THE LOVE OF THE TRUTH
I have a simple impression, dear brethren, as to the attractiveness of the truth. The truth is not attractive to the natural man, nor can it ever be. Men go to theology classes to study the Bible, to study Christianity, but they will never understand the truth using the mind of man. Is the truth attractive to me? I thought of the scripture today about buying the truth and selling it not (Prov.23:23). The truth should mean something to us. We expend something to gain it, and as we gain it, we will seek more of it, because it is endless in one sense, and the great thing is that it is all in Jesus; “as the truth is in Jesus”, Eph.4:21. So every believer here who loves the Lord, and I am sure everyone here does, knows something of the truth, but it is a wonderful thing to understand and to seek to be built up in it. As that happens, you are not turned aside, but you can walk in relation to the power that God gives you to understand the truth, that you may gain it so that you come out in the spirit and in the demeanour that is seen in the Lord Jesus. Believers who are formed by the truth and seek to buy it in the language of the proverb come out in the spirit of the Lord Jesus in every action. They come out in a different spirit. Saul of Tarsus was “an insolent overbearing man” (1 Tim.1:13), but what he was naturally was broken down, and he became a man who was formed in the truth as to Christ and the assembly. Think of what Paul was able to bring before those assemblies as to that truth. He was a man who was formed in the characteristics of his Saviour, and I think the truth would do that. But it would not do that to me, I say for myself anyway, if it is not something that I desire after, if it is not in my affections. Someone said at the weekend, and it has affected me recently, that morally the love of the truth is the greatest thing that you can ever lay hold of. Morally, the love of the truth is greater than the love of the saints. That is not to say that you do not love the brethren, that is not what I mean at all, but loving the brethren is a consequence of loving the truth.
So you can see the standard of what is to exercise our hearts and exercise our minds under the hand of the Spirit of truth. We would be formed in something of the character that was seen in the Lord Jesus as the One who is the truth. He could say, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life”, John 14:6. It was something that was exhibited in the Saviour. My simple impression is that as I take on the truth and as I am exercised to make it my own, I should show the features which are pleasing to God here in testimony. Our brother referred to this verse in prayer, “I have yet many things to say to you, but ye cannot bear them now. But when he is come, the Spirit of truth, he shall guide you into all the truth”. I do not think that a person who is not subject can be guided. I think we need to be subject to understand and to be led into the truth. It is a wonderful thing to live in this dispensation of the Spirit, the greatest dispensation that has ever been. The Lord said in this passage, “ye cannot bear them now”, but as Christ has gone into glory and the Spirit has come here, the saints can take in and hold and retain something of the truth concerning a Man who is out of death, a Man who is in glory. Think of the truth of resurrection! I wonder if every one of us here down to the youngest has the truth of the resurrection of Christ in his or her heart. How wonderful a truth it is, that a Man has ascended up into heaven, and the Spirit has come here, and He abides amongst the people of God. He is here in the saints; that is another wonderful truth. There are many things that are given to us, but it is good to search them out and to see the grace of God in what He has given to us.
You may have heard the gospel and be a believer, and you can say, I am justified. Why not look into it and understand the extent of the truth of justification and see where you stand as justified in the presence of a holy, righteous, sin-hating God. You can be in perfect liberty in the presence of God as if you have never sinned. What a truth that is! And then to see not only that you are justified, but that you are reconciled to God, that you are there for the divine pleasure. How wonderful a matter that is! These are truths that are given to us, but I wondered if, as buying the truth, it is something that I search for myself and seek out and it costs me something to do so. As working through the exercises of the Roman epistle, I come in the knowledge of my soul to the end of what I am naturally in myself and I can be in liberty and in power, and with the help of the Spirit of God can understand the mind of God. I say again, I will never understand the mind of God by natural thinking, but we have a divine resource within us to understand the meaning of “as the truth is in Jesus". That is a very attractive thing to me, to understand the truth in Jesus. That is something which is tangible. It is something you can take account of in the blessed, lowly Saviour as He walked here as the One who was full of grace and truth, the One who conveyed every aspect of the truth in perfection to every man, woman and child who came to Him. That is learning the truth in Jesus, to see how He brought it to bear in every situation which He came upon. Satan came to tempt Him, but Satan had to leave Him. There was the truth standing out in a Man who could say, “My food is that I should do the will of him that has sent me, and that I should finish his work”, John 4:34. There was power in a dependent Man here in relation to the will of God; the truth is seen in Jesus. That is an attractive thing for us as believers, to understand that as taking on the truth and desiring to buy it and hold it for ourselves, it helps us to be superior to the world, superior to the enemy and superior to every influence that would be exerted upon us. We would not be legal, not hard, but coming to understand something of the character of who God is, and of the nature of God, and of what God’s heart is, of every attribute that He has displayed through the death, the burial, the resurrection and ascension of Christ, and the giving of the Holy Spirit. Think of the divine giving in these things!
These are truths that we must lay hold of, dear young brethren. Lay hold of the bounty of what you have been brought into in Christianity. It is not a meagre or small thing that you have been brought into, but it is wondrous, and it expands your heart as you go in for it. As you understand one truth and see where you are in relation to it, and be adjusted in relation to that matter, God will open up another one. The Spirit will give you something else for you to feed your heart and feed your soul upon. I wish I understood it more. I wish that as a younger man, I had gone in for these things. We try trivial things, things that are a pleasure only for a time, and then we become dissatisfied and have to try something else, and become dissatisfied again. Go in for the truth as it stands in relation to a Man who is in glory, and you will never be dissatisfied! You will grow, and you will become a person who God can depend upon, a person who can stand in the testimony, someone who becomes a source of stability in your local gathering. This is for young and old, for brothers and sisters alike. This is not just for the older brothers who may take part in the meeting, it is for all of us, and it is something that is tangible. And it is not just something that is written in Scripture, it is something that is in relation to a living Man who is glorified at the Father’s right hand in heaven. The truth has come to us, not in weakness but in power in the Spirit of truth. That is the character of the One who is speaking to us, and a very attractive matter it is. It says here, “whatsoever he shall hear he shall speak; and he will announce to you what is coming”. That shows the living character of what the Spirit is bringing at this very moment in time; “he will announce to you”. Think of what is going on in heaven now. The Spirit in that sense brings what is present in heaven right into this very day. He knows what is needed in the testimony and He will bring the truth to bear upon it and He will help every one of us in relation to it. If we move in relation to the truth we will all move in the same direction, and that is something that I take to myself, the need to stand in relation to that which can never break down and never fail; “as the truth is in Jesus”.
I read in Romans 8 because this attracted me. I wondered whether as I experience the exercises of the epistle to the Romans, I come to see the great benefit of doing away with the flesh and living in the Spirit. I have gone through the struggle of Romans 7, and I think we all struggle, but it is good to go through the exercises of Romans 7 and come to the end of it. It is good to have that change in your soul, that sense of deliverance from what you are in yourself and then you are not relying on your own power, but you are relying on a power that is outside of yourself. It is a wonderful thing to realise that you are not walking according to flesh but walking according to Spirit. That would, I believe, mark persons who are walking according to the truth. They are delivered from self; not now relying upon the weakness of what they are in the flesh. There is no weakness in the Spirit of God, there is no weakness in divine Persons. What a reliable resource and strength it is for the believer, as you walk in the power of the Spirit. There is no weakness in what is available in the Spirit, and the truth is seen in it. Such persons have made a step, we may say, in the steps of faith, they have come to something that they have worked out in their own souls and bought something for themselves. The believer is buying something; you have made it your own. You have stretched out and you have said, Right, I am going to work this matter out and I am going to come to an end of what I am. As a brother said, speaking of Romans, when we work this matter out, we can go back to the experience. If you have worked it out and you have come to it consciously in your soul, you can always come back to it as a landmark. It is a great thing to come back to the stability of what is in divine Persons. There is no stability in the flesh, there is no stability in me, but there is stability in the Saviour, there is stability in the Spirit, there is stability in God the Father.
Let us lay hold of these things, see the great truths of Christianity and learn by these things. Let us make them our own and not give them up, and what recompense will be yours. You will be formed in your soul in relation to what the assembly is, you will be formed in your soul in relation to the dignity of what God does in your inwards, you will be formed in your soul in relation to the different aspects of the glory of the Saviour, the One who is the Head of the assembly, the One who is the Head of the body. All these things are truth that we can be developed in the appreciation of, but we can only do it through the power of God’s Spirit, and we can only do it as we desire it. Have I got enough affection for the truth to want to buy it? Have I the desire to give something up, what is of myself and of nature, and of what belongs to this world which is going to come to an end? Lay hold of the truth; it is going on and shall never end! May the Lord bless the word.
Word in meeting for ministry, Grangemouth
D. Spinks
20 October 2015