The Spirit of Truth

 Excerpt from- The Spirit of Truth -  A.T. Jones

'As we begin our Bible study I think it would be well to spend this hour, at any rate, in considering what we came for, and how we are to come to get any good. 

I suppose that every one came expecting to hear things we never thought of before; and not only expecting to hear things we never thought of before, but expecting to learn things we never thought of before. It is very easy to hear things we never thought of before, but we do not always learn what we hear.

But I suppose we have come expecting to learn things we never thought of before. It is simply saying we have come expecting the Lord to give us new revelations of Himself, of His word, and of His way altogether. I have come for this.

This text is good advice for us all: "Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein" (Mark 10:15). Thus we have come to learn of the kingdom of God, to receive things of the kingdom of God, things new and old, old things in a new way, and new things in a new way.  Whosoever shall not receive it as a little child, shall not enter therein; cannot have it. Hence, we are all to come here and to sit down at the feet of Christ, looking to Him as our teacher, expecting to receive what He has to tell us, coming as a little child. Because, not only is this text here which speaks thus about those who would receive the kingdom of God, but in Matthew it is put in such a way as to cover all the time after we receive the kingdom of God from the first. "At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:1-3).

Now if any one should say that the other text refers to any who are receiving the kingdom of God for the first time and admit the truth that they can receive it only as a little child, confessing that they know nothing of it themselves and cannot bring themselves to a knowledge of it, this verse shows that it goes beyond that, and that the idea goes with it even after we have received the kingdom of God; 

for in order to be converted we are to be as a little child, receive the kingdom of God as a little child, allowing that we know nothing of ourselves, no wisdom of our own. It is not our own wisdom that can make it plain to us, can open the way by which we can understand it all right as it is. We must leave all our wisdom out in order to gain it and by being converted become as a little child. "Except ye be converted and become as a little child, ye shall not enter the kingdom of God." What kind of children are mentioned? Little children. Little children have not much pride of opinion of their own. 

Grown up ones are not so ready to learn. 

Then this is spoken as giving us a model and example as to how we are to come to the word of God to learn. There is another verse that tells us the same thing and perhaps in a more forcible manner. "And if any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know it" (1 Corinthians 8:2). How many people does that cover? "Any man," all of us that have come here. Any one then who has come here, will it refer to us as personally as that? Every one. Any one of us then who have come here, that thinks he knows anything, how much does that cover? Thinks he knows how much? Thinks he knows what? "Anything." Does that cover all things then? Yes sir. Then the text covers all people and all things that may be known. Then if any one of us thinks he knows anything, what does he know? How much does he know? He knows nothing yet as he ought to.

Well, then, we will all assent that that is true, shall we? Just set that down for yourself. If you came here thinking you knew something, you must decide you do not know that as you ought to know it. Then shall we come to this study in that way? Shall we all come to this study tomorrow, next day, each time we come here, and just settle it in our minds that we do not know anything as we ought to know it? I do not care if it is the oldest minister in our ranks; he must come and say, "I do not know anything yet as I ought to know it; teach thou me."  And we will learn.

Every one that comes to this house that way will learn something every lesson he hears. And this includes that same oldest minister in the ranks. He will learn more than any of the rest of us, if he sits down like that. But how long a time does that text cover? How long will it remain there? Will we go beyond that time during this institute, think you? No sir. Very good then, we have that settled, for the whole institute, if we thought we knew anything.

There are some things we thought we knew pretty well. If there is one thing we thought we knew, just put it down, we don't know anything. We are always learning the most out of those texts that we already know best.  Don't forget that. We are always learning the most out of the texts with which we are already the most familiar.  Then don't you see that any one who takes any text or thought, and studies upon it for a long time and thinks he has got all the thought out of it that is in it, he just shuts himself off there? When he says, "Now I know it," he shuts himself off from learning what is really in that text.

Brother Porter here in the lesson of the previous hour spoke to us of God's purpose in making known to us these things. What kind of purpose was that spoken of? An "eternal purpose." And the Scripture is God's expression to us of His thoughts in that eternal purpose. The Scripture is the expression of God's thoughts on that purpose,  in carrying out and setting forth and making known that purpose. Well then, what kind of purpose is it? Eternal.  How deep then are His thoughts? How far-reaching is that purpose? Eternal. How deep then are the thoughts expressed in the scriptures? Eternal. In how many expressions in the Scriptures and in how many scriptures is the thought of eternal depth? In how many passages? Every one. Then it does take all the Scriptures that are written for the Lord to express to us what he wants to tell us, of His eternal purpose? Yes, sir. Then how deep is the thought in each passage of Scripture and the words that are used to tell it? Eternal. Then just as soon as any man catches one of these thoughts and thinks, I know it now and have got it, how far short is he? How far short is he from having the thought that is really there, from having the thought that is in that passage? (Voices: As far as his mind is from God's mind.) 

When he says, I have the truth; I have the thought, he has shut up his own mind from the wisdom of the knowledge of God, putting himself and his own mind in the place of God and His thoughts. The man that does that cannot learn any more. Don't you see, that at that instant he shuts himself out forever from learning? And the man who does that, of course can learn nothing beyond himself, and of course will never have the knowledge of God.

The expressions of thought conveyed in the statements of the Scriptures are as eternal depths. 

Then what limit can we set to ourselves in the study of these? No limit at all. Then does not that present the splendid picture and the grand prospect that the eternal and the whole mind of God is wide open before us for us to study upon?  Well, then, let us not forget that that is the field of study upon which we are to enter.

We have been in it a good while, and let us be careful that we do not think we know something. Let us be sure that we have not been inveigled into the idea of thinking that we know something as we are to know it. Let us just settle it now by the word of God that we do not know that thing at all.

There is knowledge in each line of thought for us to catch. And until all the depths and eternities are past we will never get to the place where we will have the right to think we know that thing and are done with it. Shall we? Well then, I am glad to know that we have such a subject as that to study upon, and such a length of time as that (eternity) in which to study it.  

Well, then, let us be glad to start with. That text is going to remain with us as long as we are in the world at least,  and it won't go then; it will go in this shape of course; the Bible, the word of God as put up in this shape, will go.  No doubt these Bibles will be burned up just as any other book of paper and leather. But the word of God will not be burned up. That text in this shape (in print) will last as long as the world does, but after that it will still exist in this shape (the body). Then that text will still remain with us all the time, even eternally. "And if any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know." No, no man knows it. Are not you glad, brethren, are not you glad?

But we must not linger too long upon any one of these texts, for there are several texts we want to bring up tonight. Taking the thought we had a moment ago, we have come here expecting to learn many things that are new and many new things about what we have learned formerly. We have not come though, to learn anything but the truth. 

That is what we want. The only thing there is any power in, the only thing there is any good in, the only thing there is any sanctifying force in, is the truth, the truth as it is in Jesus of course, because there is no truth in any other way. Then coming with that purpose, to know only the truth, that is all we are to study, that is all we are to ask about. It is none of your business or mine whether a thing be old or new or who says it in this institute or whether it is for us to study or for any one else, is it? The thing for us to ask is, Is it true?

If it be true,  then take the Lord's word as He has given it to us, no difference by whom He says it, no difference in what way it comes, no difference if it comes in exactly the opposite way in which way we expected it to come--and the probabilities are that it will, "for your ways are not my ways, saith the Lord." Then when we have a way fixed up,  we may expect it to come another way.

The Lord will not allow any one to dictate to Him or to lay out plans for Him. We may take the Lord in that text,  "O God, verily thou art a God that hidest thyself." But we can see Him. He will hide Himself; we cannot fix the ways in which He is going to do things always, but the best of it is we will let Him have His own way to do things, and we will be in a position to do it all the time. Then we will be perfectly safe. Then we will never need to have any anxieties, need never have any thing to do with the management of it ourselves. He is all wise;  everything goes straight with Him, and we simply keep ourselves ready to see Him do it at any time.

And we have nothing to do but to enjoy ourselves in seeing Him do things. I have been greatly blessed in the study of the Bible and in watching the Lord do things. And when it is the darkest, the most mysterious, then it is the best study, because it takes us clear out of ourselves to see Him do it. If we could see just how it was coming out always it would not seem interesting. When it is the darkest, we can watch the more intently and with more interest, to see the Lord straighten it out.

So then we are to learn the truth only--no difference who speaks it. The Lord will speak it, of course, no difference by whom it is spoken or the way it comes. If we knew it before, thank God somebody else knows it now. If we did not know it before, then thank the Lord we now know it. The only thing to ask is, Is it true?

 You all know those verses in 2 Thessalonians 2:9, 10: "Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish;  because they received not the love of the truth."

Any one who loves the truth and will receive the love of the truth, Satan will never have any chance to work in with all signs and lying wonders and all deceivableness of unrighteousness. No sir. Because Jesus has said it (John 8:32): "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." 

Then every one who receives the love of the truth, this will make them free. Then the one in whom Satan is to work all signs and lying wonders, is he free? No, he is a fearful slave. As long as we have it settled in our minds that the only thing we shall ever seek or expect is the truth, and love it because it is the truth, and take it because it is the truth, then we need not be uneasy about whether Satan is going to deceive us or not.'

To be continued….