- Overcomer Literature Trust
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Trust the Truth - July 2025
Vol. CVII Number 2 July 2025.
THE INDWELLING TRUTH
By Alan J Greenbank
EDITOR’S LETTER
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH
By Mrs Jessie Penn-Lewis
TRUTH IS THE CORNERSTONE
By The Editor
CHRIST - THE TRUTH
By F B Meyer
WALKING IN DARKNESS
By David Tryon
SATAN TWISTS THE TRUTH
By S D Gordon
WALKING IN THE TRUTH
By J C Metcalfe
TRUTH AND HOLINESS
By Marcus Rainsford
COUNTERFEITS OF THE TRUTH
By H C G Moule
“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’”
(John 14 v6).
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THE INDWELLING TRUTH
By Alan J Greenbank
Four verses in Deuteronomy 6 have often fascinated me. They emphasise so clearly that God’s Word must have a central place in every part of our lives. “These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6 v6-9).
From these verses we learn that God’s Word is to be in our hearts and taught with diligence to our children. It is to be kept in mind whatever we are doing throughout the day, from the time of rising to the time of retiring. It is to govern our actions, our thoughts and the running of our homes.
This lesson came to me afresh when I once rebuilt the steps leading up to the front of our house. It was quite a large job, involving some 400 bricks, 50 paving slabs and one and a half tons of crazy paving. My son, Andrew, and I were kept very busy for 4 or 5 days, right in the middle of a heat-wave.
Among the many tools we used, one was absolutely essential, it was the spirit-level. I could so easily have gone astray by trusting my own judgement but every few minutes I checked the work with the spirit-level and the results were very satisfactory.
Trust - the Test
This reminded me of how we should use the Word of God in our daily lives. Everything must be tested by its teaching and, whilst this has always been true, it seems to have a particular relevance in these days.
For example, how are we to make right judgements on moral issues in a society which no longer bases its laws on God’s standards? The answer is to test everything by the Word of God.
How are we to react to the rise of all the cults and sects, who knock on doors, or stop us in the streets, and try to sell us their literature? The answer is the same, test everything by the Word of God.
What should we make of some statements on television or the internet by those whom the world looks upon as leading Church voices? Test everything by the Word of God.
God has given us His standard and it never varies. We also have the promise of the Lord Jesus that the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth (John 16 v13). He Who is the Author of the book, will also be its Interpreter, and keep us from error as we look to Him
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THE EDITOR’S LETTER.
Dear Friends,
Welcome to our new issue. Readers are respectfully reminded to please not send any correspondence to Michael Metcalfe. He helpfully proofreads each issue with the agreement of the trustees of the Trust, however administrative tasks are now performed by others. Please use the address at the front of the magazine for all mail to the Trust, for which we are always very grateful, or use our email overcomerliterature@gmail.com. And, please continue to remember the Metcalfes in your prayers.
The very first issue of The Overcomer was given its name by Evan Roberts and dated January 1909. Its full title was The Overcomer: A record of the triumphs of the Cross and the editorial noted that, “The title is a true one, for the magazine goes forth, first and foremost, to proclaim with no uncertain sound the atoning work of the God-Man on the Cross, and all that Calvary means in its height, depth, breadth and length, to meet the deepest, and entire need of an utterly fallen creation.” Our dedication to the truth of the Gospel and the centrality of the finished work of the Cross in a believer’s everyday life is still unwavering. With this in mind, we have decided to entitle this issue “Trust the Truth”.
In Christ, Mark
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH.
By Mrs Jessie Penn-Lewis
“When He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth” said the Lord to His disciples (John 16 v13). The name of the One who would come to them the Lord gives first as the Comforter, a Person as true as He was Himself. He would fill His place as the Helper. He is much more than the word “Comforter” conveys, He is also the defender, supporter, adviser and helper. All this we rejoice in, for we need a Comforter in this world of sorrow, and One who is able to defend, support, advise and help us.
We may forget that the name Comforter has an addition given by the Lord, which defines and limits its meaning. He said, “He will give you another Comforter to help you and be with you forever - the Spirit of Truth” (John 14 v16-17). “When the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you from the Father - the Spirit of Truth who goes out from the Father - He will testify about Me” (John 15 v26). “When He, the Spirit of Truth, comes” (John 16 v13).
The name Comforter therefore depicts His work, but His name Spirit of Truth describes His essential character. Therefore, all that He does in and for us as the Comforter He must do in accordance with His character as the Spirit of Truth. If He is called by any believer, to defend, support, advise, help and comfort, He can only act in all these ways as the Spirit of Truth, defending, supporting, advising, helping, comforting, in accordance with truth alone.
The essential character of the Spirit of God, as the Spirit of Truth, needs emphasising, when we think only of Him as the Spirit of Power and Love in the life of the believer. Some say, the main evidence of a person being filled with the Spirit is power, while others say love. But if we carefully consider this in the light of the Bible, we see that Truth is before power and love, and for them to be truly of God in the believer, it is necessary to have Truth as the foundation, because love and power can both be simulated by the evil one as an angel of light. It has been pointed out that the marks of the Divine nature which distinguish it from all fakes are first Truth, and then love. This is surely true of the Spirit of God, for He is power and love, but He is first of all the Spirit of Truth proceeding from the Father, through the Son, into the world.
In the Lord's last words to His disciples before His Cross He very clearly defined the work of the Spirit of Truth, when He should come to dwell among humanity. This may be briefly summarised as:
1. The Spirit of Truth makes disciples know the truth of a) the union of Christ with the Father, “I am in My Father” b) The union of the believer with Christ, “you are in Me” and c) The indwelling of Christ in the believer, “I am in you” (John 14 v20).
2. The Holy Spirit lives in a believer as the Spirit of Truth, who teaches believers the truth of the words of Christ (John 14 v26).
3. Bears witness to Christ (John 15 v26), and
4. Guides the believer into “all the truth” (John 16 v13).
Not only truth about God, but truth concerning all things as they are seen from the viewpoint of God, such as the condition of humanity and the great evil of sin. Also, the truth concerning the enemy of the Son of God. To sum up, the truth around us and in us as seen by the God of Truth. Humanity in its lost condition is permeated with the spirit of untruth, which is the spirit of satan who once knew the truth, but did not accept it (John 8 v44).
We generally think of a lie as an act of speaking what is untrue, and have not fully understood that satan’s nature is the expression of untruth as Christ Himself, in act, in word and in nature was, and still is, TRUTH. The Lord made this clear in His words to the Pharisees when He said of satan, “there is no truth in him”, therefore, “When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8 v44). If the whole world is under the control of the evil one, then humanity breathes in, so to speak, the AIR OF UNTRUTH IN THOUGHT CONCERNING ALL THINGS AROUND THEM, and particularly concerning themselves.
“‘What is truth?’ Pilate asked” (John 18 v38), and “What is truth?” People continue to cry. They are blinded by the fallen nature of Adam, full of the poison of the enemy of God, as he blinds the minds of those who do not believe the truth of God. This is why the world is full of people believing untruths about God, themselves, and satan. Even believing untruth to be truth, by the subtle blinding of the enemy.
Therefore, the Spirit of God comes into a world clouded in a fog of untruth as the Spirit of Truth to reveal the truth and bear witness to the truth, which in its widest meaning we may describe as seeing things as God sees them. For this alone is truth.
TRUTH IS THE CORNERSTONE.
By The Editor
Truth is the cornerstone of the Gospel. Without it there can be no salvation for the lost, perishing and dying souls of humanity. A mind that is filled with truth will be able to achieve much. The Lord Jesus Christ, called Himself “the Way and the Truth and the Life” (John 14 v6). The Scriptures say, “I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious Cornerstone, and the one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame. Now to you who believe, this stone is precious” (1 Peter 2 v6-7). A mind filled with Christ’s truth is that of an overcomer.
Let us consider an example of a professional guitarist who can do their job of playing the guitar publicly because they know the truth of their skill. If they did not believe that they could play a guitar they would not. If it was a lie that they could play the guitar then they would make no living from playing the guitar. So too, the truth of the Gospel proves itself to be truth because it works. People are set free, delivered, made whole, saved and sanctified. By the word of their testimony, the Gospel is proved true. The confession of what the Lord has truly done in a person’s life, validates the Gospel. Otherwise, imagine if someone called themselves a guitarist but could not play, they would not be capable of sustaining a musical career beyond their first audition. So too, the Gospel would never have lasted beyond the first year after Calvary, had it not been true.
The fact that those at the Upper Room Prayer Meeting had a true encounter with the Holy Spirit and then shared this with others, who experienced a similar true encounter with Christ, proves the genuineness of the truth (Acts 1 v13).
How to counter a lie by acknowledging the truth.
The believer must stand on the truth with confidence. A lie will fail the liar who produced it. Look around the world and see the work of the Lord. There is a Church burning with spiritual fire in the midst of corrupt regimes, whose lies attempt to put out the Gospel light by saying there is no God, or that there is another non-Biblical God, but they fail. For who can bring peace but Jesus Christ? Who can bring forgiveness from sin, except Him? And who can wash away past pain and hurt? Only by His Spirit.
The Lord Jesus Christ appeared once as a man to save humankind, those born to Adam’s seed. The Gospel has a true message to a dying world. For those who trust in lies can no longer have hope for the future. What hope does someone who cannot play the guitar have of being a professional guitarist? None. Therefore, what hope does someone who believes there is no salvation in Jesus Christ have on Judgement Day? Again none. But those washed in the Blood of the Lamb have all hope, based upon the truth of the Word. Either it is true or not. This is simple, “Let God be true, and every human being a liar” (Romans 3 v4).
My dear brother or sister in Christ, rest in the TRUTH of the Word of God, lean not on your understanding. Fleeting human theories and fads pass by like a whistle in the night, never remembered again. His Word is eternal and the Logos sits upon the throne, crowned the Lamb of God for His work on Calvary. By His Holy Spirit, those who listen are healed by the promises of the Bible, and to those who knock He will answer, those who seek will find and those who bow the knee will be saved and join Heaven’s eternal Kingdom.
Live life in truth, for the lie always fades, passes and flies away but truth remains. As one translation reads, “God’s truth stands firm like a foundation stone with this inscription: ‘The Lord knows those who are His,’ and ‘All who belong to the Lord must turn away from evil’” (2 Timothy 2 v19). The guitarist who can play the guitar will always play unless they give up or retire. The Christian who believes in the Bible’s promises will always be an Overcomer if they do not grow faint. So, keep strong and know that He is God, as it is written, “You are My sheep, the sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Sovereign Lord” (Ezekiel 34 v31). Keep running after the truth and you will never be disappointed. As the Psalmist said, “Never take your word of truth from my mouth, for I have put my hope in your laws” (Psalm 119 v43). If the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ is in you, then you cannot fail, yours is the gift of eternal life.
John said, “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3 v18). And we know what truth is because it is written in the Bible that, “it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth” (1 John 5 v6). The word “truth” here in chapter 5 verse 6 is the same Greek word that the Lord Jesus Christ used in John 15 verse 26 when He said, “the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father - He will testify about Me.” It describes someone that can be reliable, trustworthy, true and never failing. The opposite is something uncertain, unstable and unreliable. So, we know that we can know the truth and “the truth will set us free” (John 8 v32), and because the promise of our Lord is that “your Father in Heaven” will “give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him” (Luke 11 v13). And if we ask Him and receive from Him this precious gift of the Holy Spirit, we will be led into all truth. For the Lord Jesus said, “when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth” (John 16 v13). Therefore, you can be sure that when the Holy Spirit puts into your heart to do the right thing, this is not your carnal nature speaking, but the very one who hovered over the face to the deep in Genesis chapter 1, Truth Himself, the promised Holy Spirit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We must learn to trust the truth of the Holy Spirit in our spirit, He is completely reliable and steadfast. He honours only the Word and listens only to the bidding of the Father. When we are convicted of wrongdoing or feel compelled to do good, such as what James called helping the orphan or widow in their time of need (James 1 v27). It is then that we know the Spirit of Truth is guiding us and encouraging us to do the will of our Father in Heaven.
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CHRIST - THE TRUTH.
By F B Meyer
Christ is more than a teacher, “we know that you are a teacher who has come from God”, said Nicodemus (John 3 v2). He is much more, for He is the Truth of God. All truth is encapsulated in Him. All the mysteries of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Him. We fully know truth only as it is in Jesus Christ. When the Spirit of Truth would lead us into all truth, He can do nothing better than take the things of Christ, and reveal them to us, because to know Christ is to know the truth in its most complete, most convenient and most accessible form. If you know Christ intimately and fully, even if you know nothing else, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. If you love truth, and are a child of the truth you will be inevitably attracted to Christ, and recognise the truth that speaks through His glorious nature. “Everyone on the side of truth listens to Me” (John 18 v37).
Distinguish between Christ the Truth, and truth about Him. Many true things may be said about Him, but we are not saved by truths about Him, but by Himself, the Truth.
Not the simple fact that Jesus died, but the person who died and lives for evermore is God.
Not the certain fact that Jesus lay in the grave, but the blessed Man Himself, who lay there for me.
Not the unquestionable facts of His resurrection and ascension, but that He has borne my nature to the midst of the Throne, and has achieved a victory which helps me in my daily struggle.
This is the basis of all true saving faith. The soul may accept truths about Christ, as it would any well proven historical facts, but it is not saved until it has come to rest on the chest of Him of whom these facts are recorded.
To know Christ as Truth demands truth in heart and life. The insincere person, the quick joker, who takes nothing seriously is superficial. The inconsistent person who daily goes against their convictions by permitting things which the human conscience condemns, must stand forever on the outskirts of the Temple of Truth. They have no right to stand before the King of Truth.
Pay attention to Christ. Be content to leave the world and its wisdom alone. “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight: As it is written: He catches the wise in their craftiness” (1 Corinthians 3 v19). Give yourself completely to know Christ, who has become for us wisdom, as well as sanctification and redemption. To know Him is to be at the fountain-head of all truth, and the soul which has dwelt with Him by day and night will find itself not only inspired by an undying love for truth, but able to hold fellowship with those who love truth and seek after it everywhere. They will be able to even instruct those who have the reputation of great learning and knowledge in the schools of human thought, “I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts” (Psalms 119 v99-100). To know Christ is to have the Word, that is the Wisdom of God, deeply rooted in the heart, as a sacred possession.
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WALKING IN DARKNESS.
By David Tryon
Some words of John in the early part of his first letter suggest a very frightening possibility for a Christian. It is the possibility that we may “walk in darkness”, or live in a world of illusion (1 John 1 v6). “Light” in the New Testament means the same things as Truth. It means reality, that is the real and the true as opposed to the unreal and the false. To “walk in darkness” suggests an unwillingness to face reality, a preference for the false and the untrue. John wrote, “If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another” (1 John 1 v7). If this refers to the fellowship of one Christian with another, or a number of Christians with one another, then that statement is equally true in reverse. If we are living in true fellowship with other Christians, then we are walking in the light. Alternatively, if our fellowship with other Christians is broken then we, they, or perhaps both parties are walking in darkness.
Fellowship with true Christians is one of the means which God uses for keeping us in the light. It can also be the test as to whether or not we are in the light. The Body of Christ is so constructed that no member can walk in the light on their own. If we try to do so we shall be in grave danger of passing into darkness, and there is no greater darkness than the darkness which claims to be light which other Christians do not possess. Such darkness may well come from the prince of darkness, masquerading as an angel of light. Jesus said, “If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness” (Matthew 6 v23). This has been demonstrated again and again in the lives of individual Christians, as well as in Christian sects and movements.
The danger of passing into darkness because we are out of fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ is one which we should take seriously. Darkness is dangerous, and spiritual darkness is particularly dangerous because the Christian who is in it can imagine that they are still in the light. It is the power of such darkness to blind them to their own condition which is a terrifying thing. We can safeguard against such danger by never allowing any cause of offence to remain between us and any other Christian or Christians until we have done everything in our power to remove it. If we do not take all possible steps to remove it, then we are in danger of passing into darkness. If the other party rejects our attempt to remove it then they are in darkness or will pass into darkness. That is the simple “recipe” for remaining in the light so far as our fellowship with other Christians is concerned.
To be walking in darkness is a desperate condition for a believer to be in. Jesus summed up the danger of it when He said, “Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going” (John 12 v35). That is the point which is so obvious to a Christian in the light as they watch with great sorrow a fellow-Christian struggling in darkness. They do not know where they are going. Any spiritual Christian can see that. The person in darkness has deceived themselves, and does not know the difference between the way of truth and the way of lying. They are unable to see that the Christian way is the way of love, with long-suffering, gentleness and self-control. Because of the darkness there is no “firm tread” in their faith walk, but hesitation, uncertainty and doubt. They have no clear direction marked out for themselves and make no definite progress. Their Christian life seems to be going round in circles.
After years they show no growth in grace or advance in Christian character. They may have heard hundreds of sermons, and read many Christian books, yet their learning never comes to the knowledge of the truth. Of course not, because truth means light, and they are in darkness. Paul’s great declaration, “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3 v13-14), is foreign to their experience. They can see no path which leads to it.
Christians that are in darkness run into stumbling-blocks which other Christians can see and avoid. They are always stumbling or falling, and they run into other Christians, and resent the collision, blaming it always on them. And finally, they cannot see where the path which they are on is leading to. They are unable to look ahead and visualise the outcome of their self-centred, carnal way of life. Any peace of mind they have is the result of complacency and blindness, not of vision. Their spiritual condition is one of extreme danger. They take the path which the world is taking, and they have little evidence that they are not children of darkness either. “Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going” (John 12 v35).
May the Lord give us grace to keep in His light, to live in true fellowship with His people, to allow nothing to remain which damages that fellowship, so that together we may experience the blessing of the promise that “the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1 v7).
Walk in the light and your path shall be peaceful and bright. For God, by grace, shall dwell in you, and God Himself is Light.
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SATAN TWISTS THE TRUTH.
By S D Gordon
The tempter has a way of hiding his approach to us, which is so strange and bold as to make it seem almost blasphemous even to repeat it. He hides behind God. That is to say, he pretends to be God’s messenger. Paul’s way of saying it is that he “masquerades as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11 v14). The boldness and subtlety of this reveals the desperateness of the tempter. It also shows the reality of the fight that is on. It is a real fight that is no mere fantasy.
The tempter will come to us under the disguise of being God’s messenger, or of being God Himself. For example, he will quote some bit of God’s Word, to make us think it is God who is speaking. It is true that the quotation is often a misquote, or a partial quote, and far away from its true meaning. But it is also true that these quotations of his are accepted by great numbers, who do not recognise the personality of the quoter.
In addition to this, is the other method of clothing his suggestions in religious words. There is a mixture of true and good with what is bad and not true, to give the impression that all is good. The impression he seeks to give is that it is God Himself who talking to us, and so the impression that in adopting and following his suggestion we are really doing the thing God wants done. This may be called the religious temptation. It is his favourite way of approach to earnest, godly people.
It is very interesting that he used this technique with our Lord. In the Wilderness he preached the Gospel of trust in God. He said, “throw Yourself down. For it is written: “’He will command His angels concerning You, and they will lift You up in their hands, so that You will not strike your foot against a stone” (Matthew 4 v6). This false preaching sounded very plausible, yet God’s Word was pushed out of its meaning.
Recognising this is really not difficult. For in it the tempter always suggests something a little more extreme. The method is really to make some extreme or unnecessary application of what the Word teaches. And this is one of the sure standards by which to test any temptation.
It may help to look at a few of his favourite temptations under this disguise. We are taught in Scripture to gladly submit to God’s will for our lives. There has been much preaching over the years on this truth. And many have sought to make this the controlling purpose of their lives.
The tempter’s perversion of this is that we are to submit to whatever comes to us, as being the will of God for us. Under that disguise he would lead us to accept as God’s will much that he sends. The true spirit of submission is an intelligent discerning of what God’s will for us is, and then an acceptance of it. The tempter’s counterfeit is that we should blindly accept whatever comes, as being God’s will because it has come. So, he would get us to accept his own doing under the supposition that we are submitting to God’s will.
There is much disease, disaster and mental depression that is accepted. Whereas, if there were prayerful discerning of what is God’s will, and what is not, much evil that comes would be resisted, in our Lord’s Jesus’ name, and so too deliverance would come. The Master’s word to “watch” as well as “pray” if used more faithfully and intelligently, would help greatly. We would find freedom from much that has mistakenly been accepted as from God.
WALKING IN THE TRUTH.
By J C Metcalfe
Beware of abstract thinking because it can only lead into theorising. Never forget that truth is not abstract, all truth is incarnate. Jesus said “I AM THE TRUTH”, not “I will show you the truth“, not “I will lead you to the truth”, but “I AM THE TRUTH”. You will find again and again that all the wonderful things that God promises us are incarnate in Jesus Christ. Take for instance, the verse “Christ Jesus our hope” (1 Timothy 1 v1). Our hope is vested in a person. Many of us seek to lead others to Christ and into the possession of eternal life. We give them the idea that they go to God and take this nebulous thing, eternal life, and somehow or other put it into themselves, and then go away and live their lives independently. Listen, “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5 v12). Everything is summed up in the person of Jesus Christ. The great lie of all time is the denial of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
In 1 John the apostle writes, “I am writing to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of His name” (2 v12). Do you remember the day when you first understood that Jesus had died on the Cross for you and that it meant that for His name’s sake you could go into the presence of the living God and call Him Father? The dawn of the Christian life is the new birth. We see Jesus crucified for us and there is no other reason why God forgives than because of the name of Jesus. You do not get forgiveness because you confess, you get forgiveness because there is a great High Priest at God’s right hand and He still bears the marks of His passion. He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. “Dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of His name” (1 John 2 v12).
Next John goes to the other end of the scale and says, “I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning” (1 John 2 v13). As we go out into the Christian life we discover not only that the need of our hearts is met and that we are forgiven sinners, but that we have a Father and we begin to know Him and to talk to Him. He becomes real to us and is the centre of everything as we continue in the Christian life. As we grow older in the things of God this knowledge becomes stronger and stronger. “You know Him who is from the beginning” (1 John 2 v14). We do not just turn in upon ourselves, we turn to the living God and see how gentle, gracious and holy He is. And God begins to fill our hearts and lives with awe.
Then John says, “I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one” (2 v14). You see, there is strength in life to overcome. Not just one moment saying “Hallelujah” and the next going about with drooping shoulders, not one moment in victory and the next in defeat, “You have overcome the evil one”. The glory of the mature Christian life is seen in a quiet, consistent, victorious walk with God.
These verses are the innocence of childhood, the strength of prime, and the experience of maturity, and all those qualities are needed in the Christian Church. We must have all these three side by side, the innocence of childhood, the strength of prime and the experience of full maturity, and all this can be ours, in our own lives. We can be innocent, because we are living in the glory of the light of full forgiveness. We can be in the strength of prime, because we have learned where to trust. We can be in the maturity of adulthood because of our knowledge of the living God.
The tense in Greek changes to “I have written” or “I wrote” in verses 13 and 14. “I wrote to you, children,” and the word for children changes too. It is not little children, but it is the word for children who are just starting their education and comes from a Greek word meaning “to educate”. The children have begun going to school. “I am writing to you children, who have begun going to school, because you have known the Father.” They have begun to graduate from the knowledge of forgiven sins into the knowledge of the Father. In effect John says, “I have written to you and this is the lesson that you are going to learn in school, step by step, to know the Father for yourselves.”
“I have written to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning” (2 v14). Again, we find emphasised growth in the Christian life that is in the knowledge of God. Never dwell on experiences by pointing people back to a time when you had a spiritual experience. We do not take an experience as truth, we take the knowledge of Him, which continues from day to day, and is a knowledge of the greatness of God. That is what we need to lead people into. They are living in a world that was made by Him, yet they do not know Him, and you and I are here to lead them to Him.
John says, “I have written to you, young men, because you are strong”, and he tells them why they are strong, “the word of God lives in you” (v14). The person who thinks they can do without the Scriptures is a fool. It is through the Word of God that we get to know Him. How precious is this Book. As you learn more about it you seem to know less. As you study it more you will come across fresh facets of Him and of His grace. Never minimise the place of the Word of God in your Christian life. Our strength is through the working of the Word in our hearts and lives, “And you have overcome the evil one” (v14). So long as we trust in this and not in ourselves, and remember that our victory is not yet final, then we will rejoice in the confidence of strength and victory. We rejoice in what we find in the Word of God about Him.
In John 17 Jesus prays, “Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth” (v17). Sanctify us through Your word, bringing the living God ever closer into our knowledge and consciousness, so that because we live in the beauty of His presence, we become like Him.
Never think that you are going to “feel" better. I believe it is the experience of everyone who seeks to go on with Him that the older they grow, the worse they feel. After all, that is only logical, because the nearer we get to God the more we see of our imperfections and the less disposed we are to judge others. His Word is truth, and the truth reveals the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Verses 15 to 17 are a test of sincerity, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him” (v15). That is somewhat devastating but we dare not water it down. Just here lies the difficulty with many of us. At times we desire to be more like Him, we have right desires and longings, but there are things that are based in this world that we hold dearer than Him. The answer is quite simple. In John’s Gospel, you will find this, “Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out” (7 v17). If you do not understand the doctrine of deliverance in Christ, the strong probability is that there is something at the back of your life that is wrong, or allied to the world, and you are not prepared to deal with it. The love of the world is a very strong chain. The desire for prominence, the wish to be in the public eye, yes, even that your work shall succeed, these are of the world and are the destruction of many.
“For everything in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes” (1 John 2 v16). The first-century Christians used to say that if you went into a pagan temple and looked at the beauty of some of the architecture and statues you could see there, you might be lured away through your eyes. How true that is in our day and generation. There will be many a soul lost through such things as television, not that it is evil in itself, but it can take the place which should be set aside for God. People find time for that when they have no time for Him and their eyes lure them away.
Then follows “the pride of life” (1 John 2 v16). The word “life” used here is a word that is rarely used in the New Testament, it is the Greek word from which we get our word “biography”. The vanity of biography. I sit down to write my autobiography and say I have travelled in Australia, in Africa, and so on, and have done this, that and the other. I have preached here, there and in the next place, and what has happened? I have been caught by the world, but “The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever” (2 v17). There is only One who is worthwhile, who is going to last for all eternity, and He is the One we must set our hearts on and lead others to.
Now to the final section, verses 18 to 19. “Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us.” It is strange but the things which draw us away from Him and take His place often have their birth in the Christian Church. Error often sits in the Church and out of the Church there arises a spirit of antichrist. Antichrist does not just mean against Christ but instead of Christ. It is something which takes His place and we are told very plainly what it is. The great driving force behind everything anti-Christian is the lie, as contrasted with the truth. Look at the verse, “Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ” (v22).
Here we stand, and as Martin Luther said, “we can do no other.” We stand upon this one fact, that Jesus is the Christ. You will find that people will say, “yes, we believe in Jesus, we believe in His preaching and teaching and we love to try and follow the Sermon on the Mount, but of course He is not God. He is only a fallible man, who was ruled by the thoughts of his own time.” My friends, Jesus was God. Jesus here upon earth was God manifest in the flesh. “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Corinthians 5 v19). Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God”, as stated in the Nicene Creed. We can have no dealings with anything that denies this. This, according to the Scriptures, is antichrist. Christ came into the world, Jesus, the man. He went to the Cross, and as our representative He bore the sins of the world away upon Calvary. He was laid in the tomb and that first Easter morning He rose again from the dead and lives forever at God’s right hand. “He always lives to intercede for us” (Hebrews 7 v25).
Further on in this epistle you will find this statement, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God” (1 John 5 v1). It does not say believes the truth about Him, but believes that that Jesus who was nailed to the Cross is now the Lamb in the midst of the throne. And that He is the great High Priest at the right hand of the Father, and that Jesus will come again and then this dark world will be gathered into the arms of God. Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ will then be seen as King of kings and Lord of lords. “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2 v10-11).
Today that which is antichrist seeks to displace the Lord Jesus Christ from the centre of our lives. A verse in chapter 4 deals with this, “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (1 John 4 v1). “This is how you can recognise the Spirit of God; every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world” (1 John 4 v2-3). Always judge what you hear in this way, do not judge a person simply by what they say but by what they leave out. If you look at the Greek, the verb “is come” expresses that the coming is not a finished act. Antichrist comes and lives in the flesh.
There at God’s right hand is the man, Christ Jesus, and He has carried our humanity to the very throne of God. What a wonderful Saviour we have. But there is much that occupies the Church today that will divert us from Him. Anything that takes Christ from the centre of God’s dealings with humanity is antichrist and is false. Our safety is in two things. Firstly, you will find that, “You have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth” (1 John 2 v20). That might seem to be a very dangerous verse because we might look upon ourselves as the only people who know anything. It does not mean that we have become prophetic experts, it does not mean that we have come to know all there is to know theologically, but it does mean that God is real to us and His beauty has begun to be unveiled before us. Do you see the difference?
The same thought then repeated, “The anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit - just as it has taught you, remain in Him” (v27). The whole of Divine revelation is concentrated on this one aim, to make us utterly and completely dependent upon our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and to find everything in Him forever. That is the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Do not just look for an experience. Someone who is filled with the Spirit will exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord becomes the centre of everything so far as we are concerned. This is a place of safety, we will live in Him.
We read, “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4 v4). We are in Him and He is in us. There is wonder in this union with Christ. You and I have stood helpless whilst another went down into the Valley for us and grappled with the forces of evil. Another personally carried our sins in His own body on the tree. So now we can go forward to rest in that victory day by day and moment by moment. This is the truth of the Gospel. This is the quiet confidence of our strength.
Our answer to the cry, “It is finished”, can be, “Yes Lord, we won.” What a banner to take through life, and this is the very truth of God that delivers souls and brings us into the fellowship of the Father.
From: ‘Walking with God
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TRUTH AND HOLINESS.
By Marcus Rainsford
“To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ” (Jude 1 v1).
Look, how the three Persons of the Trinity are engaged in the sanctification of God’s people. The Father sanctifying them, the Son in whom they are preserved, and the Holy Spirit by whom they are called. In this one passage we see the setting apart, the manifestation of the blessing and the communication. They are “called” by the Spirit to His eternal glory in the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom they are kept, and by the Father who has loved them. This is a divinely perfect work of sanctification of God’s people, the foundation having been laid in the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ and our union with Him. The manifestation and communication of the blessing is “through the truth” (John 17 v19) and “the belief in the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2 v13). And the power by which it is completed is “the Holy Spirit who lives in us” (2 Timothy 1 v14).
As satan corrupts us through lies, our God sanctifies us through the truth. We can see that it is not through impressions, or through excitement, or through revelations or visions, or through the sacraments as many teach, or even through Church traditions that we are sanctified. “Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth” (John 17 v17).
It is very important to note that truth is the instrument used by God to sanctify us.
It is through the truth of the love of God, revealed and poured into our hearts that is the sanctifying principle of truth, "We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4 v19). Love is a compelling truth, “For Christ’s love compels us” (2 Corinthians 5 v14).
The truth is the way by which the Holy Spirit ministers to our soul, therefore we read in the Word that the Gospel is called, “the ministry of the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3 v8). This is because it is the means by which the Spirit is ministered. The apostle asked, “Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by hearing with faith?” (Galatians 3 v2).
COUNTERFEITS OF THE TRUTH.
By Bishop H C G Moule
“They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone” (2 Timothy 3 v6-9).
In this passage, the thought of godliness in Christianity was superficially retained. The main beliefs were apparently respected. But it was a body without breath, and a programme without life, for it was unspiritual Christianity.
The apostle, in writing this, had a definite type of character in mind. They were not loud and obstructive, there was something secretive about them. They would force themselves into houses, where there is a possibility of conquests to their cause. Their action is largely directed towards an influence over women. They would find a restless conscience, invaded by sin and afraid to submit entirely to the Lord. This was their opportunity. There, we discern, the visitors acted out their religious acts, and suggested an occult solution to sin and sorrow. They promised, possibly after some ascetic ceremony, a freedom from bondage and communion with the spirit world. They offered their services, at first as a trial and then because the victim wanted more out of psychological necessity. Until at last their spiritual control was complete.
The opposition to true apostolic Christianity is never obvious. The terms of faith are freely used, like God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, redemption or liberty. These magicians, Jannes and Jambres, seemed to practice sorcery. As too, their successors in Paul’s time sounded strangely like the Gospel, and therefore enticed a host of restless souls, called Christian. But all the time their message was in opposition to the cause of the Redeemer and the truth. Its sin was not what the Lord meant by sin, nor was its salvation. His holy deliverance from the slavery of self-will into the pure liberty of a full surrender to a Crucified and Risen King. At best all was of the earth and not a gift from God. And through this avenue it gave access to the forces of hell, for it led the soul along a wrong path.
The apostle, in His Master’s name, assured us that the evil had limits, and was put to shame. But the hour has not yet come for the final defeat of such subtle counterfeits of Christ. So let us watch, and pray, and keep ourselves always in the eternal open air and holy morning light of “the truth that is in Jesus” (Ephesians 4 v21).
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“Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it”
Blaise Pascal, France (1623-62).
“The entirety of Your Word is truth, and all Your righteous judgements endure forever”
(Psalm 119 v160).
“Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place”
(Ephesians 6 v14).
“This is the sum of the matter: we must come to God as poor, weak, helpless sinners, we must trust Christ to help us, and look to the divine Spirit to purge and cleanse us, and make us truthful, and then all will be well. Let this, then, be our prayer, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Let us be true, then, brethren, and we may not question the result. Meet the Prince of Darkness with the light, he cannot stand against it. Our times require our sincerity”
C H Spurgeon (1834-98)