THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH
[p. 421] THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH
John 14:15-17; John 14:25,26; John 15:26,27; John 16:7-14
JT These passages treat of the Spirit, a divine Person here, under the title of Comforter — another Comforter — as with the saints and in them, to render them independent of the world. The Spirit of truth, as He is called in this section, is particularly important in view of the error we have to encounter at the present time. This scripture is authoritative and like the banks to a river. The Spirit is the truth and in a substantive way, so that we not only have the truth in an objective sense, but in a subjective way; He is the Spirit of truth. I thought that we might first dwell on the fact that He is here on the ground of the love of the saints seen in keeping the Lord’s commandments. “If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will beg the Father and he will give you another comforter” it says. In dealing with error and darkness not only have we the authority of Scripture but we have the Spirit of truth, so that we are found free from the general breakdown in a positive way.
JM'L Would that be in view of what was to come out further after the Lord had gone?
JT Yes. The Lord was the truth here Himself. He is the way, the truth, and the life.
Ques What is the object of our having the Spirit?
JT The first thing here is His presence — that He is with us and in us as another Comforter — a divine Person here, and that is a great fact and an immense stay in view of the changing conditions — godly men and women passing off the scene who have stood for God, and younger ones coming [p. 422] in.
RG He is the power in us and it says, “Ye shall be my witnesses” Acts 1:8 We are coming to that, but first of all the earlier verses relate to His presence. What he does is further stated in verse 26 and twice in chapters 15 and 16. But the great fact of His presence here is what I thought should be laid hold of, His presence here in the changing conditions that mark the whole dispensation — one generation passing away and another coming in. You are made to feel the losses, the voids created by one and another passing away. They held things for God, and the Spirit of truth, another Comforter, is present at the Lord’s solicitation. It is to those who love the Lord and keep His commandments that He came, and it says, “He abides with you, and shall be in you” The first thing the Lord would impress upon us is the fact of the Spirit’s presence.
Rem That is a divine Person here.
JT That is right, and another Teacher, another Comforter to those who, as having known the Lord, love Him and obey Him. They are not to be deprived of Him. That is a fact to be borne in mind; they were deprived of the Lord’s presence in this scene, but He enlarges in these chapters as to the Spirit’s presence, on the ground of their love and their keeping His commandment. Another Comforter would come at His solicitation from the Father who should abide with them and be in them. I think the first thing is to lay hold of that fact in the light of the absence of Christ, and of the changing conditions.
DG You mean we should be dependent on Him, and make room for Him and all that comes in.
JT That is what would result from the recognition of the fact that He is actually here. It is a great stay to the heart to begin with.
DG It is important that there was a company here that He could come [p. 423] to.
JT That is the first thing of all. “If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will beg the Father, and he will give you another Comforter” Then it adds, “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see him nor know him; but ye know him, for he abides with you, and shall be in you”
RW It is a sweet thought that the Lord speaks of another Comforter. He had been really a comfort to the disciples here, now they would have another Comforter, one to comfort them!
JT The word ‘Comforter’ means that He is the One who takes charge of things just as a solicitor takes charge of your affairs better than you can do it yourself.
RW Is it not to comfort your heart?
JT It is not quite that thought. The affairs of God and the affairs of the saints are in the hands of One who looks after them unfailingly, and perfectly. Whoever may come and go, this Person remains. He is here for ever and He abides, and, abiding with them, He would be in them in that intimate way. He is here in a more intimate way, really, than the Lord was. He is here in the saints; that is the manner of His being here.
RW It is dependent on our love and obedience.
JT Yes, that is what it says.
Ques Is it the same thought as “if any one sin we have a patron with the Father, Jesus Christ [the] righteous” 1 John 2:1 It is the very same word.
Rem It is suggestive in that way of one taking charge of our affairs.
JT As we have One on high looking after our affairs so we have the Holy Spirit here. It is a remarkable thing that the first thing is that it is on their account. He is here on account of the saints, because it is a question of love — God showing His [p. 424] love for the saints, His care for them. He is not sent here on His own account, or His own interests.
Rem It is dependent on an answer to the movements of Christ here.
JT Well, it is very touching that He puts it on the ground of their love to Him.
RF Does it suggest tabernacle conditions?
JT It does. Tabernacle conditions are in view in this chapter. The Father and the Son come in to abide with us under certain conditions, that is to say those who keep the word of Christ. Keeping the word is being in accord with the expression of God’s mind. What was said on the mount to Moses was an expression of God’s mind translated into an abode. What Moses saw on the mount was translated into a material abode and a tabernacle, only it is not only the actual words but what Moses saw. The antitype of that is what Christ was here. He “tabernacled among us” That is to be discerned spiritually, but the specifications of the tabernacle correspond to the Lord’s teaching. So He says, “If any one love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him” John 14:23 The tabernacle is seen there. The word enables us to provide conditions for God to live in, and it is brought down to the smallest limit, one person. Through keeping the word of Christ there are conditions in which God can abide.
No one but Moses really could construct the tabernacle. No one can make a model of the tabernacle. You see pictures of it, and even models of it, but you cannot construct it from that. We have the specification, but that is not enough.
Rem Love to Christ would be the evidence that the material was there.
JT That is the idea exactly; the material was furnished by the people, but no one but Moses could construct the tabernacle. He only had the pattern.
[p. 425] So that making the tabernacle according to the specification is like a man who has not the Spirit of God nor an apprehension of Christ by the Spirit, trying to carry out divine injunctions. He cannot do it.
Rem Christendom is the result of that.
JT Exactly. It is an attempt to have divine conditions according to specification, but they miss the spirit of the thing — the pattern shown on the mount, and that is a spiritual apprehension. Only one who has the Spirit of God can provide conditions for God.
Ques Did David see what the temple was to be as well as have the specifications?
JT Yes. He had the pattern “by the Spirit” Solomon did not have that, but David had it. David was the head.
Rem Solomon built it according to David’s specifications. The pattern is one whole; you must have the idea as one thing.
RF Is the thought here that it is His pleasure to dwell there? I was thinking of Exodus where it says, “Make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them” Exodus 25:8 That is what He had in mind. “But will God indeed dwell with man” 2 Chronicles 6:18 that was what was in His heart to do. But the question is, could man provide conditions? So having brought the people into the wilderness He brought them to Himself, and He discloses His mind with regard to them — what He intended them for, the love that He had for them; for He would do His best for them. He proposes therefore conditions on which they were to be with Him, and then He takes Moses and the elders up the mount so that they should see Him. It is not specifications first; it is to see God. So they saw the God of Israel, and it was under His feet as it were work of transparent sapphire like the body of heaven [p. 426] for clearness. They got an impression of God and His living conditions up there. Think of what these are! Think of getting a view into heaven and seeing what conditions God lives in! That is the idea. Then Moses and seventy of the elders of Israel are taken up, and they see this and they eat and drink; they are made perfectly free there. Perfect love casts out fear. Then He takes Moses up and shows him the pattern of the tabernacle, and then gives him the specifications of it. Then Moses comes down and the people were to supply the material, but Moses was to build it, because he had seen the pattern.
Rem The Spirit came at Pentecost when they were all together in one place.
JT That is exactly what happened. They were all together in one place; that is, as if God were to say, ‘Are you all here, because you are all essential to what I have in mind?’ No one is to be absent. If God has converted me, He has converted me for a purpose, and I am essential to that purpose.
JJG Would you say that this is the first time that these conditions had appeared on earth?
JT Yes; all that preceded Pentecost was merely typical. They were all together in one place and they heard the sound from heaven, “and it filled all the house” Acts 2:2 They were all there and the house was filled with the sound from heaven, and there appeared unto them cloven tongues as of fire which sat on each of them. God reminds us that He takes account of every one; every one is severally taken account of by Him. The greatness of Pentecost is worthy of the most careful study. It indicates what God had in His mind. Every believer is essential to what is in His mind.
[p. 428] Ques What is the difference between the Spirit as a dove, and as tongues of fire?
JT The first has reference to the personal excellence of Christ. There was nothing to disturb the [p. 427] Spirit either actively or potentially. It is like the perfect holy oblation in its evenness, meaning that there was nothing to disturb the Spirit of God — nothing in the least degree. He finds a resting-place there. Noah’s dove went out and found no resting-place for the sole of her foot. That is typical of the Spirit till Jesus came to earth, then the Spirit comes in a bodily form and abides upon Him. But at Pentecost you have potential disturbance in the fact that those on whom He came were in a mixed condition, that is to say, sin dwelling in them as in us; they were men of like passions with ourselves. Though the Lord had wrought with them, and cleansed them, and prepared them for this, yet the parted tongues of fire points to conditions that have to be dealt with by fire. It is especially in our tongues. You can see in Romans 3 what kind of communications issue from our tongues naturally. Thirteen different things the Lord speaks of in Mark 7 as proceeding out of man’s heart, and these things come out largely through the vocal apparatus. The Christian is to be rendered wholly free from all that. There is to be no corrupt communication issuing from his mouth, and the fire secures that for God.
Rem Do I understand that what is first on your mind is the fact of the presence of the Holy Spirit, then the conditions necessary for that presence, and thirdly the functions of the Holy Spirit?
JT Yes. So that the first great thing is His presence in verses 15 - 17. Of course that would include what we were speaking of at Pentecost, then verses 25, 26 give what He does. “He shall teach you all things, and will bring to your remembrance all the things which I have said to you” We have His function: He teaches us all things and brings to remembrance all things the Lord said. Teaching all things necessarily makes us independent of man’s teaching.
Ques What is the difference between the Father sending and “Whom I will send”?
JT First He is sent as asked for by Jesus; then the Father sends Him, as He says, “in my name” that is verse 26, showing that the Father thinks of the name and honour of the Son — a striking illustration of the unity of divine Persons. From that point of view His office would have to do with what came out in Christ involving His name, so that He “teaches all things and brings to remembrance” as it says, “all the things which I have said to you” It may be argued by some that the gospel is the record of all that the Lord said, but it is only what is necessary as an authoritative statement that is written. The gospels are by no means all that He said. In making a book God has never had volume in mind; it has never been His thought to enlarge beyond what is necessary in what is written. All that is necessary is there, not all that could be there. This very gospel reminds us that the world itself would not contain the books that could be written. No man could write the life of Jesus; only the Spirit of God could do that, and it is an authoritative record; there is enough in it in the way of authority. As regards volume, there is that which lies in the Spirit, and it is beyond anything that man has any conception of. The Holy Spirit is here to bring to remembrance, as the Lord says, “all the things which I have said to you”
Ques Is the thought in the giving of the Comforter that a divine Person only is adequate to the pattern as seen in the Lord Himself?
JT Yes. And He only could bring to remembrance all that the Lord said. Even if you take an ordinary man, how much he says from the time he begins to speak till he dies! But then, think of the ministry of the Lord! The Bible does not profess to record all these words.
Ques Is the authority because He is Son of [p. 429] God?
JT Yes; what is written is authoritative, and we can appeal to that. The Lord appealed to it. But there was much in the Old Testament that was not written. Take, for instance, the ministries of Elijah and Elisha; neither of them wrote books, but think of all they said for God!
AA You refer to the written word being like the banks to a river?
JT Yes. It keeps the thing within divinely appointed limits. The Holy Spirit operates within those banks, so to speak; so you can always refer to the Scriptures for authority. The ministry of the Spirit, however, is going on all the time. He is always operating in relation to what is written, and He brings out much more than is written.
Ques Could you speak to the Father and the Son by the Spirit only?
JT Yes. By the Spirit we cry “Abba, Father” and no one can say Jesus is Lord save by the Spirit; and if you think of the ministry from Paul’s time onwards, what a volume there is that is not written at all! But it is built into the saints by the Spirit.
Rem “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies” Revelation 2:7 Is that what is going on?
JT That is the thing. Notice it is in the present tense. What the Lord said is written down in these messages, but what the Spirit says is not written down it is “what the Spirit says” Revelation 2:7 So that we have something living constantly presented to the saints as a result of the Spirit being here?
AA What lies between those banks is not stagnant water, but flowing water?
JT That is a great thing to see.
AA Would you refuse anything outside the banks, these being [p. 430] the limits?
JT The Holy Spirit would enable us to give a right and proper application to what is written. The enemy could say “it is written” but he did not give a right application. The Lord gives a proper application of the Scriptures.
Ques Thus all ministry can be tested by the Scriptures?
JT That is the value of them. The New Testament scriptures were not available at first. The written word came in many years later; the thing itself was there first.
Rem I was thinking that when the roll was read (Luke 4), the Lord gave the sense.
JT But remember that you are not ministering Scripture, but ministering Christ. You get the basis of your ministry in the Scriptures, and you are kept within bounds, but your ministry is Christ.
Rem Would you say, speaking of one generation passing and another coming in, that the features of Christ would be in each one?
JT It shows the fulness of the thing, the wonderful volume of what lies in the Spirit. There are no two Christians alike.
Rem I suppose that what was in the previous dispensation was that the traditions of the fathers had displaced what was according to the truth.
JT Yes, largely. They did have some things that were true. They could tell for instance where the Lord should be born. They understood them to a point.
Ques In what sense was it that the Lord said they knew the Spirit?
JT Because the Spirit was there in Christ with them. He came down there. John the baptist saw Him come. The Lord credits them with this knowledge. He should be in them and with them, as He says.
[p. 431] Rem The Spirit that displayed Christ for the Old Testament saints is the same Spirit that is come now.
JT Quite. What the Holy Spirit says in the Old Testament is given a present application by Him.
Ques Would you link up with the Spirit the thought of comfort and testimony? Is not that the thought in chapters 15 and 16?
JT That is right. He brings to our remembrance what the Lord said. The Lord says later, “When the Comforter is come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes forth from with the Father, he shall bear witness concerning me” There you have the Holy Spirit as peculiarly occupied with the Father. He comes forth from with the Father, showing that He is competent to make known all the Father’s feelings and affections with regard to Christ. If you want to get a right view of Christ, get what the Father thinks of Him; and the Holy Spirit in this passage (chapter 15:26,27) is occupied with the Father particularly. It should read “from with the Father” I do not know why the ‘with’ should be left out in this last edition. It is a strengthening thought, and you may be sure you get the Father’s thoughts and feelings about Christ in the witness of the Holy Spirit. The disciples had been with Him from the beginning and could bear witness to what they saw, but the Holy Spirit is with the Father, and He is the best judge. The Holy Spirit coming out in that way gives the Father’s feelings and thoughts, which is the highest witness as to Christ.
Ques Does “whatsoever he shall hear he shall speak” mean that what is between the Father and the Son about the saints, and what the Father thinks about Christ, the Holy Spirit communicates?
JT That is right. It is what He hears as communications given to Him.
[p. 432] Ques Is it by the Spirit that we get the Father’s feelings and thoughts of Christ?
JT Surely. It is a great thing to be free; free from natural thoughts, free to sit down and let the Holy Spirit make suggestions to us. We might get impressions from Him. He has come out from with the Father and now He has first knowledge here, because he is in the saints. He knows everything intimately, and His thought is to bring us into intimacy with the Father and the Son — a wonderful thing to be brought into! If you are able just to let yourself go, and be free from natural things and let the Holy Spirit make suggestions to you about the Father and the Son and about Christ, you get enlargement.
Ques Would you say that a great point is that affection for Christ is preserved here in the assembly?
JT Quite. That is a great feature. Sometimes you hear people say there is nothing new now since those whom God used in the last century to recover the truth fell asleep; but that is only to slight the presence of the Holy Spirit, because He is here in the saints, and you get things coming out constantly. It may come through a sister. She may only make a remark, but it is spiritual, and some brother takes it up and enlarges upon it.
Rem So there should be no difficulty in locating the Spirit.
JT He is the Spirit of truth. You feel you are in relation to what is true; you are sure of the thing. You have a right estimate of everything.
Rem The assembly is always passing through phases, therefore there must be a fresh ministry to meet it!
JT Yes, and there is nothing speculative about it; it is by the Spirit of truth. It carries conviction. Now what you get in chapter 16 is the same Spirit still who witnesses of Christ in the most perfect way [p. 433] as having been with the Father, but He brings into this world a demonstration of certain things that are of the utmost importance to the saints — a demonstration of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. This being brought in is of immense advantage to us. It is not only spoken of in Scripture; it is not only something written but it is something shown, something illustrated that you can take account of.
Ques Is the demonstration of sin in the lives of the saints?
JT Well, it is what the Holy Spirit brought about at Pentecost. The issue had been between the Jews and Christ. The presence of Christ here made the issue, and God decided it. How did He decide it? By the gift of the Spirit! He brought in a demonstration of sin; the Jesus that was put on the cross was God’s Son, and the Jews did not believe on Him; the presence of the Holy Spirit here was a demonstration of that. And so of righteousness; the man they considered a malefactor was received up into heaven. He was with the Father. And of judgment, because the prince of this world was judged. The issue today is between the saints and the world, as it was then between Christ and the world, and the Spirit is the answer. The presence of the Spirit here in the saints is the undeniable witness to the fact that God approves them and condemns the world.