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We are living in a world of lies and deception. The prince of
this world, the devil, is the father of lies. Jesus spoke these
words concerning him in John 8:44: “He was a murderer from the
beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in
him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a
liar, and the father of it.” Jer. 17:9-10 says, “The heart is
deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man
according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.”
The human heart was not originally created deceitful and wicked, but
Satan so succeeded in marring God’s creation through Adam’s fall
that this has become man’s natural state without divine
intervention. Thus, all who are born into this world have to
overcome two things in order to arrive at the truth – a lying devil
and a deceitful heart. God’s great desire for man is that truth
might dwell in his “inward parts” (Psa. 51:6).
Jesus was born into this world with a perfectly pure heart and with
the purpose to overthrow the father of lies. Jesus met this
arch-deceiver on his own territory in head-on conflict, assaulting
his kingdom of lies with the truth. Jesus came to bear witness to
the truth (John 18:37). He announced that the words He spoke were
His Father’s words (John 14:24) and that those words are truth (John
17:17). He said, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make
you free.” John 8:32.
As long as Jesus was in this world He bore personal witness to the
truth. But when the time came for Him to leave He promised to send
another personal witness to the truth whom He called the
“Comforter,” or “Spirit of truth.” This One, He said, would abide
with us forever (John 14:16), would reprove (convict, convince) the
world of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8), and guide us
into all truth (John 16:13).
There are those who seem to feel that, because of man’s inherently
fallen condition, it is not presently possible for anyone to be
totally free from error and fully established in truth. 1 Cor.
13:12, “For now we see through a glass darkly” is often quoted as an
excuse for dimness of spiritual vision and understanding. But what
about 2 Cor. 3:18? “But we all, with open face beholding as in a
glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from
glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” Paul speaks here
of an experience presently attainable to all of us whereby we may
behold as in a glass (not darkly, but brilliantly) the glory of the
Lord with an open (or unveiled) face and thus be changed into the
same image by His Spirit. Prov. 4:18 says, “But the path of the just
is as a shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect
day.”
James 1: 16-17 says, “Do not err, by beloved brethren. Every good
gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the
Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of
turning.” God, the Father of lights, has sent two especially good
and perfect gifts down from above to illuminate our darkness and
save us from error. They are (1) the Word of truth and (2) the
Spirit of truth (the interpreter of the Word). Having received these
two gifts it is not needful that any man err.
In the June 1, 1885 issue of the Gospel Trumpet, Bro. D. S. Warner
wrote the following words: “When a weak convert of two years old,
after rambling through a wilderness maze of human creeds, to find
out what church I ought to join, and was more unsettled than before
I read any, I threw myself at the feet of Jesus, and asked His
leading through the Spirit. My soul was in an agony of intense
earnestness. I kept up this pursuit until the refreshings of the
Holy Spirit came upon me, shedding much light on my mind. One thing
was settled by the voice of the Lord, that was, God willed me to
ignore all human sects and creeds, and commit myself to the whole
Word of God, and rejecting all it does not teach. But ten years
later, after becoming wholly sanctified, and receiving the personal
Comforter, I soon found that I had not been able to decide in many
things what the will of the Lord was, until this glorious
illumination. Then I laid all my previous views down at the feet of
Christ, just as if they were all wrong. Then putting myself under
the direct teaching of the Comforter, He has led my soul forward in
the steps of the truth with absolute and eternal certainty. …
Doubtless, much truth lays beyond our present knowledge, but what we
know by the revelation of the Spirit, we do not think, but know
indeed.” End of quote.
Without the guidance, inspiration, and illumination of the Spirit of
God, we are ALL sure to misunderstand or misinterpret the truth at
some point or another. The depths of God’s written Word cannot be
understood by the natural man or comprehended by the carnal mind.
(See 1 Cor. 2:9-16; Rom. 8:5-8.) Since “no prophecy of the scripture
is of any private interpretation,” but “holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Pet. 1:20,21), it is
imperative that our hearts and minds be moved by the inspiration of
the same Holy Ghost who spoke through the holy men of old that we
may properly understand the message He intended to convey in the
Scriptures. Only “in thy light shall we see light” in proper
perspective (Psa. 36:9).
God has made just enough of His Word comprehensible to us in our
natural state to enable us to find the way of deliverance from our
carnal mind and to receive “the mind of Christ;” to get us out of
the flesh and into the Spirit. It is only in this state that we are
ready to begin learning and exploring the “mystery which hath been
hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His
saints” (Col. 1:26).
Nothing except the “unction” that comes from the Holy One (1 John
2:20,27) can teach us all things and help us to correctly interpret
and “rightly divide the Word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15). “For the
Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” 1 Cor.
2:10. Without the “unction,” or “anointing” that comes from the
Spirit of truth all men will certainly miss the mark. On the other
hand, it is not possible to err by the leadings of the Spirit of
God. “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of
God.” Rom. 8:14. Every time the sons (or children) of God err, it is
because they have gotten out of step with their Guide, the divine
Spirit – the One who bore witness to their adoption (Rom. 8:15), and
regenerated and spoke peace to their souls (Tit. 3:5). We always err
when we trust in our own understanding and follow our own minds, or
the influence of some other spirit beside the Holy Spirit upon our
minds. We are instructed to trust in the Lord with all our hearts
and to lean not to our own understanding (Pro. 3:5). How can we who
“know not what we should pray for as we ought” arrive at a proper
understanding of God’s truth and will for our lives unless “the
Spirit helpeth our infirmities?” Therefore God, in His great mercy,
has sent His Spirit to make “intercession” for us (see Rom. 8:26-27)
and to personally reveal His Son to us, Who is “the way, the truth,
and the life” (John 14:6). It is the Spirit of truth who quickens
the Word of truth, making it alive in our inner man, and more than
just a dead letter. The Holy Spirit is the One who administers all
the blessings Christ purchased for us at Calvary. The Holy Spirit is
the Administrator of all things pertaining to salvation, the New
Testament, and the New Testament Church. He is our Teacher, our
Guide, and our Director. All who “live in the Spirit, walk in the
Spirit,” and are “led by the Spirit” will go right and be right,
because God’s Spirit is right. He can’t err. He KNOWS the will of
God. He KNOWS the truth. If we would know the truth, then we must
have our hearts tuned to the Spirit. It is the Spirit who writes
God’s law of truth on our inward parts (see Jer. 31: 33, Ezek. 36:
27, & 2 Cor. 3: 3).
Even with all the advanced education available to us, we humans, in
our natural state, cannot comprehend many important aspects of
divine truth. We cannot discern, in many instances, the true meaning
of the scriptures. Why? Because the Word was given by the
inspiration of the Spirit, and “the natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him:
neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 1
Cor. 2: 14. I heard a man say one time that his IQ was of the top
two percent of the nation, therefore if anybody could rightly
understand the Bible, he could. But it is just such persons as he
who miss the mark! Obadiah 3 says, “The pride of thine heart hath
deceived thee.” There is no greater deterrent to arriving at
knowledge of the truth than “pride” in the heart. “If any man think
that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to
know.” 1 Cor. 8:2. Pride is an inherent part of man’s carnal nature.
It is natural for all men to think they know and are capable of
discerning truth from error. It takes the refining fire of the Holy
Spirit to melt and consume this spirit of pride in man’s heart – to
reduce our estimation of who we are and what we know to “nothing”
and exalt the knowledge of God and who He is to “everything.” This
is why it is vitally important that all Christians be emptied of
“self,” and “filled with the Spirit.” One writer says, “Do we enjoy
His fullness? Are we filled with the Spirit? Or is He quenched,
grieved, resisted, crowded into a corner by carnal purposes,
passions and pleasures? The full measure of the Spirit comes in when
self goes out. Self must die, and then God the Spirit will fill us.”
How true! It is only then that He can lead us into all truth. “When
He, the Spirit of truth is come (having been given full control of
your body, soul, and mind, by your complete consecration), He will
guide you into all truth.” (John 16:13.) “The meek will he guide in
judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.” Psa. 25:9. The secret
of understanding truth is found in being filled with the Spirit of
truth. Thereby we assimilate the meekness of Christ as well as all
the other attributes of the divine nature. (Consider Acts 1:8 and 2
Pet. 1: 3-4; also Phil. 2: 5-8.) It is neither safe to lean on our
own understanding of truth nor yet that of others. But by the
illuminating presence of the Holy Spirit, who wills to indwell us in
His fullness, we can all receive personal revelation of truth from
God’s perspective. The Spirit leads all men into the same truth.
The reason many are “ever learning, but never able to come to the
knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 3:7), is because they do not possess
the spiritual illumination that comes from being “filled with all
the fullness of God.” They are neither “filled with the Spirit” nor
“walking in the Spirit,” but are still “carnal, and walking as men”
(1 Cor. 3:1-4). They are still filled with much of themselves.
Through the sanctifying and all-pervading presence of the Holy
Spirit, Who comes to possess us in His fullness when we “present our
bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” (Rom. 12:1),
we can become intimately acquainted with the Author of truth, lose
our biased opinions of truth, and be led into all truth. It is then
that we become “transformed by the renewing of our mind, that we may
prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God”
(Rom. 12:2). We then take on the “mind of Christ” and begin to
comprehend “the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to
know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge” (Eph. 3:18-19).
“And it is the Spirit that beareth witness (to this revelation of
fullness), because the Spirit is truth.” 1 John 5:6. Becoming
“wholly sanctified,” as Bro. D. S. Warner terms it, means giving the
Holy Spirit complete control of one’s whole being. It means being
wholly consecrated to God in every respect, with every aspect of our
lives subjected to the personal council, direction, and leadership
of the Holy Spirit. It is then that the refining fire of the eternal
Spirit consumes the dross of our carnal nature and we begin to grow
and abound in the knowledge and revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
As one old song says, “Let me lose myself and find it, Lord, in
thee.” “Our God is a consuming fire.” Heb. 12:29. “God is light, and
in Him is no darkness at all,” and “if we walk in the light, as He
is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood
of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” 1 John 1:5,7.
Jesus said, “He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but
shall have the light of life” (John 8:12), and “I am come that they
might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John
10:10). We can never be too dead to self and filled with too much of
God. This is the abundant life! It is found in the fullness of
Christ, who “is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and
sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30) “by the Spirit” (1 Cor.
6:11; 2 Cor. 3:18). “God hath from the beginning chosen you to
salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth: Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of
the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Thes. 2:13,14. Thus man is
restored to the image of God, being sanctified by the Spirit and by
the truth (John 17:17). This is the only way we can know the truth.
Amen.
12/10/2007 |
