THE TRUTH MAINTAINED BY THE SPIRIT
[p. 376] THE TRUTH MAINTAINED BY THE SPIRIT
I refer to this scripture especially in regard to the Spirit, the Spirit being the only guarantee for the maintenance of the truth. We have lived to see that creeds, however orthodox, do not suffice. The maintenance of the truth depends upon the Spirit, and whilst He remains here, there will be a witness to the truth, and that not in any mere limited way, but to it in its entirety, for He is said to be “the Spirit of truth”, meaning that the truth as a whole marks His activities and teaching in the assembly.
The Lord is said to be “the truth”. He says so Himself: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life”. John 14:6. He is “the truth”, as we may say, objectively, and the Spirit is the truth subjectively in the saints (1 John 5: 6). We have to distinguish between the truth and the revelation of God; “the truth” involves adjustment, and it is also a divine test. Every part of the physical system depends upon truth, so the Lord coming into this world is “the truth”; everything is tested by Him as viewed thus. Everything is necessarily tested by Him, and all that is out of accord with the truth, that is, not of Christ viewed in that light, must disappear, for nothing can remain under God’s eye that is not of Christ. In that living Man here there was a perfect test for everything; centuries have rolled away, but this remains; God will have all to be conformed to the truth.
But then there is the other side, and that is the Spirit. “The Spirit is the truth”, and as He remains here there is the maintenance of the truth. In the parable in Matthew 25 we have the wise virgins, and the foolish; the latter are not called evil, as the servant in the previous chapter, but what marked [p. 377] them as foolish was that they had no oil; in other words, they did not have the Spirit — the Spirit was neglected. With many who are not characteristically evil or opposed to Christ, there has been a neglect of the Spirit, and hence when a test comes and the truth is attacked, there is deficiency, there is inability to meet the attack; and besides that, there is not power to go on to meet the Lord. Their folly, therefore, is disclosed. “Articles of religion [or faith]”, as they are called, do not suffice; the folly is seen in neglecting the Spirit. But then the prudent virgins had oil in their vessels; they were not neglectful of that, although they had slumbered like the others. They had all slumbered and slept, but the midnight cry, “Behold, the bridegroom”, Matthew 25:6 brought out the affection that existed. There was genuine affection for Christ, and the cry brought that to light. Then, having the oil, they were ready and went in with the Lord to the wedding feast. God has called attention to the Spirit, and He has come to acquire a place among the saints, and the result is the maintenance of the truth not some isolated part of it, but the truth. The Holy Spirit operates with a view to the maintenance of the truth, for He is it.
Now when the Lord says, “I am the root and the offspring of David”, Revelation 22:16, I believe He would impress upon us the importance of gathering up things. The Lord alludes to Himself as the Root of David, and I think we have there the whole history of the testimony. You can have nothing before the root. The Root of David goes back a long way. Abraham is not the Root of David, nor Isaac, nor Jacob, although in Matthew 1:2 it is said, “Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob”, etc., but the truth is that the Root of David was Christ. Marvellous statement! “I am the root”, He says, “of David”. Now the Lord had said in His ministry, having concluded His instruction in regard of the kingdom,
[p. 378] that every scribe who is instructed into the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old. The old things refer to the Root. As we recognise the Holy Spirit, there is the linking up from the very origin, we go back to the beginning. Luke speaks about being acquainted with things “from the origin”. He refers to the beginning of things in the history of the Lord (Luke 1: 1 - 4). John in his epistle speaks about “that which was from the beginning”, 1 John 1:1 but in his gospel he says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. John 1:1. In the last passage we see how the Spirit of God guards the Person of Christ. He goes back to the beginning, not to the outset of Christianity, not to the beginning of eternal life on earth, but to the Person as in the Godhead at the beginning of God’s holy operations. But then the Holy Spirit gives us through Matthew the genealogy of Christ, and what strikes one in that is the patience, the accuracy with which He pursues the subject of genealogy in its remarkable course through Old Testament times. We get a woman like Tamar — the line is through her; through Rahab, through a Moabitish woman, Ruth, and through “her that had been the wife of Urias”. Matthew 1:6. The Lord is thus shown to be the Offspring of David, but He is also the Root of David. John’s gospel explains the latter. The assembly understands John and Matthew. She recognises Him who is the Root and Offspring of David; by the Spirit she understands that the Root and the Offspring are in one Person.
It is remarkable that in the unfolding of the gospel in the epistle to the Romans this very truth is stated as to the Lord being of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power (Romans 1: 3, 4); the object being that the believer should have these truths firmly fixed in his soul from the beginning. As receiving the gospel [p. 379] thus announced, the Lord has His place in our hearts, and we form the assembly in which the Holy Spirit dwells, in which He speaks, and in which He operates, so that at the end He has the assembly with Him, and He has our hearts with Him in the full intelligence and truth, of the testimony, that is to say, the assembly understands that He is the Root of David and the Offspring of David; she understands the first chapter of Matthew, and she understands the First Book of Chronicles. The Holy Spirit brings the line right down; God preserved the vessels through whom the line came, and so our Lord was born of a prepared vessel.
The Holy Spirit lingers around the circumstances of the birth of Christ. The holiness of the scene repels the evil workings of man’s mind and preserves the truth, and the wonderful fact is established that the Son of God became a Man. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us”. John 1:14. The foul suggestions of the enemy have been of late voiced by his agents in many districts; these are not new, but the Spirit of God foresaw such efforts and provided for their rebuke. “That holy thing”, the angel says, “which shall be born of thee shall be called Son of God”. Luke 1:35. The truth regarding the Person and birth of our Lord is to be preserved in priestly vigilance, “and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death”. Numbers 18:7. As priests, those who form the assembly know the truth of the Lord’s Person, hence the assembly knows who it is when the Lord announces Himself as the “root and offspring of David”. “The Spirit and the bride say, Come”. Revelation 22:17. The Spirit has got her with Him in all the intelligence and understanding of the truth of the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Root and the Offspring of David, as the One from whom David sprang, and as the true Heir of David’s throne. It is beautifully put in 1 Chronicles 29: 23 that David’s throne is Jehovah’s throne. “Solomon sat on the throne of Jehovah”. And the assembly understands this by the Spirit; she knows that the Lord is coming to take up the throne of the world. We have it in Revelation 5:1, “Him that sat upon the throne”. The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Lamb as slain, is He who takes the book — think of the dignity of that! He takes the book, and He opens the seals one after another. He will clear the scene of all that is contrary and then He will sit upon the throne, for the kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. The assembly is in the intelligence of all this; she recognises “the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star. The Spirit and the bride say, Come”. Revelation 22: 16,17. It is a wonderful note of love and intelligence at the end.