Revive Our Hearts

Dana Gresh: Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth says, truth is a person. His name is Jesus.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: He comes to set the prisoners free. He comes to dry every tear and one day to redeem this whole broken, fallen world when everything broken will be made whole. Every lie will be exposed. Truth will reign and Jesus will reign forever and ever.

Dana Gresh: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of Lies Women Believe and the Truth that Sets Them Free. For October 23rd, 2026, I'm Dana Gresh. Have you ever heard the phrase your truth? It it suggests that truth is arbitrary, that it can be whatever you make it. But is it true that reality can be molded and shaped in this way? Not according to God's word. When we open our Bibles, we don't find references to your truth, but the truth. Truth isn't a changeable reality. It's an unchanging person. Here's Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth to give us a helpful analogy.

It's from the series The Wonder of His Name.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: I got my piano tuned at my house last week. I always like it when that happens and I wonder if you know how to tell if a piano is tuned. How do you know if it's in tune? Well, you can't trust your ear unless you're one of those rare people who has perfect pitch, which I certainly don't. But there's an objective standard for pitch that's called concert pitch. In the US, that standard is called A 440. Now, that's a technical term that means the A above middle C is tuned to a frequency of 440 Hz, which means 440 cycles per second.

So, the tuner uses what's called a tuning fork, which is an external objective standard that has been calibrated to that fixed pitch of A 440. And then he tunes every key on the piano in relationship to that fixed pitch. And if he does it right and he does it well, then you'll end up with beautiful music if you can play the piano. And it's the same idea with an orchestra that you hear at the at the beginning of a concert, the orchestra instruments tuning up. They're tuning to a standard fixed pitch. And apart from that absolute standard, if they didn't have that, it would be just up to what every musician thought sounded right to him.

And then you would end up with a harsh, dissonant performance. Well, I was thinking about that as I was listening to the piano tuner in my house and how the the concept of absolute fixed truth, a standard of truth has been largely discarded today. Instead, every person has his or her own truth. And people are tuning their instruments to whatever pitch they happen to like. The result in people's lives and in our culture is chaos, it's discord, it's confusion. And are you finding as I am that it's become increasingly difficult to convince people that Jesus is the truth, that he's the absolute unchanging standard of truth, that he is what he claimed to be.

I am the way, the truth, and the life. Well, today we want to look at that name of Jesus where he says, I am the truth. Now, the Old Testament paves the way for us knowing Jesus who is God in the flesh as the truth because it asserts that God is truth, that his ways are true, his commandments are true. You see this all the way through the Old Testament. Let me just read you several phrases. The Lord is the true God, Jeremiah 10:10. And then these verses from the Psalms. This God, his way is perfect.

The word of the Lord proves true. The sum of your word is truth and every one of your righteous rules endures forever. Or as God says in Isaiah 45:19, I the Lord speak the truth. I declare what is right. Now, in the Old Testament, when you see that word true or truth, it's a Hebrew word emeth, e m e t h, emeth. The basic meaning of that word is firmness or stability. It's not something that's shakable. It's not something that easily changes or moves. It stands for faithfulness, sureness, reliability. And truth is a key attribute of God that we see all the way through the Old Testament and of course in the new as well.

We see that God is true to his covenant. He's true to himself. He's true to his word, true to his promises. We see that God is faithful. He can be depended upon. He's reliable. He's trustworthy. He's honest. He's authentic, genuine, real. There's no deception, no hypocrisy in God. He is the fixed pitch, absolute truth. And that truthful character of God establishes the standard, the fixed pitch, if you will, the concert pitch for all of mankind. Psalm 51:6 says, Behold, you desire truth in the innermost being. So, not only is God truth, but he says that's the standard for all human beings is that we be reliable and firm and stable in truth.

Jeremiah 5:3, O Lord, do not your eyes look for truth? God is looking for truth. He's in this place today looking for truth, truth in our hearts, truth where no one else sees and no one else knows, but God sees and God knows. He's looking for truth. This is an absolute standard, one from which there is no deviation. It's like A 440. It is what it is. It's fixed. And that is the standard that is absolutely required for anyone who wants to have fellowship with God. O Lord, Psalm 15 says, Who shall sojourn in your tent?

Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth, emeth, in his heart. Truth like God. His character is truth and he requires that of us if we're to come close to him. If we're off pitch, if we're not completely walking in truth, not just outwardly, not just what we say, but in our hearts, then we cannot walk in one accord with God. Now, that obviously creates a problem because we are fallen and we are sinful. And scripture tells us over and over again that we don't meet that standard.

We're off pitch. Psalm 5:9 says, There is no truth in their mouth. They flatter with their tongue. They say things they don't mean. Isaiah 59 says, Truth has stumbled in the public squares. Truth is lacking. Jeremiah 7, Truth has perished. Doesn't that describe what we see in our culture today? Here's the fact and here's the problem. We are all liars. Toward the end of the Old Testament, in the book of Zechariah, God pleads three times for his people to return to truth. Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments. Speak the truth to one another.

Render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace. Love, truth, and peace. God is saying, you need to be tuned up. You need to get on absolute concert pitch. You're not tuned according to the truth. But here's the real problem. Not only are we liars, we don't speak the truth, we lie, we deceive ourselves and others, but we can't fulfill these commands. We do not and cannot be truth tellers because from our hearts we are liars, we are deceivers. And so here you come to the end of the Old Testament and you have this tension building for a long-awaited Messiah who will be God in the flesh, who will come to redeem fallen liars so they can become truthful as God is truthful, so they can have fellowship with God who is true.

And so in the New Testament, after all this bad news in the Old Testament, we have Jesus who comes to this earth, God in human flesh. John 1 says, The true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world. Jesus, the truth. He's the only person who has ever perfectly fulfilled God's standard of truth. Jesus is God's A 440, God's fixed pitch. Now, this theme of true or truth, again we see in John's Gospel as we have some of these other words we've been looking at. There are almost 50 references to truth in the Gospel of John.

And 13 of those are in John chapter 8. So, if you have your Bible with you, let me encourage you to open it to John chapter 8 and I want us to look at several verses there. You remember that throughout Jesus' time here on earth that the Pharisees had a problem with Jesus. They didn't believe he was who he said he was and they repeatedly, persistently challenged his truthfulness. They challenged the reliability of his claims. Verse 13 of John chapter 8, they said to him, You are bearing witness about yourself. Your testimony is not true.

You're not who you claim to be. And listen to what Jesus says in response. Verse 14, My testimony is true. Verse 16, My judgment is true. Look down at verse 26, He who sent me is true and I declare to the world what I have heard from him. Verse 32, You will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Jesus is introducing them to this fact that not only does he speak truth, but he is the truth. You see truth is a person. It is Jesus. And Jesus says in effect, if you don't believe in me, that means you don't believe in the truth.

And if you don't believe in the truth, that means you are believing lies. You who think you're the custodians and guardians of the truth, you are believing lies and you're perpetrating lies on your followers. Look at verse 43. Some strong words Jesus has for these religious leaders. Why do you not understand what I say? It's because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father, the devil. And you imagine that caused some of people to rock in their sandals when he said that to the religious leaders. You are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.

He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? Show me what I've said that's not true. If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them in implication, the reason why you don't believe them is because you are not of God.

So, we have a lot of people in this world today say, I believe in God, I just don't believe in Jesus. And Jesus is saying, No, if you believe in God, you believe in me. If you believe in truth, you believe in me. If you don't believe in me, then you don't believe in truth, then you believe in lies, then you are of your father, the devil who is the father of lies. So, in John chapter 14 now, verse 6, you remember that famous line where Jesus says to Thomas, I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me. And notice here that Jesus doesn't just say I am speaking truth. I am being truthful. He's not using an adjective that describes himself. He uses a noun. He says, I am the truth. He claims that his very being and essence is truth.

Dana Gresh: We've been listening to Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth. She's showing us that Jesus himself is the truth. He is the standard. If we want to know what's good, true, and beautiful, we look to him. There's more to this message at reviveourhearts.com. You'll find it linked in today's transcript. Now, let's get practical. Why is an objective standard of truth so important? Nancy is going to help us answer that question by taking us to 2 John, which is a short little book, just one chapter, but packed with goodness. It's written by the same John we read from a moment ago and he loves talking about Jesus as the truth.

Let's continue with Nancy as she tells us what this name of Jesus means for us.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Verse 9, he says, Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, everyone who leaves the truth does not have God. But whoever abides in the teaching, whoever holds fast to the truth has both the Father and the Son. Here's what I take away from that verse. The evidence of true faith is that you hold faithfully to the truth. If you have true faith, then you will hold faithfully by God's grace to the truth. He says, verse 10, If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting.

For whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works. Now, it's a good thing to be hospitable. It's a good thing to welcome people into our homes, but it's not a good thing to receive deceptive, false teaching. That may be actual people we bring into our homes. He was saying, don't fellowship with these people. They're going to lead you astray, but we can bring this teaching in by a lot of different means through television, through music, through the internet, through social media. And he 's saying, don't welcome any form of deception into your heart, into your mind, into your home, into your relationships.

So much is at stake. You see, it's easier than we think for deception to get a toehold in our hearts, in our minds, in our lives, and in the lives of those we love. To say yes to truth is to say no to everything that is not true. And here's the thing, we're being lied to constantly. You may be sitting here tonight having believed lies that have been planted in your heart for years. And so you have voices, tapes playing in your head. I can't get victory over this habit, this addiction, this temptation. There's no way I could ever forgive that person who's hurt me so deeply.

I'll never be able to be whole again after what's been done to me. Christ is not enough for my situation. Oh, we'd never say it out loud. But is that what we sometimes feel? My life is hopeless or my life is meaningless or you fill in the blank. I'll never be any different. Lies, lies, lies. And these are lies that imprison so many in this room in hopelessness, in addictions, in despair, in feelings of inadequacy, fears. These are lies that keep us from experiencing grace and mercy and peace and joy and freedom. I've been meditating in the last day or so on that little verse in Jonah chapter 2.

Jonah's in the belly of this fish. He's gone down, down, down and he now prays this desperate prayer to God. And in verse 8 of Jonah 2, he says, They that observe lying vanities. Some of your translations say, They who cling to worthless idols, things that aren't true. They claim to be gods. They claim to be real. They claim to be truth, but they're not. And those who observe these lying vanities or who cling to these worthless idols, what happens to them? They forsake their own mercy. God wants to give you mercy. He wants to give you grace.

He wants to give you freedom. He wants to give you joy. But as long as we're clinging to things that we think will make us secure, things we think will make us happy, things we think are true, even if they're not, then we are going to forsake the mercy God wants to give us. Do you know how to recognize the lies? Do you know how to discern deception? Do you know how when you read it in a best-selling book or you read it in a popular blog or you hear it in a hit song or in a classroom or from a trusted friend?

Do you know how to recognize it? Well, I'll tell you, there's only one way to become discerning about lies and that is to become discerning about truth. To get grounded in the truth. You'll never know the truth any better than you know God's word. You'll never know the truth any better than you know Jesus who is the truth. That's why we need to learn to renew our minds, to counsel our hearts according to truth. Whatever is true, think about those things. Philippians 4:8. Armed with the truth, we can do battle against the lies and we can win.

We can be victorious over them. Now, it's not enough to know the truth. We need to learn to love the truth. You see, truth is not only true and right, it is also good and beautiful. And the enemy doesn't want you to believe that. This is something that's been opening my eyes and my heart and in in the years of this true woman movement because we we think of truth, we know it's true, we know it's right, but to believe and grasp that it is good and it is beautiful, it will set you free. I have a friend who's been grappling with the ugly aftermath of years of emotional manipulation and sexual assault at the hands of a trusted Christian leader.

Last week we were talking about the importance of truth. And here's what she said to me. She said, I listened to the wrong voice for so many years. I just wanted a happy ending. I thought I could turn something that was intrinsically evil and could make it something different. And then she said, the beauty of truth is that it brings freedom from confusion and wrong voices. You want to get free from the confusion, free from the wrong voices. Learn to know and love the truth. A few days ago I saw an Instagram post of a dear, precious friend of mine.

She's a 22-year-old young wife. And she posted a picture of herself. And then here's what she wrote. I used to have that body. You know, the one we see every day on Pinterest or on our Instagram feeds, the flat abs, the major thigh gap, and the perfectly toned arms. I used to get comments like, Wow, I never knew how small you were or you're so fit and skinny. I wish I was like that. I had the body I thought I wanted. But I also had no energy and no fun. I shut people out in order to stay on a healthy diet and get an extra hour in at the gym.

I used to put all my value into one thing, being perfect, being good enough. Now, I've been healed by the perfect Savior. The one who has shown me that people are more important than my body. The true health is not obsession or insanity. That loving myself means being in community with others, being vulnerable about my brokenness, and being obsessed with Jesus. She said today, my legs have dimples, my stomach is softer, and my arms look just average. But it's the body I want. The body that reminds me of truth and grace and freedom. She said, I write this to remind everyone of the true value we have.

We are more than our performance, our clothes, and our kale salads. She said, we are loved by Christ and we live to love others. That is the power and beauty of the truth. It has set my friend free. And that same truth will set you free. One of my favorite passages in the Bible is found in the last book of the Bible, Revelation chapter 19. And that's where the apostle John is given a vision. Heaven is opened and John sees a man, capital M, on a white horse. That rider on the horse has many crowns on his head and his piercing eyes shine brilliantly like fire.

And he is clothed in a robe dipped in blood. The armies of heaven are following him on white horses. And together they go forth to battle to assert the reign and rule of God throughout the world, to save and defend the people of God, those who love and hold fast to the truth. And they also go forth to judge and to overcome all of the enemies of God. That is those who traffic in lies and do not love the truth. They go forth for salvation and for judgment, those armies of heaven. And what is the name of the captain of that army?

Well, Revelation 19:11 tells us, He is called faithful and true. Verse 13 says, The name by which he is called is the word of God. And verse 16, on his robe and on his thigh, he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You see the truth that will set you free, the truth that sets me free, the truth that set my 22-year-old young friend free, the truth that is setting my other friend free who's walked through this horrific history of manipulation and abuse. The truth that sets us free is a person.

His name is Jesus. He comes to set the prisoners free. He comes to dry every tear and one day to redeem this whole broken, fallen world when everything broken will be made whole. Every lie will be exposed. Truth will reign and Jesus will reign forever and ever. Let's bow our hearts in prayer. And I want to invite you as we close these moments. I'm going to read just four phrases from the Psalms that are prayers. And I'd like to say each of these phrases and then invite you to pray it out loud with me if this is the prayer of your heart as we start into this conference.

Here's the first one. I have chosen the way of truth. Would you pray it with me? I have chosen the way of truth. Lead me in your truth and teach me. Lead me in your truth and teach me. Send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. And then teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth. And may it be so for each of us. Lord Jesus, we worship you, the way, the truth, and our life. Amen.

Dana Gresh: Amen. Oh, it's been a joy to explore the matchless supremacy of Jesus with you. I am not the truth. You are not the truth. Nancy is not the truth. But Jesus is. That should compel us to worship. And I hope you'll do that this weekend as you gather with your local church family. In the meantime, you can find the full messages from today in the transcript. That's at reviveourhearts.com. I hope Nancy's teaching compels you to fix your eyes on Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life. If you've been challenged or encouraged throughout the Consider Jesus series, I hope you'll also enjoy Nancy's Advent devotional by that same name.

Consider Jesus invites you to lay aside distractions and marvel at the person and work of Christ this Christmas. Through 31 days of devotional content, you'll explore the riches of both his humanity and his deity. We'll send you a copy as our thanks when you donate any amount before the end of the month. To do that, you can visit reviveourhearts.com or call us at 1-800-569-5959. Sometimes when we consider Jesus, we might think of him as the baby in the manger or we might think of his death on the cross. But the Bible teaches he's not only alive, resurrected from the dead, but he's also very much at work today.

Next week Nancy will help us fix our eyes on the ongoing ministry of Jesus and what a comfort that reality is to our souls. Have a wonderful weekend. Worship Jesus with your church family and then be back on Monday for Revive Our Hearts. This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling Women to Freedom, Fullness, and Fruitfulness in Christ.