WHO IS IN THE TESTIMONY?

WHO IS IN THE TESTIMONY?

There has always been a testimony. The expression “the testimony” is of frequent occurrence in the Old Testament, “the ark of the testimony”, “the tabernacle of the testimony”, and “... gave him the testimony”. From the constant repetition of the word, it is very ^[p. 64] evident that the testimony was of the greatest importance. It is not necessary to add more to establish this great fact. Let us then first ascertain the testimony proper to the church, which now, even when general declension has set in, the faithful are called to maintain. There having always been a testimony, it varied according to the revelation God gave of Himself. The testimony could not go beyond the revelation, but necessarily must be in keeping with it. There was always, at every time, a feebleness or a declension in maintaining the testimony, or a surrender of it, when personal consideration weighed with the Lord’s people; that is, if those who were called to witness were uncertain as to their own relation with God, or were indifferent to it, they forgot what was due to God, and considered only for themselves.

The testimony now is, “He shall testify of me”. God sent His Son into this world “that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”; and He is now at God’s right hand, the Head of His body the church, which is down here as the real tabernacle of testimony. In the limits of this paper it is not possible to set forth fully the terms of the testimony. Suffice it to say that the testimony proper to the church is that all believers now have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, and are set up in the life and Spirit of Christ, a new man, the “church, which is his body”. This testimony gave no place for man under the law, or in any way recognised the old man, save to insist and enforce that he should be in every position and relationship here as God had created him. The relative natural duties were to be fulfilled in divine power; he was to be subject to the powers that be. But the testimony declared that the Man at God’s right hand was the Man of His purpose, and that now, through divine grace, we were of Him, and not only enjoying the efficacy of His work in our souls, but that we were through the Holy Spirit in conscious and abiding union with Him, so that His interests and concerns were ours. We testify of Him.

^[p. 65] The second prayer in Ephesians describes the occupation and delight of the heart which is truly in the calling of God. This testimony was of so high and superhuman a character that all they that were in Asia turned away from Paul as the teacher of it. The snare to which the Lord’s people in every time have been exposed is to surrender the testimony to which they were called.

As the testimony is of God, it is plain that nothing but divine power can enable a man to maintain it. Hence the moment the heart is diverted from allegiance to Him, and faith wavers, there must be a declension or surrender of the testimony. From a sense of fear there is constantly great reluctance openly to admit that the testimony has been surrendered or dimmed; and many, because of this reluctance, degenerate into mere hypocrites, assuming and demanding acknowledgment for a status they desire to have, because it is true, but to which they have no claim on any other ground. It was so with the scribes and Pharisees in the Lord’s day.

No one is in the testimony who, though converted, is not at peace with God, though I trust there are those in this state who desire to follow on and to know the purpose of His grace more fully. I merely assert that in their present state they could not be in the testimony. The little ones in Israel were not involved in their fathers’ forfeiture of the land, when they had abandoned the calling of God or their proper testimony. But they were not competent witnesses; only Caleb and Joshua were in the testimony in that day.

The most devoted preacher of the gospel might not be in the testimony, and always when this great service becomes the one object, then the testimony is either overlooked, or is of little interest. When the benefit of man is paramountly before the servant, he often, unintentionally but assuredly, judges of everything in relation to it, and though he might not say in so many words, ‘What is the good of the testimony to the lost soul?’ yet the habit of his mind, and his practical feeling, is to this effect: ‘It is no good for a perishing soul, and therefore I cannot lose my time with it; I have weightier subjects to occupy me.’ The practical effect of such a conclusion would be that anything and everything which would not be a bar to conversion can be retained or allowed. There is really no exercise as to what is consistent with the testimony, nor a growing abnegation of the world in keeping with it. James could tell of the many thousands of Jews there were which believed, but they were not in the testimony.

Let us look wider. Do we not find many christians whose one idea in serving the Lord is the conversion of souls? And when it is so, I ask again, can the heart exclusively set on the serving of man consider for, or be consistent in any way with, the testimony of the Lord? They may have light as to the blessing of believers meeting together to remember the Lord in His death, but if they do, this is for their own or the christian’s benefit, as the other service is for the unconverted, so that these two embrace all that is required for a true and a full profession on earth. Alas! this approaches very closely to the idea of the church in christendom, that it is the congregation of the faithful, where the gospel is faithfully preached, and the sacraments duly administered. The testimony is entirely lost sight of. It is plain to be seen how a doctrine of this kind, however tacitly accepted, must allow or excuse the enjoyment of worldly things.

A believer is not in the testimony because he retires from the outer or political world, while he accepts and indulges in the things of the world which exalt him personally. The testimony is so unique, so distinctly characteristic of the rejected Lord, that any one in the testimony would refuse everything which would tend to his distinction here. The comforts of food and covering he would thankfully accept as absolutely necessary, but the dress or the furniture which would connect him with the fashion of the hour he would ^[p. 67] absolutely refuse. Consequently, however true a man is in his conduct and doctrine, yet as he is identified with the course of this world he is not in the testimony. Nothing can be plainer. “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world”. And it is to those hated by the world that the Holy Spirit was sent by Him to “testify of me”. The testimony is of Christ in glory. It is not only a man like Noah, carried away by self-indulgence, who is not in the testimony. Abram drops out of the testimony when there is a famine in the land. David is not in the testimony when he retreats into the country of the Philistines under the fear that he should die one day by the hand of Saul. Paul was in the testimony, though forsaken by the saints. “At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion”, 2 Timothy 4: 16, 17.

In conclusion, we must distinguish between those who are earnestly seeking to be true to the christian calling, really growing into the testimony, however slowly, and those who, while professing to be in it, are insensible to the nature of the practice which it demands. The seller of jewellery might be pressing on in true and rapid strides to the testimony, but he cannot be in it. He who seeks a livelihood by selling things for man’s glory is surely not in the testimony, however he may approve of it in heart and long to be in it. If he has a true sense of what becomes a follower of Christ now, he could not make a gain by inducing any professor to adopt what was wholly inconsistent to the testimony. Some then may exclaim, ‘Who then is in the testimony?’ I answer that though they are few, we are not for that reason to lower the standard. That, as I have said at the beginning, has ever been the snare of the adversary. ‘As it is so hard to keep it up’, he would say, ‘let us reduce ^[p. 68] it or surrender it altogether. Let us turn back again into Egypt’ . Nay, let us accept the gravity and blessedness of our calling, and look to the Lord that we may cleave the more to Him, and then by the Holy Spirit we shall be enabled to be really in the testimony, the only path or course suited or satisfactory to the devoted heart on the earth. The more we love Him, the more we are in every particular like Him, and unlike the world that would not have Him. When I lose sight of Him, I lose sight of the testimony, and lose the power to carry it out.