LIGHT, TRUTH AND PURITY

LIGHT, TRUTH AND PURITY

John 3: 21; John 8: 30 - 32; 2 Corinthians 7: 1

J. S. Ephgrave As we have been able, brethren, to follow the course of our enquiry yesterday and today we cannot fail to have noticed the frequent allusions to light and the truth and purity and one has put these few verses together in the hope that the Spirit may register something with us in relation to these three matters, so that we do not remain barren or unfruitful, but we become marked by fertility that in our several places, where we live, we proceed on this substantial highway, coming to the light and being set free by the truth and purifying ourselves.

It is to be observed that the circumstances connected with these scriptures are peculiarly diverse, and that makes them all the more interesting to us.

Our first scripture is probably in the setting of a dialogue between Jesus and Nicodemus, and the great matter for such a man as Nicodemus is to understand that now that Jesus Christ has come in flesh all the system with which he was connected is morally displaced and terminated.

And so the Lord puts this word to him, “he that practises the truth comes to the light, that his works may be manifested that they have been wrought in God.” Nicodemus is not here. Jesus is not here in the same way, but the Spirit is here and the Scriptures are here and the Spirit would use the Scriptures, brethren, tonight to make His voice heard by us, as to this matter of practising the truth. For it is to be practised and as we are ready to do that we are happy to come to the light, so that all about us may be manifested as being connected with God.

Something was said very strikingly this morning in relation to God, that the truth, and the light, have in mind that we are on the best of terms with God Himself. And that is a great matter for creatures like ourselves to think of, that it is within our reach to be on the best possible terms with God Himself by way of this principle of practising the truth and coming to the light.

Now the next incident is more public and we might say the Lord is in the setting of addressing a number of people and He selects for His focal words those who believed Him.

Now we might all say here tonight, thank God for it, that we do believe Him, and this is a great matter, that is “If ye abide in my word.” This matter of “abiding,” this feature of fixity, to which reference has been made, brethren, is of all importance in these closing dark and morally dismal days and our only safety lies in abiding in the expressed mind of God. That is what the Lord Jesus is presenting to these people. He says “ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.”

There is power in the truth brethren, as we move on this line to liberate us from all that is displeasing to God and all that is in the way of our being fully here in relation to His pleasure, so that one would covet for oneself to be on this line of abiding in His word and being truly one of His disciples and being in this freedom, so that nothing holds one outside the circle of the truth.

Much has been said in recent times about our associations and relationships, but the Lord brings it into peculiar definiteness here as He brings the truth forward as the great power for our liberation from all these things.

Now in the third scripture it is part of a letter addressed to the saints in a certain place, and something is put upon us now in relation to purity. Ministry has been given, promises have been set out and involved in them is the great possibility of God Himself walking amongst us, being with us, finding His pleasure in being near to us, and the word comes now - “Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us purify ourselves,” as though the Spirit of God is putting an emphasis on the ability that is with us to take this matter up and see to it that we act with ourselves, in such a way, that there is nothing about us that is in conflict with the light or the truth.

So that this matter of holiness is perfected in “God’s fear.” One feels the importance of these words, dear brethren, and they have been summed up in the verse of our hymn ‘The truth’s pure light would we pursue,’ (158:3) and the call today is for the pursuit of what is positive, so that there is more for God in our day than there has ever been before. More in volume, because there is more people, but more in quality, because the Spirit has a right-of-way with us, but much depends on ourselves as to what we are prepared to do as in the joy of what is pledged to us, on the line of promise.

I just felt free to put these scriptures together in that simple way, trusting they may be of service to all of us.