THE ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE TRUTH
THE ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE TRUTH
There is nothing in the present day more patent than the inaccuracy or want of precision in the knowledge of the truth, even when there is an avowed acceptance of it. Every faithful one feels, both with regard to himself [p. 214] and others, the great need of watching that one’s views and statements should be derived from the word of God; and the fact that in the last days (2 Timothy 3) there will be a class of persons “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” — that is, a clear knowledge of it — is enough to awaken our most earnest attention to the subject, and to make us watch diligently the mode in which this harm occurs. We cannot be too often reminded that there is no evil dominant at any time to which the saints are not exposed. The great aim of Satan, the god of this world, is to hinder and contravene the work of God in the souls of the saints, and it is his masterpiece to enable men to imitate the truth, as the magicians did in the days of Moses, that souls may not be brought under the power and action of the word of God. Since Satan will succeed in having a class of learners who never reach to the knowledge of the truth, let us see what is the only true way for us, and also mark how and where this dreaded leaven finds an entrance.
Truth cannot be acquired by any human means; it is imparted by the Spirit of God, and therefore it is in harmony with and helpful to every bit of truth already received; and all thus imparted, however small in measure, is truth and is known as such. The Spirit has taught it. “Ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him”. All God’s children are taught of Him. “Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me”. The word of God is the means by which the instruction is communicated. The power is the Spirit of God. All that is communicated by the Spirit of God is truth. The believer has the certainty in himself of what is true, and he is enjoined to continue in the things which he has learned and has been assured of. The Spirit of God gives the right sense to the new [p. 215] man; there is no error or inaccuracy there. Where this want of precision occurs is when the natural mind attempts to be the expositor of a sentiment, even true in itself; hence, if the natural mind has thoughts and predilections, there will be danger lest the word be neither clearly understood nor accurately expressed. The difficulty with regard to the natural mind is twofold; one, to divest it of its preconceived notions, which are peculiarly confusing in a religious age and in the midst of approved systems; and the other, so to occupy it with the true that there is no room for the false. We suffer in both ways; on the one hand there is some accepted tradition which sways us, because the conscience has been taught to regard it as sacred; and on the other there is so transient a glimpse of the true that it is not sufficient to control and imbue the mind. While the first is allowed to remain unchallenged and uninvestigated, there must be a great hindrance to the clear apprehension of truth; and though one might be learning for ever, still with this flaw or impediment there would be no progress. The seven thin ears would devour the seven full ears. This we know was the great difficulty with the Jewish saints, and if it was so pernicious and hindering with them, when there was a divine sanction, how much more so now to any who have imbibed what I may call a superstition. Everything which has weight with the conscience and which is not of the word of God is a superstition. The great lesson of the Acts of the Apostles is how in every way Israel had refused the proffered mercy of God, and was therefore set aside according to the words of Isaiah, “Make the heart of this people fat”. This goes deeper and further than many suppose, because, when one has the sanction of the conscience, it is wonderful to what extremes the most devoted will yield. See Barnabas, the son of consolation; he swerves from the right line because of his Jewish bias, and breaks with his fellow labourer Paul. We are not sufficiently alive to the [p. 216] force and influence of established convictions and how detrimental they are to the acknowledgment of the truth, or what a time it takes to eradicate opinions which have obtained a place in the conscience as sacred. The first thing, as the apostle exhorts, is not to be conformed to this evil age, but to be transformed by the renewing of the mind, that we may be able to prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. The greatest evil perpetrated by Satan has been the leavening of the meal, or the blending of human ideas with divine truth, not denying the truth, which at once would alarm a saint, but making additions to it which deprive it of its power. Hence one of the greatest difficulties of saints in the present day is to distinguish what is simply truth from the opinions of men by which it has been perverted. It is evident then that the first thing, and, considering how we are exposed to the terrible influences of the last days, the most needed thing, is that every opinion should be examined under the searching scrutiny of the word of God. Truth can bear to be thus examined, superstition cannot. The second is that the truth presented in the word of God should be kept exclusively before the mind, as Paul says to Timothy, “Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all”. The mind is to be fixed on it, and no one obtains a clear and distinct impression of any truth, but by exercise of some kind or other. Take either Isaac, when he trembled with an exceeding great trembling under the conviction that he had been swayed by his own feelings, and diverted from the mind of God, as to the application of the blessing (Genesis 27: 33); or take Moses, forty days in the mount, without food, in order to be fully instructed in that which he had to copy on earth (Exodus 24: 18); or take any servant of God, a Gideon, or a Paul; all and each have been exercised in a peculiar way, according to the nature of the truth revealed. But there is this one character in each,
they have the sense of God’s presence in such a way that there is not room for anything human or of man’s mind; then God could write His own mind without any interruption, and this is the only real learning of Christ now.
The mind is an organ to receive and express impressions, communicated through the word of God, and not to originate any; and therefore in the same scripture, where we are warned of the class of learners who will never reach the truth clearly, the apostle reminds Timothy of the only means of preservation; namely, first that he had fully followed the apostle’s doctrine, and next that from a child he had known the Holy Scriptures, which were able to take him wise unto salvation through faith that is in Christ Jesus. The word of God is the standard and warrant for everything, and that which can alone furnish the man of God thoroughly.
Now before the worst state of things comes, there will be first a turning away the ear from the truth and a turning to myths. This is the way the leaven begins to work. The truth is not openly denied, but there is a turning away the ear from it and preferring myths instead. This is very ominous and painful in this day; and it is not only apparent in first principles, but it is almost unaccountable how the deepest truths can be written and spoken of in such a manner as to leave out the speciality taught in Scripture with respect to them. The glory, and our connection with it, has been dilated on at great length, and yet without any reference to Paul in the whole statement! Communion with Christ has been pressed in the most affecting terms, and yet the subject which is nearest and dearest to the heart of Christ — that of all others which the one really in communion with Him would be led into, and which was the first subject with the apostle Paul — is not once alluded to. Again, salvation through the sacrifice of Christ has been preached, while righteousness is only provided through the imputation of Christ’s [p. 218] life and obedience before redemption was made, or by keeping the law after one has been forgiven; as if there were no such thing as justification of life, or Christ in me, the body dead because of sin, and the Spirit life because of righteousness. Dying to sin is spoken of as if it were an actual work in the flesh, and of gradual attainment, instead of its being our standing in Christ, and our power of walk, as we abide in the Spirit and not in the flesh, the flesh being suppressed by the developed power of the Spirit. I quote these examples in order to convince souls how the deepest subjects in the word of God may be divested of their true character by even ordinarily devoted men. And now, as the day becomes darker, we need to be more on the watch lest we fall in any measure under the influence of the Jannes and Jambres of these days, and discover that, with every effort to acquire, we have not come up to any clear apprehension of the truth; for I must repeat that, though we may not, through mercy, drop into their vortex, yet we shall suffer from the influences of it, if not preserved fully. There is no one at all conversant with the progress and extent and variety of opinions around, even among saints, but will feel how grievous it is that truths should be nominally held, which are so interwoven with human ideas that they have lost their sanctifying power over the conscience. It is the truth which sanctifies and nothing else. Vitiate the truth and the power to sanctify is gone. As a bee deprived of its sting, though still alive, is powerless, it has lost its sting; so when the truth is leavened, the virtue of it is gone. Every one who has any real interest for the church of God must feel how difficult it is to reach the saints of this day; for while there are many very true and devoted, there are many who will not give themselves time to compare and analyse respected opinions with the word of God, and thus separate the precious from the vile. They are too busy, too satisfied with their own usefulness, and [p. 219] the testimony of an approving conscience; and there is no close earnest searching of the word, no strict following, like Timothy, of Paul’s doctrine, no knowledge of the Holy Scriptures with the key, Paul’s doctrine, which alone can elucidate them. On the contrary, the mass of saints are like those of Asia in Paul’s day, they literally turn away from Paul. The first mark of declension is that the ear is turned from the truth, and when this is so, all knowledge of the scripture is little else than “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth”. The activity of the mind of man in the last days opens out a wide field for Satan to act in. The mind is acted on on one side, and the feelings on the other; and these, though apparently different lines, will co-operate, because they really have the same source, even man in the flesh. Covertly and studiously to set aside Christ is the great design of Satan, and the only way in which he can succeed in doing this is by inducing one to contribute to the elevation of man in the flesh. If a saint is beguiled into this snare, there is then no check to the purpose of Satan; and the one who ought to oppose him becomes his coadjutor. When the church drops into this as in Laodicea, it will no longer be a vessel suited for Christ; then, characteristically, the church will be both diminutive and effeminate in nature; “silly women ... ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth”.
The Lord lead us all into purpose of heart to “buy the truth, and sell it not”, that we may be sanctified through the truth, even as He is.