THE TESTIMONY
[p. 38] THE TESTIMONY
2 Timothy 1: 1 - 18; Numbers 1: 1 - 4
Ques Why did you suggest the scripture in Numbers?
CAC Well, I suggested adding the four verses from the book of Numbers because Numbers is the book of the testimony.
Ques. The wilderness?
CAC Well, it is so. The testimony belongs to the wilderness. It is important for us to get hold of that because the teaching of the New Testament is based on the Old. The testimony is a word with a specific meaning in the Old Testament, and the Spirit of God in speaking of the testimony in the New Testament has in mind the Old Testament presentation of the testimony, and in the book of Numbers we find the tabernacle of the testimony, and the people are taken account of in connection with it. That is why I suggested the verses in Numbers. What do you think?
Rem I think that is very good; please go on and open out a little more.
CAC Well, I think we have to gather up the thoughts from the Old Testament if we want a proper idea, and we find that primarily the thought of the testimony was written on the two tables of stone and put into the ark, so that the prominent feature of the book of Exodus is the ark of the testimony. Then we find, in the end of the book, a reference to the tabernacle of the testimony, and what stands in relation to it. It is not developed in Exodus as it is in Numbers, and there is no reference to it in Leviticus. You would not expect in the book of approach to God that you would get the thought of the testimony developed.
Ques You mean, it is more for man?
CAC Yes, it is a testimony given on God’s part to what is in His own mind. The first thought of the testimony is that the will of God is to prevail; what was written on the tables,
[p. 39] that is to prevail. That is the primary thought in connection with it. But then, has it prevailed? Now it is our privilege and joy to say, ‘yes’, the will of God has prevailed. The tables are in the ark. What a blessed thing to start with! The testimony is fully secured in the ark. That is the great subject in Exodus. You have a redeemed people, a people who know God in the love of the covenant. That is our position through grace: redeemed and illuminated. And now the great thought of God is to show us that His will has prevailed; it has been fully secured in the ark of the testimony.
Ques What is “the testimony of our Lord” (verse 9)?
CAC I think what the apostle has in mind is the truth of the testimony as God had already brought it out in the Old Testament typically. It had been brought out typically; and what was brought out typically, in the last days becomes in a peculiar way the testimony of our Lord. I do not know that we have any such expression or anything like it anywhere else. It is a term peculiar to the last days.
Ques You would not have it in the first epistle?
CAC No, the testimony of our Lord suggests to me the testimony to which our Lord is committed. He is definitely committed to it. And He is never going to depart from it. He is going to maintain it right through. But we are in great danger of being ashamed of it, because it is in conflict, and the chances are, if you identify yourself with it, you will be taken prisoner by the enemy. Now are we prepared for that?
Ques. Why should that be?
CAC That is the idea, it is what the Lord is committed to, absolutely committed to at the present time, and He wants us to be committed to it. We are to be committed to it. We are to be “numbered” for the defence of the testimony. That is the thought in Numbers. Now there is the exhortation to be “not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner”. I am in prison, why? Publicly Paul is in the enemy’s hands. But though he is publicly in the enemy’s hands the [p. 40] testimony is not. And the testimony was maintained valiantly by a man in prison, and that suggests to me that we have to be prepared for restricted conditions outwardly. Paul in prison is the proper example of a man identified with the testimony.
Rem He does not speak of himself as any man’s prisoner; it is the prisoner of the Lord.
CAC Yes, it was just because he was identified with the testimony of our Lord that he was in prison. He says, “All deserted me ... . But the Lord stood with me ... that through me the proclamation might be fully made” (2 Timothy 4: 16, 17). What, a man in prison, bound with a chain? Yes, there is the testimony.
Timothy represents a man of God in the last days, marked by natural timidity. I do not think the Lord is likely to take up what would be called a very strong man for the testimony, but he takes up a man naturally timid and a man of tears. He makes him a valiant soldier in the testimony. The idea of the testimony is a military idea. It is only maintained by soldiers. That is why I suggested Numbers. Numbers is the book of warriors, it is those who go forth to war, those who are competent for military service. The testimony is not a matter for babes in Christ.
Rem You would not exclude sisters.
CAC Many sisters are mighty men of war!
Ques Why does he open the epistle to the Corinthians with the testimony?
CAC You get there the introduction of the testimony of God in the gospel, and the first establishment of the testimony of the Christ in the assembly. You get the initial suggestions. So that Paul comes to Corinth with the testimony of God, and he came there with no outward strength, but came with weakness and fear and much trembling, and his speech was not with enticing words, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that their faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in God’s power. Now that is how the [p. 41] testimony started. The gospel coming in divine, spiritual power in a vessel, and no human ability about it; that is how the testimony came to us Gentiles. And then when people were converted and the assembly of God in Corinth was formed, they were endowed with every spiritual gift that was necessary to maintain the testimony of the Christ. They were enriched in Christ, they came behind in no gift, and the testimony of the Christ was confirmed there. It was there amongst them. They might not be in the good of it, but it was there. It was set up by the power of God amongst them. That is the beginning.
Ques What is the meaning of the cross?
CAC The cross is the shutting out of the man after the flesh altogether.
Ques What is the difference between the testimony of the Christ and the testimony of our Lord?
CAC I thought the testimony of the Christ was that there was a spot in Corinth where there was divine testimony, by the Spirit, to God’s anointed Man. Whether they fully understood it, or were in the good of it, is another matter, but there was a spot in Corinth where the candlestick was set up. There was the shining of the testimony to God’s anointed Man in a heathen city.
Ques Has the character of the testimony been always the same?
CAC Well, yes. It is in type in the Old Testament. You have the thought of God’s pleasure fully secured in Christ: that is Exodus. The great central point in Exodus is the ark of the testimony, that the pleasure of God is fully secured in Christ, and then you get a whole system of things identified with that. The whole tabernacle system had its centre in the ark of the testimony. And the tabernacle became the tabernacle of the testimony, and the people were all set around it. They were all set in relation to it, and it was a military position. So that they had to be numbered as soldiers, and the assembly of Israel. The early chapters of Numbers do not include women and children. They only include the fighting [p. 42] strength of the company. Now it is only such persons who are really identified with the testimony of the Lord. It is a company where there is fighting strength.
“God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power, and of love, and of wise discretion”, and Paul goes on to speak to Timothy about being a good soldier. Soldiers are wanted for the testimony.
Ques. For defence only?
CAC Well, I suppose it was that nothing should impede the testimony. And, more particularly in Numbers, the testimony is moving through the wilderness, which answers to the present position of the testimony, it is moving through the wilderness in the face of everything that is adverse, and it is only soldiers that are any good. The question is, have we been enlisted as soldiers? This is not a matter merely for believers, it is for soldiers.
Ques What is the difference between this and the apostle John in the Isle of Patmos?
CAC Well, he was a soldier, and there is another man in prison! The enemy has got him. You may be taken prisoner. You may find yourself greatly restricted outwardly, but the testimony never held on its way more victoriously than when Paul and John were in prison. It was fully maintained by those faithful men. The testimony is not bound. Paul may be in prison, and John, but the testimony was liberated. The testimony went on its way. It is a fine thing. There is no such thing as defeat. Being in prison does not mean defeat. Getting out of prison often means defeat. If you want to be enlarged in the present state of things that means defeat.
Rem The ministry of Paul was largely written in prison.
CAC Yes; in all Paul’s epistles you see what he is driving at; he is trying to make soldiers of the saints. Look at the military vein that runs through Paul’s epistles; you can see that what he is after is soldiers.
Rem He is the only one that speaks of prayer in [p. 43] relation to the testimony. That is very remarkable.
CAC It is good if you get in prison for the testimony. Suppose you lose all your old friends. That is the sort of prison. You must be prepared for it. You might have had a wide circle of friends, you might have been the most popular man in the town, and your affections get attached to the Lord. He does not say the testimony of the Lord, it is the testimony of our Lord. Now you are identified with that, and that big circle of friends will drop off. It is like a man in prison, but that means spiritual enlargement. It means that the testimony is going to move.
Rem You take account of yourself as being the Lord’s prisoner.
Rem “Prisoner of the Christ Jesus for you nations” — not only prisoner of the Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3: 1).
CAC And he says many of the brethren are waxing confident through his bonds. It made soldiers of them. He says, I know you are fully identified with me in my fighting, and my defence; you are shoulder to shoulder with me (Philippians 1: 9 - 14). He has a fighting company whom he can number as men of war.
I think the testimony can only be taken up by people who have learnt the teaching of Exodus and Leviticus. Numbers supposes that you know Exodus and Leviticus. That is, you know what it is to be redeemed, and you know the grace that is an unfailing resource in the wilderness; and it is by learning redemption and by learning grace that you can be separated in the wilderness to become a fighting man. When the children of Israel came out of Egypt, they were men that had to be shielded and God had to lead them around where they would not meet with enemies; they were not able; and God in His grace shields young saints, babes in Christ. He does not expect them to be fighting men; you must be 20 years old before you can fight, but the children of Israel soon grew up to be men. They came out of Egypt as babes, but in Exodus 17 Moses says, “Choose us men”.
Ques Do we see this too with Gideon’s army?
CAC Yes, they had to be thinned down.
Ques Does this military service begin with ourselves?
CAC Well, yes. You have to declare your pedigree before you will be put on the military list. That is very important. That is, they had all to demonstrate that they were Israelites. It did not suffice that they should have descended from Abraham. Some people like that to settle everything.
Is he a believer? Then that is all right. But it is not all right.
You may be descended from Abraham and not be fit for the testimony.
Ques. Like Ishmael?
CAC Yes, Ishmael was not fit for the testimony, and nor were any of his descendants.
Lot was a kinsman of Abraham. He was a believer, but he was not in the testimony because there was no separation there; he was found in Sodom, miserable man he was too! He had no power for testimony. He was not numbered, he was not counted for the testimony. What I want to know about myself and everybody here tonight is, have we really been numbered for the testimony? Or are we content to be believers, and that if we died we should go to heaven? It will not do to be satisfied to be connected with Abraham. Abraham is the head of the believing family, but that is not enough for the testimony.
So Ishmael went out. And Paul has to tell the Galatians that in going back to law they were really taking the place of Ishmael’s descendants. They were taking the place of having the bondwoman for their mother. Now those people cannot be numbered for the testimony. If people are on the line of improving the flesh and bringing divine and spiritual influences on the flesh so as to correct it and make it what it ought to be, those people have no place in the testimony. They cannot declare their pedigree. They are not of Israel.
Rem It is not sufficient that we are breaking bread with a company of believers.
CAC No, I may be breaking bread as a babe in Christ,
[p. 45] and quite right. The Lord loves to see the young people breaking bread. Never discourage the young people from breaking bread, if they know at all what they are doing, but they should know that they are coming into identification with the most wonderful testimony that there ever was, and that they may grow up to be fighting men. Then they will be identified personally as well as positionally with the testimony.
Ques What is the meaning of the word testimony?
CAC To be identified with what is wholly for the pleasure of God at a time when there are all sorts of mixed conditions around us. What is for the pleasure of God takes a more distinctive character in the last days than ever it did. The public profession has all drifted; it is on the line of Lot, or Ishmael or Esau. The whole christian profession is on the line of one of these three men. Lot is the man who would not separate; that is to say, separation is essential to the testimony. If you name the name of the Lord you are to depart from iniquity, you are to withdraw from all that is unholy and untrue. And then Ishmael represents a believer who is trying to make something of the flesh; and Esau descended from Abraham, typically a believer, but he despised the birthright and he minds earthly things. These things are all inconsistent with the testimony, so that we have to prove that we are not on these lines. Can we really prove before Moses and Aaron and the brethren — can we stand up boldly and prove before Jesus as Lord and as Priest and before the brethren — that we are not on the line of Lot or Ishmael or Esau but that we are of Israel? Could we prove it? Such are the men for the testimony.
Rem Timothy proved it by his tears.
CAC Yes, I do not doubt at all that Timothy had been enlisted for a long time.
Everything has to come into line with the will of God, and the saints are to be identified with it and set for it. It calls for subjection to the authority of the Lord. It is what every Christian should do, but can I say, I am doing it?
[p. 46] Ques How far does the question of voluntary action enter into the matter?
CAC If we know what it is to be a redeemed people, taken out of the world for the pleasure of God, and have known what it is to be supported by divine resources in the wilderness (we have had flesh, and manna, and water from the rock), and know the covenant, the love of God, so that we really love Him, there will be a great desire to be numbered for the testimony. It will be nothing to shrink from; you will want to be numbered. It does not take long for a babe to become a man. We shall not have to wait twenty years literally. Paul began as a babe and he was a man in Christ in a day or two. It does not take long. If a babe walks in the Spirit, it will be very few days before he is fully grown in Christ. That is, as fully grown in Christ you have an apprehension in your soul by the Spirit that all your blessing is in Christ, and you stand to it intelligently and affectionately. That is what Paul means when he says that he announced Christ to the end that he might present every man perfect in Christ. ‘I want them to see what is in Christ’. A man is twenty years old when he sees that.
Ques Is the Ethiopian eunuch an example of this rapid growth?
CAC As he went on his way with the book of Isaiah in his possession he was probably a full-grown man in Christ before he got home.
Then there is what brings you to the side of God’s election. Now you have Jacob, and you have had to learn that it was all hopeless on your side. You have to be reduced and humbled on your side, and learn that God must do everything for you. He takes pains to cripple you, and then you become Israel. We have to prove that we are of that stock. We have learnt our own weakness, we have had our thigh put out. It is declaring the pedigree. So Paul speaks of God’s purpose and grace, etc., God’s election and grace, and His powerful working with Israel.
[p. 47] The first epistle to Timothy is according to the command of God our Saviour, so that you have injunctions and charges. But when you come to the second epistle it is according to the promise of life in Christ Jesus. You have the thought of a living system, a system that stands in living relation to the work of the testimony.
It is most important to see the great tests of things is the lordship of Christ. That is why it is Moses and Aaron and the princes who have to do the numbering. None of us can be numbered unless we pass the inspection of Moses and Aaron and the brethren. Now mark that! There is no one numbered for the testimony who cannot pass that threefold test. No one will be numbered for the testimony if they cannot pass Moses and Aaron and the brethren.
Ques. Why the brethren?
CAC Because that is vital. The princes represent the brethren; they represent those who have an assigned position of responsibility amongst the brethren.
Ques. Who are they?
CAC If you want to be numbered you will have to find them! If I cannot prove to the Lord that I am fit to be enrolled as standing in defence of His testimony, I need not try to prove it to anybody else. His authority is the great test. It is only as coming under subjection to the Lord’s authority that we can have anything to say to the testimony of our Lord. And then there is Aaron too, representing the priestly discernment of the Lord. He has not only authority, but He has priestly discernment, and He is exercising it tonight. He is looking for soldiers. When He walks in the midst of the candlesticks that is what He is looking for — soldiers. He singles out the overcomer; that is the man that is numbered.
It is most encouraging, most touching, that the Lord should say, “I also have overcome”. He has been the Soldier of God. The testimony was never so maintained as when it was all centred in one blessed Man. He overcame every hostile power, and now He is looking out for the overcomer; that is, the [p. 48] soldier. It is only the overcomer who is really for the testimony. I believe that is a very solemn reality.
Ques Does that not narrow up the testimony?
CAC Yes, but then, think of the value of it, and the dignity of it. If anything that is of God is brought in, and it is, it is brought in as secured in Christ, and it is brought in to be secured by the Spirit in the saints; and if that is so, what a dignity! It is possible for two persons in this place to be enrolled as soldiers in defence of the testimony. What a dignity! Then, if you pass the Lord as the Priest, you have to pass the brethren. That is, you have to commend yourself to those who are already identified with the testimony.
There is a definite principle for anyone who wants to walk with the saints, a definite principle that they be introduced as commended by those who have responsibility amongst them. It is a definite principle, and if we see that the Lord has a testimony and that certain persons through grace are identified with it, we should like to be approved by those persons. I should like to be approved by certain persons. I should be very sorry to be so conceited as to be satisfied with my own appraisement of myself. It is not enough that the Lord should be satisfied and that the Priest should discern that I am an overcomer. Now that brings it home to all of us — how am I going on before the saints? If they cannot approve me I shall not be enrolled. The saints can recognise whether I am on the line of Lot, or on the line of Ishmael, or on the line of Esau. Spiritual persons can recognise whether I am really an Israelite.
Ques How does that link with chapter 2?
CAC Those calling on the Lord out of a pure heart are really identified with His testimony. Every one who calls on the Lord out of a pure heart is identified with the testimony. Now I am to walk with those. If I am to walk with them, I must approve myself to them. Anybody who was right would be delighted to be under the scrutiny of his brethren.
Ques What does it mean, to call upon the Lord out [p. 49] of a pure heart?
CAC It is that the affections are really set. The Lord has become everything to you and you do not want to be identified with anything that is not of the Lord. And you find that you have not strength for it except you call upon Him. Jacob has to be crippled, he has to cling to the One who wrestled with him. That is what calling on the Lord out of a pure heart is.
There is such a thing as having to do with the Lord with a consciousness of perfect integrity. And if we have not got the consciousness that we can come to the Lord with no unworthy motives in our heart and no reserves, we are disqualified for His testimony. It is no use talking about the testimony of our Lord if we cannot go to the Lord and say, ‘Lord, Thou knowest all things and Thou knowest that I want to be for Thee’.
Ques What is an “honest and good heart” (Luke 8: 15)?
CAC What it means is this, that nothing counts but the work of God. There is nothing pure about me inside or out, except the work of God. Now that it is the thought in connection with Jacob. Jacob has to be taken to pieces and put together in an entirely new way. And we have all got to come to it, that there is nothing about us that is of any value, except what God has wrought.
It characterises certain persons that they call upon the Lord. It distinguishes them. Instead of forming a committee to see how things can be done, and trying to work up a cause, or making arrangements so that the wheels go round, the only source of power that they know is to call on the Lord. People will be brought in by the enemy amongst the saints, people that are on the line of Lot, or Ishmael, or Esau, but none of those persons will ever call on the Lord out of a pure heart, though they may be believers.
The testimony period is practically running out. We are just at the end of it, and therefore if we want to have any distinction in connection with the testimony, we shall have to be quick about it. If the Lord’s assembling shout were to ring out [p. 50] tonight the testimony would be over, and we should never have the chance to be identified with the testimony of our Lord again. The testimony is the present witness in the power of the Spirit to what will shine out in display in the world to come.