THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH
[p. 377] THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH
John 14: 14 - 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, 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. The scriptures are authoritative and like the banks to a river, within which the water flows. The Spirit is the truth, and, being in us, we not only have the truth in an objective sense, but also 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”. John 14: 15,16. In dealing with error and darkness, not only have we the authority of Scripture but we have the Spirit of truth, so that we may be 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 Himself here. He is the way, the truth, and the life.
Ques What is the object of our having the Spirit?
JT After His greatness as “another Comforter” and the Spirit of truth, the important thing here is His presence — that He is with us and in us. He is a divine Person, 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 in.
RG He is the power in us and it says “ye shall be my witnesses”.
JT We are coming to that, but these earlier verses [p. 378] relate to His presence. What He does is stated in verse 26 and in chapters 15 and 16. The great fact of His presence here is what I thought should be especially 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 would maintain the truth through those who have come after. It is to those who love the Lord and keep His commandments that He came, and it says, He abideth with you, and shall be in you. The Lord would impress upon us the fact of the Spirit’s presence with us.
Rem That is, a divine Person here.
JT Another Comforter to those who, as having known the Lord, love Him and obey Him; and 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 commandments. Another Comforter would come, at His solicitation, from the Father, who should abide with them and be in them.
DG You mean we should be dependent on Him, and make room for Him and all that He brings 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 to.
JT Yes. “If ye love me keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter”. John 14: 15,16. Then it adds “the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him: for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” John 14: 17.
RW It is a sweet thought that the Lord speaks of [p. 379] another Comforter. He had been really a comfort to the disciples here, now they would have another Comforter.
JT The word “Comforter” means that He is One by our side who takes charge of things for us, as a solicitor takes charge of your affairs better than you can 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 hooks after them unfailingly, and perfectly. Whoever may come and go, this Person remains. He is with us “for ever”; “he abides with you and shall be in you” John 14: 17. He is here in a more intimate way than the Lord was. He is here in the saints; that is the manner of His presence.
Ques Is it the same thought as “if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous”? 1 John 2: 1.
JT Advocate is the same word in the original. As we have One on high looking after our affairs, so we have the Holy Spirit here. It is remarkable that the first thing is that He is here on account of the saints; those who as loving Christ keep His commandments. God thus shows His love for the saints, His care for them.
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 (verse 23). 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 and heard on the mount was translated into a material abode or tabernacle for God. The antitype of that is what Christ was here. He “dwelt (tabernacled) among us” John 1: 14; that is to be discerned spiritually. The [p. 380] 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.
No one but Moses really could construct the tabernacle, for he alone saw the pattern of it. You see pictures of it, and even models of it, but you cannot construct it from the specification alone, that is not enough; there was also a pattern shown.
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 alone saw the pattern. So that making the tabernacle according to the specification only, 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 Yes. It is an attempt to have divine conditions according to specification, but they miss the spirit of it — for that is from 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”, and gave it to Solomon. David, as seen in 1 Chronicles, is head.
Rem Solomon built the house according to what David received by the Spirit. The pattern is one whole.
RF Is the thought here (verse 23) that it is His pleasure to dwell with us? I was thinking of Exodus where it says “Make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them” Exodus 25: 8.
JT That is what He had in mind. “Will God indeed dwell with man?” It was in His heart to do so, but the question is, could man provide conditions?
[p. 381] So having brought the people to Himself, He discloses His mind with regard to them — what He intended them for, the love that He had for them. He proposes, therefore, conditions on which they were to be with Him, and then He directs Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and the elders to go up into the mount, where they saw Him; “and there was under his feet as it were work of transparent sapphire, and as it were the form of heaven for clearness” Exodus 24: 10. They got an impression of God and His living conditions up there. Think of getting a view into heaven and seeing what conditions God lives in. That is the idea. They eat and drink; they are made perfectly free up there. Perfect love casts out fear. Then He takes Moses up and shows him the pattern of the tabernacle, and gives him the specification of it. The people were to supply the material, but Moses was to direct the building of it, because he only had seen the pattern. It is not said that Moses had the pattern, but that it was shown him on the Mount.
Rem The Spirit came at Pentecost when they were all together in one place; dwelling conditions were there.
JT Exactly. They were all together in one place; all were essential to what God had 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 Pentecost was the first time that these conditions had appeared on earth?
JT Yes; all that preceded Pentecost was typical. They were all together in one place and they heard the sound from heaven, “and it filled all the house”, Acts 2: 1. 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. What occurred at Pentecost is worthy of the most careful study. Every believer is essential to what is in His mind.
[p. 382] 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 Spirit either actively or potentially. It is like the perfect holy oblation in its evenness. The Spirit 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 as a dove upon him” Luke 3: 22. 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 was 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 point to conditions that have to be dealt with by fire. The christian is to be rendered practically free from the flesh, and the fire effects that.
Ques 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 the presence, and thirdly the functions of the Holy Spirit?
JT Yes, of course His presence would include what we were speaking of as seen at Pentecost, then verse 26 partly gives what He does. “He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you”. John 14: 26. We have His service: 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 from the Father, by Jesus; then the Father sends Him, as He says, “in my name”, (John 14: 26), showing that the Father in this great action thinks of the name and honour of the Son — a striking illustration of the unity of divine Persons.
[p. 383] From that point of view His office would have to do with what came out in Christ involving His name, so that He teaches us all things and brings to our “remembrance”, as it says, “whatsoever I have said unto you” John 14: 26. It may be assumed 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. 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 it to our remembrance.
Rem One thought in the giving of the Comforter is that a divine Person only is adequate to the pattern as seen in the Lord Himself.
JT 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 a book, but think of all they could have written!
Ques You refer to the written word being like the banks to a river?
JT Yes. It keeps things 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”,
[p. 384] and no one can say Jesus is Lord save by the Spirit; and if you think of the ministry from Paul’s time onward, what a volume there is that is not written at all. But it is built into the saints by the Spirit.
Rem “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches” Revelation 2: 7. Is that what is going on?
JT Yes. 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 saith”.
Rem So that we have something living constantly presented to the saints as a result of the Spirit being here.
Ques What lies between those banks is not stagnant water, but flowing water?
JT That is a great thing to see.
Ques Would you refuse anything outside the banks, these being the limits?
JT Yes. The Holy Spirit would enable us to give a right application to what is written. The enemy could say “it is written”, but he did not give it 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 one great feature of them. The New Testament Scriptures were not available at first. They came in many years later than the beginning of the Spirit’s ministry.
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 the bounds, but your ministry is Christ. Of course, besides being authoritative and corrective, the Scriptures are wonderfully full of material for ministry.
[p. 385] Rem Would you say, speaking of one generation passing and another coming in, that the features of Christ would be in each one?
JT Yes; and this shows the fulness and variety there is. No two christians are alike.
Rem The traditions of the Jews had displaced what was according to the truth.
JT Yes, largely; and the same thing is true in christendom.
Ques In what sense did the disciples know the Spirit? (verse 17).
JT 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.
Rem The Spirit that displayed Christ for the Old Testament saints is the same Spirit that is come now.
JT Quite so. What the Holy Spirit says in the Old Testament is given a present application by Him.
Ques Would you link with the Spirit the thought of testimony?
JT Yes. 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” John 15: 26. There you have the Holy Spirit as having been 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 (John 15: 26).
Ques Does “whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak” John 16: 13, 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. And that scripture shows the lowly place the Spirit has taken.
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 [p. 386] natural thoughts, free to sit down and let the Holy Spirit make suggestions to us. We thus get impressions from Him. Although He knows everything as a divine Person it is what He hears that He speaks, and His thought is to bring us into intimacy with the Father and the Son. How wonderful this is!
Ques Would you say that a great point is that affection for Christ is preserved here in the church?
JT Quite so. That is a great feature. Sometimes you hear people say there is nothing new 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 There should be no difficulty in recognising what is of the Spirit.
JT He is the Spirit of truth, and you feel you are in relation to what is true in listening to what He ministers. As “in the Spirit” you have a right estimate of everything.
Rem, The church is always passing through phases, therefore there must be a fresh ministry to meet them.
JT Yes, and there is nothing speculative about it; it is by the Spirit of truth. It carries conviction. What you get in chapter 26 is that the Spirit brings into the 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 something written but it is something shown.
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,
[p. 387] 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 shows where God is. The presence of the Spirit here in the saints is the undeniable witness to the fact that God approves them and condemns the world.