Address—C. Buchanan
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Now the first thing I'll say to you.
If you want to get a charge out of something.
Read First Timothy. It's full of charge.
We got three of them yesterday. We're going for a high charge right now in the last chapter, First Timothy, this is by way of introducing what we want to speak about.
As to the truth.
First Timothy, chapter 6.
Beginning with verse 13.
First Timothy, 6/13.
I give the charge.
In the sight of God.
Who quickeneth all things?
And before Christ Jesus.
They'll stop and talk about that.
This is high voltage here.
I've got a lawnmower back home.
That I bought about a dozen years ago.
After visiting Leo Reno's farm where he had an electric lawnmower and I thought that was great.
Just to go out there and turn a switch and the power was on and there wasn't a sound of that thing except a little word that went along cutting the grass.
Now that lawnmower has worked real good.
When it's charged.
But it's getting old like some of us, and it has to be recharged frequently.
That's like us believers. We can get a charge like we get at a conference.
We go back home, we have to get recharged. That mower of mine used to cut an acre without a recharge. Now it takes three more three times to recharge it.
Well, God has been illustrated.
Like this?
By electricity.
You can't see electricity.
But you can certainly see the effects of it.
Light, heat, and power. That's the Trinity.
Light, love and power.
And so this charge to Timothy is put before the highest power and authority there is. Notice it again. I charge thee. Let's take this to heart.
In the sight of God.
We've had about Elijah.
Various times in these meetings.
You know when that man appears on the scene.
The first thing he says?
When called up before Ahab, that wicked king, who is going to charge him?
With the troubling of Israel.
He says.
The Lord God before whom I stand, ignoring the King of Israel.
If we can think like that.
Circumstances and people won't bother us. You and I stand before.
God as believers always, at all times and in every place, and God who quickeneth all things and before Christ Jesus, supreme authority again.
Now we're going to go back and review what that charge was.
Beginning with verse 10.
For the love of money is the root of all evil.
Which while some coveted after they have heard from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
But thou, O man of God, flee these things from all untruth. To flee. That's one of the things.
And follow after righteousness God, in this faith, love, patience, meekness.
Fight the good fight of faith they hold on eternal life, wherein to thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. This is a 4F charge.
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Flee, follow, fight and faith. Very simple when put that way.
Get these charges, they help every Christian and God looks down at us and sees us.
Whether we run away from untruth, any moral things, whether we follow with those that call on the Lord out of a name, out of a pure heart.
We're in the fight of faith.
That we should earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the Saints.
My brother yesterday.
Said something about the truth as the whole deposit. The faith is the same thing, the whole deposit of truth.
If you're going to.
Keep it, it's a battle.
As Proverbs 2323 says.
By the truth.
And sell it not. It's a battle. This is what we're charged about. Now we're taken to see Jesus.
Before Pontius Pilate. We'll read the rest here.
Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebucable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which in His times He shall show, who is the blessed and only Potentate, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who only has immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach, unto whom no man has seen nor can see.
To whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen.
Oh, what an example, this supreme authority as man.
Standing before Pilate is for you and I.
In confession, in profession. Now we'll go back and get what he said as standing there in John chapter 18, and that will bring us to the subject of the truth.
It is one whole deposit that is committed to you and I.
Who have heard it?
To hold it, to keep it as we're getting so beautifully in our meetings.
18th of John.
We will read the 37th verse.
Pilate saith. And Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then?
Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. Here was the true confession that Jesus, the man the Nazarene, witnessed when hailed up before the judge of the Roman Empire. Pilot.
Oh, what I've seen to contemplate.
The one who is Lord of all, as the meek and lowly one come down and delivered.
By his own people to the Roman power.
Because they would not have him and he's submitting to that power and saying.
When Pilate said, Notice that not that I have power to crucify thee and to release thee, Jesus said, Thou couldst have had no power at all against me, except that were given thee from above. Therefore he that delivered me to thee hath the greater sin. Thus the Jewish nation.
I'll say at this juncture that the judgment upon that Jewish nation is what we were talking about this morning, that great tribulation, it is yet coming. I think another fact that we won't be here when the tribulation comes is in the very chapter where the birthday of the Church appears, when Peter preached and said to those Jews, save yourselves from this untoward generation, for that generation is going to have the tribulation fall upon.
Them if they don't take their place in repentance and change position and be introduced in the Church of God, which is going to be caught out before that tribulation comes. Isn't the word of God interesting? Well, here's Jesus standing before Pilate and he tells the truth and that title was put over the cross. He was condemned with a true title over his cross. Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews, absolutely the truth.
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He said so, and they killed him. They crucified him. He died for his witness. Now let's read the rest of the verse.
To this end was I born.
And for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto thee truth.
How blessed.
Why did Jesus come? Why was he born?
To bear witness to the truth.
No lie is of the truth.
Jesus came to bear witness to the truth.
In bearing witness to the truth, he bore witness to himself.
For he said, I am the truth, I am the way, the truth and the light.
No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
He came to bear witness to the truth. Why are you and I here?
To bear the same witness to the truth.
Now finish the verse everyone.
They deserve the truth.
Here is my voice. What did Philadelphia?
Do kept his word. That's what this says here.
She heard. Philadelphians heard. They kept his word. They heard the truth.
Simple, but try and do it.
Try and keep it. Let's do.
Most blessed, Most precious.
Now let's go back to the first chapter of John.
Men review the Lord's coming into the world.
As it comes before us.
In John's Gospel, in the beginning was the Word.
I think that's very remarkable.
That this title is put there.
Nor the one of whom it goes on and says the word was with God and the Word was God. Verse 14.
And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
He beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father fool.
Of grace and truth.
Yes, the word he's going to be magnified.
And glorified when he comes out of heaven as the word of God to.
In Revelation.
But here it is a declaration of what is. Now that's a definition of truth.
Truth is not what he is, it is a declaration of what he is. What is then gone is.
Various times in John's Gospel, Jesus says I am.
You and I want to use that we have to always qualify.
He never he is the great I am of Exodus 3.
God is what is.
Jesus as being the truth is a declaration of what God is.
Manifest in the flesh what says grace and truth?
Came by Jesus Christ, but it puts grace first that God, because God had his thoughts of you and I.
He couldn't come in in pure truth 1St and bring us in.
There had to be grace.
Grace and truth.
Came by Jesus Christ. Now I've said that a definition of the truth is a declaration of what is. I want to confirm that using the same word, going to Luke chapter one and the first verse where I think they fit together very beautifully.
Luke writes such a blessed book.
I'll just comment on Luke that he is a he has a quality that I would covet and I hope we all would, but he likes to hide himself.
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He doesn't want to stick himself out in the prominent place.
But the way he begins his book, for as much as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, what's believed among us, the truth.
It's a declaration of those things. That is what truth is. It's a revelation from God of God.
And all the rest of it.
Truth. The truth.
So grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
Now we'll go to the.
8th chapter.
Of John.
Just to review without reading it, the early part of this chapter.
Jesus had come.
And he was ministering.
And the self-righteous scribes and Pharisees.
We're resisting him and trying to catch him.
And they found the woman which was condemned under the law and there was number way of getting around it. She was caught in a sin openly and the law said that such an would be one should be stoned. What sayest thou?
You can't corner the Lord.
Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ At that time. He was stooping down, riding on the ground. I like to think he was writing grace.
He did it the second time, grace upon grace, but he convicted everyone of them.
Leaving them under the law under which they had put that guilty woman, saying he that's without sin among you, let him cast the first stone. If she's under the law, you're under the law.
They were convicted in their conscience and they couldn't stand the truth. They had to leave his presence. They went out.
The Lord lifted his eyes, saw no man but that woman there.
As no man condemned thee, no manlord, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. Oh, what grace? Every one of us have experienced that grace. Now grace brings us into liberty.
But it's the liberty of the truth to practice the truth.
So we come on down in the chapter.
And.
Verse 30 As he spake these words, many believed on him.
Have you believed on him? I have.
What happened?
Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, if he continued in my word.
Then are ye my disciples indeed?
Persist on in that belief of the truth.
Then what? What happens next?
And you shall know the truth.
And the truth shall make you free.
How, blessed brethren, to have the liberty of grace and truth.
Through faith and believing in this One who came to set the captives free, to purge our sins away and set us before God as holy and that calm in His presence, having no more conscience of sins, for God laid them on His Son, They are gone.
They're not attributed to us, nor can they be. We are set free through the knowledge of the truth of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are not like the Jews at that time under the law.
Well, they contest what the Lord had said in verse 33.
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They answered him. We'd be Abraham's seed, and we're never in *******.
To any man.
How sayest thou Ye shall be made free?
Let's examine that.
Were they telling the truth?
They said we were never in ******* to any man.
Why did they go to Pilate to get the condemnation?
To crucify the Lord. If they weren't free, if they weren't under ******* they were under the Roman yoke.
And those Jews like Esau.
So the birthright.
For a morsel of pottage.
You remember the story about Esau?
He had the birthright coming.
It was his as the first born.
He got hungry one day.
Pretty bad to be hungry. You're very hungry.
We need to think of the future beyond the next meal, though.
And his clever brother came along.
And offered him.
Some bean soup I suppose.
He said If you'll give me your birthright, I'll give you this beam soon.
To fill your stomach for a little while, make you comfortable.
Now that's what the Jews did when they sold their Messiah for 30 pieces of silver.
And said give us Barabbas.
They earned their place for a few years under the Roman yoke, Roman ******* and then the Romans turned on them in the ordering of God and destroyed their city, wiped away their temple from the earth so that he might bring them in under grace.
So that they might learn, not the truth.
But learn the sun, the person. Let's go on and read that.
Verse 37 I know that you're Abraham seed, but you seek to kill me because my word hath no place in you. They didn't let the word of Christ dwell in them, lodge in their hearts. They paid no attention to it. Instead of that, they sought to get rid of him, Jesus said.
Verse 38 I speak that which I have seen with my father.
No, I've skipped some verses here.
I should have read this from the 34th verse. Let's back up to verse 34. Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
Lying as a sin. They had just said we'd never under *******. The servant abide is not in the house forever, but the Son abideth ever.
If the sun therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
Well, this goes farther than the truth. It brings us to the person to know the one who is everything.
I'm so thankful for truths that have come out in our meetings here, especially this morning reviewing them.
Now ask the little strength.
The presence of the Lord certainly is great strength, but there is a little manifestation of His presence there.
In that, the key of David has been practiced.
And she found favor with God.
Providing a place for the Lord to have a table that was clean.
Were disciplined took away the openness of sin in this assembly at Philadelphia, so the Lord presents Himself there and keeping His word and not denying His name.
So there we have the one who is the truth in the midst.
Now we go to chapter 14.
Where we've quoted the verse already, but it is so specific we want to read it.
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Verse one. Let not your heart be troubled. Those words are said for us as well As for those who were hearing Him that day.
For the Lord as the person walking down here is not here.
But there's access to him at all times by faith. He believed in God. Believe also in me and my father's house are many mansions.
If it were not so, I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you.
Now the Lord was thinking of His own, the ones who would believe in the truth and learned to know Him.
For he says that in the 17th chapter. We'll get to that.
Now, so he tells them. Although I can't be with you here much longer.
I'm going to fix up a place for you up there.
Oh, the comfort of knowing that we're getting close to it.
And just as soon he says, I go away. And if I go verse three and prepare a place for you, I will come again. He doesn't leave anything in between. This is all in one sentence. If I go, I will come again. Actually, there's been.
Nearly 2000 years in between. That only means that we're that much closer. His promise is certain, it is sure. And receive you unto myself. He's going to bring others into that blessed place that He is prepared and the facts of the matter as to the preparation of the place.
Is.
That the 1St man is of the earth.
Earthy.
For this place.
And when our astronauts.
Leave their normal place of habitat.
Get one of these space vehicles and go up.
They carry a little portion of the earth with them.
They have to.
Their bodies are not suited for that celestial sphere.
They are not made perfect, as Jesus says in writing to the Hebrews.
They without us should not be made perfect. There's going to be a day, brethren, when we're all made perfect as to the physical.
Suited to the celestial sphere.
So we admire the power.
That sends these men far into space.
But they haven't left the Earth.
They carry oxygen or air. They have a physical temperature they can live in.
They have to have water and food.
They haven't actually left the earth, The only one that can do that.
Is the one who's already there. He has that glorified body as man.
He's going to come back and take us all into that father's house.
He goes on and explains that whether I go.
Receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. It's His desire. He wants us there more than we want to be there. Whether I go, you know, and the way you know, Thomas. We're thankful for Thomas asking this question, Saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest. And how can we know the way? There's a first time for lots of things, perhaps for everything, as Ecclesiastes says. And we have a first time for this year, I believe.
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way there's one of the Iams.
I am the truth, another one. I am the light.
No man cometh unto the Father, but by me there's the power.
There's the way, there's the hope, and there's the end.
But he says I am the truth.
This is what we want to impress upon us.
You and I have the truth.
In two ways.
Turning to John 17, here we have it personally.
By faith known in Jesus.
The truth as it is in Jesus. We'll get to that scripture.
But this scripture tells us that in the I am.
Known to faith, we have the truth. Think of it, brethren, That one, I'll say, condescend to present his.
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Presence in the midst of those who are gathered to His name.
The Lord, the truth, we have it that way. Do we value His presence?
I hope so. Chapter 17.
We begin with verse 15. I pray not that thou should take them out of the world.
Perhaps this fits with our history in Revelation 2 and three, where you see God had a purpose.
For the children of God down here after the Lord Jesus was taken out.
And what was it?
But that thou should keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Verse 16. Verse 17. Sanctify them through thy truth.
Thy word is truth. Here's the 2nd way we have truth.
This word is the word of God. Oh, how clearly we had that stated this morning. I rejoice in that. This word is the truth. It is a complete revelation. We have it.
Are we holding it?
We have what we hold in practice. Profession is not enough.
Well, here it is.
But we need a separating power of it too.
Thy word is truth.
As verse 18, Thou has sent me into the world, Even so have I also sent them into the world?
And for their sakes, I sanctify myself that they also may be sanctified, might be sanctified through the truth. Here's a separating power that you and I need to keep us from the contamination.
Of this unlawful scene around us.
This precious word of God.
We're going to have to skip and go on to Ephesians. Our time is about out.
Let's go to Ephesians chapter 4.
There are gifts given in this 4th chapter.
There are five of them and they have a purpose.
And a preventative thing, verse 14, that we henceforth.
Be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness whereby they lie and wait to deceive. This is the efforts of the enemy in the age in which you and I live, to distract us from pure doctrine to all kinds of doctrine. I'm amazed at the multitudes of teachings there are out in Christendom. And we're not to be children in these things. We're to grow up in the doctrine.
And hold it and practice it. But verse 15 but speaking the truth in love.
Oh, may we ever do that, as dear brother Eric Smith used to tell me over and again.
Love and truth and truth in love interwoven like that, how precious it is.
And it's for the whole body to grow up together.
And then there.
Is the place where we had been brought before us in verse 17 one of the blackest pictures in all of Scripture? Is our past history in Adam?
Verse 20 you get another but.
But ye have not so learned Christ.
No, we haven't. He's not like that. He is pure, holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from centers made higher than the highest. He is the truth.
Now there's a question of learning. This ought to be impressed upon me and upon all of us, if.
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If so, be that ye have heard Him. Do you attend the reading meetings? Do you read your Bible? Do you go and get a charge for yourself every day so that you can practice this doctrine? Do you get connected with God and the Lord Jesus Christ through this book? Are you and I learning? I tell you, we need to be charged and recharged. We need to learn.
And have been taught by him.
We've had good ministry spoken of and we have a great deal of it.
As the truth is in Jesus, that's what we're here to stand for. One last verse in.
First Timothy chapter 3 to close on.
One Timothy 3 verse 15. But if I tarry long, the Lord has tarried a long time, nearly 2000 years. I I'm applying that this way, I believe it applies.
We need to learn how to behave, says, so that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself. In the House of God. That's what we're put.
Through the.
Being baptized with the Holy Spirit in the body of the Church, which is the House of God.
Which is explained.
Behave thyself in the House of God, which is a Church of the living God.
The pillar and ground of the truth. The pillar.
And support of the truth. This is purpose here.
She was that to start with this church, but it's always in the purpose of God that the church should be the pillar, even the forefront down here like she shall be up there and the support of the truth. Jesus was born. He came to bear witness to the truth. The truth is here. We are to bear witness to it and support it. Let's close in prayer.