I am bringing this time together
these days to a conclusion, by bringing you back again to the
point from which we started; asking you again to look at the
first chapter of the book of the Revelation, verse two: “Who
bare witness of the Word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus
Christ.” Verse five: “From Jesus Christ, the faithful
witness, the firstborn of the dead, ruler of the kings of the
earth.” Verse nine: “I, John, your brother and partaker
with you in the tribulation, and kingdom and patience which are
in Jesus, was in the isle that is called Patmos for the Word of
God and the testimony of Jesus.”
Just retain those fragments in
your mind and glance down the following two chapters, two and
three, and remind yourselves again of the seven-fold reiteration
of one clause at the close of each message to the seven churches:
“To him that overcometh.”
Those of you who were with us on
Saturday at the commencement of this time, will remember that we
said these who are called the people who overcome, or who are
exalted to overcome, they are all brought together, in answer to
what is meant by the testimony of Jesus. As you see, the book
opens with this three-fold reference to the testimony of Jesus
which clearly indicates that is the matter on hand for this whole
book, that is the preface to the entire book. It is all going to
be about the testimony of Jesus. The testimony of Jesus is that
which is going to explain everything in the book and, as we said,
it is significant that immediately that is presented in the Person of
Jesus. The next step is to deal with the churches, or the church
as a whole, in a representative way in relation to that
testimony, the testimony of Jesus.
So we come back to this point
this evening, that the Lord is ever, right to the end of the
dispensation, (and these messages to the churches do lead on to
the end of the dispensation because, no doubt about that I think,
the word is ‘behold I come quickly’, that is the end)
if they represent the Lord’s quest right to the end of the
dispensation, these exhortations to people in the churches or in
the church to overcome, mean that such people will be those who
embody that testimony of Jesus in a full and unsullied way. If
that is true, then surely we are gathered at this time in line
with that, in relation to that. I mean, if God’s quest for a
vessel of the testimony of Jesus continues to the end of the
dispensation, well, however near we may be to the end, we are not
at the end yet and that quest goes on.
The Lord still seeks to have a
people who really do embody and express what is called “the
testimony of Jesus”. I trust that your familiarity with the
very terms, language and phraseology does not take from the
importance and seriousness of the matter. It therefore becomes
necessary for us to give what time we have this evening to a
review of what that testimony is.
The Testimony of Jesus... if
that really is what God wants to have in a people, and you can
see from these seven messages to the churches how serious a
matter it is with God, how far He is prepared to go in order to
have it in both ways. On the one side, in judgment; in judgment
of that which is contrary to the testimony. On the other side,
how far He will go with those who will overcome. You could not, I
think, find it possible to go beyond what is said here as to what
the Lord will do for such people. Indeed, He leads them right up
to the throne at last, says ‘He that overcometh will I give
to sit with Me in My throne.’ You can’t get very far
beyond that, can you? Surely, that is the highest, that is the
last and the ultimate.
So how many more things are said
here that He will do if He can get a people like this, if He can
get a vessel for the testimony of Jesus according to His own
mind. Some of the most terrible things, on the other hand, are
said, not to the world, but to the churches or representatively
to the church, the most terrible things are said where things do
not correspond to the testimony of Jesus. I say this simply to
indicate how important a matter this is with God and that however
many good and commendable things there may be, comparative things
are not acceptable to God in the ultimate. He will not settle
this thing upon a comparative basis.
There are good and commendable
things mentioned in the church, but He comes back,
“...nevertheless, nevertheless I have this against
you and unless thou repent... I will remove your lampstand out of
its place.” You see, the comparative ultimate does not pass
with God, He is for the absolute, He is for the utter!
So that is what faces us and so
we have to look to see what is meant by the testimony of Jesus.
And, you notice this simple thing at the outset, that here He is
given the simplest of all His designations: ‘the testimony
of Jesus’. It is not of the ‘Lord Jesus’ or any of
His other titles, it is simply ‘the testimony of
Jesus’. That is the title of His manhood here on this earth.
It then first of all is the testimony of who and what Jesus on
this earth was.
We here in this place tonight
should have no quarrel on one matter: where this begins. It is
almost commonplace with us, so wholly accepted, that you might
wonder why it should be mentioned; the fundamental fact that
Jesus is the Divine Son of God, God manifest in the flesh. God
was in Christ, or utterly: Jesus was God and Jesus is God. That
is a very striking word of the apostle Paul in his letter to
Titus, ‘looking for the appearing of the great God our
Savior, Jesus Christ.’ You can’t get beyond that can
you? But I say to us it is not a matter of contention with
Christian doctrine and yet, it is something that we should take
account of again. John was in the isle of Patmos for that
to begin with, he was in exile for that, he was a prisoner for
that, he was suffering for that... that testimony, and that
explains the suffering of the Church at the beginning.
You know that it was upon that
very point that the Jews crucified Jesus. “He made Himself
the Son of God,” they said, made Himself, made
Himself! That was the last thing with them and for that
they put Him to death. And for that testimony the Church itself
was thrown into the vortex of that terrible persecution. If you
understand the persecutions from the Roman Empire and the Roman
Emperors it was purely on that point.
You see, the Caesars were
deified, they were god, and often called by titles of deity and
godhead and were worshipped as god. Jesus as God was a challenge
to that whole system, to that whole authority, hence the
persecution from the Roman world. As Christ had been put to death
on that very score so the Church was following in His train and
being put to death on the same thing: Jesus is God.
There is a strange fragment of
Scripture which is not easy to understand until you see it in
that background, the apostle says: “No one can say
‘Jesus is Lord’ but by the Holy Spirit.” That
sounds strange in itself if you take it out of its context, its
historical context. Anybody can say ‘Jesus is Lord’
without the Holy Spirit; anybody can say that, you need not be a
Christian to say that. But here it is, “No man can say
‘Jesus is Lord’ but by the Holy Spirit.” You put
yourself right into the Roman and Jewish world as it was at that
time, and you stand up and say, ‘Jesus is Lord’;
you’ll need all the power and courage and boldness of the
Holy Spirit to do it. You put your very life into jeopardy when
you use those words about Jesus! All the forces of evil,
spiritual and temporal, will make you a marked man or woman in that
world. If you say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ the cross waits for
you and you will need the Holy Ghost for that. No one, in that
realm, could dare to say it but by the power and support of the
Holy Spirit.
It was no easy thing to declare
the Deity, Lordship, Godhead of Jesus Christ in those days; it is
not today in worlds of idolatry, in lands of heathenism where
Satan has his seat. Some of you know that. The fact is this: that
this is a matter which, when it is really, really spiritually embodied
in a people (not a part of a Christian creed, something that you
just say over and over week by week as a form and formula) but
when that thing is as it was at the beginning, embodied
in the power of the Holy Spirit; all Hell is out to destroy that
testimony. So you can have the language and the phraseology of
the testimony without the reality. Have the reality, and you are
a marked people, you are marked down by the enemy to be
crucified, whatever that may mean. The testimony of Jesus begins
there.
The testimony of Jesus begins in
the spiritual world which is set against the utter, undivided,
unquestioned Lordship of Jesus Christ in this universe. It is
there. I want to say this and pass on; it is in that
realm that the Church really proves its testimony, its
value, its significance, its power. It is in the realm of spiritual
intelligences that the final proof of the Church’s reality
is known and manifested; not what we claim to be on this earth,
but it is what we signify in that whole kingdom of
animosity to Jesus Christ. That's where our accountability is
decided and measured. That, that world tests the reality of the
testimony of Jesus. But then it is not alone His deity that
remains, it is the testimony of Jesus... the Man. Jesus the Man -
what He was as the Man Jesus. You see, that other spiritual world
of hatred - bitter, vicious hatred of God - which is set and bent
upon spoiling and destroying everything that is of God and
everything that God has made; has made man its mark, by whom it
will vent its spite upon God. Man is God’s chief creation.
Man is the crown of God’s creation, or was. In man God saw
His heritage, His inheritance. He was made for God’s glory,
he was made to be the vessel and vehicle of the manifestation of
God in goodness, in grace, in power, in glory in this universe.
Man’s destiny is a very great destiny in the mind of God;
very great indeed. God has made this thing, this wonderful thing,
this beautiful thing, the crown of His creation which, when He
has it He says, ‘it is very good, very good.’ And this
evil, sinister enemy of God says, ‘I will spoil the whole
thing. I will wreck and ruin that!’ That lies behind what we
find of the work of Satan in human history.
Here is a Man who satisfies God
utterly and absolutely and is the Answer back to the evil one and
the evil powers, and God’s vindication. That is the
testimony of Jesus, what He is; not only in His Godhead, but what
He is in His humanity. We could long stay to dwell upon that, the
perfections, the excellencies of that Man, that One on whom the
eyes of the great Creator God could look and say, “I am well
pleased, I am well pleased.” No small thing for God, being
such as He is, with all His high standards to say of any man,
“I am well pleased,” or, “in Him is My
delight.” So the testimony of Jesus as to what He was, to
the satisfaction of God and the answer to God for all His desires
concerning man - the testimony of Jesus - no wonder Satan hated
him. But then from His Person we pass to His work, for the
testimony of Jesus extends to the great work that He did, because
of what He was and who He was. The work that He did in the first
place: the Son of God was manifested to destroy the works of the
devil. It began with sin and He took this whole sin matter, this
work of evil in human life, He took it, with all the curse that
had come because of it and grappling with that great, that
terrible, that awful thing called sin.
I don’t know what you feel
about sin. In this conference the Lord has tried to impress upon
us the greatness of holiness because its opposite is so terrible.
And He took the whole sin question, root and branch and
everything; He bore our sin in His Body on the tree, He was made
a curse for us, He was made sin, He who knew no sin - all the sin
of all time, in every realm and every man - was taken up by Him,
and fully, finally dealt with. Thank God! That's the testimony of
Jesus. But that is not all. While He dealt with the thing itself,
He went to its source, that personal source, “the prince of
this world” ... “the power of darkness” ...
“the spirit that worketh in the children of
disobedience” and all his mighty kingdom, and He dealt with
that. He dealt with that. He cast out the prince of this world,
“Now shall the prince of this world be cast out.” Yes,
He went to the source of all this, Satan himself, and destroyed
him! You say, ‘it doesn’t look like it.’
Well, it depends on how you look at it.
I have been much occupied
through this day; indeed I have been wrestling between two
messages for this evening. And I have been very much occupied
today with an incident and its sequel in the Old Testament and I
may as well mention it here in a moment or two and then I have
given both messages. It is that terrible incident of Achan, when
the people of God were moving more deeply into the land of
covenant. We know how the enemy, the great spiritual enemy had,
from the very beginning of that movement toward that land (they
were in Egypt and then immediately on their exodus and then at
Sinai) how he persistently sought to break in and arrest that
movement by insinuating himself, impinging upon the people. One
way or another, seeking to frustrate that movement; breaking in.
Here they are getting in, they are moving in, and the enemy comes
in again and finds some ground in this man Achan, a ground of
covetousness.
It was understood clearly
that nothing in that whole realm and domain was exempt from the
curse that God had pronounced upon it. It, the whole thing, man,
woman, and everything in that realm lay under the curse for
reasons which we have no time to explain, but it was all under a
ban and under a curse and that was understood. It had to be
completely "devoted" which meant destroyed; utterly destroyed. But
Achan, in the covetousness of his heart, took of the devoted
thing: a wedge of gold and a Babylonian garment, and hid it in
his tent. And the next movement forward was a most disastrous
thing. For all Israel it was disaster and the whole thing was
brought to a standstill.
The leader, Joshua of course,
was distressed and disturbed and perplexed and bewildered; he
wondered why the Lord had allowed this. He had a controversy with
the Lord, but the Lord explained. He said Israel has sinned in
the devoted thing and commanded that this thing should be tracked
down to its very root and source. So, they pursued their course,
their manner of discovering this sort of thing and gradually
sifted down, sifted down, tribe and household, until at last, by
this divine way of guidance they came upon Achan and his family,
at last, and he is taken. Joshua said, “My son, give God the
glory and confess what you have done.” and Achan made his
confession and Joshua, in the wrath and jealousy of God said,
“Why have you troubled Israel? The Lord shall trouble you,
my son.” And they took him, his family, his tent, and all
his belongings and everything that had to do with him and burnt
with fire in the valley of Achor so that there was nothing of
Achan and all that was left was ashes in the valley of Achor.
That's the work of the devil; that's what the devil can bring
about of a necessity, a necessity for God to judge like
that, so utterly, because of a link with the devil’s
kingdom.
But what is the sequel? Yes, it
looks as though Satan triumphs; it does not look as though Satan
is a defeated foe, but pass over into Isaiah and into Hosea and
what have you? “And I will give the valley of Achor as a
door of hope”. And in Isaiah 66: “and in the valley of
Achor there shall be sheep and pastures.” That is judgment
passed and the very work of the devil becoming ground of a new
hope, the way of a new hope. He is the God of Hope, you see, the
God of Hope. He can turn the worst works of the devil to His
glory. Well, that is only one way of the foreshadowing and
picture of Christ crucified, being made a curse and suffering the
wrath of God even unto ashes. But yes, the devil has made that
necessary by his interference and his breaking in to this race,
making it necessary. In a sense that is the work of the devil. He
has made it necessary for God to judge like that unto
final devastation, but listen! Listen! That is not the end:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
has begotten us again unto a living hope by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ.” That is the end of
the story. It is not devastation and ashes – a living
hope! That's the sovereign grace, wisdom and power of God
that just is set in here.
Yes, it does not look as though
Satan is defeated and beaten and off the field, but there is
another side to that story. He may be the blind instrument in the
sovereign power of God to create a new prospect and a new
possibility. Believe that. The testimony of Jesus is that He has
gone to save and has gone to the source of sin and has gone to
the result of sin. Through sin - death. All sinned and death
passed upon all men... for all have sinned. Death, death, but He
has gone there too. He has plumbed the depths of death. He has
taken death at the plant and has conquered death. Oh, what a
mighty thing Jesus has done; a mighty thing: the
testimony of Jesus.
But then, what about His
ministry? We have been thinking in these meetings very much about
the Levites and especially and particularly that fragment in the
prophecies of Malachi: “My covenant was with Levi, of life
and peace” and the whole of what I have been saying to you
tonight is gathered up into the history of the Levites. All that;
I won't go over it again, I dare not. But it comes here, that
because of the stand that the Levites took against sin and the
breaking in of the evil powers at Sinai, and the stand that they
took with God for His testimony, to carry the ark of the
testimony - His testimony - forward to its final, glorious
destination, God made a covenant with Levi, a covenant of life
and peace. That is, in effect: they shall be the ministers of
life and peace in this world. They shall be a vessel, the
embodiment of this two-fold great thing: Life and Peace.
The effect of their ministry was that, you see, Life... Life,
they were countering death all the time by the altar. Their
ministry related to the altar and to the blood – countering
death and countering sin, which meant preserving life and the way
of life; countering the anger of God against sin and God’s
controversy with man because of sin, countering it by the
altar... satisfying God in the propitiation for sin and therefore
holding a ministry of peace with God and from God. Their
ministry, they are only the Levites, a type of the Lord Jesus,
Who is the great and all-inclusive Levite. His ministry... what
is it? Because of that which we have spoken which He has done and
that which He is, His ministry to us and to the world is Life and
Peace. Life and Peace.
We here tonight are a testimony
to the testimony of Jesus, I trust. We have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ and we have Life by Him, and in
Him. That is the testimony of Jesus. All that remains for us to
do is to bring again into view these people appealed to, “to
him that overcomes, to him that overcomes.” That is, a
people who will embody this testimony. I am quite sure that is
what is here meant in these messages. It is the counter to the
sin which Satan himself has introduced amongst the Lord’s
people; it is the counter to spiritual death which is the result
of corruption and pollution that we find there in the churches.
It is a people who stand clear of that, stand clear of it all,
and who will stand against it and who will, by the help of God,
resist the inroads of Satan and his touch, his evil work to spoil
what is of God. That, in brief, is what is signified by this
“he that overcometh, he that overcometh.” They are not
an elect body, they are not a spiritual aristocracy chosen for
this purpose. Any, any true believer can be and should
be one of those. Indeed, that is what the whole Church ought to
be. As the Levites represented all Israel, they represented
God’s thought for all Israel. Although here in these
churches we find that all the spiritual Israel is not like that,
God moves in an inward way to have a Levite people in the midst
of His people. He must have it. And these are they who
overcome, the true Levites. And they are to take up what is true
of the Lord Jesus Himself, firstly in themselves as in Him: a holy
people. And then, because they are a holy people, they
have a ministry of Life and Peace.
I believe, dear friends, that
the measure of our ministry of Life, ministering Life to those
who need Life and even to the Lord’s people as we heard
today, many of the Lord’s people are not really in Life. And
there are many, like Cornelius and his friends, very devout and
sincere and, in a way, God-fearing, religious, but not in Life
until the Holy Spirit comes to them. If there is going to be a
ministry of Life to anyone who needs Life, who is without Life,
it requires a people after this kind. This is a holy
Life and this Life cannot be ministered through unholy channels:
“Be ye clean, ye that bear the vessels of the Lord.” It
is an old Levitical command, isn’t it?
Well, we are called to a great
ministry, a wonderful ministry, the ministry of His
Life, His Life and His peace. It is committed to us.
It’s a wonderful thing to realize that it is possible for
men and women in holy fellowship with the Lord to be the vehicles
of His Life to others, ministering Life to them, taking the Life
for them, as James puts it. Taking Life for them... It’s a
great ministry. And Peace... ministering the reconciliation of
God to souls. It is a wonderful thing. But the ministry rests
upon the condition: a holy people, a holy people. The
Lord make us like that, and really have in us as a few, many,
many more, maybe multitudes more, but in us as a few... a vessel
of the testimony of Jesus.