T. Austin-Sparks · 1 of 4

Truth in the Inward Parts

Reading: Rev. 21:2-3,9-12,19,21,27; 22:1.

"Thou desirest truth in the inward parts" (Psa. 51:6).

At this time we are being brought back to the matter of how the divine end governs everything and how everything has to be considered and taken account of, in the light of the divine end, the end towards which God is working.

The Divine End

Here in the chapters from which we have read, we have unveiled the divine end. We stand here in these portions of Scripture with the Lord in the unveiling, disclosing, of the end. This whole book is called "the revelation or the unveiling of Jesus Christ which God gave to Him" - the revelation of Jesus Christ. And there is a very real and strong sense in which all that is in this book is a revelation of Jesus Christ, a revelation of Him in various ways, from different standpoints: at the beginning, as fulfilling the Scripture "judgment must begin at the house of God" (1 Pet. 4:17), judging the churches and the whole church; and then dealing with wider matters. It is a revelation of Jesus Christ in action; it is the day of the Lord. And it is no less true when you come to the closing chapters, 21 and 22, that it is a revelation of Jesus Christ. There at the end we are given to see that revelation in the form of the New Jerusalem, the holy city, fairly fully described. It is still a revelation of Jesus Christ, but of course here it is a corporate and inclusive revelation of Him, not only in His Person and individual being, but also in a related way. The Lamb and the Bride are both gathered into one under the title of the New Jerusalem, the holy city, the tabernacle of God. You cannot split the two up. He is the tabernacle of God, and His own with Him constitute in a corporate way the tabernacle of God. And now it is all the consummation of processes, mighty activities. It is the consummate realization of what God has been doing over a very long time in a deep way, very largely in a hidden way. No one has seen this quite in this way before. They have known of it; Paul probably had a fairly full knowledge of this. He was caught up to the third heaven and shown unspeakable things (2 Cor. 12:2); and then in his letter to the Galatians, he speaks of the Jerusalem which is above which is the mother of us all (4:26). He had evidently seen something about this heavenly Jerusalem, but now it is revealed as something which has been in the making, proceeding towards this glorious unveiling. It is Christ and His own.

Let us at once re-impress our own minds with a fact which is not unfamiliar - that whatever there may be of place, location, geography, about our hereafter, about the holy city, the New Jerusalem and the heavenly country, it is pre-eminently and predominantly a spiritual state far more than it is a geographical location. It would be very difficult to say exactly where the saints of this dispensation are going to be absolutely located hereafter. They may have a very much wider scope of movement than they have now. If the Lord Jesus in resurrection is a type of resurrection saints, then movement is going to be on a very different basis from what it is with us at this present time. Location becomes quite a problem for our minds, these present minds, and we are therefore compelled to realize that the New Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem, far more than any fixed abode, is a condition of things spiritually: a heavenly nature and order towards which God is now working, and that in a spiritual way.

What is the final thing, then, about it all? If what we have just said is true, that God is working towards a condition which will be revealed, a condition which has numerous, perhaps countless, details and aspects, a very comprehensive spiritual state, what is the sum of it all when it is finally consummately unveiled? It is all gathered up in one little fragment - "having the glory of God". The end, the goal, the object which God has always before Him and towards which God is working in every detail now is the glory of God, the glory of God which will be revealed in us in and through Christ Jesus because we are in Him and He in us. The end, the all-governing end, is the glory of God.

And the end has to govern everything with us now. It has to become a present concern, a matter for our immediate and constant regard. Everything has to be looked at in the light of this - is it to the glory of God? How does it work out to the glory of God? How does it contribute to the glory of God? Is this matter, is this situation, is this line of things, is this order, glorifying God? If not, then for those who are the Lord's and who look forward to the day of the unveiling, such things are of altogether no account. They do not count if they are not working out to the glory of God, "Having the glory of God".

I want to suggest to you that that is a matter which should be brought immediately and fully into our lives and allowed to judge and determine the value of everything for us. Is this to the glory of God? Well, that is the inclusive, comprehensive object. That is the thing which is governing God in His dealings with us. And what is the glory of God?

The Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ

We are to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and when we look into the face of Jesus Christ for the glory of God, what do we see? We begin at once to take account of the features of the Lord Jesus. We look into His face for those spiritual features, then look right away to the great inclusive corporate unveiling of Him in terms of the holy city, the bride, the tabernacle of God, that full-orbed revelation, Christ in corporate expression, and we see those features of the Lord Jesus there brought out in fulness and perfection. And what are they?

Christ the Truth

We have, in our Bible quotations, underlined one of them. I do not know whether we shall find ourselves free to go beyond this one, but if the Lord could just write this deeply and powerfully enough in our hearts to bring about a conformity to the image of His Son on this point, I am quite sure it will carry us a long way towards the divine end. Did you note, then, the emphasis of the fragments read? "Her light was like unto a stone most precious, a jasper stone" (Rev. 21:11). The first of the foundations of the wall, a jasper. The street of the city pure gold, as it were, transparent glass. The river of the water of life, clear as crystal. What is all that? I suggest to you that that is the feature of the Lord Jesus of which He spoke when He said, "I am the truth" (John 14:6); or again, "The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth" (John 4:23). "Thou desirest truth in the inward parts."

That is not truth of doctrine, because doctrine can be on the outside. It is not merely truth of practice, practice can be on the outside; truth of form - that can all be on the outside. It is "truth in the inward parts".

Satan the Liar

Now you recognize that this is an end-time matter particularly. Finally the issue is brought out at the end of the book of the Revelation, but it is on that very matter that the Lord takes up His judgment with the churches and the whole church comprehensively. It is this matter of truth in the inward parts, and is it not very clear and very patent that the opposite of this in an extreme way is also characteristic of the end-time? If there is one thing which will come out to full revelation, full apocalypse at the end, it will be that essential feature of Satan in the antichrist, which is the lie. "He is a liar", said our Lord (John 8:44), "and the father thereof." And, as we get towards the end, the world will be controlled in an extreme and mighty way by the spirit of untruth, the lie. We are seeing something of it now. It has become a philosophy to this world that you never succeed until you can tell the greatest lie and have it believed as the truth. You see that at work; I need not dwell upon that. It is a dark and terrible state of things. It is the spirit of antichrist coming to its consummate fulness for its own unveiling. And antichrist is that which runs alongside and counter to the Christ.

The movement of God towards the end is to intensify His side of this: truth, transparency, reality, an unmixed state of things with no contradictions or inconsistencies - "Pure gold, as it were transparent glass". That is what God is doing.