THE CONTINUANCE OF THE TESTIMONY
[p. 179] THE CONTINUANCE OF THE TESTIMONY
2 Timothy 2:1,2; Genesis 9:1; Genesis 18:17 - 19
I have selected these Scriptures in order to show how that it is in the mind of God that what is of Himself on earth should be continued, and to show how it is to be continued. In reading the passage from the second epistle to Timothy we may see how the apostle Paul, as the exemplary servant, was in entire accord with the mind of God in this connection. He desired that the things he had received from the Lord Jesus and which he regarded as a treasure should be continued, and to this end he brings forward his child, as he is pleased to regard Timothy. He was not only Paul’s convert, but his child in the faith, and he regarded him as trustworthy.
Now these are the lines on which I desire to proceed, and in referring to Genesis I have in mind that it is the book that records what might be called the era of faith. It is not the dispensation of God which is in faith, but an era in which faith shone brightly, just as in a dark night when the heavens are clear the stars shine. So you have in the book of Genesis the clear shining of stars. It contains more specific acts of faith than any other book in the Scriptures. There are, I think, eight persons in it mentioned as having performed specific acts of faith. Exodus gives us one; Joshua gives us one; Judges, I think, gives us three, and the books of Samuel, two. Then you have a miscellaneous number of persons who had faith; but you will observe that Genesis of all the books records men and persons who had faith.
I am referring to this particularly, to show that it will always be found that faith is concerned as to the maintenance of what is of God during its own [p. 180] period. That is to say, the man who has faith always serves his own generation by the will of God; but then he not only serves his own, but contemplates generations to follow, and provides for them in as far as in him lies. Take Enoch as an example. He is the second mentioned as you will remember in Hebrews 11. What is said of him there is, that he was translated by faith “by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God”. Hebrews 11:5. He had it before. Now, I want you to have it before. We shall all have it afterwards. We shall all have the consciousness in heaven, after our translation, that we please God, for nothing goes into heaven save that which pleases God. You may be a tiny vessel there, but you will please God, as a tiny vessel. What one desires for oneself and for the saints, is that there should be the consciousness before your translation that you please God. That is what the Lord is doing by the Spirit at the present time. He is working in order that there might be in us the consciousness that we please God now. How did Enoch know that he pleased God? He kept the company of God. Do you? Let me ask you, what is your company? The company you are accustomed to keep, and which you desire to please. Mark what I am saying. Whatever company you are accustomed to keep, your desire will be to please that company. If you do not, you lose that company. It is happy for us sometimes that we do not please our company. One could cite instances in the Scriptures where persons did not please their company, and their company left them for their good. If your companions are worldly, and you speak of the Lord Jesus, and you act like the Lord Jesus, you displease them, and they leave you, and leave you for your good.
[p. 181] Enoch had the consciousness that he pleased God. He walked with God; and God took him. If he had displeased Him, He would have left him, for God is faithful. Why is it that so many of God’s people are not conscious of the divine presence? Their faces show that they have not the divine presence with them. Why is it? Why? Because they do not please God. Enoch, it says, walked with God, and he pleased Him so much in that long walk, lasting for three hundred years, that God says: “I must have him for ever”. Before his translation he had the witness that he pleased God, “and he was not, for God took him”. Genesis 5:24. Now, Enoch does not tell us that God was with him although he was a prophet. What Enoch was concerned about was what should take his place here, what should follow after him.. He therefore set Methuselah a good example. Directly Methuselah was born, you learn that Enoch walked with God. What an example he set before that young man, Methuselah! As he grew up, what an example he had in his father. But the result was not to be in Methuselah it was to be in Noah. Enoch does not tell us a word about his translation in his prophecy. He was exercised as to what should follow after him. He felt with God about things. The world around him was corrupt, and he felt it. He came to the conclusion that there was no remedy; reformation would not do There was no remedy. So he says, “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints”. Jude 14. What rest of heart that would give him! If the Lord came in with the holy myriads; mark, it is holy myriads, holy things, which faith ever cherishes; if the Lord cometh in the midst of His holy ones, it is to execute wrath. What rest of heart that would be to Enoch! There is not a word about his translation in his prophecy. Moses gives it, and Paul speaks about it, but Enoch speaks about the coming of the Lord.
[p. 182] That is to say, his exercises had regard to the conditions around him in the world. He had light that the Lord was coming in with ten thousands of His saints. How happily, how restfully he would go up!
Now, if the assembly goes up, which it will, before its translation, it asks the Lord to come, “the Spirit and the bride say come” Revelation 22:17; but you see, if you individually are asking the Lord to come, you may be overlooking what is here. But, if in the faith of your soul, you provide, as it were, for conditions here before you go, you go up restfully. The Lord is coming. He is coming with His holy myriads, and then there shall be a perfect adjustment of the affairs of this world. As I was saying, it was not Methuselah that took Enoch’s place in the testimony; it was Noah. What I would point out about Noah is this, that he found grace in the eyes of the. Lord. He found grace. What a wonderful thing it is to find grace. We speak of God taking a man up and using him, but what about the man before he is taken up? If one has faith, one sees a great deal to be done in every direction. Need abounds. Somebody has to do things. Are you thinking about that? Or are you just leaving it with those who are active for the moment? One does not know how long one is to be left here, but if one is to be taken, how glad one is, if someone is left to carry on the work. There is plenty of work to be done. Have you any exercise about it? You know the Lord’s ways are inscrutable. Some continue long, and others short. What about the testimony? Who is to look after it? Well now, it says that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. It is a wonderful thing to find. The Lord took account of that. If you will notice, in the end of Genesis 5, the names of Noah’s sons are given, but it is not said there that he found grace. In the sixth chapter, however, it is said that he found grace; then we are told that he begat Shem, Ham and Japheth. In [p. 183] other words, the man who found grace has three sons; three wonderful possibilities. Look at the child. What do you think about the possibility of the child? When the Lord gave Timothy to Paul, how much there was wrapped up in that young man! We have to look at the believer in the light of the possibilities. If he is young, you have him as a possibility, as a possible vessel to carry on the service of Christ and to maintain what is due to God here, so that what he receives does not deteriorate in his hands.
If there is one thing one desires, it is that in as far as one’s measure goes, what one has found here should not deteriorate, but that it should be passed on, at least as pure as received, to those who are to follow, if the Lord permit, the Holy Spirit will lead on that line. There is not one in this room who has not a responsibility to the Lord. For one to disclaim responsibility, is to disclaim Christian fellowship. If you say you are not responsible you are disqualified for fellowship. The angel of the assembly is addressed by the Lord, as the responsible element in it, and whoever says he is not responsible is disqualified for Christian fellowship. Responsibility rests upon us to hand divine things on to those who follow, if the Lord will permit others to follow us; our responsibility is to maintain intact and in its original purity the heritage that has come down to us. What a wonderful heritage it is!
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and as having found grace, he had three sons; three wonderful possibilities, as I said. God preserved him in the ark, and now coming out of the ark, it is said that the Lord blessed Noah and his sons. It is not his house now. The word was that he should prepare an ark for the saving of his house, but the testimony in chapter 9 is that God blessed him and his sons. One could speak at great length about the term [p. 184] sons or sonship. God has great delight in it, and the wonderful light in which we stand is that we are God’s sons. In the book of Job we have side-lights thrown on sonship that are very noteworthy. In the first chapter we have them all coming up to appear before God, and they are set alongside Job’s sons in that chapter, as if to show their superiority to human sons, the sons of men. The sons of God come up to appear before God, they thought of God. That is what marks the son, he thinks of God, His heart refers to God; his movements refer to God. Now Job had sons. They were feasting with their sisters in their elder brother’s house, but Job was not there. The sons of God will not feast without God; they came up before God; and then we are told later, and He calls attention to it Himself with supreme pleasure, that all the sons of God shouted for joy when the foundations of the earth were laid. They not only had God in their hearts, but in all the operations of His hands, they were sympathetic. “The morning stars”, it says, “sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy”. Job 38:7.
Now, it is in that way that one refers to Noah’s sons. They were the sons of a man who had found grace in the eyes of the Lord. It does not say that they found grace in the eyes of the Lord, but there was that possibility in them. Poor Noah, alas! failed in the example he set before them. I do not dwell on that side; it is the dark side, but what was in the mind of God was that Noah’s sons should continue, and He blessed them. You see in the end of Genesis 8, God had established a permanent order of things in Christ. “While the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest and cold and heat and summer and winter and day and night shall not cease”. Genesis 8:22. Nothing shall fail. A permanent order of things is established. Do you think anything can alter it? Here God looks on undoubtedly through [p. 185] the course of this world, wars, tumults, revolutions; but He says, While the earth remaineth nothing shall be changed. A permanent order of things is established; what rest of heart that gives! We have the assurance that nothing can overthrow what God has established. Now if things are to be continued on earth, morally, it must be in the sons. Hence God blesses the sons. How wonderful, as coming into the new order of things, into something that He can bless and rest in, because that is what we have here, what is blessed of God! How important for the young people to see it; for the children of Christian households to see it; as coming into the new order of things, wonderful possibilities lie with young people. I use the word possibilities, but I am not overlooking what actually occurred in Noah’s case. God knew well what Ham would do. He knew what Canaan would do, and He knew the history of Japheth; but He blessed the sons of Noah. There were possibilities in them to continue what was of God, what their father, who had found grace in the eyes of the Lord, had inaugurated. I appeal to you, young man, that you do not decline from the standard of your father! It is better than anything you can acquire from a wealthy man of this world, from a wealthy father, to be blessed of God as a son of a father who has found grace in the eyes of the Lord. “The blessing of the Lord maketh rich”. Proverbs 10:22.
I just wish to go on to Abraham for a moment. God says, “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do”. Genesis 18:17. He says, Abraham is going to command his house. “For I know him that he will command his children and his household after him”. Genesis 18:19. “After him”. I want you to take notice of that, Abraham served in his own day; he was a prophet; he was the custodian of the testimony in his day. He was a stranger and a pilgrim on the earth. He had an altar and he had a tent. Now, he says, I do not [p. 186] wish this to discontinue. I appeal to you, beloved friends, Things are not to be discontinued. God will have them continued. Now do you want them continued? Then what is the word? The apostle says to Timothy “continue thou in the things which thou hast learned”. 2 Timothy 3:14. “The things that thou hast heard of me!” 2 Timothy 2:2. Continue in them! Abraham said, I want strangership and pilgrimageship in my sons to be maintained on the earth. That is what Abraham wanted. “I know him”, said Jehovah. How precious that is! Enoch had the witness that he pleased God. He is more honoured than Noah, although Noah is attested righteous, the only righteous man in his generation. But of Abraham he said, “I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him”. Genesis 18:19. See how he nourished Isaac! How he looked upon Isaac! What possibilities there were in Abraham’s mind in that child Isaac! How he nourished and cherished the child. He says, virtually, ‘Isaac, you will be after me’. He, in fact dwelt in tents with Isaac and Jacob. He was true to his calling, and he made it sure that both Isaac and Jacob should be brought up in the customs of strangership and pilgrimageship on the earth. That is how to bring up children. One can only speak of it; for it is a poor thing to refer to oneself. We are all failures; but there is the light; Abraham’s sons dwelt with him in tents. At any time Isaac and Jacob could see their father’s altar. What an example! He commanded his children and his household after him; and what more? “And they shall keep the way of the Lord”. Genesis 18:19. How restfully Abraham would depart! Indeed it was handed on to Isaac and to Jacob and to Joseph. “I die”, says Joseph, “and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob”. Genesis 50:24. How restfully he would depart in the light of divine interventions.
[p. 187] I want to dwell upon Abraham. He commands his children and his household after him. “And they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment”. Genesis 18:19. Now, we ought all to be exercised, the elder ones as well as the younger, that in as far as in us lies, those that are to follow have a good example. We know that all depends on God; we know that; but nevertheless God loves to leave with us what we can do, and to credit us. He credits Abraham here for all that should follow after him. Think of the extent of the horizon opened up. “They shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment”. Genesis 18:19. What then? “that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he has spoken of him”.
How important then that the young should be brought up in right surroundings and with a right example before them! The man of faith, as I said, always provides for what follows. If the assembly is taken, as it will be presently, there will be no void. The Lord indeed says, “When the Son of man comes; shall he find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:8. But it does not say He shall not. He shall. One would feel it, to have to go, and think of the earth left without faith. One would rather stay. I am speaking deliberately. I would rather stay, than go and leave the earth without faith. If one has to go, let one see to it that there are those to carry on the faith. I am not speaking in a literal way, but I am speaking of a principle. Timothy was Paul’s child, not according to nature, but in a spiritual way. Have you ever had a convert? What kind of example have you set him? Has he become your child? If a convert does not become a child, it is a poor thing.
Paul had the light of sonship in his heart. “God”, he says, “separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen” Galatians 1:16;
[p. 188] It was not to him but in him. That was the kind of gospel that he preached, and his converts were to be sons. They were to be sons of God. “Ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from heaven”. 1 Thessalonians 1:9,10. His Son from heaven.
Timothy became Paul’s child in a special way. He lived with Paul; he ministered with Paul; he imbibed Paul’s spirit; he knew his manner of life; he became like his father. And Paul said in his heart, I have a child, and in that child is the security for continuance. “Thou therefore, my child, be strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus. And the things thou hast heard of me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men”. 2 Timothy 2:2. He was to take care of them. Be sure that if you entrust them to anyone, let him be faithful. That is the idea. Let us see to it, dear brethren, that the things which have come to us do not deteriorate. Let us see to it, that divine things are continued in the liberty and dignity and in the power of sonship. A son has no fears as to the happenings at the present time. He is like Abraham, he is in the secret. It is a wonderful thing to be in the secret. What was going to happen? Sodom was about to be destroyed. That is to say, the world besotted with corruption and wickedness, was going to be destroyed. “Shall I hide from Abraham the thing which I do?” Genesis 18:17. No, Abraham was to be let into the secret. Why? Because he had in his mind the continuance of things, important things, and important testimony in his family; therefore he should know.
So, beloved friends, it is with ourselves, if we are in the secret. The son has no misgivings, no uncertainty of mind. Things are all as clear as the noonday sun to him. He looks at occurrences on earth as mere incidents; they are fitting into the carrying out of the divine will. All would tend to the one [p. 189] great and glorious end, that is to say, the ripening of the time when the Lord Jesus shall appear; and I would repeat, that what should be upon our lips is the appearing. We want Him to come. We are not unconcerned as to that. Like Enoch, our testimony is that the Lord cometh in the midst of His holy myriads. Ours is not an unexpected end; it is an expected end. Is it so with you? Shall the translation, shall the coming of the Lord be unexpected? God forbid We are expecting things. Enoch had no doubt about it. He says, “The Lord cometh”. He had no doubt about his own translation, because he pleased God. I do not know anything more blessed down here than the sense that one is moving about for the pleasure of God, and then talking, not about that, but about the coming of the Lord. “The Lord”, he says, “cometh with ten thousands of his saints”. Jude 14.
I have wanted to make clear to you that the exercise with those who have faith is that things should be continued down here; that we serve our own generation by the will of God, and are exercised that if the Lord is pleased to remove us the service should continue, and that it should continue equal to what was committed to ourselves. God grant that we may all be exercised as to these things. If you see the work is to be done, you are exercised; and then you get into the sense that you have to do your part, and gradually you will acquire a little ability; you will become a servant in the testimony. The Lord grant that it may be the desire of every one of us here.