Before my sharing, I would like to introduce the new hymn we have just sung this afternoon and this morning: “Nearest of All, Nearest of All Is He.”
I recently found the original English poem. We had thought that the hymn had been written a long time ago, perhaps by Watchman Nee. But having found its original English version, we realise that our judgment was wrong; it was not written by a brother. Nevertheless, the hymn is very beautiful, and we thought it would be good to sing it tonight.
I have looked into it a little. I am not too sure, because I have learned lessons from my past, but most likely, if I am not mistaken this time, the writer of this poem is D. M. Panton. Panton was one who knew the Word of God very well, and he helped Miss Margaret Barber very much while she was in England. I think we received much help from him. You will be surprised—his poems are very, very beautiful.
Let us turn to John 18.
Pilate saith unto Him, What is truth?
And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find no crime in Him.
Let us turn to the Lord once again in prayer.
Dear Lord, we thank You so much. By Your mercy, once again we come at Your feet. Lord, we pray that You will speak to our hearts this afternoon.
Lord, what is truth? Teach us this wonderful lesson. Let us not merely discuss what truth is; let us really learn how to seek spiritual reality. Dear Lord, impress this word upon us, that we may have a hunger to see more and more of You.
Lord, we commit this afternoon into Your hands. We pray that You will occupy this time and set Your throne in our midst. May You Yourself fill our eyes and our hearts. In the name of our Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Pilate asked a very famous question: “What is truth?” But Pilate did not wait for the Lord to teach him. He did not wait for an answer from our Lord.
According to the Bible, after he had asked the question, he went out again to the Jews and said, “I find no guilt in Him.” Probably, in the mind of Pilate, truth was nothing but a concept. That is why he asked, “What is truth?”
Yet the Holy Spirit somehow seeks to impress us and tell us what truth is. Even though Pilate did not turn to the Lord for the answer, and did not wait for it, the Word of God presented here gives us an important answer through Pilate’s behaviour.
After Pilate asked, “What is truth?” he went out again to the Jews and said, “I find no guilt in Him.” So you see, brothers and sisters, truth is more than a concept. Truth is a Person.
Pilate could say, “I find no guilt in Him.” What does that mean? It means that He is the only true One in the universe.
Our Lord once said to the people:
Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
The Jews answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never yet been in bondage to any man. How sayest Thou, Ye shall be made free?” Jesus answered them:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Every one that committeth sin is the bondservant of sin.
As far as the eternal work of God is concerned, sin is a lie. Sin is a falsehood. Anyone under the bondage of sin not only commits sin, but in a sense tells a lie to the whole universe.
But according to Pilate’s testimony, he could say of the Lord, “I find no guilt in Him.” That means He is the only true One in the universe. If you find guilt in someone, that person must be a liar. That person does not live in truth, or by truth.
This phrase reminds us of another great declaration by our Lord:
I am the way, and the truth, and the life.
Our Lord proclaimed that He is the truth. Brothers and sisters, the Lord Jesus is the personification of truth. He is the embodiment of spiritual reality.
If we really want to know what truth is, one important answer given by our Lord is this: He is the truth.
In Greek, the word truth has two meanings. On the one hand, it means something real; it speaks of reality. On the other hand, it means something true, as opposed to something false.
In the Gospel according to John, the Holy Spirit uses these two aspects to describe the truth. For example, in John 7:18:
He that speaketh from himself seeketh his own glory; but He that seeketh the glory of Him that sent Him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him.
Here, “true” is set against that which is false. Our Lord is true because He seeks the glory of the One who sent Him. He does not speak from Himself in order to seek His own glory.
He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory. The more we seek our own glory, the more we have a tendency to tell lies. But our Lord is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.
Then there is another use of the word. In John 15:1, our Lord said:
I am the true vine.
Here, “true” refers to reality. It does not mean that all other vines are false. The other vines are real vines, but they are shadows. When God created vines, He created them according to a pattern, according to a model. God created all vines according to the true Vine, who is our Lord.
Therefore, when our Lord says, “I am the truth,” we understand, on the one hand, that He is true; on the other hand, that He is the reality of everything. These are two very important meanings in the Word of God, especially in the Gospel according to John.
I would like to follow the example of our brother this morning. In order to understand spiritual reality, or truth, more deeply, I would like to present some contrasts.
When the Bible speaks about truth, our Lord says, “I am the truth.” But we also know that God is the true God. John 17:3 says:
And this is life eternal, that they should know Thee the only true God, and Him whom Thou didst send, even Jesus Christ.
John 3:33 also says:
He that hath received His witness hath set his seal to this, that God is true.
When the Bible speaks of the only true God, it means that God is the reality. And when it says that God is true, it means that He is without falsehood.
Not only is Jesus the truth; God the Father is also true. Furthermore, we are reminded by the Word of God:
When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall guide you into all the truth.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. Therefore, the Trinity of God is the Trinity of the true God: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. They are true. This is a very important truth in the Word of God.
But when you come to the last book of the Bible, Revelation, you discover a counterfeit trinity. There is the dragon, the first beast from the sea, and the second beast. The dragon refers to Satan; the first beast refers to Antichrist; and the second beast refers to the false prophet.
There is a counterfeit in the universe. We have God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit; but the enemy of God seeks to produce a counterfeit in order to confuse us, so that we do not know what is true and what is false.
The enemy seeks to twist our minds by saying that there is no God, or that God is dead. Why? Because the enemy seeks to produce a lie. He seeks to be equal with God and to usurp the throne of God.
Satan seeks to imitate God the Father. Antichrist seeks to imitate Christ. The false prophet seeks to imitate the Holy Spirit. This is the counterfeit trinity: the trinity of falsehood.
Do you see the two great camps in the universe? One camp speaks of truth; the other speaks of falsehood. If we can see this contrast, then we can learn much from the Word of God.
The Gospel of John continually presents things in contrast: light and darkness, life and death, truth and falsehood. It helps us to see the contrast between the Trinity of the true God and the counterfeit trinity of the devil.
John presents our Lord in a most vivid way. He is not only the Son of God; He is also the Son of Man.
In this wonderful Gospel, the Holy Spirit uses the word bosom twice. In the first chapter, the Son is in the bosom of the heavenly Father. In John 13, John, who represents every one of us, is in the bosom of the Son.
This is the main thought of the Gospel. On the one hand, we are told how the Son is in the bosom of the Father. On the other hand, through faith and through the work He has done on the cross, we have a wonderful union with Christ.
We are like John in the bosom of the Son, our beloved Lord. John seeks to present a Person to us. He tells us that Christ is the embodiment of everything. He is the embodiment of spiritual reality. He is the personification of truth.
For this reason, our Lord said:
I am the way, and the truth, and the life.
He also said, “I am the resurrection,” “I am the door,” and “I am the light of the world.” The things of this world are shadows, but He is their reality.
When we touch this world, and even when we touch the so-called religious world, it does not necessarily mean that we touch reality. Only when we touch the Lord, only when we touch the living Person, do we touch reality.
John presents the Lord as the true Light, the true Bread, and the true Vine. Thank the Lord, He is the reality. He is the embodiment of all spiritual things.
In order that we may appreciate this truth even more, John presents another human figure. It is not something abstract; it is a flesh-and-blood figure. Just as the Word became flesh, love became flesh, and humility became flesh, so John gives us another figure by whom we may see a contrast.
Love is no longer abstract. If you want to know what love is, look at the cross. John knew love most deeply because he was at the foot of the cross. He could never forget that scene or what happened there. That is why John could say, “God is love.”
When we touch love on this earth, we discover that it is incomplete. It is only a shadow. But when we come to heavenly love, to perfect love, we begin to realise what true love is.
In this Gospel, the Holy Spirit presents another person, and John wisely presents a contrast between two personalities. One is Jesus the Saviour; the other is Judas the traitor.
The first three Gospels give us some record concerning Judas, but the Gospel of John gives us a deeper understanding. Through the pen of John, the Holy Spirit presents a contrast between the One who is true and the one who is false.
When we compare these two figures, we see truth and falsehood, reality and counterfeit, sincerity and pretence.
We think of Judas as the arch-traitor. Even today, a goat used to lead sheep to destruction in a slaughterhouse is called a “Judas goat.” There is also a plant in the East which looks attractive but tastes bitter, called a “Judas tree.”
But let us remember that the disciples, during the time of our Lord Jesus, did not originally think of Judas in this way. They were willing to trust him, because he seemed trustworthy. They had no objection to making him treasurer of their band. Judas took care of the purse, and they did not seem troubled by it.
Judas was one of the twelve. Mark 14:10 says:
And Judas Iscariot, he that was one of the twelve, went away unto the chief priests, that he might deliver Him unto them.
Some Bible scholars suggest that this phrase could convey the thought, “the one of the twelve,” indicating that Judas may have held a prominent position among them. Somehow he presented himself in such a way that no one detected anything wrong in him.
For three and a half years, no one had any suspicion about Judas. Our Lord dropped hints here and there, but the disciples could not understand. They knew someone would betray the Lord, but they never thought it would be Judas.
Judas must have appeared very spiritual, godly, active, and on fire for the Lord. He was a perfect actor and a perfect hypocrite.
When the Lord told the disciples that someone would betray Him, they asked, one by one:
Is it I, Lord?
They never said, “Is it Judas?” Why? The Holy Spirit was working among the eleven disciples. If they were honest, they realised that they themselves were capable of betraying the Lord. They thought, “Perhaps it is I.”
This is an important lesson for us. We may not betray the Lord as Judas did, but the potential is there. If there were no possibility, why would the other eleven disciples ask, “Is it I?”
If the disciples had known what Judas was about to do, he would not have left that room alive. Peter would certainly have acted. Yet Judas deceived everyone except our Lord Jesus.
Judas was one among the twelve apostles. We can speak of the Apostle Matthew, the Apostle John, and the Apostle Paul. Yet it sounds impossible to speak of “the Apostle Judas.” But in the beginning, he was called as one of the apostles.
There was an appearance of godliness, an appearance of spirituality, humility, and proper language. Yet none of it was real.
Our Lord often rebuked the Pharisees because they were hypocrites. The Greek word for hypocrite refers to one who puts on a mask. There may be a wonderful appearance, but inwardly there is dirt and ugliness.
Let us turn to Matthew 23:27.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.
This does not apply only to the scribes and Pharisees; it also applies to Judas, one of the members of the inner circle.
The Lord may have spoken these words while in the temple, looking across toward the Mount of Olives, where many Jewish tombs could be seen. Before Passover, tombs were whitewashed so that they would appear beautiful. The people expected Messiah to come, perhaps from the Mount of Olives, and they wanted the tombs to leave a good impression.
But this was only an outward decoration. It was done once a year to give a good impression. That is exactly what happened with the Pharisees and scribes, and it also applies to Judas.
According to John 6:64:
For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who it was that should betray Him.
From the very beginning, our Lord knew that Judas would betray Him. Then we must ask: Why did our Lord choose Judas as one of the twelve if He knew this from the beginning?
This is a very important question. If we receive an answer from the Word of God, we may begin to understand the contrast between Jesus the Saviour and Judas the traitor.
For many years, I could not understand this. But when we read the Gospel of John carefully, certain phrases help us.
Luke tells us that our Lord went out to the mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God. When it was day, He called His disciples to Himself.
Why did our Lord pray through the night before choosing the twelve? It was not because He was dull to the will of God. There was no shadow between the Father and the Son. He was completely sensitive to the Father’s will.
We may pray all night because we do not know the will of God, because we are mixed in our desires, or because we love our own will. But there was no such problem with our Lord. All He wanted was the will of God.
Why, then, did He pray all night? Why did He choose John, Matthew, and also Judas the traitor?
John 17:6 gives us an answer:
I manifested Thy name unto the men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world: Thine they were, and Thou gavest them to Me.
And in John 17:9, He said:
I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for those whom Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine.
The twelve were given to the Lord by the Father. The Father gave this gift to the Son, and this gift included Judas.
Our Lord chose only what the Father chose. Therefore, after praying through the night, He knew that it was the Father’s will for Him to receive John, Matthew, and Judas.
To receive Judas meant to choose the way of the cross. The moment He received Judas, He placed Himself under the shadow of the cross.
Judas became like a thorn under His arm. Wherever the Lord went, Judas was in the inner circle. The Lord knew that Judas would finally betray Him. This was not an easy way.
When we are in a similar situation, our natural reaction is to try to make things easier. We may wish to expose the person, drop hints, or invite others to deal with the problem. But our Lord knew from the beginning that Judas would betray Him.
Jesus the Saviour and Judas the traitor were together. One day our Lord would die on the cross and accomplish redemption, becoming the Saviour of mankind. But during those years with Judas and the other disciples, the way of the cross was already difficult.
When a thorn is under your arm, you react immediately. The way we react reveals what kind of life we have. Through the presence of Judas, we see how difficult the way of the cross truly was.
Every day the Lord saw Peter, Philip, Andrew, and the other disciples. But He also saw Judas, the traitor.
Why did the Father give Judas to the Lord? One reason is very simple: when you place the only true One and the false one together, the contrast immediately reveals what is true.
In the inner circle there was a spy, an informer, a betrayer. The Lord had to live a completely transparent life.
Judas himself later said:
I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood.
Judas was closer to the Lord than almost anyone else, yet he had to acknowledge that the Lord was innocent. He had no guilt. He had no sin.
Because the Lord is true, there was no lie in His life. He was transparent from within to without. The way He lived before the Father was the way He lived before men.
We do not know how prone we are to falsehood until we stand face to face with the Lord. We do not know how easily we can become liars until we come into His presence.
Sometimes we lie in our speaking. Sometimes we lie in our actions. Sometimes we lie in our living. We present an image, an appearance, but there may be no reality there.
But thank the Lord, there is One who is true, and this is our Lord.
We will never know what love is until an enemy is placed in our own camp. Consider how our Lord dealt with Judas.
The Lord could have used His power to bless Judas, paralyse Judas, render him helpless, or even remove him. That is what we often want to do when we are persecuted or when we have a thorn under our arm.
But for more than two years, the only weapon our Lord used was love.
He continually made love’s appeal to Judas. He used words that Judas could understand, though the others did not understand. The Lord was saying, in effect, “Return. Come back. Do not go that far. Do not go in that direction. It is the direction of destruction.”
The Lord never gave up. He continued to appeal to Judas: “Come back.”
Even when Judas asked, “Is it I?” and the Lord answered him, it seems that the Lord spoke in such a way that only Judas understood. If the other disciples had understood, they would have dealt with Judas immediately.
Judas was preserved because the Lord desired him to be saved. At the same time, the Lord warned him and called him to return.
If you want to know what love is, place the most terrible enemy in your inner circle. Then you will discover what kind of reality is within a person. We often react in anger because that is what is within our flesh.
But when Judas was there, our Lord used no weapon except love.
This shows us not only that Christ was morally true and without sin, but also the positive fullness of His life: love. That love was perfect love.
It was not enough merely to love Peter, Matthew, Philip, and Andrew. That would be only half the circle. But when He loved someone like Judas, that was the complete circle. That was perfect love.
Our Lord said:
Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
In what respect? In love. We cannot be perfect as the Father is perfect in every attribute, but in this matter of love, we are called to be perfect.
If we think for a moment, we discover that the degeneration of Judas was a slow and long process. It was not something sudden.
Luke 6 speaks of “Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.” That word became is very important. When our Lord first called Judas, he was not yet a traitor. Later, he became one.
Acts 1:25 says:
To take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas fell away, that he might go to his own place.
At the beginning, Judas had a ministry and an apostleship. But later he fell. He went through a long process.
In the first year, Judas was present when our Lord gave the Sermon on the Mount. He was present when the Lord performed miracles, passed through storms with the disciples, and shared the secrets of the kingdom.
The Lord also sent the twelve out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits.
And they went out, and preached that men should repent.
And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them.
At the beginning, Judas could cast out demons. He was supposed to overcome. He was supposed to live a victorious life and put the devil under his feet.
But eventually the Bible says that Satan entered Judas. Satan gained a place in his heart.
Judas began well. He was present even at the feeding of the five thousand, the miracle in which all the disciples were involved. But something happened. Gradually, Judas became a traitor.
This is a very important lesson for us.
How should we understand Judas? Was he a betrayer, or was he first betrayed? The answer is that first he was betrayed, and then he became a betrayer.
Before he betrayed the Lord, he had been betrayed by himself—betrayed by his own flesh. He had his own dream, and his dream did not coincide with the dream of our Lord.
Judas may have had a glamorous beginning. He was the only non-Galilean among the twelve; he came from Judea. The fame of the Lord had spread through Galilee, Syria, Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.
Perhaps Judas was catching the wave. Perhaps he was attracted by the Lord’s power, the crowds, and the possibility of a great movement. He may have followed the Lord as a fair-weather follower.
When everything is rosy and wonderful, many will follow. The Lord had performed many miracles, and the Sermon on the Mount was beyond compare. Judas followed the Lord, no doubt about that.
But when the crisis came, something changed.
The key may be found in John 6:15:
Jesus therefore perceiving that they were about to come and take Him by force, to make Him king, withdrew again into the mountain Himself alone.
After the feeding of the five thousand, the multitude wanted to make the Lord king by force. The Lord immediately sent His disciples away in a boat and dismissed the crowd.
Humanly speaking, this was a tremendous opportunity. There were five thousand men, a great political resource, and the beginnings of a great movement. The Lord could have become king.
But at that very moment, He refused to become king.
Afterward, the Lord spoke of Himself as the Bread from heaven. Many said:
This is a hard saying; who can hear it?
Many were offended, and some drifted away. Judas remained, but something in his heart had changed. The Lord said:
Did not I choose you the twelve, and one of you is a devil?
Judas may have had a different dream from the Lord’s dream. Perhaps he hoped that the Messiah would lead a revolt and change the political condition of the nation. We do not know all the details, but we do know that after the Lord refused to be king, Judas’s heart secretly turned.
When we have our own dream but still seek to go on with the Lord, sooner or later we may betray Him, or do something foolish.
Some Bible students even suggest that Judas may not originally have intended to harm the Lord Jesus. Perhaps he thought the Lord was too slow to act. His kiss was not an ordinary kiss; it was a warm, deliberate kiss. He may have thought that by putting Jesus into the hands of His enemies, the Lord would finally act, protect Himself, rescue Himself, and establish His kingdom.
But our Lord never saved Himself. Judas made a terrible mistake.
Judas disappeared when he should have testified for the Lord. Finally, he hanged himself.
Why did Judas become a betrayer? First, he was betrayed by his own flesh. He had his own dream, which did not agree with the Lord’s purpose. Then, because of that dream, he used his own way. He tried to put Jesus into a corner, hoping that Jesus would react.
But the Lord was not as Judas expected. What disappointment, and what a great mistake Judas made.
No one knows everything that was in the heart of Judas, but from the Word of God we can see turning points here and there. Finally, the Bible says that Satan entered Judas.
At the Last Supper, after Judas received the morsel, Satan entered into him. Then Judas went out immediately, and the Bible says:
And it was night.
When the Lord of truth, the Master of truth, went out from Judas’s fellowship, it was night. Finally, Judas was taken by the enemy.
In the beginning, Judas could cast out demons. But gradually, because he was first betrayed by himself, he became the betrayer.
Let us learn this lesson from Judas the traitor. Even in the final moments, according to John 13, our Lord washed Judas’s feet. He continued to make love’s appeal and sought to win him back. The Lord never gave up.
That is the love that will never let us go.
But Judas was not moved. He became the son of perdition.
The expression “son of perdition” appears only twice in the Bible. One reference is to Antichrist; the other is to Judas.
Judas was never saved because throughout his life he never truly called the Lord, “Lord.” At the Last Supper, the other disciples said, “Is it I, Lord?” But Judas said, “Is it I, Rabbi?” He still regarded the Lord merely as a teacher.
Outwardly, Judas had been given a ministry. Outwardly, he performed works. He had even been called an apostle. Yet finally he went very far away.
May the Lord speak to our hearts, that we may see this contrast: Jesus the Saviour and Judas the traitor.
Dear Lord, we commit this word into Your hands. Speak to our hearts.
Is it I?
Reveal Yourself to us, that we may know our true condition. Lord, continue to speak these words to us. We thank You. In the name of our Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen.