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Shall we continue on with John 18?
I would just make a suggestion and others can change it if they wish, but we talked quite a bit about Peter's failure and the Lord's interaction with him and with John and so on. I would suggest that we begin at verse 28 because that begins a different phase, bringing before us the Lord's appearing before Pilate and.
There is quite a bit in that section that I think we should spend some time on with that be all right.
Is that OK, Lemoyne?
Ask.
Then let the Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment, and it was early, and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat. The Passover. Pilot then went out unto them, and said, What accusation?
Bring ye against this man, they answered, and said unto him, If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up unto thee. Then set Pilate unto them, Take ye him, and judge him according to your law. The Jews therefore said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death, that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled.
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Which he speak, signifying what death he should die. Then Pilate, enter into the judgment hall again, and call Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews? Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself?
Or did others tell what they of me? Pilate answered, Am IA Jew thine own nation, and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me. What hast thou done? Jesus answered, My Kingdom is not of this world.
If My Kingdom were of this world, then with my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now is my Kingdom not from hands? Pilot therefore said unto him, Art thou a king? Then Jesus answered, that 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 said unto him, What is truth? And then he said unto thee, And And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I found I find in him no fault at all. But ye have a custom that I should release unto you one at the Passover. Will ye therefore?
That I release unto you the king of the Jews. Then cried they all again saying, not this man, but perhaps now Barabbas was a rapper.
Well, this is a very solemn scene that we have before us here.
Up until this point, the Lord Jesus had appeared before the Jewish leaders.
And we see their utter hatred of him.
Their total commitment to getting rid of him, no matter what, means they had to go through in order to accomplish it.
But all of those things that had happened in the Lord's earthly ministry.
Were not lost on the Gentiles. They were very keen observers of what went on among the Jews, very keen observers of any little thing that might be a threat to Roman rule.
And we know.
From another scripture.
That Pilate knew very well that at the bottom.
Of the problem with the Jewish leaders was envy, one of the worst things in this world.
But here in the Lord's appearing before Pilate, we see.
If we could say it for the most part.
Your heart and mind is Gentiles brought into the picture.
So that it's not right for you and me, Not that we would necessarily do it as believers, but it's not right for the world as Gentiles to pin all the blame for the Lord's death on the Jewish nation. Because ultimately the Gentiles had the power to say yes or no.
And yet here we find core pilot caught admittedly between a rock and a hard place, caught between pacifying the Jews by crucifying an innocent man or risking a full scale riot and a lot of other things. And we find that political expediency carried the day. But it's a very solemn picture when we see the Lord standing before Pilate in his testimony there and as we are reminded later on.
In Paul's epistles he said Jesus Christ who before Pontius Pilate.
Witnessed a good confession. What a wonderful thing that was. The one who was condemned, the one who was the victim of every bit of injustice. The one who, as an innocent man, was being taken by those whose law and order was famous.
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Suffered the most unjust trial that the world has ever seen, and yet he witnessed a good confession. What an example for you and me.
What exposes the heart of man?
That the cross, perhaps in a more clear way than we see it anywhere else in the Word of God.
And it's often been said that man is governed by his lusts and public opinion. And we see in each of those who are participating in what's taking place in this record were governed by their loss and public opinion.
The Jews as leaders, who had envy in their hearts, that was their lust.
Had an agenda and it didn't matter what or whom stood in the way their interest was accomplishing.
The getting rid of this man.
And so they have difficulty because it's an unjust thing that they're doing because they can't come up with a righteous basis for it. But it doesn't change anything.
The intent of the heart. We sometimes think that if man only understood this or that, he would change.
Well that's true if the matter is simply ignorance. But if the motivation of that persons heart is fixed on something, the truth doesn't really matter. They're going to go ahead as and push aside or push through.
To have what they want. And it's a solemn lesson for us because it exposes the human heart and if there's something in our hearts that we want, that we're going after.
We will tend, naturally to push aside anything that stands in the way of the accomplishment of that which is in US. And so it was with the Jewish leaders.
With Pilate, he has no.
True desire for justice.
He stood in the place of righteousness on the earth, but he wasn't governed by righteousness. That was his place of responsibility, but that wasn't what governed his behavior. He did what suited him and what suited the circumstances, Bill said. He was politically or he was motivated. He had a responsibility over these people and whatever work worked without regard to truth.
And so ultimately he goes along with the best way for him. Because when man is so governed, he's always controlled by his own desires. Not that.
Or in his own interests and not that of others.
Comment on that, we might remind ourselves that the world has not changed.
And if the world would crucify the Son of God?
It will do the same thing in principle today.
And so we are thankful that we live in lands where there is at least a measure of uprightness, a measure of recognition of right and wrong. But let's remember that men's hearts have not changed.
I can well remember not that many years ago when there was a difficulty in one of the provinces of Canada and there was a man who had a very legitimate problem with the government of one of those provinces.
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And I was struck by the editorial in our local newspaper that reviewed the whole matter.
And to their credit, upheld the righteous claims of the individual.
But there was big money involved and if the government acted uprightly, it would end up, I may have the figure wrong, but I think it was the government was going to have to pay something like $30 million.
And the last comment in the editorial was rather revealing. It said the case will be decided by the courts.
But if it comes down to a question of dislodging for one individual $30 million of government money, it's not too hard to see which way the decision will go.
The world has not changed, and so you and I are living in an unrighteous world.
And we need to remember that and need to remember that as believers, we can't expect any better treatment ultimately than the Lord Jesus got.
Makes it more serious when you see the hypocrisy in the Jews here not going into the to the judgment hall. There's making a pretension to to holiness, to cleanliness, keeping the law while they were condemning the only innocent man that ever lived before them. And the Lord Jesus had pointed this hypocrisy out before to them.
And it continues here.
They wouldn't be defiled and go in the judgment hall.
They're preserving their own skin so they could carry on with their ritual.
While the very, very true Passover lamb was before them.
Willingly giving himself up to be a sacrifice for their sins.
I think Lemoyne Cotton recommended that enacts a good number of them later believed wonderful.
That the Lord, The Lord, in a sense, got the victory. He was willing to be defiled to liberate us from sin. They wouldn't defile themselves even going into the judgment hall.
Really. They were already defiled in their hearts, weren't they?
Because of their judgment of him.
What good is any any.
What good is any outward demonstration of not defiling yourself if the inside is corrupt?
Straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel.
Like you say, it's they are very careful about.
Procedural cleanliness at the same time.
To condemn the only righteous man there has ever been.
Difficult of man to.
Only really focus on the outward. The outward is important. The outward is very important, but in God's eyes it's never disassociated from what's inward. So it's been said, if the motive isn't right, the ACT isn't right. Even if the act in itself is a good thing, if the motive behind the ACT is wrong, it's sin.
So it says in Proverbs. The illustration of that truth, the plowing of the wicked is sin. The act of plowing is a necessary, important act in this world. It's a means whereby food gets produced. And so when you look at the act itself and you would say, who could ever condemn the act of plowing?
But God says the plowing of the wicked is sin, and the reason is the motive. The wicked does not plow his field with the proper reference to the one who truly owns the field, which is God. He leaves God out. He ignores God.
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Pays no attention to God's claims and as such gods could say to him. That's my field. What are you plowing in my field for? Do you have my authority and permission to do that?
His interest is who are you? This is my field. He doesn't recognize God and as a as a consequence, it's sin. And so here you see people doing things that outwardly seem good, seem right as far as their procedure.
But.
They're evil.
Because the motive behind them is evil.
I'd like to relate a true story that happened many years ago when I was in the clothing business in Minneapolis and the owners of my store were Jewish and we had a lot of Jewish clientele. And this story was told to me about a Jewish man, a lawyer.
Must have been a convert, but here's what this Jewish lawyer said about this mock trial.
And the crucifixion of Christ, he said.
It was so unlawful, so unlawful.
And he says even today.
To put a man to death in Israel.
It takes five different trials.
To put him to death, they are so making sure that he is getting his rights.
Five. And then they finally put him to death if he's guilty. But the Lord Jesus didn't get even one real trial.
It was a trumped up case. So I thought that was, that's interesting. I, I told that story before, but it's a true story. This Jewish lawyer would defend.
What happened? You know he would come out against the law that that did this to the Lord Jesus.
It's unusual in our day to have somebody come forth like that, especially a Jew, but I believe he was a convert.
Been on trial a good part of the night and gone back and forth various times and they the only thing they could find against him was that he he said he was the Son of God and made himself God when he wasn't. That was the only way they could convict him.
Which is rather ludicrous.
But anyway, it's evident here when Pilate goes out to them and asks them what accusation they bring, They don't, they don't say that what they had come to the conclusion of here because no doubt it didn't carry what weight. And they just say if he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up unto thee. They wanted him to accept their word online.
It's the same for both systems.
The religious system.
And the political system? They are both hypocritical and unrighteous.
Just as a side comment, important for us to recognize that sometimes systems are hypocritical.
But it does not separate us from submission.
We see the Lord Jesus here, faced with an unrighteous.
Trial.
But he submitted to it.
He recognized he put on their conscience their unrighteousness and Pilate in the course of it, He said, The ones that delivered me to you have the greater sin. In other words, you're sinning by what you're doing.
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But he submitted to it. As God ordained government, He had the power not to submit in His person. Sometimes submission is only done when there's no power to resist. But the Lord had the power to resist, successfully resist. He could have struck them all dead with His power, but He submits to it in another instance.
With the religious system that was legitimate as far as having been of God up to that point in time, the Jewish system, he said to his disciples when they could see the hypocrisy of what was going on among those who administered the system, he said they sit in Moses seat.
In other words, they are in that place, in that system, and they were. The disciples were taught to submit to the recognized authority of that system at that point in time. He said to them, don't do as they do. Don't you be hypocritical and wrong in your behavior. But it's important to us because sometimes we're tempted to say.
I don't have to submit because what's going on isn't right.
Well.
We have to be careful in that there is an exception to it, and that exception is what we read of in the Acts where they were preaching and they're brought before the authority and the authorities say you're not allowed to preach.
And their response to that was, we ought to obey God rather than man. And so they did. They continued to preach because.
Men's authority, even though given of God, was in conflict to God's direct claims.
And instructions. And so they followed them. But I'll even take that one step farther if that be the case. And one must go on. The Scriptures also show us, even beyond that there was a submission to the consequences of being faithful to God, which did not include the use of power to the consequences. In other words, they were ready.
The disciples to pay the consequence of death for being faithful to God.
The Labor's position is always submission, isn't it? And I think that's helpful.
Civil disobedience is something that is taught today for Christians.
And it's not understanding properly where we stand. And I think if you go down to verse 36, it helps us to see our present position in this world. The Lord Jesus says to pilot, 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?
If his Kingdom were of this world, then it would be proper for him to for his servants to resist.
To fight that. But that's not the case. And that's the Kingdom we belong to, brethren. We recognize as supreme in authority a man who has been rejected in this world system. So our place is to go through.
Submitting as He submitted. And if it means suffering, then we have to suffer. And many of our brethren in many parts of the world are suffering today. But I think it is really sad to see that Christians in a large measure in this country where we have a lot of liberty, think that they have the right.
To civil disobedience. That is not a scriptural position for a believer in our times, and I think it was very helpful to see.
Our position verse 36 then, is kind of a key verse as to understanding what our position really is.
And in that sense?
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Bob, I believe that verse really, shall we say, on the human side, gave Pilate a perfect excuse to release the Lord Jesus. He could not claim that I have to get rid of this man because he is a threat to Roman rule. He's uniting the Jews that are likely to raise a rebellion against Roman rule and therefore we have to get rid of him.
I am sure, and we know very well, it was the case that Pilate and the rest of the Romans kept a very close eye on everything that happened among the Jews, and they knew full well what the Lord Jesus had done for the whole time of His earthly ministry. But if there were any doubt in their minds about where the Lord Jesus stood, his rejection by the Jews put him clearly in this position where he could say, My Kingdom is not of this world.
So it magnifies the guilt of man because there was absolutely no excuse.
For Pilate to crucify the Lord Jesus, except, as we said a few minutes ago, political expediancy.
See in verse 34.
Lesson.
For ourselves.
But what takes place here? It says, Sayest thou this thee speaking the Lord's answering pilots question? Art thou the King of the Jews? And Jesus answered him. Thou sayest this thing of Sayest thou this thing of thyself? Or did others tell it thee of me?
It's natural to the human heart, when faced with a situation that we really don't like, to seek to avoid the responsibility of it.
And so we may make excuse, or we may try to raise some question that relieves us ourselves of the responsibility of facing the matter that is before us. And that's what Pilate would like to have done.
He didn't really want to have to go through this process, he would just as soon and in fact herod after he gets his chance, not recorded later.
Yes, Jesus came from his part of the country where he was a governor and ruled, and he's glad to see him. He's interested in him and he looks it over and does what he wants to do. But when it comes to the responsibility of a final decision?
He sends him back to Pilate, you know, he washes his hands of it because he doesn't want to face it either. And so he passes it on to somebody else. And so it is. It's the natural heart and it's our heart. Bob or Bill said that the human heart doesn't change. Well, neither does ours. We have human hearts. The way we live a Christian life is by a new life. But whenever the natural heart is given its place in us to do the decision.
Thinking and acting and so on. It works this way. We see ourselves in it. But the other side of it is God knows how to put people as he did here and us into situations where we can't avoid it, where we can't pass the buck of responsibility to someone else. And so it's put on before us in such a way that.
God says no, you have to deal with it, and Pilate had to deal with it. He couldn't get out of it in the end and he was and is responsible for what he chose.
Christ, this king of the Jews, of course.
He wrote to the next chapter, verse 19, and the writing was.
Is what Pilate put on the cross Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews?
Very, very curious.
Say Pilot was in a pretty rough situation.
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But Jesus was the King of the Jews.
Or was he not?
Was he truly the king of those that that opposed him?
They were people that had rebelled. We have parables about that. The citizens rose up against him.
And.
What was he to do? He went into the far country. Think of Jesus going into the far country.
Was he the king of the Jews?
Or wasn't he?
Of course we say he is. Pilot says he is. The widest Pilot say that he is.
Well, the Jewish people didn't want that sign on the cross and pilot left it there. And I've had kind of the thought in my mind that that pilot has had enough to do with Israel and was basically saying, if this is what I can do to your kid.
Guess what I can do to you? I'm going to put you down. And we know of course, ultimately the Romans did put the Jewish people down in 8070 and then more finally in 8135 thereabouts when they completely expelled Jewish people out of that area by by legal mandate. Not a single Jewish person was a set foot in Palestine area after 8135.
Death. But this was the kind of power that that they they held. And so if Pilot was going to acknowledge Jesus as King of the Jews, he's going to use that as political means also.
In subjugating the Jewish people. And I don't think it was lost on the Jewish people either, the meaning of that sign on the cross and what Rome meant by it as well.
Looking at it from God's side, we see God overruled and made a public testimony as to who His son really was. So that's what got put up on the cross. But looking at it from Pilot side, appears to me that Pilot put it up there to cover him himself.
Lest unless he he had to have a legitimate reason to show the Romans why he did what he did. And so he put it up there.
Governor responsible, this Caesar.
And so they knew that they could be called to account by Caesar for any choices and actions they made in any country over which they govern. Violet was very well aware that whatever choice he made, he had to do it in such a way that if he was called to account by Caesar, he would look good.
And he would come out acceptable before Caesar. And so to say that this man was king of the Jews would cover him before Caesar's eyes and said, I, I put down somebody that of a of an area that.
Automatically the inference is was against our government.
But the important thing really is we may act in a way that satisfies some humans. It's superior if you will, but that does not set aside our responsibility before God or our behavior and our actions. We have to be careful. We may work in a job situation or even in a school situation where.
There's a temptation to act to satisfy the boss, even though the action would be unrighteous before God.
And.
God's claims always are supreme.
One of the wonderful things about reading a chapter like this is to see blended together.
The heart of man revealing itself against Jesus.
And the same time and place where God's love is blended together over ruling all.
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To do what God purposes and concerning sin and his son being a sacrifice for it and so you see both blended together here in this account this story I I was going to call attention to it in the 32nd verse that we kind of passed over briefly but the reason that God allowed that the Jews give up Jesus to the Romans for crucifixion was so that.
He could be lifted up like the serpent of brass on the pole, an object of faith. That's God's side of it. That's why God allowed at least one reason why God allowed him to be delivered over to the Romans. He could have overruled that.
And so in all these, on all these.
Little details where we see how Pilate was manipulated and moved and how he acted and how the the Sanhedrin and the Jews worked.
Worked together and all being under Satans power no doubt. But even all over all of that is God allowing happen what happened and that's how great our God is.
That's how complex his program can be and for our good and blessing in giving the Lord Jesus to go through all of this. But it takes the eye of faith to see that side of it, how God is working here and His side of it.
Identified on that just a bit, turn to Romans Chapter 11.
He's referring here in Romans 11 and these verses to the fact of God's goodness to the Gentile.
In view of the behavior of the Jew, and so in Romans Chapter 11.
Verse 28 it says as concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sakes, but as touching election they are beloved for the Father's sake, for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance, for as ye and times past have not believed God.
Yet now have obtained mercy through their unbelief, Even so have these also not now not believe that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all. God so overruled in what was happening, that in the results at the cross it could justly and righteously be said.
The whole world was guilty before God. There was not an opportunity when it was over for the Gentile to say we're not guilty. We had nothing to do with the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's all the problem of the Jews. We're okay people.
Likewise, when it was all said and done, the Jew couldn't righteously say before God and we had nothing to do with the death of the Lord Jesus. That was done by the Gentile. It was all his fault. We were good.
No, God overruled in his love. He knew the heart of all men, and all men were guilty, and so He exposes the guilt of all mankind.
In the death of the Lord Jesus, that in his love he could show mercy to everyone.
As proven in need of that mercy and have no one on the face of the earth be able to righteously say we are a class of people that had nothing to do with it. It's not our fault, we're good.
And when Paul sees that what he says here, notice the next verses in the context in these verses that we often read. He says verse 33 of Romans 11, all the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, God's wisdom and knowledge and how he overruled in all the processes that take place that we're reading about this morning.
He marvels at it.
Paul looks at it, he thinks about it and he marvels. And he said, oh, the riches of the wisdom.
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And knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out he sees how God would had worked it out. And he said he had no human counselor. There was no one that was advising him how to manage the affairs of the universe.
He says, who verse who hath known the mind of the Lord, who hath been his counselor, or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? And then he gives us the end result. And it's something we need to remember, no matter whether we understand what's happening in our life at this moment or that, and many times we do not.
Generally, or I should say often when we're passing through a difficult period and of our lives, we don't know, we don't understand what God is doing very well. And yet Paul looks at this and he says for of him that is of God and through him and to him are all things. He says it with a Worshipful heart. God's totally in control and he's perfect in his love.
He's perfect in all that he does, in all his ways, and when we get through it and look back at it, it says, the heart says, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
Just going back for a moment to the comment that was made about.
Man in the person of Pilate here, but ultimately every man.
Trying to manipulate events and trying to extricate himself from difficult situations.
That has been and still is the history of man's heart in this world.
And the moment that I start looking after my own interests, as Dawn was saying, and have before me what I want to do.
Light becomes very complicated.
Because if I am going to do one thing, if I am going to manipulate one thing in order to gain my own ends, I will find that there are a dozen other things that are.
Hooked into that manipulation that also have to be dealt with.
But how beautiful and how simple.
We see the Lord Jesus Christ in all of this. What was before him. He'd already been through it with the Father. He'd already been through it in the Garden of Gethsemane. And we read it in the 12Th of this very book.
Where he says, What shall I say, Father, save me from this hour? But for this cause came I under this hour. And then four short words answer it, Father, glorify thy name.
And from that point on, and of course it was true throughout the Lord's life, but very specially in this situation.
What was before Him was simply what would glorify the Father's name.
Were there serious consequences in that path? Indeed there were. Indeed there were. The Lord well knew what it would entail. But in that sense?
Life was simple, decisions were simple, the path was clear and it was not difficult to discern that path and as a result, we find here that.
And it's mentioned in the next chapter.
That it was Pilot that was afraid, not the Lord Jesus. And when you and I act in our own interests and when we try and manipulate things in our own way, it brings fear because.
If we could say it this way, fear in our hearts.
Is ultimately in many cases, maybe not always, but in many cases, it's a product of what is unjudged in our own hearts. And we find it in more than one case in the Word of God, where there was fear. Fear, why? Because of what was in the heart of the individual. But when the heart was clear, when there had been a thorough judging of anything that was contrary to the mind of God.
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Then we find, I believe the expression in first John 4, perfect love cast without fear and refine. The Lord Jesus walked in the perfect sense of that love, and so there was No Fear, even though He, as it were, was the prisoner, He was the victim, He was the one on trial, and pilot from the human side had the power at his disposal that the Lord is able to remind him where that power comes from.
And to whom he X and under whose authority he exercised, and its pilot that's afraid. It's been a lesson, I say to my own soul, in the way that we react to circumstances that we meet up with in this world.
In that connection, I think it would be nice to read the words in Hebrews 2 about the Lord Jesus.
Hebrews chapter 2, verses 14 and 15.
For as much then, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he, that is Christ also Himself likewise took part of the same, that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them, who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to *******. We see the Lord Jesus in this chapter.
Not intimidated by the fear of death at all.
Been suggested he he had already with the father gone through the ordeal and accepted it in submission. And so he is confident and he goes forth. He's not manipulated. They're controlled in any way by anybody other than his father and so the others are not. We see Pilot here. He's manipulated. He's under Satan's control.
Because he's afraid to die and he doesn't want to die. He's not prepared for it. That's the ultimate power that Satan has. It may not always be death that Satan uses to entice us, but that's the ultimate power that he has. And so the Lord Jesus, in this act of submission, he's delivering men from the power of death, and he's opening up a new Kingdom.
Heavenly Kingdom.
I don't know. I, Bob, you said something about that earlier. I think we ought to have a little bit more about that Kingdom.
Well, we know that the whole.
Christian position is a heavenly 1, isn't it? We are called to heavenly blessing. We are not of this world it says in John 17. The Lord says a number of times and.
Everything in connection with the Church, its blessing is heavenly blessing. Our position, our present position is heavenly. Our destiny is heaven, and we are looked at in this world as pilgrims and strangers.
Who were passing through a world that we do not belong to. And so as we pass through, we respect the laws that are in existence.
And obey as far as we possibly can.
In the measure that we do not disobey God, and if it comes to disobeying a command that's given to us because of obedience to God, it's not in rebellion, it's because of submission to God that we take the stand that we do, then we have to suffer.
But I think that is important, and I think this is what has been lost sight of in the Christian world today is that we are called to heavenly blessing. And it's so important to keep that in focus. We are we. There's been a loss of the enjoyment of that scene of heavenly blessing that we have been called to. So the Lord is introducing that here, really, isn't He?
Says I don't really expect justice down here.
I If I were going to establish something here at this time, then my servants would fight.
Remember when I was taking the conscience objectors position in connection with military service? This is a verse I used in speaking to authorities and one of the men that was examining me said What have everybody believed like you did?
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I say we wouldn't stand, would we? No, we wouldn't.
Not down here in this world. But we're not looking to stand down here in this world as a political force to be reckoned with. We are called to another sphere of blessing, heavenly blessing.
Another thing I think.
It's good to say in connection with what you were saying, Bill, about the simplicity of the Lord's position.
And in verse 37 he speaks that everyone it says to this end was I born, and for this cause came into the world, that I should bear witness.
Unto the truth.
Everyone that is of the truth hear my voice. The truth is simple, isn't it?
But when you're not willing to accept the truth in simplicity, what's the opposite of truth? Lies. You start telling lies. You're going to have to be pretty good at covering your lies. You're going to have to tell other lies to cover them. You said you're going to have to take a dozen other options to manipulate. I suggest those other dozen is going to lead to hundreds of other.
Complicated way of living the truth is simple.
The truth liberates, I think of that woman.
In the fourth of John the Samaritan woman.
Who? When she met with the Lord and requested that living water, he said to her, Go call your husband, come here.
She said I don't have a husband.
That was kind of 1/2 truth, I guess you'd say.
But she was covering up something.
And the Lord said to her, to me, This is so wonderful, brother, how what he said to her did not drive her away, it drew her. She said, thou hast had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. That sits thou truly.
And what does she do? She was a woman.
That was trying to cover up her life. If you try to cover up things in life, your life is extremely complicated.
But when it got out into the light, she went right back into that city and said to the men of the city, maybe some of the ones she'd send with said, Come see a man that told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? Oh brethren, in that beautiful to see how the truth liberates, and so everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice.
Oh, what a searching thing it is to our own souls, brethren, as we walk through this world.
The truth.
It's singular, it's all centered in the person.
Of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, sometimes we refer to the physician.
We seek to occupy us, gather the Lord's name as the truth of gathering. But I like to say, brother, and if we're going to talk about the truth.
In its objective purity, it's Christ.
His glorious person and the truth of His precious Word.
Because he says.
Thy word is truth, says in first John 5. The Spirit is the truth. Those are objective.
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Realities. The truth is what is.
Lies is something that.
Contradicts.
The truth.
We can talk about sometimes the truth in US.
John in 3rd John the Apostle John speaks about yes and the truth that is in thee, but that is true.
In subjective reality, and sometimes there might be something in me that corresponds to the truth. But brethren, let's not make ourselves the focus when we talk about the truth.
In its objective reality, it's Christ, his person and the Word of God. Oh, how important to be clear about that. Should there be truth in my life? Yes, there should. Is there always? Sorry, I can't say there always is.
There's sometimes other things that come into the picture, that's why we should not make ourselves a reference point. But here.
In this portion we have the Lord Jesus.
And before Pilate?
And I like to think of it, Pilate was the judge supposedly speaking, and what was he doing? He was judging the truth. And in condemning the truth, he condemned himself and the whole world system that he was a part of.
What a story, what a picture.
Important, isn't it? To see here how that pilot from his side was trying to do what Don referred to a little while ago. He was focusing on what would give him a political excuse.
To do away with the Lord Jesus, Art thou a king? Then raises that question.
And the Lord Jesus answers the question.
Thou sayest that I am a king. What you say is true, yes, but he doesn't stop there.
He reaches his conscience.
And what an important thing that is.
Pilot wanted an excuse to crucify the Lord Jesus.
The Lord, as it were, takes the spotlight.
Turns it in the other direction, as it were, says Pilate.
Rather than focusing on what I am as to a king.
There is something far more important that you need to deal with.
I'm the witness to the truth.
And everyone that is of the truth hears my voice.
Well, it's a real voice to our hearts, isn't it, when we meet the opposition of the world?
Yes, it's good to be upright. It's good to be honest. It's good to answer their questions.
But how much more important to reach the state of soul behind the question, to reach the conscience?
At this point, Pilot is finished. What is truth? And then he leaves.
Here's nothing more to say. He doesn't want to face that. He doesn't want to go into that. He doesn't want to go down that road.
But his conscience was reached, wasn't it?
Is putting something on Pilot very personal and very unavoidable to his own conscience? And that is he's saying the Lord, he's asked, the pilot asked, Lord, are you a king? And the Lord acknowledges, yes, I am. What was the job of a king? To administer truth, to maintain truth. And so that was pilot's job. That was what pilot was here faced with.
Was he going to administer the truth in this matter, or was he not the Lord Jesus says to Pilate.
The eyewitness to the truth and anyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.
And so Pilate's response is what is truth? It's a very fundamental issue of everybody's life, really, because we all live and we're constantly faced with the question, what's truth about this matter? What's truth about that matter? What's truth about something else? And the Lord is answering it for Pilate and for us. Because if I say what is truth?
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And start with myself.
I'm going to end up wrong.
If I think I am competent in myself as a judge of truth apart from God, I'm going to come out wrong because everything in me is relative to everything else naturally. And man constantly gets the truth wrong because man of the world leaves God out. But the Lord Jesus Christ is the source for man to know what truth is.
We have to go to the Word of God, and there we learn to our souls what truth is.
Don't start with yourself.
If you do, you're going to come out wrong. You'll spend a whole lifetime wondering what's true and what's true. But the Lord Jesus was the perfect expression of it. And if Pilate wanted to know what it was?
The Lord says, look at me and what I say. If we want to know what truth is and live by truth, we need to listen to God. We don't judge it, we don't evaluate it. We don't say, well, God said this, is that true or not? Is that the truth or not? No, we accept it. Our consciences are so made to accept it that what God says, let God be true.
And every man a liar. Let us always and ever have in our hearts that truth. Let God be true. And every man a liar. We are not the reference point of truth. Our minds are not the judges of truth and before God.
We are the recipients of truth from God and if there's not unbelief in us, we can walk in the truth. But the moment unbelief comes, we are open to accept the lie. Don't have time, but if you go back to Adam and Eve story.
You see how the lie came in to take the place of truth when man and the source of accepting what's false is unbelief in God.
Absolute and I think what you said, Don, that we are relative and so we cannot start with ourselves. If we're going to come to a solid conclusion, we must start with something absolute and that's where we have to have the Lord Jesus. He is, I am the way the truth.
And the life, oh, the blessedness of getting that firmly fixed in our souls. We live in a culture, brother, and I see that young people are often lost as to where they are in their own thinking because they start with themselves and they're thinking.
And you won't get clarity until you start with the Lord Jesus.
Poor Pilate, how twisted he was in his evaluation is evident in the next chapter. He takes Jesus in the first verse and scourges him. And then notice what he says in verse 4. Behold, I bring Him forth to you, that you may know that I find no fault in him.
That's the way you treat somebody that has no fault. You scourge him.
Twisted. Completely twisted. Lord help us.
To keep the truth before our souls, the glorious Person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Hymn 22 in the appendix. Hymn #22 in the back of the book.
The Holy One.
4.
Oh.
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Oh, oh God.
Oh.
Read a verse in 2nd Thessalonians 2.
2nd Thessalonians 2 and verse 13.
But we are bound to give thanks alway 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.
For until he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord.
Jesus Christ.
John.
Chapter 2.
Verse 21.
I have not written unto you, because ye know not the truth.
But because you know it.
No lie is of the truth.