What is Truth?

“What is truth?” sounds like a philosophy question until you realize it’s also a life-and-death question. We start with gratitude and mercy, speaking to people who feel separated from God and reminding you that God still knows you, sees you, and keeps reaching toward you with love that doesn’t quit. That love is not an abstract idea to us. We point to Jesus Christ, crucified for sinners, as God’s clearest, most personal proof. 

From Proverbs 16:25, we dig into why “doing what feels right” can seem wise while still leading to ruin. We talk about the loneliness of being your own judge, jury, and executioner, and how modern relativism turns truth into a private possession that keeps us isolated. Then we follow the bigger biblical pattern: God initiates. He speaks, reveals, and moves toward people across history and, in these last days, speaks through His Son. 

In John 18, Jesus stands before Pontius Pilate and explains why He came into the world: to bear witness to the truth. We wrestle with Pilate’s famous line, “What is truth?”, and the many ways people dodge Jesus, dismiss Him, fear Him, or walk away sad. We contrast that with the dying thief who turns to Jesus at the last moment and finds mercy. We also challenge the church to live as the “pillar and ground of the truth,” to keep witnessing even when money is tight, and to trust God’s provision as we stay faithful to His mission. 

If this stirred something in you, don’t scroll past it. Listen, share it with someone who’s wrestling with truth, and subscribe, rate, and review so more people can find the message. What’s your honest answer to Pilate’s question today?

(Recorded Live on November 26, 2025 at Grace Baptist Tabernacle in King, NC)

Transcript

Welcome And A Call To Thanks

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Hallelujah, welcome. I'm glad that you're joining us here in the house today. Glad you're joining us on the radio, on the videos, on the social media. We're glad to have you along today. Still haven't reached Antarctica, but we've reached every other continent by the grace and the power of God. Amen and hallelujah. So we're thankful that you're here with us. And bless God. Spirit-filled, bloodwashed people ought to be the most thankful people. Hallelujah. And even if you don't know the Lord tonight, even if you're separated from God tonight, you ought to be thankful. You ought to be thankful. Because you may be separated from the Lord, but you're still under the Lord's mercy. You're still known by the Lord after a fashion. There's no personal relationship. There's a deadness. There's a separation. But it's not that God doesn't know about you. God knows you. God knows your thought. God knows your attitude. God knows your deed. God knows your past and God knows your present. God knows the contents of your heart. God knows what you're passionate about. God knows what you're not passionate about. God knows what's going on with you. God knows what's going on in your family. God knows what's going on in your city. God knows what's going on in your nation. God knows what's going on in your body physically. And this is all people who are separated from God. And why should the lost be thankful? The love of God. Not just as a concept, not just as an idea, but the poured out love of God upon his enemies. The poured out love of God upon people who don't want anything to do with him. The poured out persistent love of God among people who ignore and forget him. He asked, What is this love? Jesus. And the scripture clearly tells you tonight, my lost friend, man, woman, or child, that God showed his love for you in this. Even though you ignore him, even though you forget him, even though you hear his word and go against it, even though he died for you. While you are yet in your sin, and under the wrath of God, Jesus Christ died for you. And that is how God showed his love. He didn't stand far away and just say, I love you, I love you, I love you. He went up to you and he says, Tonight, oh, you may hate me, but I love you. You may forget me, but I love you. You may take me for granted, but I love you. And so I come to speak with you again and again and again. My friend, uh, we'll start in the book of Proverbs along that vein. And we're going to expand this. And Book of Proverbs, um, you can pull up chapter 16, verse 25. And the scripture reads this way: it says, There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. And that's the way we've been since the fall.

God’s Love For The Separated

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We we preached about the fall last week. Uh we preached about Eve, and really how she got that name. Uh, we preached about the deception that happened between Satan and her. We preached about um when she transgressed and when Adam transgressed. And ever since that moment, ever since they were put out of the garden, but hallelujah, God didn't send them alone. God didn't send them naked either. Um He made for them coats and He sent them out with a promise. And He sent them out in mercy and in love. And then they begin to have children. And they started to see this book of this verse from the book of Proverbs acted out. Um there's

The Path That Ends In Death

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a way that seems to be right unto a man. And um, hallelujah, that's not that's that's not just targeting men, you know, that's women. Hallelujah. Yeah, that's people. That's that's the way we are. There's a way that seems to be right. But that way ends up being the waves of death. And we call that morality. We call that morals, uh, we call that doing what feels right for me. Uh we call that living out my truth and speaking my truth. Uh, we call that debate and what debate used to be. A group of people from different backgrounds who are trying to figure out what's true. And some people find consensus and some people form groups and parties and denominations. Some people form you know affinity groups, some people do this, and some, you know, uh, some people fight other people over it. Um, some people say, Well, I'm I'm gonna do what's right for me, and you're gonna do what's right to for you. And if we kind of maybe have some common ground where we can get together, if not, okay, we'll just go our separate ways. Um there's a way that seems to be right to a man. And yet you notice the absence of God in this. You see, God became a third party to us after the fall. God became this kind of outside being. Well my my friend, um, it wasn't always that way. You see, before the fall, and this is hard to describe, there was it was just the word of God and the presence of God. There was nothing and nobody else. There was no consideration of going against God. There were there was no consideration of even agreeing with God. Wrap your head around that. Um, there was no agreement or disagreement with God, there was simply God. And that's what is. There was no question of, am I going to believe this or not? Um, there was no question of, is this good or not? We didn't even know that there was a difference between good and evil. We didn't even know that. There was simply God. And that's what the Lord's bringing us back to, my friend. Simply God. But my friends, we're under the mercy and the goodness of God as we pursue our morality. We're under the mercy and goodness of God because some people get really churchy with it. And, you know, they like the church and they like the sacrament, if you will, they like the music time, they like the preaching time, and it all kind of goes the same way, like every week. And people like that. But then you start to bring the living word of God into it, and everything changes. You start to bring, notice that. And because I say it that way because this is what God did. We're in this situation where we just sort of do what we feel is right.

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God knows that. And God loves you. So, what's he do? He starts to speak.

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He starts to say, he starts to act. He starts to move. Uh, we saw it last Wednesday with Adam and Eve. We saw it Sunday night with Cain. He starts to speak and he starts to reveal and he starts to move and he starts to interact. Um, you can go all the all

God Speaks First Through History

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the way down, you know. Uh Seth, people start responding by calling upon the name of the Lord. Enoch, who walked with God. Well, God had to God had to go up to Enoch at one point. And Enoch responded by walking with God. Um we come to the time of Noah. Um, we come to the time of Abram. We come to the time of Abraham, we come to the time of Isaac, we come to the time of Jacob. God spoke with every single person here. He spoke, he spoke, he spoke, he initiated the whole thing. He formed Israel. He took Israel and he gave a law. He spoke, he spoke, he spoke. We had time, we had the time of Moses and Aaron. Uh, we had the time of Joshua, we had the time of the judges, uh, we had you know all the way up to Samuel, and then we had the time of the kings, and we had the you know, this time and that time and that time. The whole time, speech, speech, speech, speech. And then we come up to the last days. Bless God, that's where we are now. So God had sent judge after judge after judge after judge. God had sent prophet after prophet after prophet after prophet. Now, in these last days, my friend, the Lord God Almighty, holy, good, just, true, speaks to you through his son. Through Jesus. So, my friend, he speaks to you tonight. Hallelujah and amen. And and he speaks goodness and he speaks mercy, he speaks toward grace. And my friend, uh, we've got to come to John chapter 18. Now, with that in mind, and we're gonna start right in the middle of a conversation. Amen. Uh John chapter 18, verse 37. So Jesus is before Pontius Pilate. He was the governor of Rome at the time, uh, at the time that the Lord came, at the time that the Lord was crucified.

Jesus Before Pilate On Truth

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And Jesus says this really, really interesting thing. And it's couched right in the middle of this of this interaction with Pilate. He says in verse 37, this is Jesus talking, to this end was I born. And for this cause, he doubles down, says, This is why I was born, and this is why I came. For this cause came I into the world, into the dark, into the fallen, into the lying, into the stealing, into the deceiving, into people walking after devils and worshiping devils, into all the violence, into all the confusion, into all the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual pain, into the hunger, into the poverty, into the injustice, into all of this, into all the oppression. Jesus came to a province in one of the most repressive, brutal governments in history, and for some reason we glorify it and romanticize it. But Rome was downright ugly and brutal. Jesus is talking to a Roman governor. And he's been delivered up by a bunch of people who are religious, you know, they're they're full of zeal, they're full of passion for their religion. Uh, they they say that they're worshiping God, they say that they're serving God, but really, in the end, it ended up being self-preservation, fear, arrogance, and pride. And so they delivered up Jesus. Uh, one of them accidentally prophesied something that was sort of, he said, Well, it's expedient for one man to die for the people. And so one man did die for the people, just not in the way that he prophesied. Amen. And so this is why Jesus came. And he says, That I should bear witness unto the truth. Oh, he would shed his blood. Oh, my friend, he shed his blood, he died on that cross, he made the way of salvation plain for you and for me. But he said, This is why I came. This is the reason. Because every man, woman, and child on this earth just does what's right in their own eyes. Every man, woman, and child, every single last son of Adam, just does whatever feels right, seems right, whatever they reason to be right. Everyone is so isolated in that. Everyone is so miserably alone in that. You're doing what you feel to be right, and you're the only one. But in the end, you know, you're you're the judge, jury, and execution order of the of your own truth. And that is downright lonely. God saw that. This is why I'm coming. I am coming as the living, and this is who Jesus is today, presently, the living, breathing word of God, capital W. And I came into the world. I didn't stand back here and say, world, get up here. No, I came into the world. And I came in through a barn door and I went out on an old rugged cross. But I came into the world and I bore witness because God needed to have a witness, and there's no higher witness than God Himself. And so I came down and I spoke my word to this world. And I showed this world exactly who I am. I showed this world exactly what I'm about because I love this world. And I love you, and I can't get over my love of the world, I can't get over my love of you, and you don't know your right hand from your left, you don't know up from down. You're just going along sort of by yourself, and then you get sick, and then you get lonely, and then you get tired, and then the consequences start piling up, and then you go back and you try to reconfigure your entire worldview, and then you go back and you try to do, and it's just I don't want that for you. I don't want that for you. I want you to know the truth, and so you know, it's really interesting. The night before this happened, you know what Jesus called himself? The way, the truth, and the life. He said, I am the truth. The truth is not an it. It's it's a he. The truth is not a thing to be found. But uh Jesus, who is the truth, and the Holy Spirit, who does what? He leads us into the truth. He's interacting with you, church. He's interacting with you, murderer, he's interacting with you, liar, he's interacting with you, thief, he's interacting with you. See, God knows these things, you know. To us in America, they're put-downs. Is that so they're so easily heard that way? But the truth comes up, and he says these things in in full love. He says, You're you're um you're a murderer. Oh, so was Cain. And you can see how I interacted with him. You're a liar, you're a traitor, you're a thief, you're a fornicator. And and I'm here speaking with you tonight, so that because I don't want you to die. I'm in a position of judgment, yes, but this is my judgment. I'm gonna show you mercy. I'm gonna show you my love. I'm gonna show you my redeeming love. I am going to do everything that I possibly can as God. Wrap your head around that one. Everything that God could possibly do, He has done already. Everything. Everything. He provided everything so that you would not end up in damnation, hellfire, and brimstone. So that you would not spend an eternity in torment. So that even beyond that, my friend, so that you could live. Really live, so that you could live now. You could have eternal life now, you could have the joy of the Lord now, you could have the peace now, you could have the healing now, and and on forward in the glory. See, eternal life is not the sweet by and by, it starts now. Oh, there's a sweet by-and-bye. There's a mansion, there's streets of gold, uh, there, there, there's a new body, there's a resurrection body. Hallelujah, glory and amen. There's rejoicing and rejoicing and rejoicing, and and there's life with the Lord in glory. But the eternal life starts now. Oh, he wants you to have the eternal life and not the eternal death. And so he's done everything possible. He's died on a cross. He shed his blood. He said it's finished. He's risen again. He started this crazy thing called the church. Which he said is the pillar and ground of the truth. The church, you are that. Right now. The pillar and the ground. You don't move. You don't bend. You're set. The pillar and the ground of the truth. Because my friend, if you talk to ten different people, ask them what is truth, you'll get ten different answers. Why? Because we're fallen. And that's not a disparaging thing. It's the truth, speaking in love, the fact that you are fallen, and that this is what you do as a man, as a woman, this is what you do. This is what we do. Everyone's got their own definition of the truth, and in America. You know, the relativism is just this far away from ripping the country apart at any given time. Because you've got truth versus truth. But my friend, this is why God comes. The pillar and the ground of the truth, my friend. And he says, everyone that is of the truth. Hears my voice. Personally. Hears my voice daily. Hears my voice moment by moment. Hears my voice in every conceivable situation. Hears my voice. Even as a lost man. Oh my friend, the Lord speaks to you before you get saved. My friend, the Lord draws you before you get saved. And the Lord draws you on the inside. The Lord draws you. He deals with the heart. He deals with the heart. He draws you. He reveals who he is to you. He says, I am the Lord thy God and I love you. I am the Lord thy God and I know you. I'm the Lord thy God and I am holy. I'm the Lord my God and I am good. I'm the Lord my God and you're separate from me. And you're separate from me. And then, my friend, it feels like the pit of hell might open up right under your feet. It feels like the fear of God comes upon you. It feels like the the awareness of God comes upon you. The awareness that you're separate from him, the awareness that you've offended him, the awareness that you've transgressed against him. But my friend, the Lord doesn't leave you there. Oh my friend, if you're going to get saved, hallelujah! He draws you in and you believe on the Lord in that moment. My friend, if you're of the truth, you hear his voice. And then we have Pilate, verse 38. Some of the most hotly debated words in history. Pilate says unto him, Pontius Pilate, the governor of the province, Pontius Pilate of Rome. He says, What is truth? Well, my friend, some people say he said this mockingly. Some people say he said it scornfully.

Pilate’s Question And Our Evasions

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Some people say he said it full of fear. He was afraid. He was a superstitious man, and there had been some visions in his wife about Jesus and things like that. The other gospels record that. Some people say he said it in exasperation. It sort of threw up his hands. What can I do? Some people say he was he was really affected by his by the presence of Jesus, and he and he was about ready to, you might say, to get saved right then, but then he he he remembered his fear and he and he went away to the Jews again. And my friend, um, there's been so much debate over this verse. But even in that, see, I'm not going to tell you where I stand. I'm going to show you that this verse perfectly illustrates the nature of a lost person. Because some people respond to Jesus with mockery. Some people respond to Jesus with exasperation. Some people respond to Jesus and and and and and and they're they're afraid and they're scared. And yet they go away sad. And they go away still in their fear, and they go away still frightened. Some people respond to Jesus with anger. Some people respond to Jesus by just dismissing. Some people respond to Jesus in all of these different ways. But no matter how Pilate said it, when he said it, he went out again. He went out again. He didn't fall down and worship. He didn't s anoint Jesus. He he didn't call upon Jesus and say, He wasn't the dying thief on the cross. He didn't say, Remember me when you come into your kingdom because I believe you are a king. Um he didn't he he did none of those things. He might say he went away lost, and he went away sad, and he went away heavy, and he went away desperate, and he went away to his grave ultimately. Oh, my friend, how do you respond to the truth tonight? How do you respond to Jesus tonight? Because my friends, there was a man who believed in Jesus after this. Not too long from this moment, there was a dying thief on a cross. And he said, Lord,

Turn To Jesus While You Can

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Lord, remember me. He choked out the words. Through the pain and the suffering of crucifixion, through the humiliation of a crucifixion, through the desperation and the finality of a crucifixion. He saw his death coming. And he said, I'm on this cross, and I'm on this cross justly. And he turned to Jesus. He didn't turn away from Jesus, he turned to him. Turn to him tonight, my friend. Turn to him tonight. Dear dying thief. Turn to him tonight. Dying fornicator, dying adulterer, dying murderer, dying blasphemer, dying idol worshiper. Turn to him tonight. You're not in the grave yet. Turn to him tonight. While the judgment of God is upon you toward life, because my friend, there'll be a terrible moment when the judgment of God falls upon you to death. But now, my friend, be judged of the Lord, because he judges now, so that you might live and not die and declare the works of the Lord. So that you might be born again, so that you might be healed, so that you might be found, so that you might receive the adoption of a son. You might receive the adoption of a daughter. You might you might go from sinner to saint and have the joy of the Lord the whole time. Have the life of the Lord the whole time. Oh my friend, turn to him. Say, Lord, thank you for speaking to me. Lord, thank you for showing the truth to me. Thank you for drawing me to yourself. My Lord, save me. Amen. Hallelujah. If our musicians come forward tonight. Oh my friend, in these times, the truth is still the truth. Amen. God is still God, amen. No matter what's going on in our nation tonight in America, what's going on in 80 plus nations around the world, the beautiful thing about it is there's one Jesus,

The Church Bears Truth To The World

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and there's one faith, and there's one blood, and there's one baptism, and there's one Holy Ghost, and there's one Father, and there's one Word of God. No matter who you are, no matter how old you are, no matter what language you speak, no matter what your situation is, there's one God and He loves you. So, my friend, how do you respond to Him tonight? Oh, my friend, if you need to be saved, you have only to put your faith in Him. Call upon Him, ask Him to save you. And church, we must remember we are the pillar and the ground of the truth. We are the instrument and the vessel that God uses to reach people. You are that right now. And so may you be found faithful. Because, my friend, if you're concerned about provision, it's just been said so many times by so many witnesses throughout history, both modern and ancient. Happen to think of a man named David Wilkerson, New York City, wanted to reach people. So he started reaching people. He started preaching. There came a time when they didn't know how they were going to keep the lights on. The Lord honored the church that was after his heart on this matter. Because my friend, it it does you a world of good to know the truth. And remember, by truth I mean Jesus, the living God. But doesn't do the world much good if you never speak it. Doesn't do the world much good if you hold it to yourself. My friend before David Wilkerson, you could talk about a man named Hudson Taylor. If you haven't read his autobiography, you ought to. On several, several, several occasions. I'm reminded of, you know, there was a time they were in China. They had actually made it to China, and it's a and it's a testimony on the on how they made it to China, but uh they made it. And they came up upon a time, and they needed a specific sum of money to continue. So they prayed for a specific sum of money, and six months later, this was before phone and internet. Six months later, you see, when they prayed that prayer, God got a hold of someone back in England. And the Holy Ghost said, You need to send Hudson Taylor the exact sum of money that he prayed for. And so they sent it, they mailed it across halfway across the world. It reached China, and somehow someone in China found out where Hudson Taylor was, and it got to his doorstep by the activity of the Holy Ghost. Um, I remind you, the Taylors were actively ministering at that time. And God, in the midst of their active ministry, smiled. He said, Oh, I love them, and wow, they love me. I came to bear witness to the truth. Look at what they're doing. They're out there filled with my spirit, bearing witness to the truth. I came so that people could know God. They want people to know me too. Whether they're gonna hear it or whether they're gonna forbear it, they want them to know me. So, my friend, just a word to churches who might be concerned about that sort of thing. Uh, too often in America, we've seen when the money gets tight, the first thing that goes out the window is evangelism. First thing that goes out the window is other people's needs. First thing that goes out the window. You can see it American church after American church. Whenever the budget gets tight, uh the missionaries get cut. And it's to the point where I'm the only local evangelist under a local church per Ephesians that I know about. And so, my friend, if there's another one out there, I'd love some fellowship. Um, but if you're concerned about the material, well, pray about it, yes. But don't get obsessed about it. If you're concerned about the material, be assured that God always provides for his vision. His vision that he gave. My friend, you might need to hear that tonight. Don't just take time to be holy to borrow from Ravenhill. But take time to be a witness. And watch the Lord honor that. Both in souls and in the resources that you need. Amen. Uh, but respond to the Lord tonight, my friend. Uh, we'll have the the altar open and we'll have time of invitation here. And my friends, you respond to the Lord as well. Whether you're down the road and king listening to this, or whether you're halfway across the world listening to this, we've got listeners in other place, amen. Um respond to him and let that response not just

Invitation And How To Reach Us

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be a moment thing, but let it be the start of a walk. Because that's what the Lord wants, amen. So thank you for being here. Get in touch with us, reach out to us, um, mail us things, um, text us things, email us things, and and also show up. Um, you're welcome here, and we want to meet you. So, thank you for being a part of this and for helping us reach so many people around the world. And may the Lord richly bless you.