We need to know God’s present truth, which is not God’s new inventions but man’s new discoveries in the Word of God, even today’s cumulative revelations of God.
This week we come to a new topic in our morning revival entitled, Knowing and Spreading the Up-to-date Truth of the Highest Gospel of God’s Eternal Economy according to the Ministry of the Age.
Amen, this is our need. In particular these days we need to realize that Isa. 5:20 describes the generation we live in; people today call evil, good, and good, evil; they put darkness for light and light for darkness, and bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
The need is to know the truth and speak the truth, even to live out the truth as we spread the up-to-date truth, the present truth.
May we be those who have a love for the truth; Antichrist and those under his reign did not receive the love of the truth that they may be saved (2 Thes. 2:9-11).
May we be the lovers of the Lord and the lovers of the truth today so that we may love the Lord and be constituted with the truth in this age. If we don’t receive the love of the truth, God may send us an operation of error to believe a lie.
This is the worse kind of darkness to be in – to believe that the lie is the truth; at this point, someone is in complete darkness.
This is the age that we live in today; if we look around us, people speak a lie, believe the lie, and even promote the lie.
Especially the universities and the top schools are filled with people who teach in darkness, calling darkness, light, and light, darkness, for they do not receive the love of the truth.
As we see this situation unfolding right in front of our eyes, we realize that the Lord’s return is very near, even at hand, for we live the times described in the Bible as being just before the manifestation of Antichrist.
May we come to the Lord in His word every day to be sanctified in His word, for His word is the truth; may we exercise our spirit and allow the Lord to speak to us in His word.
John 17:17 says that the Father’s word is truth; John 14:6 says that Christ Himself is the truth, the reality.
Then, in John 8:31-32 and 36 we see that, if we abide in the Lord’s word, we are His disciples, and the truth shall set us free; if the Son sets us free, we will be free indeed.
If we daily come to the Lord in His word, He will set us free, and this is indeed real freedom.
In John 16:13 we see the Spirit of reality, the Spirit of truth; the function of this Spirit is to guide us into all the reality.
It is good to pray this to the Lord, asking Him to guide us into all the reality of what He is.
As we read the Word of God, we should take these words to the Lord and ask Him to guide us into the reality of what we read, and He will be pleased to bring us into the enjoyment and experience of Himself as revealed in His word.
We need to Inquire before God what the Present Truth is so that we may Know the Up-to-date Truth
1 Pet. 1:12 speaks of “the present truth”; this expression can also be rendered “the up-to-date truth”.
What does the present truth refer to? All the truths are in the Bible, and there’s not one truth that is not in the Bible.
However, due to man’s foolishness, negligence, unfaithfulness, and disobedience, many truths were lost and hidden from man.
The situation today can be likened to that in the days of King Josiah in 2 Kings 22; at one point during his reign, he wanted to clear up and rebuild the house of God, and in the process, they discovered the book of the law.
The temple had been partly in ruin and partly used for the worship of idols, there was a lot of rubble there, and much work had to be done; however, the book of the law was found, and when they read it, they all wept and repented.
The truths in the Bible have always been there throughout the ages, but if we look at church history, so much has been lost, misunderstood, and even hidden from man.
There was a period of time in human history called, The Dark Ages; these ages were dark because the Bible was not available to the common man.
The Roman Catholic Church locked the Bible and only those who were in that system or knew Hebrew, Latin, or Greek could read it.
But praise the Lord, there were some who, at the cost of their life, translated the Bible into our language, and when the Bible was made available to man, light begins to shine.
We should never neglect the Bible but come back to the Word of God, for His words are a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path (Psa. 119:105).
Even though the truths are all in the Bible, man did not see them or touch them, until the Lord, in the fullness of time, released certain truths during particular periods of time and caused them to be revealed once more.
These freshly revealed truths of God are not His “new inventions”, for they were there in the Bible; rather, they were man’s new discoveries.
There’s no need for man to invent anything – there’s the need for new discoveries in the Word of God.
For example, Martin Luther was raised by God in the sixteenth century, and he saw the matter of justification by faith.
This truth was there in the Bible all along, but Martin Luther made a fresh discovery, and that changed the course of church history.
Luther was merely the one who realized this truth in a stronger way, and he was particularly outstanding in this truth; for this reason, this truth became “the present truth” in that age.
During certain periods of time in church history, God revealed different truths, and those were the present truth in that age; this is clearly seen throughout the church history.
In His mercy, the Lord keeps speaking to man, and He is bringing His people back to His word, for all the truths are in the Bible; at particular times in the church age, He grants man “new discoveries” in His Word, and these become the present truth.
We need to know what is the present truth in this age, in the age that we live in. If we merely live according to the truths that the Lord has unveiled and recovered in the past centuries, we are not up-to-date with the Lord.
We need to inquire before God to know what is the present truth, asking Him to unveil us and show us, even bring us into, the present truth.
We need to know all the truths in the Bible, but at the same time, we must be clear about God’s present truth.
Lord Jesus, by Your mercy, we turn to You with all our heart, soul, and might, so that we may be unveiled and see the present truth. Grant us to have new discoveries in Your word under Your divine light so that we may be up-to-date with You. We want to have the freshly revealed truths and be in the present truth. Save us from not being up-to-date with You. Save us from being veiled and not knowing the present truth. Grant us to have the love of the truth so that we may be saved from any foolishness, ignorance, unfaithfulness, or disobedience. May Your truth shine on us and may we know the present truth in this age!
We need to Humble ourselves, Deny ourselves, and Know God’s Present Truth for His Will to be Accomplished in us
God’s truths are all in the Bible, but at different times throughout the ages, He revealed some truths in a stronger way to man.
God’s truths are cumulative; the truths that we have today do not negate the earlier ones but rather, stand on their foundation.
We can see this with the patriarchs; Abel worshipped God in His ordained way, Enosh called on the name of the Lord, Enoch walked with God, and Noah walked with God and worked with God.
Each experience was cumulative, inheriting what the forefathers have enjoyed and experienced, and going on to see and enjoy more of God.
Noah didn’t just work with God – he also walked with God, inheriting this godly way from his forefather Enoch.
Similarly today, the truths that we have are not standalone and not being related to the previous revelations of God; rather, God’s truths are cumulative, and we stand on the shoulders of all those who went before us.
All the truths that God revealed in the past are the foundation of the truths today.
We have seen that God justifies us by faith: we inherit this truth and go on to build on this truth.
We have seen that God wants to recover all the truths in God’s word so that we may know Christ, enjoy Christ, and experience Christ for the church life: we inherit this truth and we go on to have the present truth, which stands on the previously revealed truths.
We are in the tide of God’s will, which is a continuation of all the past works of God in the previous ages.
How we thank and praise the Lord for all those who went before us, those who have made fresh new discoveries in the word of God and have even paid the price of their life to uncover “the present truth” in their age!
Paul said in Gal. 1:12 that he didn’t receive revelation from man but rather, from God; we can say the same today, we have received help not just from the brothers who went before us but from God.
We did receive a lot of help from the likes of Martin Luther, Zinzendorf, the Moravian Brethren, the Keswick messages, Watchman Nee, and Witness Lee, but the actual revelation of the present truth comes from the Word of God under the divine enlightening.
The Lord today is recovering Christ as our everything and the church as our daily living for the building up of the Body of Christ to prepare the bride and bring the Lord back for the consummation of the New Jerusalem.
May the Lord be gracious to us that we do not become “castaways” of the present truth; may we be watchful and open before Him so that we may know the present truth and be constituted with God’s present truth in this age.
God’s grand purpose, His eternal economy, has been revealed to us; all we can do is humble ourselves, deny ourselves, and even prostrate ourselves before God, and go on with Him according to the present truth.
God desires to see Christ have the first place in all things (Col. 1:8) and for the church to be built up by the functioning of all the members in the Body in love.
May we be watchful, not allowing the flesh to come in or the self to gain any ground.
May we not only mentally know the present truth but also experience it and live and walk in the truth of God’s light today for the accomplishing of His will.
In each age, He has a present truth, and in this age, we can know the present truth if we humble ourselves, deny ourselves, and remain open to Him and to the ministry that properly interprets and cuts straight the word of the truth to bring us into the desire of God’s heart, God’s New Testament economy concerning Christ and the church.
May we follow the heavenly vision of God’s economy and not just follow a man – may we be governed by the heavenly vision that has been revealed to us, and may we not be disobedient to the heavenly vision.
Lord Jesus, we humble ourselves before You; be gracious to us that we do not become the castaway of the present truth. We deny ourselves and give ourselves to You again to be watchful, not allowing the flesh to come in or the self to gain any ground. Grant us to clearly see the heavenly vision of God’s economy concerning Christ and the church. May we not be disobedient to the heavenly vision but remain in it and be governed by it. Amen, Lord, thank You for revealing the cumulative truths to us so that we may have the present truth, the vision of God’s economy. Work out Your will in us and among us: may Your will be done in the church life today!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 11, “What Are We?” pp. 843-859, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing the Truth, being Absolute for the Truth, and Proclaiming the Truth in this Present Evil Age (2021 Memorial Day Weekend Conference), week 6, Knowing and Spreading the Up-to-date Truth of the Highest Gospel of God’s Eternal Economy according to the Ministry of the Age.
- Hymns on this topic:
– In the Holy Bible / Is a central line, / Truths and revelation / Span the bridge of time. / ’Midst the supplemental / And the “branch” or “leaf” / Is the Christ anointed / For eternity… / See the Holy City, / God’s supernal goal, / God’s organic blueprint, / His eternal scroll; / Corporate reproduction, / New Jerusalem, / Bride of Christ presented; / Worship, praise to Him. (Song on, The Central Line in the Bible)
– Myst’ry hid from ages now revealed to me, / ’Tis the Christ of God’s reality. / He embodies God, and He is life to me, / And the glory of my hope He’ll be. (Hymns #948)
– Oh, may a clear, controlling vision of / The Lord’s economy direct my heart, / And burn in me until my spirit’s wholly set afire! / With spirit strong and active we’ll press on / To consummate God’s goal— / New Jerusalem, Hallelujah! (Song on, God has called us for His purpose)
About aGodMan
