THE TESTIMONY OF GOD
[p. 10] THE TESTIMONY OF GOD
Luke 2:1-7; Luke 2:13; 1 Corinthians 1:26-29; Revelation 21:10,11.
It is my desire, in reading these scriptures, to call your attention to the introduction of the testimony of God into this world and also into that which is to come.
There is nothing more interesting and more important than the introduction of the divine testimony. This is what is brought before the attention of men in the gospel of Luke. I say the attention of men, because Luke’s platform is a wide one; humanity is in view.
Luke was a companion of the apostle Paul, and the sphere of Paul’s labours was humanity; he did not stop short of all men; his conception of God’s mind was that it extended to the limits of humanity. There was no part of it that was not to be affected by the divine testimony. Paul’s base was heaven, that of the twelve was Jerusalem. Their labours were connected with Jerusalem. Not so Paul’s. He began with heaven, and you cannot restrict heaven. What is witnessed from heaven cannot be confined to any limited part of earth.
In Acts we see the heavens opened, and Stephen permitted to look in. He saw a Man there, a Man in heaven. Afterwards we find that the Man whom he saw there had certain dealings with Saul of Tarsus. There shone around him a “light from heaven”, (Acts 9:3) not a light from Jerusalem. It was a light above the brightness of the noon-day sun. It affected him profoundly. He began with heaven, and he felt that the influence of heaven was to extend to the uttermost limits of the earth.
Luke writes about Christ in relation to humanity. I do not believe that you will find anywhere in Scripture the thought that heaven and earth are to [p. 11] be disconnected. Earth is to be influenced by heaven; Psalm 19 is a proof of this. The sun is set in the heavens and every part of earth feels its influence. I think you will find that the effort of men is to disconnect earth and heaven. They say, virtually, ‘As far as God is concerned He may abide in heaven, but we want the earth’. In the Revelation what you find is, that men will glorify the God of heaven. They do not say anything about the God of earth. But Christ comes down (Revelation 10) and sets His right foot on the sea and His left foot on the earth; He lays claim to all. God has said “heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool”, Isaiah 66: 1. Beloved friends, you cannot separate His throne from His footstool. There is no house capable of receiving Him save what He Himself has built, and the earth is part of this house. A brother was speaking to me today about fresh air, and what we really need is fresh air; the higher up we go, the fresher the air.
It is our privilege to maintain that the earth is the Lord’s. I have not given up the earth in this sense. The church witnesses to this that the inheritance belongs to Christ. He has said, “Occupy till I come”. Luke 19: 13.
I want now to speak about the testimony and the circumstances in connection with its introduction, as presented in the beginning of Luke. God takes up the most despised people, and one of the most insignificant families in Judea, in order to bring in His testimony. It was suitable morally that God should begin this way, because of the pretensions of men. Everything that God does has a moral significance, and you get little help from the Scriptures, unless you read them keeping this in view. It will be a great practical help to us in our walk down here, if we ponder the circumstances in which God introduced His testimony into this world.
[p. 12] What a testimony this was, beloved friends! The true Ark of the covenant, the blessed Son of God, lying in a manger. Men cared not for Him. Augustus! what did he care about Christ? Nothing. What was then happening in Bethlehem was utterly unimportant to him, and to the dignities of his empire. But what about heaven? A multitude of the heavenly host appeared. They knew what was going on. The greatest event that had yet occurred in the history of the world had just transpired in the city of David, and every intelligence in heaven understood its blessed significance. They spoke of “glory to God”. That blessed Babe had come for the establishment of the divine glory. What had been on the earth before? Nothing but reproach and dishonour, but the glory of God was now to be maintained in the universe. There was also to be “peace on earth”, and the angels knew it. The third thing was “good pleasure in men”. Heretofore man was a grief to the heart of God, but now that heart would rest with perfect complacency upon His beloved Son as Man on earth. The angels were filled with a sense of the greatness of what was going on, but all that was so wonderful to heaven was introduced under the most insignificant circumstances on earth, but this did not detract from its value. Do we think anything less of the Lord because lie lay in a manger? No, it enhances the moral glory and beauty of the position. It was suitable that He should enter thus because of what was here, for God in this way would make nothing of the great things of this world.
I read the passage in Corinthians to show that the same principle has been maintained in connection with the Spirit’s testimony in the church at the present time. What was so perfectly presented here in Christ all went up to heaven, and was appreciated there. It was not valued on earth, but it was in heaven. One is reminded of Psalm 24:7, where we read, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in”. The higher He went the greater the greeting, and He went far beyond all heavens. What was here went up there, but by the Spirit of God all has come back again, and is now in the saints by the Spirit. Are the circumstances altered? Not in the least. The apostle says, “ye see your calling, brethren”. He says, so to speak, ‘See the kind of people God has taken up’; the foolish, the weak, the ignoble, and despised hath God chosen. It was not a matter of chance, they were chosen, and what for? To bring to nothing the things that are. How are we affected by these things? Are we content to be despised? Do we like to be considered the base things of the earth? The apostle spoke of himself and those associated with him, as the filth and off-scouring of all things. They were viewed as this because of their complete identification with the testimony of God.
The greater you are in this world the less you are in the church, and the less you shall be in the coining kingdom But we can well afford to be accounted small here for we are going to be placed in the most prominent position in God’s universe. The Father has committed us into the hand of Christ, and what will He do with the saints? He will bring us to Himself, to the highest pinnacle of God’s universe. We do not need to be great or prominent now. We shall have all the prominence we want in the world to come. Paul will have a wonderful place in the kingdom, a place corresponding to that which he had in this world. Are we content to be obscure now? When Christ was here He was obscure so far as position in this world is concerned. He had no place to lay His head. I believe the safest place for every Christian is that of obscurity. The apostle says, “our life is hid”. Colossians 3:3. Christ is hid, and so are we.
[p. 14] When He is manifested, so shall we be; when He comes forth from the place of concealment into that of open display we shall be with Him. Then we shall have all the publicity we want; only wait, and we have not long to wait.
Let us now turn to Revelation, and here again we find testimony. The heavenly city is testimony. I do not think there is really any change morally. What comes out in the heavenly city has already come out here in Christ, and is here now in the saints. The scene of display is changed; the man who pretended to be great is no more, the earlier part of the book shows how he has been disposed of. He has found his own place; Revelation 20 shows this, that the devil is bound, the beast and false prophet, the political descendants of Augustus having found their place already in the lake of fire, Revelation 19. The entire scene has been cleansed and purified.
And now, beloved friends, you get glory. God says, as it were, ‘I will let you see the display of My glory’. You will have all the glory then that your heart can desire. The heavenly city appears having the glory of God. It comes forth in splendour all divine. No longer the manger, no more the humble and obscure circumstances. No! it is now the glory of God in full display. The Lord by His power has removed all that is unsuited to God, and the glory shines forth. And oh, beloved friends, what a display! I leave it, that each may ponder over it for himself. It is a marvellous scene. All upon earth will appreciate what is presented. The atmosphere of heaven will pervade the earth, and be diffused to its utmost bounds. Then we shall have abundance of fresh air.