THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE

Truth
Message Nine—The Freeing and Sanctifying Truth

Scripture Reading: John 17:14-24

I. Truth is the divine light shining on the facts of the Bible and televising a heavenly, spiritual vision of these facts into our being—John 14:6; Psa. 119:105:

A. The Lord is the light, the truth, and the Word; the Word, which is also the truth, gives light, for in the Word there is light—John 8:12; 14:6; 17:17; Psa. 119:105.

B. Truth is the shining of the light, the expression of the light; in other words, truth is light expressed.

C. The Spirit is called the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of reality (John 14:17); the Spirit of reality is the “heavenly electricity” by which spiritual things are televised into our being.

1. When the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of reality, shines upon the spiritual facts recorded and contained in the Bible, we receive the truth, reality.

2. If we read the Word without the shining of the Spirit, we may have doctrine or “news reports” but not the truth, the reality, or the vision.

D. All the divine facts are contained in the Word and conveyed to us through the Word; when the Spirit shines upon the Word, we have the “heavenly television”; the light shines upon the facts in the Word and conveys a heavenly vision of these facts into our being, and we know the truth—cf. Eph. 1:17-18a.

II. There are two functions of the truth—John 8:32, 36; 17:17; Eph. 5:26:

A. The truth sets us free from the bondage of sin, freeing us from all the negative things—John 8:32, 36.

B. The truth sanctifies us positionally and dispositionally, saturating us with the element of God—17:17.

III. The Triune God in His Word realized by us and being imparted and infused into our being is the truth that sets us free and sanctifies us—John 8:32, 36; Eph. 5:26:

A. When we are disappointed or depressed, feeling empty within, we can open ourselves and come to the Word; after reading for a while, something within us rises up, and we enjoy the presence of the Lord.

B. By taking the Word in this way, something of the Lord is wrought into us; this is the reality of the Triune God living, moving, working, and separating us.

C. Every morning we can touch the living Word and have the divine reality, the Triune God, infused into our being:

1. This transfusion of the element of God frees us from such negative things as temper, jealousy, hatred, and pride; it sets us free from every kind of falsehood, and we have real liberation, real freedom.

2. As we are being set free, we are also sanctified, separated, made holy to God, not only positionally but also dispositionally; we become one with God because His very essence is wrought into us.

D. Daily we need to come to the Word in this way; we need to come to the Word every morning and, if possible, at other times as well.

E. When the Word is mingled with the living Spirit in our spirit, we are sanctified with the essence of God:

1. Our crucial need is to have the living Triune God infused and wrought into us through the written Word, the living Word, and the applied word of God.

2. By contacting the Word in this way, God is added into us day by day; as a result, we are permeated with God and made one with Him.

IV. Sanctification through the word of the truth results in oneness by dealing with the factors of division; truth sanctifies, and sanctification issues in oneness—John 17:14-24:

A. The Lord Jesus, the Son, is the truth; the Spirit is the Spirit of truth; and the Father’s word is the truth—1:14, 17; 14:6, 17; 17:17; 1 John 5:6:

1. The Father is embodied in the Son, the Son is realized as the Spirit of truth, and the Spirit is one with the Word—John 6:63; Eph. 6:17.

2. Whenever we come to the Word with an open heart and an open spirit, we immediately touch both the Word and the Spirit as the truth.

B. The sanctifying word, the sanctifying Spirit, the sanctifying life, and the sanctifying God are all one; therefore, if we are being sanctified, we are one spontaneously because all the factors of division are taken away.

C. In John 17:17-23 we see that sanctification issues in the genuine oneness because this sanctification keeps us in the Triune God:

1. The only way to be in the Triune God is by the sanctifying truth that deals with all the factors of division.

2. Sanctification through the word of the truth results in the oneness of the Body of Christ, which is the enlarged oneness of the Triune God—v. 21.

 

Ministry Excerpts:

Truth occupies a prominent place in the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John is not only a book of life, but also a book of truth. John 1:4 says, “In Him was life,” and verse 14 says, “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us…full of grace and truth.” Furthermore, John 1:17 says, “Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” In John 14:6 the Lord Jesus declares that He Himself is the truth. This Gospel reveals that the compound Spirit, the Spirit which was “not yet” (John 7:39) before the Lord was crucified and resurrected, is the Spirit of truth (John 14:17). Regarding the Father’s word, the Lord Jesus says, “Your word is truth” (John 17:17). Therefore, the Lord Jesus is the truth, the Spirit is the Spirit of truth, and the Father’s word is truth.

TWO FUNCTIONS OF THE TRUTH

The Gospel of John reveals two functions of the truth. The first is to set us free. John 8:32 says, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” In John 17:17 the Lord Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them in the truth.” Therefore, according to the Gospel of John, the functions of the truth are to set us free and to sanctify us.

John 17 indicates that truth, sanctification, and oneness are interrelated. Here we have the Father’s word which is the truth that sanctifies us. Hence, verse 17 puts together truth and sanctification, for sanctification issues from the truth. When the truth works within us, the result is sanctification. This sanctification through the truth is for oneness. Verses 17 through 23 of chapter seventeen cover truth, sanctification, and oneness. Truth sanctifies, and sanctification issues in oneness.

TRUTH BEING THE REALITY OF THE TRIUNE GOD

The truth that sanctifies us for oneness involves the Lord Jesus, the Spirit of reality, and the word of the Father. Therefore, all Three of the Triune God are related to the truth. The Lord Jesus, the Son, is the truth; the Spirit is the Spirit of truth; and the Father’s word is truth. In the New Testament, especially in the Gospel of John, truth does not mean doctrine; it means the reality of the Triune God. We may have known that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all related to life, but we may have never seen that all Three of the Triune God are also related to the truth.

We have pointed out that the Father’s word is truth. Because the Father’s word is His expression, and because His word is truth, truth is the expression of the Father.

The whole Bible is the word of God. We need to be deeply impressed with the fact that the Bible is not merely a book, but a word that expresses God. Whenever we come to the Bible, we should have the consciousness that we are coming to God’s expression, to God expressed. Every time I come to the Word, I have the sense deep within that I am coming to God Himself, and not to a hidden God or a concealed God, but to the God who is expressed. By means of the Bible, I can meet with God, talk to Him, and listen to Him. We all need to have such a conviction whenever we come to the Bible.

Christ, the Son, is also the truth. This is somewhat easy to understand because the Father’s word is the Son, who is the expression of God. Many Christian teachers have rightly said that the Bible is the written Word and that the Son is the living Word. I agree with this. The Bible is the word without, and the Son is the word within. But these two, the outer word and the inner word, are one.

All this is realized through God the Spirit. We have pointed out that in the Gospel of John the Spirit is the Spirit of truth. The Father is embodied in the Son, and the Son is realized in the Spirit of reality. The Spirit is the realization of the Son as the embodiment of the Father. Therefore, the Spirit is the reality. The Spirit is also the word. John 6:63 says that the word is spirit, and Ephesians 6:17 says that the Spirit is the word. Hallelujah, we have the Word without and the Spirit within!

Whenever we come to the Word with an open heart and an open spirit, we immediately touch both the Word and the Spirit as the truth. I can testify that every time I open my heart and spirit as I come to the Bible, I meet God. Through this one act, I touch both the Word and the Spirit, both the written Word and the living Word. Two or three times every day we need to come to the Word. It is rather difficult to come to the Lord in the Spirit apart from the Word. Although it certainly can be done, we do need the Word. What a wonderful instrument the Word is for contacting the Lord! When we are disappointed or depressed, feeling empty within, we can open ourselves and come to the Word. After reading for a while, something within us rises up, and we enjoy the presence of the Lord. This is the experience of the truth, the reality. It is the Triune God in His Word being imparted into our being. This is the truth.

The Father is embodied in the Son, the Son is realized as the Spirit, and the Spirit is one with the Word. When we touch the Word, we also touch the Spirit. Then something is infused into our inner being. Whatever is infused into us in this way is the truth. Although this involves the acquisition of biblical knowledge, there is something living inside this knowledge. This is the Triune God realized by us and transfused into us through the Word. This is not merely the Word. It is the Word mingled and saturated with the Triune God and infused into our being. This is the truth that sets us free and sanctifies us.

SANCTIFIED BY THE TRUTH

We cannot sanctify ourselves. The more we try to be sanctified, the more involved we become with things that are common. But when the Word mingled with the essence of the Triune God is imparted into us as the truth, this truth sanctifies us. We have all experienced this. By contacting the written Word that is mingled with the living Word, something is transfused into us and works in us all day long.

Suppose the young people touch the Word with the Spirit in morning watch and then go to school. Throughout the day at school, this word of truth will work within them to separate them and make them different from their classmates in their behavior, actions, work, thoughts, and feelings. Something is working within them to sanctify them, to make them holy.

By taking the Word in this way, we have the clear conviction that something of the Lord has been wrought into us. This is not the mere knowledge of the Bible or of things concerning the Lord. It is the reality of the Triune God living, moving, working, and separating us. This makes us different from the worldly people. I can tell by the faces of the young people that they are graced by the Lord’s presence. What a blessing! Every morning we can touch the living Word and have the divine reality infused into our being. In this way the Triune God is transfused into us.

This transfusion of the element of God frees us from such negative things as temper, jealousy, hatred, and pride. It sets us free from every kind of falsehood. This is real liberation, real freedom. As we are being set free, we are also sanctified, separated, made holy to God, not only positionally, but also dispositionally. We become one with God because His very essence is being wrought into us. This is what it means to be sanctified by the Word of truth.

COMING TO THE WORD DAILY

Daily we need to practice coming to the Word in this way. Like breathing, we cannot do this once for all; rather, it must be a continual exercise. We need to be sanctified unceasingly every minute of the day. This is the reason we need to come to the Word every morning and, if possible, at other times as well. When the Word is mingled with the living Spirit in our spirit, we are sanctified with the essence of God.

Throughout the years I have been in this country, I have not been burdened to teach you what to do or what not to do. I have no trust in mere teachings because, according to my own experience, they do not accomplish very much. Our crucial need is to have the Triune God infused into us through the Word. This infusion works to sanctify us and transform us. To take the Word in this way is not a religious practice or ordinance. It is to experience the living Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—being wrought into us through the living Word. By contacting the Word in this way, God is added into us day by day. As a result, we are permeated with God and made one with Him. (Truth Messages, ch. 5)

MOVING OUT OF OURSELVES BY BEING SANCTIFIED

When we are with the Lord in the Father and in the glory, we are one. But when we are in ourselves, we cannot be one with others. In ourselves we are one only with ourselves, not with anyone else. If we desire to be one with others, we need to move out of the self and into God the Father. No one can make this move for us; we are responsible to do it ourselves. When we move out of ourselves and into the Father and into the Father’s glory, we are one and are even perfected into one.

The way to make this move is by being sanctified. To be sanctified is to make the move out of ourselves and into the Father. If we remain in ourselves, we are not sanctified and thus we cannot be one with others. In ourselves we have worldliness, ambition, self-exaltation, and opinion. It is impossible for us to eradicate these things from our being. Do you realize that the world is actually yourself? The same is true of ambition, self-exaltation, and opinions and concepts. This is the reason we cannot escape from these four things if we stay in the self. Paul told the Corinthians that among them there was envy, strife, and division (1 Cor. 3:3). These are some of the characteristics of those who are in the self. The church life, however, is a building, and the real building is the genuine oneness. In this genuine oneness there is no room for worldliness, ambition, self-exaltation, or opinion.

Only by our being sanctified can we abide in Christ and can Christ live in us. Again I say, to be sanctified is to move out of ourselves and into the Triune God and to allow Christ to live in us. According to chapters fourteen through seventeen of John, this is the proper concept of sanctification. The more we are sanctified, the more we are out of ourselves and in the Triune God.

SANCTIFICATION BY THE WORD AND THE SPIRIT

This sanctification takes place by the Word, which is truth, and by the Spirit, which is the Spirit of truth. In these four chapters of John the Word and the Spirit are mentioned again and again. Actually, the Word and the Spirit are one. I thank the Lord that so many of us have come back to the Word and are getting into the Word every day. As we come to the Word every morning, outwardly we touch the Word, but inwardly the Spirit touches us. By the Word and by the Spirit, both of which are the reality, we are sanctified.

To be sanctified is not merely to be separated from the world; it is to move out of ourselves and into the Triune God. If you check with your experience, you will see that the more you touch the Word and the more the Spirit touches you, the more you move out of yourself. You move from one dwelling place, the self, to another dwelling place, the Triune God. Every day we need to make this move. If we do not move out of ourselves, we are wrong; for in the self there is worldliness, ambition, self-exaltation, and opinion. (Truth Messages, ch. 6)