question very aptly captures the spirit of these modern times. Because people in general today don’t believe in absolute truth. They believe that truth is relative. The speaker qualifies this is only with regards to religion and morality. In almost every other aspect of life, the modern man wants objective truth. In the sciences, we demand objective truth. In work, people in society demand objective truth and ask, “Where is your proof?” Even in every day life, we demand objective truth. But in religion and morality, we ask the same question as Pilate, “What is truth? There’s no such thing as truth.”

People will say, “You have your truth and I have my truth. What is truth?“ But to us truth is of utmost importance. Because Jesus says it’s for this very cause He came to earth.

This sermon will look at Pilate’s question from a few angles. Not to mock but to understand what truth is, what the nature of truth is, and how we know what truth is.

“What is truth?” Pilate asked. Let us think about the qualities of truth. Truth must of course be true. Because if it is a lie, it cannot be the truth. But what the Bible refers to as truth is more than just being true.

1. Truth has the nature of being true, good and beautiful
   John 1:17
   John contrasts the law to the truth. Truth came through Jesus Christ. In other words, before Christ, what Moses revealed was the law not the truth. Let’s think about it for a while. Why is that so? When we examine the verse a bit closer, here tells us that truth must go hand in hand with grace. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Grace doesn’t go with the law, grace must go with the truth. In other words, truth besides being true, must be good and beautiful. It must bring grace. These are often what we call the 3 qualities: the true, the good and the beautiful.

What we realise in life is that often times something is true but may not be good and beautiful. Just to give an example: the speaker showed his daughter his wedding photos. Whenever she saw her mother, she’d be very excited and call out, “Ma ma!” Then when the picture is swiped to the speaker, she goes silent; totally unimpressed. He said, “This is your father.” She’s totally silent; unimpressed lol. When he swiped to the mother again, she became very excited again! Eyes lit up. Called out, “ma ma!” He says, “I know I’m fatter and older but that’s the same person in the photo ah.” No doubt some things are true and factual but not good and beautiful lol

If we take a look at the law: is the law true? Of course.
Rom 7:7
We would not have known sin except through the law. So the law actually reveals the commandment of God. Therefore it must of course be true. Is the law good? Romans tells us that the law is good (read v12). Now the problem is that the law is good but we are not good.

Rom 7:14 says that we are carnal and sold under sin. So the law is good but not good for us. What is worse is that when the law came, now we know what’s good but we can’t do it! So the commandment that was supposed to bring life now brought about death. The law by itself is true but not good and beautiful. It is good but it’s not good or beautiful for us.

What about Christ?
Grace and truth came through Christ, because Jesus revealed not just what is true, He revealed what is good. So we say that the gospel is good news because it’s good news for us! Christ delivered us from sin. The picture painted by the law is death. The picture painted by Christ is eternal life. Therefore we see that when Christ came, truth and grace came along because it’s truly good and beautiful as well.

But then can we turn around and say the law is not truth? Again this is not entirely true.
John 17:17
“Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”
This means God’s word is truth. Now the law is also the word of God. Why does it then say Moses brought about the law and not the truth, while Jesus brought along the truth? We have to understand that in the Bible, truth has this idea of revealing what is hidden. In fact, this is also how we use this phrase in our everyday life: I want to know the truth (in the sense of revealing what I do not know).
Therefore Jesus brought along truth because He brought along what no one knew in the past.

Psa 119:160
“The entirety of Your word is truth”
ENTIRETY means you must take the word of God as a whole, and that is true.
You cannot just take a portion of the word of God and say that that is truth. Therefore before Christ came, the entirety of the word of God had not yet been revealed. The law is just half of the revelation. The mystery of God is still hidden! But when Christ came, He revealed the mystery of God. In fact, He Himself is the mystery of God. So we can say the law is half of the truth, Christ came and completed it. He is the complete fulfilment of the law. Therefore when we talk about the truth, we have to take the entirety of the word of God as the truth. We cannot take bits and pieces and choose what suits us.

There’re some people who actually advocate there’s no need to read the Old Testament. This goes against what the psalmist says here, “The ENTIRETY of Your word is truth”. We cannot just read parts of the Bible we feel is easy and palatable. Sometimes we don’t like to read the minor prophets, also the major projects. “Revelation and Daniel are very difficult! I don’t want to read!”

The speaker heard someone quote Psa 131:1 to justify this. “Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor my eyes lofty. Neither do I concern myself with great matters, nor with things too profound for me.”
But David isn’t referring to the Bible, or any part of Scripture. Otherwise think about the Ethiopian eunuch who was reading the book of Isaiah and didn’t understand. If he had thought it was too hard and profound to understand, he’d throw away the word of God and Philip wouldn’t have the opportunity to explain the word of God to him. Actually the eunuch wanted to understand!
David is actually very very concerned about the word of God; he meditates over the word of God. So not being concerned with great matters or things profound in Psa 131:1 doesn’t refer to the word of God. We should concern ourselves with the word of God, and not on things outside the boundary of the word of God. The ENTIRETY of God’s word is truth.

[Continue on to the next nature/characteristics of truth:]

1. Truth has the nature of being eternal
   Psa 119:160b
   “every one of your righteous judgements ENDURES FOREVER”
   If we think about the books in the world, is there another book 2000 years ago that’s still applicable today? We probably cannot even name a single book that’s 2000 years ago. Other than the Bible, the oldest book the speaker has read is Merchant of Venice written by Shakespeare. Only written a few hundreds of years ago. He only read it for O levels; not really applicable for other things.

But the word of God is applicable to all ages! In history there have been people who thought they could destroy the Bible. One Roman emperor gave an edict to burn all the Christian scriptures. But we’re still reading the Bible today!
Some people predict that the Bible will go out of date. During the period of enlightenment in 18th C (they thought they were enlightened, but actually their understanding was darkened). There was a french philosopher Voltaire who wrote this, “The Bible is what fools have written! What imbeciles commend! We are living in the twilight of Christianity!” The sciences were pressing. They thought they were enlightened, how could they read a book written so long ago! He predicted the Bible could only be found in the museum. But how many of us know about Voltaire today? Anyone read his book before? Don’t even know if his book is in the museum. In fact, 58 years after he died, his room was used to store Bibles because so many were printed, they needed somewhere to store it. Voltaire didn’t withstand the test of time but the Bible did.

Psa 119:89
The word of God is forever settled in the heavens. In other words, the command of God is applicable to every generation who lives on this earth!

The speaker once tried to speak to a Catholic friend. He said some things in the Bible are not applicable today. The speaker asked him for examples. “Paul asking wives to be submissive to their husbands is not applicable in this day and age.” Times can be changing. Society can be fickle minded. But the word of God is eternal, it is STILL applicable. The command of God is also applicable EVERYWHERE. It is settled in the heavens, which means, wherever you are, we long as it’s under the heavens, it’s applicable to you. It’s not subject to societal norms or the place you’re brought up. Whether you’re a tribe in the rural area in the Amazon or an Eskimo in the north, the word of God is applicable to you.

1. God’s word is a solution to life’s problem everywhere and always
   Often when human beings accumulate knowledge, they think: this Bible is so outdated. My knowledge has superseded the knowledge of the Bible.
   And so they deny the power of the word of God. They throw away the Bible.

The speaker had a university friend come to declare to him. They were studying Maxwell’s Equation in uni. “I would believe that there is a God only if I can measure God like how I measure the EM wave. Then I will believe in God.”
The speaker thought: why EM wave. Why he suddenly mention that?
Because they were taking EM wave 101. As if
our knowledge of physics will somehow make God change.

Take a look at Man today. We seek solutions to life not in the word of God but knowledge in the world. Man is often disappointed because there’s nothing that can solve life’s problems EXCEPT the word of God.

1 Pet 1:24-25
Man is like grass, his glory like flower of the field. The knowledge and riches that we think are so great are just like the flower of the field. They go away as fast as they come. “Like the grass withers, and it’s flower falls away” Only the word of God endures forever. So the command of God endures forever. The word of God is ALWAYS the solution.

1. So how do we know the truth?
   The speaker’s uni friend said that it’s impossible to find the truth. “There’re so many religions in the world. If I spent all my time studying one religion and comparing it with another, I still would not be able to find the true one.” It was a convenient excuse to hide what he truly meant: “I don’t have so much time to look so I don’t need to look for the truth.”

For us, we have no such excuse. The truth is found in the Bible.
Deut 30:11-13
“For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.

Moses tells the Israelites that they don’t need to ask where to find the word of God. It’s in their hearts and mouths. This doesn’t mean receiving direct inspiration from God. What Moses meant was that it had already been revealed to them through him by the law. In Romans, Paul quotes this exact same phrase, but it takes on more significance. Because Christ actually came down from heaven. “You don’t need to ask or pull down Christ from heaven. He’s already come down and revealed the truth to us. It’s the very word we heard the apostles preach.”

In summary, we know truth through the very Bible we’re holding today. But among Christians, there’re different attitudes to the Bible. Some Christians disregard the Bible. “It’s just a general guidebook. I go directly to the source! I receive direct inspiration from God.” But we need to go back to the Bible to discern whether our inspiration is from God or not. There’re many spirits. How we discern is by going back to the Bible.

And then there are others who add to the Bible. The Catholics believe oral tradition is on par with the Bible. It’s a sacred tradition. When you ask them, “Eh this thing is not found in the Bible. For example, indulgences, Christmas, Easter.” If they know the Bible well enough, they’d tell you it’s from oral tradition. The problem with oral tradition is that it often goes against the word of God in the Bible. That’s what Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for. They held on to the traditions that went against the word of God when it was just the teaching of Man.

And then there’re some people who want to go beyond the Bible; to progress beyond Scripture. To us, the written word of God should be the singular source of truth. It’s not that other people cannot say what is true. They can. But we need to go back to the source; we need to go back to the Bible.

For example, Paul quoted the poets, “For we also are His offspring”. It’s not the word of God in the Bible but it’s according to the Bible so it’s also truth.

Another example. The speaker went door to door. There was a lady who was a Christian. They wanted to talk about Acts 2:38. The lady kept on talking about the reformation, faith and Martin Luther. That baptism is works. Not that Martin Luther is very important; he’s not the word of God. But he actually believed in baptism. So the speaker told her that Martin Luther believed in baptism and she was misinformed. Not that Martin Luther is very important but once she heard that she said, “Oo is that so?” After that the speaker said, “But Martin Luther is not so important. Let’s go back to the Bible.”

The point is: sometimes other people speak the truth as well. But for us, we must remain within the confines of the Bible.

On another occasion:
There were some visitors, a few brothers, many years ago. One of them said, “I’m very motivated by a question I was asked. ‘If God didn’t take into account what you would do for one day, what would you do?’
Another brother said, “I would rob a bank.”
The first brother said, “We should do what is good whether God takes it into account or not.”
He felt the question was very problematic; that it crossed the boundary of the Bible. That it violates our fundamental understanding of what is right and wrong. If God doesn’t take into account, what’s right and wrong? God not taking things into account violates the very nature of God. If God doesn’t take things into account, that’s outside the realm of the Bible.

The Bible’s highest bar is that if no Man sees you, would you still do what is right? Would we still say what Joseph said, “How can I do such a great evil and sin against God?”

If we ask a more superior question, “What if God doesn’t see?” This is already outside the realm of the Bible. If we reason outside the Bible, this creates more problems.

1. Finally, the Bible must be read with faith.
   Reading the Bible is not enough, we must read it with faith.
   John 5:39-40
   “You SEARCH the Scriptures” not just READ.
   “You search the Scriptures and then you do not receive life”
   This isn’t just applicable to Jews but Christians as well.

2 Tim 3:7
“Always learning, never coming to the knowledge of the truth.”
Imagine you’re the most studious student always studying but always failing. Why is that the case? Here Paul is actually referring to some women who were always going after the newest teachings by false teachers. Paul isn’t saying we should stop learning. He’s saying we shouldn’t always go after the latest fad of what someone else is saying.

Paul is saying: Whenever we’re listening, we should discern what the speaker says.
Don’t just absorb and think whatever the speaker says is correct. Listen and the onus is on us to discern what’s correct.

There’re many new things in the world. People like to listen to new things. We have itchy ears. But what are we learning all these things for? Some people will say this is all for the sake of knowledge “I want to really know!” But then we can be up like the women here who were always learning but never coming to the truth.

Ultimately we need to recognise truth. People today say have an open mind. But why do you have an open mind? It is so you can find what is truth.

“An open mind is like an open mouth.”
You open your mouth to bite on to something, not for nothing. We want to bite onto the truth. Once we bite onto the truth, we must accept it with faith. Let’s not keep going back and looking at the fundamentals again, and asking, “Is this true? Are you sure?” Because someone else doesn’t believe you. Then we go through the fundamentals again. Then you won’t progress and nurture in faith. Truth must be accepted with faith. When we have searched the scripture and accepted the truth we must bite on to the truth.

In conclusion:
John 8:31
“If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.”
If we look at the Bible from the outside like a scholar, we are not the disciples of Christ. Jesus says we must abide IN the word of God. Then we’ll truly be a disciple of Christ. Then you shall truly know thee truth. And the truth will set you free.