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| Pray to God |
10 It Is So Important to Pursue the Truth
Zhuiqiu Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province
Now, most brothers and sisters know in doctrine that only by pursuing the truth can they be saved by God. But in the practical experience, many people do not pay attention to spending effort in pursuing the truth. They just rest content with their present situation, either being content with following the general trend, or being content with running about all day long and having a duty to perform, or being bent on pursuing the fame and position they love.
They confidently believe that if they can do the work well and perform their duties properly, it does not matter even if they do not pursue the truth. Thus, although many people have believed in God for many years, they have not made much progress in entering into the truth and have not gained any transformation in their life disposition.
We believe in God but undervalue pursuing the truth and do not pay attention to spending effort in pursuing the truth; this shows that we do not know God’s work and have not truly seen the importance of pursuing the truth.
In the man’s fellowship attached to Christ’s Talks with Church Leaders and Workers, it says: “God’s coming to do the work to save people is not just to appear to people, prove to mankind that there is a God, and make people acknowledge and believe in God, but he is to practically redeem people and save people. God comes to practically do the work of conquering people and transforming people. Thus, while believing in God, people should understand God’s intention, obey God’s work honestly and properly, experience God’s judgment and chastisement, gain all the truths that corrupt mankind need and be saved by God, and step onto the right path of human life. Only believing in God this way is after God’s heart.” “In order to transform man’s disposition, God has expressed many truths in his work; they are all the words of life. We should spare no effort to pursue the truth and pursue the transformation of our disposition. This is completely after God’s heart, and is also the best cooperation man has in God’s work.” Form the man’s fellowship, we see that God’s end-time work is to transform people and save people by expressing the word. God expresses many truths not just to let people believe there is a God or work and expend themselves for God, or to let them become excellent ministering talents, much less just to let them follow him, but to let them receive all the truths they need from God, have God’s word as life, be delivered from satan’s corruption, and be saved by God. This is God’s original intention in working on us and is also the result that God wants to achieve by working on us. If we, while believing in God, do not pursue the truth but pursue the things other than the truth, then our pursuit will be contrary to God, for we do not pursue according to God’s intention or God’s requirements. In this case, even if we pursue to the end, we will not be saved by God.
In the man’s fellowship attached to Christ’s Talks with Church Leaders and Workers, it says: “Only by pursuing the truth can people know the substance of mankind’s corruption, and only by pursuing the truth can people be truly purified. If corrupt mankind believe in God yet cannot gain the truth, their corrupt disposition cannot be transformed and they will never be truly saved. Only the truth can resolve mankind’s corruption, so only by grasping the truth can corrupt mankind overcome satan and transcend sin. If corrupt mankind cannot gain the truth, they cannot resolve the root of sin. Therefore, pursuing the truth while believing in God is the most important to their being saved by God.” From this we see that pursuing the truth is closely related to our being saved. Only by pursuing the truth can we understand God’s intention, have the true knowledge of God, know the substance of our corruption, see how deeply and miserably we have been corrupted by satan, and thus know how to live a meaningful life. Only by pursuing the truth can we understand the truth, overcome satan and transcend sin by the truth, and no longer be afflicted by satan, and can we possess the conscience and sense that a person should have, perform properly the duties that a person should perform, and become real people. Only by pursuing the truth can we enter into the reality of God’s word, live out the reality of God’s word, truly obey God, love God, and worship God. Only by pursuing the truth can our viewpoints on things be in conformity with God and can we be in harmony with God and be gained by God. Only by pursuing the truth can we see every person, matter, and thing clearly, distinguish between good and evil, righteousness and wickedness, and thoroughly forsake satan and reject all the negative things. Only by pursuing the truth can our outlook on life and the foundation of our existence be gradually changed, and can we thus step onto the right path of human life and live out a meaningful and valuable life. Only by pursuing the truth and gaining the truth can we solve all problems and difficulties, and no matter what suffering, or refining, or great trial comes upon us, we will not fall and will be able to uphold testimony. When we truly gain the truth, we will have the power to control ourselves and will no longer be fooled or manipulated by satan. At that time, we will truly transcend the restraint of all fleshly things, be completely delivered from satan’s influence of darkness, live in the light of God’s presence, live in a world of release and freedom, have the likeness of a real person, absolutely submit under God’s dominion, and become ones who belong to God. It can be said that pursuing the truth and gaining the truth are God’s requirements and expectations for us all. Only pursuing the truth is the pursuit after God’s heart, is the best cooperation with God, and is the most meaningful and valuable thing. If we, while believing in God, do not pursue the truth but pursue fame and position, pursue good future and destination, or pursue the fleshly blessings, then we will not be able to receive the truth, gain the transformation of our disposition, or be saved by God. In that case, we will lose the meaning of believing in God. Even if we run countless roads, do numerous works, and undergo countless sufferings, but if we do not pursue the truth, everything we do will be in vain, and our belief in God will end up with nothing.
Now, quite some people among us still think that if they can do the work well and perform their duties properly, it does not matter even if they do not pursue the truth. This is completely our imagination and is an erroneous knowledge. Just think: will we perform our duties properly if we do not pursue or possess the truth and do things not based on God’s word? Will we act accurately according to God’s intention? God says: “With the truth, you will know how to distinguish; without the truth, you will not know how to distinguish. With the truth, you can see things clearly; without the truth, you cannot see things clearly. With the truth, you can know yourself; without the truth, you cannot know yourself. With the truth, your disposition can be transformed; without the truth, your disposition cannot be transformed. With the truth, you can serve God after his heart’s desire; without the truth, you cannot serve God after his heart’s desire. With the truth, you can worship God; without the truth, you will perform religious rituals even if you worship.” “…when you have no truth, as to those from man’s will, man’s mixtures, man’s good intentions, man’s foolish love, man’s doings, you will easily regard them as right and as in conformity with the truth. How then can you forsake them? You do not understand the truth, nor do you know what it means to practice the truth. You are utterly ignorant and at a loss what to do, so you cannot help but do things according to what you think is right. As a result, some are done erroneously; some are done according to regulations; some are done out of zealousness; some are exactly from satan and will cause a disturbance. When people have no truth, they will handle things like this: now left, now right; now correct, now erroneous, without any accuracy. Without the truth, you will view things absurdly. How can you handle things well? How can you solve the problems?” From God’s words, we see that if we believe in God but have no truth, we cannot move even a single step. Without the truth, we will not have discernment or see things clearly. We will not know which things are in conformity with the truth and which things are from our own will. We can only do things inaccurately, unable to act according to God’s heart’s desire. Without the truth, we will not know ourselves, will not gain the transformation of our life disposition, and cannot possibly perform our duties faithfully and obediently. Without the truth, we cannot understand God’s intention and cannot know what God is pleased with and what God hates; we can only do the work according to our own will and preferences, unable to serve God after his heart’s desire at all. Without the truth, we can only exalt ourselves and exhibit ourselves while serving God and bring people before us, thus becoming the ones who serve God yet resist God. Without the truth, we will have no way to solve our own problems, and will only be slack in work and write ourselves off as hopeless and act recklessly when encountering difficulties, not to mention solving the problems of others. In that case, how can we perform our duties properly and be fit for God to use? It can be said that if a person has no truth, he will not achieve results in performing his duty and will even bring frustration and disturbance to the work of God’s family. We can think back to the humiliations and embarrassments we suffered when performing our duties. For example, in the matter of selecting and replacing the leaders, because we had no truth and could not see the substance of people clearly, we did not know who were the objects that could be trained and who were the objects that should be replaced. As a result, many times, we selected people who were not in conformity with the principles of God’s family, and thus brought losses to the church work and the life of the brothers and sisters. When we solved the problems at the meetings, because we had no truth and could not see others’ states clearly or grasp the roots of the problems, we did not know which aspect of the truth should be fellowshipped to achieve the results. Consequently, we could only solve the problems with doctrines and man’s methods and thus led all people into doctrines and regulations. When the incidents of false christs and antichrists deceiving people happened in the churches, because we had no truth, we felt powerless and were unable to see the substance of the fallacies of the false christs and antichrists clearly. So we could not give them a powerful counterblow or refutation, nor could we protect the brothers and sisters or help them gain discernment and become clearer about the vision through these incidents so that they could avoid being deceived. Thus, some people were unable to distinguish between true and false, right and wrong, and were duped and deceived foolishly. In the course of preaching the gospel, we met some objects of evangelization who had more notions. Because we had no truth, we could not solve all of their notions or persuade them to accept God’s end-time salvation. In the work of watering the new believers, because we had no truth and could not discern their states and deficiencies, we did not know which aspect of the truth should be watered to the people in which phase and how to water the different kinds of people so that the results could be achieved. We could only rigidly observe regulations and fellowship with them in the prescribed order. As a result, after being watered for a long time, they still could not become well-grounded in the true way. Some of them were even deceived by and followed the people from their former denominations, and some felt the requirements were too high for them to meet and thus dropped out. From these facts we see that without the truth, whatever duty we perform, we cannot perform it properly, because every work of God’s family is related to the truth and involves the truth, and every work contains God’s intention and God’s requirements for man. Only if we pursue the truth can we understand God’s intention and perform our duties accurately according to God’s requirements. The more we pursue the truth, the more we will understand the truth and gain the truth, and then see clearly the roots and the substances of the problems when doing the work and serve God after his heart’s desire. The more we pursue the truth, the more we will receive the working of the Holy Spirit, and the more results we will achieve in performing our duties. Therefore, it is completely out of our imagination that we think we can perform our duties properly even if we do not pursue the truth. It does not conform to the truth at all.
If we believe in God but do not pursue the truth, not only will we not perform our duties properly, but it will even cause us to do things that resist God and offend God and thus be detested, rejected, and eliminated by God. We can see this from those failures around us. For example, some people particularly paid attention to doing the work. They often taught others with God’s word and required others to practice the truth and pursue to enter into life, but they themselves did not pay attention to practicing the truth or entering into life. Although having worked for many years, they did not have any reality nor have any knowledge of the substance of their corruption. On the contrary, they indulged in boastful talk by capitalizing on their many years of work, became more and more arrogant by disposition, and often violated the work arrangements and did otherwise. They even cheated those above and deluded those below in order to preserve their position and thus became hypocrites through and through and were revealed and eliminated by God. Some were content with rushing about all day long and keeping themselves busy, but did not pay attention to pursuing the truth. Although they believed in God for many years, they had never entered into life. On the contrary, they often capitalized on their expending and efforts to make demands of and bargain over terms with God’s family. When these were not satisfied, they began to judge and revile God, and thus offended God’s disposition and were eliminated. Some did not pursue the truth but showed special favor to position. After they were replaced for some reason, they felt they had lost everything and thus lost the will to follow God. They were even full of complaints and spread notions everywhere, saying that God’s family killed the donkey the moment it left the millstone. Thus, they provoked God’s disposition and were expelled by God’s family. Some had believed in God for several years, but because they did not pursue the truth, they did not have any knowledge of God nor have any discernment. As a result, when a false christ came to deceive them, they became muddled and followed the false christ, stepping onto the road to destruction. And so on. These people came to such an end just because they did not pursue the truth. However, those who pursue the truth fairly hard while believing in God are totally different. Although they have suffered some hardships for pursuing the truth, they have received God’s blessings and have been kept by God, their desire to pursue to love God becomes greater and greater, they have more and more knowledge of God as well as themselves, their mental outlook has changed, their inner world is filled with light, and they feel that being made perfect by God is realistic. All these are given by the Holy Spirit due to their pursuing the truth. From these we see that God especially blesses and has mercy on those who pursue the truth. Only those who pursue the truth can be commended and made perfect by God. We all know that Peter succeeded in believing in God because he particularly pursued the truth. He had not only truly known in God’s word the substance of his corruption, his corrupt disposition, and his insignificance, but at the same time, he had known God’s disposition, known what God has and is, seen God’s loveliness, and had fear and adoration for God, and eventually he was made perfect by God. Paul failed in believing in God because he did not pursue the truth and did not pursue to know himself or know God. He only paid attention to running roads and doing the work and paid attention to giving up for God and expending himself for God outwardly. Hence, although he had worked a lot and suffered a lot, he did not gain the truth and eventually fell into God’s chastisement because his disposition had not been transformed. Thus it can be seen that whether people can succeed in believing in God depends mainly on whether they pursue the truth. Pursuing the truth is the single pathway for people to be saved by God, is the fundamental thing of belief in God, and is the correct pursuit that a believer in God should have.
Then, how should we pursue the truth? God says: “…believing in God, you cannot leave God’s word, cannot leave God, and cannot leave the truth. And you should take the right way, exert efforts on the truth, and exert efforts on God’s word. Do not be contented with a half-baked knowledge or be satisfied with a general understanding. Deceiving yourself can only ruin yourself.” “If you do not treasure God’s word, you will have no truth and no reality. If you treasure God’s word, you will be able to practice the truth. This means that you have reality. Therefore, you should eat and drink God’s word regardless of when, busy or free, having the environment or not, and in trials or not. In a word, God’s word is the foundation of man’s existence. No one should leave God’s word. Eat God’s word as three meals a day. Can it be so simple a thing to be perfected and to be gained by God? No matter whether you understand or whether you have seen God’s work clearly now, you should eat and drink God’s word as much as possible. This is entering in actively. After reading God’s words, practice immediately those you can enter into and put aside for the time being those you cannot.” From these we see that pursuing the truth mainly refers to eating and drinking God’s word and practicing God’s word, because God’s word is the truth, the way, and the life, is the foundation of our existence, and is as important as the three daily meals. If we want to receive the truth and gain the transformation of our disposition and be made perfect by God, we must spend effort on God’s word. No matter how short of time we are and how busy we are with our work every day, or what circumstances or trials come upon us, we should eat and drink God’s word, from which to seek the principles of practice and the ways to practice, and treat eating and drinking God’s word as an important thing in our everyday life. When eating and drinking, we should pray and seek more, sense God’s heart’s desire from God’s word, ponder over the meaning of God’s word, so that every time we eat and drink, we can achieve results and can receive the revelation and enlightenment from the Holy Spirit. After that, we bring the truths we have understood into the reality to practice, and we practice whatever we have understood. When doing things, we should seek the truth more and measure whether we are practicing the truth. If any of our practices is not in conformity with the truth, we should correct it immediately and act according to God’s requirements. When we are with brothers and sisters, we also should seek and fellowship more. In this way, through our practically cooperating with God and practically pursuing to enter in, we will gradually understand and be clear about the real meaning of the truths of every aspect and will gradually gain the truth. This is the proper pursuit that we believers in God should have, and it is also the most meaningful thing. In short, only if we spare no effort to pursue the truth, pursue the transformation of our disposition, cooperate with the working of the Holy Spirit, and let God’s words fill our life, can we receive more work of the Holy Spirit, become clearer and clearer about the truth, and eventually gain the truth and be saved and made perfect by God.
May we all truly know the importance of pursuing the truth, spend more effort in pursuing the truth, regard pursuing the truth as the fundamental thing of belief in God and treat it as an important thing in our life, correct our self-deceiving belief soon, and become the ones who pursue the truth.
Source:A Collection of Sermons for Supply
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