What is Truth?

John 18:38 - "Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?”"

As we pick up the scene in John chapter 18 the Lord Jesus has been arrested and taken into the court of the high priest where He stood before Annas. After questioning Him, Annas sends Him to Caiaphas, and Caiaphas in turn sends Him to Pontius Pilate. Now Pilate is trying to find out what's going on. As Jesus is brought into the Praetorium, Pilate goes out to the crowd asking them, "What charges do you bring against this man?" And the crowd doesn't really answer His question. They simply say, "If this Man were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered Him up to you." Pilate tries to pass off the responsibility, but the crowd is insistent that they want the Lord Jesus put to death. And that's where we pick up the reading in verse 33.

John 18:33-40 - "Therefore Pilate entered again into the Praetorium, and summoned Jesus and said to Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about Me?” Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered You to me; what have You done?” 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 bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, “I find no guilt in Him. But you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover; do you wish then that I release for you the King of the Jews?” So they cried out again, saying, “Not this Man, but Barabbas.” Now Barabbas was a robber."

We've just come off of that time of year that many people set aside to focus on the wonder of the incarnation, that fact that God became a man and dwelt among us. But if I were to ask you, "Why was Jesus born?" what would you say? I imagine that off the top of your head you can problem think of 5 or 6 verses that give us a reason for Christ's coming. The New Testament is replete with verses that tell us essentially, "This is why Christ came..." Not to mention the Old Testament prophecies where the Lord states that He is sending His Messiah into the world, to do one thing or another. When asked the question, why did Jesus come? We may answer by quoting 1 Timothy chapter 1, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." We may quote Matthew 11:18 where the Lord Jesus says that He came to seek and save that which was lost. Or Matthew 20:28 where He says that He came, not to be served but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. In Mark 2:17 He says "I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners." According to First John 3:5 He came in order to take away sins. First John 4:9 tells us that He came in order that we might live through Him. So there are several correct answers to the question, "why did Christ come?" And they're all connected.

But the one that I want to focus on is here in John 18. In verse 37 Christ says "For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth." Notice the way that He puts this, "For this I have been born" That speaks of His humanity, "and for this I have come into the world" That speaks of His deity, His pre-existence. Why? "to bear witness to the truth." Why did Christ come? To bear witness to the truth.

Now, when we step back and consider this verse in it's context, at first reading it seems out of place. Pilate is interrogating Jesus, Christ is on trial because the Jews want to kill Him, and they're talking about kingdoms, politics it would seem, and Pilate is asking Jesus if He is a king. Vs. 33 - "Are You the King of the Jews?" Vs. 36 - "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." Vs. 37 - "So You are a king?" "You say correctly that I am a king." And then we might expect Christ to say, "For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the fact that I am the King." But that's not what He says, instead He starts talking about truth. “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” In this discussion about kingdoms why does Christ bring up the issue of truth? I'm going to suggest that when Christ brings the issue of truth into this discussion about kingdoms He is not changing the subject. Christ, in talking about truth is talking about the foundation of His kingdom, which is a different kind of kingdom then what Pilate is thinking. Think about it, every civilization, every nation, every kingdom is built on something; some constitution that is going to govern how that kingdom will operate. And Christ is essentially saying, "Yeah, I'm a king, and I came to show you the basis on which my kingdom is built. And you wanna know who My subjects are? Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice."

In this conversation, Pilate is no doubt thinking about earthly kingdoms, but Christ begins to talk about a different kind of kingdom, a kingdom that is not from this world, a kingdom from another realm. Pilate is thinking about physical, earthly kingdoms that are bound by space and time and political boundaries, kingdoms that are established and advanced by military force, but Christ is talking about another kind of kingdom, one that isn't going to pass away with time. Christ is talking about a kingdom that supersedes time and space and political boundaries. His is a kingdom that has as its underlying principle and its overarching characteristic, Truth.

Throughout time there have been two kingdoms, two domains, influencing everything that goes on in this world; the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. There are many passages to which we could turn to learn about these kingdoms, but I just want to mention a couple that summarize this pretty well. Colossians 1:12-13 in talking about God the Father tells us that He "has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son." We as believers have been transferred out of the domain of darkness and into Christ's kingdom, the kingdom of light. In Acts chapter 26 as Paul is giving his testimony, he tells of how the Lord Jesus commissioned him to bear the message of truth to Jews and Gentiles, for this purpose "to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God." A very clear contrast here. Christ's kingdom is characterized by light and Satan's domain is characterized by darkness.

But hold on a second, I think we're mixing up our terms. Christ said that He came to bear witness to the truth, not bear witness to the light. So why are we talking about the kingdom of light here? Well, I said that the foundation on which God's kingdom is built is truth. God's kingdom is the kingdom of light. What does light do? It reveals the truth. You walk into a dark room, you can't see what's in it. It's full of darkness. Flipping the light on is going to reveal to you the truth, it's going to show you what's there. You can sit in a dark room and think that you're surrounded by gold, because that would make you feel really good, but once you turn on the light it's going to reveal the truth, and it might not be as nice as you thought. John chapter 1 calls the Lord Jesus, "The True Light which coming into the world enlightens every man." But being naturally a part of the kingdom of darkness, we don't like coming in contact with the light, that's why in John chapter 3 Christ says that "the light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light; because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come into the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes into the light, that his deeds may be manifest as having been wrought in God." So the underlying principle and the overall characteristic of God's kingdom, the kingdom of light, is truth.

And just as the kingdom of light is characterized by truth, so too the kingdom of darkness is characterized by deception. In John chapter 8 the Lord Jesus says about Satan that he "does not understand 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 lies." This is where the attack against the truth originates. As Ephesians chapter 6 says, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places."  As Christ's kingdom is characterized by truth, so the domain of Satan is characterized by lies and deception. And Satan's strategy is to get people to doubt truth, to cast doubt on what God has said. This has been his strategy from the beginning. When he was talking with Eve in the garden, what did he do? He cast doubt on what God has said. "Did God really say..." And then he told her an outright lie, the very opposite of what God had said, "You shall not surely die."

So these two kingdoms are in conflict.

So Christ says that He was born to bear witness to the truth, and Pilate responds with the relevant question, "What is truth?"

Truth, according to the Bible, is that which is consistent with the mind, will, character, glory, and being of God. Even more to the point: truth is the self-expression of God. According to John 3:33 and 1 John 5:20, "God is true" So truth is simply the self-expression of God. God is the author of truth. In John 17:17 Christ prayed, - "Sanctify them by Thy truth, Thy Word is truth." According to John 8:40, God is the source of truth. He's the determiner, governor, arbiter, ultimate standard, and final judge of all truth. So truth is bound up in God Himself.

The dictionary defines truth as, "Conformity with fact or reality." Truth is something that corresponds with reality. But as part of Satan's effort to undermine the truth, there is now a distinction that's being made between 'truth' and something that's called 'religious truth.' While truth is defined as something that corresponds with fact or reality, 'religious truth' has been defined as "What one perceives as God's word, which can be different things to people in a group but is known to be absolute fact to each individual." So the idea of truth when applied to religion suddenly becomes subjective and not objective. Truth now depends on what I think and how I feel. The establishing of truth is now inside me. I don't go out and examine the evidence to see if something corresponds with fact or reality, I now go inside myself to decide whether believing it does something for me or not. That didn't used to be called 'truth.' But this kind of thinking is not new.

In his book, The Pilgrims Progress, John Bunyan creates a scene where Christian and Hopeful are joined in their journey by a young man named Ignorance. And in their discussion with one another they begin to talk about authority, and how they know certain things are true. Christian and Hopeful are constantly quoting passage of Scripture and pointing to the Bible as the source of truth, but Ignorance in his responses constantly goes inward. When asked how he knows something to be true he says more than once, "Because my heart tells me so." It's internal, it's subjective. And Christian responds by saying, "Except the Word of God Beareth witness in this matter, other testimony is of no value." We can't go inside of ourselves to determine truth, we have to go outside of ourselves. We need to go to the Word of God and see what it says. That's how determine whether something is true or not. And the discussion goes on for several pages, but at the end of the conversation Ignorance says, "That is your faith, but not mine; yet mine, I doubt not, is as good yours." That might be true for you, but what's true for you might not necessarily be true for me. That's your truth but I've got my own truth.

True truth is not relative and it's not subjective; true truth doesn't depend on my surroundings and my circumstances, and it doesn't depend on what I think or how I feel. The problem is that we've now created two categories for truth. The religious editor for Newsweek magazine put it this way, "Reason defines one kind of reality (what we know); faith defines another (what we don't know)." What she's saying is reality deals with things that we know are true, faith deals with things that we don't know are true but we believe them anyway because they make us feel really good.

That kind of subjective thinking is not how the Bible presents itself. We need to recognize that truth claims are either true or false; they either correspond with fact and reality or they don't. They're not subjective,

Truth is not a matter of preference or taste. The problem is that our culture likes to think about truth the way that we think about our food preferences. Suppose that I said to you, "There were doughnuts for breakfast at church this morning." That's a truth claim. Now, it happened in the past, but we can do some work and find out whether or not that statement is true. We can do some investigation, examine the evidence, see if there's a doughnut box in the trash can, interview eye witnesses, and we can discover whether or not the statement that I made corresponds with the evidence. But now suppose I say to you, "Creme filled doughnuts are the best doughnuts in the world." You may respond by telling me, "No, you're wrong. Jelly filled doughnuts are the best doughnuts in the world." And I could come back with, "No, that's not true. You're wrong." And we could go back and forth about which doughnuts are the best. But hopefully before the argument got out of hand, some wise person would come up to us and set us straight by telling us that neither one of us is wrong, because we both have our own preferences. So creme filled are the best doughnuts in the world for me, and jelly filled are the best doughnuts in the world for you.

The problem is that we’ve taken this mentality of preference and taste and applied it in places where it doesn't belong. So now we have a Christian and a Hindu on some talk show arguing about which religion is best, "Christianity is the best religion in the world!" "No, Hinduism is the best religion in the world!" "No, you're wrong!" No, You're wrong!" And finally the talk show host says, “Let me straighten this out for you. Christianity is the best religion for you, and Hinduism is the best religion for you.” But that kind of subjective thinking doesn’t work when it comes to issues of the truth. It works if you’re talking about your favorite food, because that is subjective. When I say, "I'm telling you the truth, creme filled doughnuts are the best in the world." When I say that, the only true part about that is that this is what I truly affirm as my preference. But we shouldn't call that 'truth,' we should call it 'preference.'  

This mentality doesn’t work in the math class. So far, this is one class that still doesn't buy this logic. 2+2=5. The teacher says, "No, that's wrong." "How can you say I'm wrong, you can't say I'm wrong. I believe it, I'm sincere in my belief, 2+2=5" "No, 2+2 is not 5, 2+2 is 4. You got it wrong." "Well maybe 2 plus 2 equals 4 for you, but it equals 5 for me." As far as I know, in most math classes today they know that's wrong and they're not afraid to mark it as wrong, even though it may make you feel really bad and mess up your day. Because truth is not a matter of preference, it’s not a matter of taste or opinion, there is an absolute standard, and anything that does not meet that standard is wrong. There is absolute right and absolute wrong. Truth is not subject to my preference or taste.

Every religion in the world is making truth claims, and they cannot all be true because they contradict one another. Right? When we look at the Bible, the Koran, the writings of the Hindus, the book of Mormon, or any other declaration of truth we can clearly see that these books are making truth claims that contradict one another. When you talk about ways to God, for instance, each one presents their way as the exclusive way. They can't all be right. Hinduism says that God has been incarnated many times, Christianity says that God has been incarnated once; we cannot both be right. Islam says that Jesus did not die on the cross and was not resurrected, Christianity says that Jesus did die on the cross and did rise from the dead, we cannot both be right. Orthodox Jews say that Jesus was not the Messiah, Christianity says that Jesus is the Messiah, we cannot both be right. But because our culture has become so inclusive and we can't tell anyone that they're wrong, we've now come up with this idea of truth which says, "what the Hindus believe is true for the Hindus, and what the Muslims believe is true for the Muslims, and what the Christians believe is true for the Christians." If you believe it then it's true for you, just don't tell anyone else they're wrong.

See, it has become so culturally acceptable to say, "It's okay for you to believe whatever you want to believe, as long as it does something for you." But that's not how the Bible presents itself. The Bible wasn't written so that we would have a warm feeling inside when we read it. It was written to present us with the truth. For instance, why was the book of Luke written? In Luke chapter 1 verse 4 he gives us his purpose clause in for writing the gospel; he says, I've undertaken to do all this investigation and this foot work, to write this account of Christ's life, why? Luke 1:4 - "so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught." God gave us the Bible to present us with the truth, regardless of how it makes us feel.

Dr. Peter Lipton, who was the professor of the philosophy department at Cambridge, was involved in Judaism, and he said this, "I stand in my synagogue and pray to God and have an intense relationship with God, and yet I don't believe in God. Religion is like reading a novel; you can get pleasure and meaning from the experience though you know it is not literally true." I believe in religion, he says, not because it's true, but because it gives me a warm feeling inside, it does something for me here and now. Let's analyze that biblically. There is nothing commendable about believing something that's not true. The Bible does not advocate praying to or having a relationship with a God who doesn't exist. Think about where the gospel of Luke is going, Christ was born, lived a perfect, sinless life, died on the cross, was buried and rose again from the grave. Now Paul, in writing about the resurrection, says this in 1 Corinthians 15:12-18 - "Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished." See, we're not dealing in the realm of fiction that is designed to give us a warm feeling inside. Verse 19 goes on to say - "If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied." Did you catch that? If it's all about right now, if our faith in Christ is all about this life, then why are we even wasting our time with it? If what we believe is all about this life and making us feel good, then you ought to feel sorry for us. If it's all about here and now then we are of all men most to be pitied.

But the fact is, it's not about this life, it's not about making us feel good here and now, it's about preparing us to meet our Creator.

This feelings based standard of truth is not only prevalent outside the church, but this is what many who call themselves 'Christians" are teaching as well. They won't go so far as to say that they don't believe in God, but they're willing to allow their feelings to dictate their theology.

Take this for instance, in the preface of a bestselling "Christian" book the author says this, "I’ve written this book for all those, everywhere, who have heard some version of the Jesus story that caused their pulse rate to rise, their stomach to churn, and their heart to utter those resolute words, ‘I would never be a part of that.’ You are not alone. There are millions of us." And then he proceeds throughout the book to take the reader on an Alice in Wonderland journey through Bible that completely denies any idea of judgment or hell or the wrath of God, why? Because it causes my pulse rate to rise and my stomach to churn. I don't think we should be allowing our stomachs or our pulse rates to dictate our theology. You're going to come across people and you'll quote to them from the Word of God, and then they'll respond by saying something like, "I don't think God is like that." Or let's be more specific, "I don't feel like God is like that." Why not? Because what you're saying, it causes my pulse rate to rise and my belly to churn, therefore it must not be true.

We can't allow our bellies or our pulse rate to dictate truth. Truth is not a matter of preference, it's not a matter of taste, it doesn't matter what I think about it or how I feel about it. Truth is external to us, truth is what God has revealed.

In Second Peter chapters 1 the Word of God is compared to a light that is shining in a dark place, and we're told that we would do well to pay attention to it, to be addicted to it. The Word of God is the light of truth that is shining out into a world that is flooded with darkness and deception. And chapter 2 goes on to warn us that Satan's campaign of deception is even going to infiltrate the church. 2 Peter 2:1-2 - "But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned." He says, just like false prophets rose up in the Old Testament and started distorting the truth of God and leading God's people astray, so too, in our day false teachers are going to rise up and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned. How did the false prophets distort God's truth? There are several passages we could go to, but in the book of Jeremiah in particular God has a lot to say about the false prophets. The words, prophet, prophets, prophesy, etc, are used more in the book of Jeremiah than any other book in the Bible. In fact, about one fifth of the usages of these words occur in the book of Jeremiah. And most of the time these that these words are used they're used to speak about false prophets and their massages. Just like today, Jeremiah was prophesying at a time when the next thing on God's prophetic calendar was a time of judgment. The Lord was about to bring Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians against Judah and Jerusalem to carry them off into captivity. And, just like today, the message of judgment wasn't a very popular message. So throughout this book, Jeremiah is constantly fighting for the truth against the false prophets who are prophesying of peace and safety when that's not the Lords message.

Let's look at some of the things that characterize the false prophets and their message, because as Peter said, just as false prophets arose among the people, so also there will be false teachers among you.

Vs. 9-11 - "As for the prophets: My heart is broken within me, all my bones tremble; I have become like a drunken man, even like a man overcome with wine, because of the Lord and because of His holy words. For the land is full of adulterers; for the land mourns because of the curse. The pastures of the wilderness have dried up. Their course also is evil and their might is not right. “For both prophet and priest are polluted; even in My house I have found their wickedness,” declares the Lord." The false prophets have even made their way into His house. They're preaching their message in the place that bears His name.

Vs. 12-13 - "“Therefore their way will be like slippery paths to them, they will be driven away into the gloom and fall down in it; for I will bring calamity upon them, the year of their punishment,” declares the Lord. “Moreover, among the prophets of Samaria I saw an offensive thing: They prophesied by Baal and led My people Israel astray."" They've abandoned God as the source of truth, now they're prophesying by something else.

Vs. 14 - " Also among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: The committing of adultery and walking in falsehood; and they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one has turned back from his wickedness. All of them have become to Me like Sodom, and her inhabitants like Gomorrah." What they believe has an effect on what they do. "Everyone did what was right in his own eyes."

Vs. 15-16 - "Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets, ‘Behold, I am going to feed them wormwood and make them drink poisonous water, for from the prophets of Jerusalem pollution has gone forth into all the land.’” Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you. They are leading you into futility; they speak a vision of their own imagination, not from the mouth of the Lord." The things that they're declaring as truth come from their own imagination. It's internal, it's subjective. They're claiming to speak for God, they're claiming His authority behind their message, but He's very clear, these things aren't coming from the mouth of God, they're coming from inside of them, from their own imagination, they're setting themselves up as the source of truth. Well, what kind of things are they saying?
Vs. 17 - "They keep saying to those who despise Me, ‘The Lord has said, “You will have peace”’; And as for everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, they say, ‘Calamity will not come upon you.’" What a positive message. "You despise the Lord? That's okay, you'll have peace. You're doing things the way that you want to do them? That's okay, calamity will not come upon you."

Vs. 18 - "But who has stood in the council of the Lord, that he should see and hear His word? Who has given heed to His word and listened?" Not these prophets, apparently. If they had been listening God's Word this is the kind of message they would be bringing:

Vs. 19-20 - "Behold, the storm of the Lord has gone forth in wrath, even a whirling tempest; it will swirl down on the head of the wicked. The anger of the Lord will not turn back until He has performed and carried out the purposes of His heart; in the last days you will clearly understand it." Oh, that doesn't sound very nice. That's the kind of message that causes my pulse rate to rise and my belly to churn. Why do you have to cast God in such a negative light? I don't think God is like that. (See, that's why they prophesy from their own imaginations. They prophesy what they think God is like, how they feel God should be.)

Vs. 21 - "I did not send these prophets, but they ran. I did not speak to them, but they prophesied." God says, they may claim to speak for Me, but I didn't send them.

Vs. 22 - "But if they had stood in My council, then they would have announced My words to My people, and would have turned them back from their evil way and from the evil of their deeds." Do you see the continual contrast being made here between what God says and what they say?

Vs. 23-24 - "“Am I a God who is near,” declares the Lord, “and not a God far off? “Can a man hide himself in hiding places so I do not see him?” declares the Lord.
“Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the Lord." They're speaking as though He doesn't hear what they're saying. But He says,

Vs. 25-27 - "I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy falsely in My name, saying, ‘I had a dream, I had a dream!’ How long? Is there anything in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, even these prophets of the deception of their own heart, who intend to make My people forget My name by their dreams which they relate to one another, just as their fathers forgot My name because of Baal?" There it is again, very internal, very subjective. Notice again, they're claiming the authority of God, they're prophesying in His name, but the message is coming from their own dreams. They're prophesying from their own internal deception, the deception of their own hearts. They're trying to make people forget God, which is ironic because they're doing it in His name. But they've exchanged the truth of God for a lie.

Vs. 28-29 - "The prophet who has a dream may relate his dream, but let him who has My word speak My word in truth. What does straw have in common with grain?” declares the Lord. “Is not My word like fire?” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock?"" You want the source of truth, here it is, it's that which comes from God. It's not internal, it's not subjective, this is outside of us, it's objective. And God says, Hey, if you have My word, speak it in truth. Even though it won't always be comfortable. It may burn sometimes, it may be hard and heavy, but don't distort it, speak it in truth.

God's not a fan of these false prophets. Three times in the next three verses He says "I'm against them." Look at it,

Vs. 30-32 - "Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” declares the Lord, “who steal My words from each other. Behold, I am against the prophets,” declares the Lord, “who use their tongues and declare, ‘The Lord declares.’ Behold, I am against those who have prophesied false dreams,” declares the Lord, “and related them and led My people astray by their falsehoods and reckless boasting; yet I did not send them or command them, nor do they furnish this people the slightest benefit,” declares the Lord."

Vs. 33-35 - "Now when this people or the prophet or a priest asks you saying, ‘What is the oracle of the Lord?’ then you shall say to them, ‘What oracle?’ The Lord declares, ‘I will abandon you.’ Then as for the prophet or the priest or the people who say, ‘The oracle of the Lord,’ I will bring punishment upon that man and his household. Thus will each of you say to his neighbor and to his brother, ‘What has the Lord answered?’ or, ‘What has the Lord spoken?’" They're all seeking a message from God, so it would seem. They're seeking the truth. They're all going around asking for the oracle of the Lord, "what does God declare?" But they're not even willing to consider what God has actually said. They just want God's message to be what they want to hear. They want to hear what you have to say and then they'll decide whether it's true or not.

Vs. 36 - "For you will no longer remember the oracle of the Lord, because every man’s own word will become the oracle, and you have perverted the words of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God." Does this sound contemporary? They're going around each with his own interpretation of truth and they're saying things like, "Well, that might be true for you, but it's not true for me." Every man's own word is becoming his own message from God, his own standard of truth.

And Peter tells us, just as false prophets arose among them, so there will be false teachers who infiltrate the church, secretly introducing destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them and maligning the way of truth. And one way they'll do this, just like they did in Jeremiah's day, is by making truth internal and subjective.

We can't make up what we want truth to be. We can't get our truth from ourselves, we can't get our truth from the world, we've got to get our truth from God. Because He is the source of all truth. And to the extent that something matches up with what He says it's true, to the extent that it does not it isn't.

True truth will always lead us back to God, because He is the source of truth.

Psalm 43:3 - "O send out Thy light and Thy truth, let them lead me; Let them bring me to Thy holy hill and to Thy dwelling places."