THE CONTINUANCE OF THE TESTIMONY

R. H. Brown

2 Timothy 1: 7–9, 12; 2: 1–7; 3: 10–12; 4: 5–8, 16, 17; Philippians 4: 4–7

I thought to say a little this evening, dear brethren, as to the continuance of the testimony until the Lord comes. We do not know how long that will be, but persons who love the truth would be concerned as to the continuance of the testimony until the end. From one point of view we can have no doubt about it because the testimony is maintained here in the charge of a divine Person. From that point of view it could never fail. But the question that each of us has to address is whether we will be in the power of the present testimony when the Lord comes. The writer of this epistle was passing off the scene. He had, as he tells us, been valiant in the testimony, but his part in the testimony of our Lord was coming to an end, and he was concerned as to its continuance. I wonder, firstly, whether we are all concerned to be in the testimony of our Lord, and then whether we are concerned as to its continuance.

In verse 8 of 2 Timothy 1 the apostle says, “Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord”. It exists here in the scene in which we are. Timothy was not exhorted to inaugurate it and neither are we. He was exhorted not to be ashamed of it. It is a wonderful thing to lay hold of, that there is, in this world, “the testimony of our Lord”. If we are believers, each of us has been reached by that testimony. In some way, through some means, the testimony of our Lord has reached us in divine grace. What a wonderful thing that is! It is something to give thanks for, that the light of a glorified Man in heaven has reached us. It has shone, as Paul says, in our hearts—“Because it is the God who spoke that out of darkness light should shine who has shone in our hearts”, 2 Corinthians 4: 6. It has operated towards

us from the Lord Himself personally. You might trace the way by which divine grace has reached you; you might have listened to a gospel preaching or been affected by a tract. It may be you had godly parents who spoke to you about the Lord and brought you in prayer to Him.

Whatever the means that were used, the testimony reached you from the Lord Himself. I wonder if that great fact has laid hold of each of us here, that a glorified Man in heaven has Himself drawn near in His testimony to make Himself known. Now there is a purpose in His doing that. It is not simply that you might be restful as to judgment to come, not simply that your sins might be forgiven, but that you might have a part in that testimony that has reached you and enlightened you.

There are many believers who have been reached by the testimony, who have not appreciated that there was a purpose behind the reaching of them. This passage speaks of the glad tidings in that way. It does not refer here to the forgiveness of sins, it refers to “the power of God; who has saved us, and has called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace”. What a profound matter that is to think about, that in the counsels of God you were included! In the sovereignty of His grace you were selected, perhaps when your next door neighbour was not; the sovereignty of God moved and chose and selected, and the choice fell on you. What a privilege it is to be the subject of divine and sovereign choice! What a responsibility it is, too, dear hearer, to be here in a world under judgment, conscious of having been the subject of divine and sovereign choice. It was “not according to our works”—there was nothing there to draw it forth, but divine love in all its grace and power operated to secure the objects of its purpose. Then the appeal is not to be ashamed of that testimony. There are many believers who are ashamed of it. Because the testimony is in reproach, because there is suffering attached to it, they are ashamed of the most precious

possession they could have, the light of another Man in another world. “Be not therefore ashamed”, he says; what a direct appeal it is to a man who was himself a distinguished servant of the Lord. Timothy needed an appeal like this, one who was a true child of Paul and had imbibed what that great apostle could provide. If he needed such an appeal, how much more do we.

In this epistle that deals with the testimony and its continuance, the apostle faithfully presents the suffering side. He does not gloss over that. He presents faithfully the obstacles that have to be overcome by those who are committed to the testimony of our Lord. But, along with that, he presents the resources that are available. As you read this epistle to his true child it is full of intimate references by the apostle to the resources that had sustained him in his support and valiant defence of the testimony in his lifetime. And he speaks of them not in a doctrinal way, but as experience that he had known. What effect that would have on this man who received this letter, to see what it was that had sustained the apostle in fidelity to the testimony of our Lord, throughout his lifetime from his conversion onwards. He tells us in this first chapter, “I know whom I have believed”—I know Him. It is one thing to be a believer, but it is another thing to know the Lord intimately. The apostle knew Him; he had seen Him. He says, “have I not seen Jesus our Lord?”, 1 Corinthians 9: 1. He was known of Him but he also knew Him. He could speak confidently and reverentially about Him from his knowledge of Him. He had not put his trust in a creed but in a Person who was evidently very precious to him. For Him he had given up all domestic happiness, he had given up every earthly comfort, and he was prepared to suffer even unto bonds as an evil doer. The knowledge of Christ had effected that in the apostle. The more he knew Him, the more he loved Him; the less became his grasp on things here, and the less became his reckoning of the consequences. He knew whom he had believed and he was persuaded.

I have often thought that Paul, naturally speaking, would not be an easy man to persuade. He was not one of these gullible people who could be taken in by the frivolous fancy of the time.

He says, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded”—that speaks of deep conviction in his soul—“that he is able to keep for that day the deposit I have entrusted to him”. There has been much speculation as to what Paul is referring to there. I do not enter into it save to say that he had really entrusted himself; he had really entrusted his life to Christ. I have no doubt, as he came to the end of his course, he was prepared to leave with Christ, his service and all he had done in his life. He left it, I say with reverence, in capable hands. He says, I am persuaded “that he is able to keep for that day the deposit I have entrusted to him”. I have often wondered whether Timothy himself was part of that deposit that Paul entrusted to Christ in his prayers over his true child. Then he is concerned for the continuance of the testimony and the preservation of this man amidst the hostile currents that were prevailing.

He could leave the scene of testimony with peace in his soul as to that. He speaks elsewhere of “abounding always in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord”, 1 Corinthians 15: 58.

In the second chapter he speaks of the exigencies of the testimony, and what is called for in those that commit themselves to it. He uses the figures of a soldier, an athlete and a husbandman. Then he says, “Think of what I say”. Much has been said as to that expression embracing the whole of what he has said, but I am thinking particularly of what he has just said about the soldier and the athlete and the husbandman. One feels the need for oneself to ponder and reflect more on what comes to us from the Lord. There is not much time for it, life is busy, but the apostle deliberately exhorts this younger man to “Think of what I say”.

Then, he says, “for the Lord will give thee understanding”. You get there his knowledge of the Lord. All that he could

do, all that any of us can do, is to present the truth to one another. But he was confident that as this young man set himself to think about what the apostle said, so divine light would flood into his soul in the way of understanding. That is the way it works. The Lord looks for some committal and then He rejoices to respond to it. You remember the eunuch in the chariot; he was reading although he did not understand, but the Lord gave him understanding. He said to Philip, when he was asked if he understood, “How should I then be able unless some one guide me?”, Acts 8: 31. None of us can understand the word of God without divine guidance, and it is available. But Paul says, “Think of what I say, for the Lord will give thee understanding”.

I think it particularly focuses our attention on this first part of the chapter, “No one going as a soldier”. To commit oneself to the testimony is to commit oneself to a life of soldiering; to commit oneself to conflict. He says, “No one going as a soldier entangles himself with the affairs of life”. That is an analogy we are familiar with, but much more so I suppose in the day when he wrote. No Roman soldier would have been allowed to become entangled with the affairs of life. He was at the behest of his commander, to be sent, wherever and whenever he chose. There is nothing, I believe, that has more weakened the testimony publicly than entanglement with the affairs of life. There are many true believers who profess to love the Lord but they settle comfortably into the affairs of life. The testimony, and any part in it, is really too demanding. There is an appeal to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ. We were reading locally of that moment at the end of Revelation, when He comes forth on a white horse as the Faithful and True. John says, “the armies which are in the heaven followed him”.

Nothing is said there of their exploits or their valour, all is attributed to Christ, as the beast and the false prophet are taken and finally dealt with; but the armies which are in the heaven followed Him upon white horses (see Revelation 19: 11, 14). There is a great heavenly company who have proved their valour in the scene of testimony, in the time of His absence, and they are part of the victory parade. There are many who might wish to be associated with Christ then, as He comes forth publicly as the Victor, but that is the day of display. There is a testimony now to what is so soon to be displayed. The call today is as urgent as it was when Paul wrote to Timothy, that there might be persons who are committed to it; sanctified, as he says later in this chapter, serviceable to the Master, and prepared for every good work.

The runner or athlete, it says, must contend lawfully. He cannot run across the track in the wrong direction, or cross somebody else’s path. The race has to be run but run according to the rules. What is our resource in the testimony? Again as you think about what the apostle says, you can see that the testimony has been greatly weakened by the use of human resource, human wisdom, human expedience and the introduction of what is of man. How it has greatly impaired the testimony when believers have sought to defend the testimony of our Lord by human means and fleshly means. Then he says, “The husbandman must labour before partaking of the fruits”. Now is the time for labour, as the apostle says, “we labour and suffer reproach” (1 Timothy 4: 10), one of these things that he exhorts, but of which he was himself an expression. He points out the difficulties, but I think in this epistle too he points out the resources. He speaks about the firm foundation of God—it stands, having the seal upon it. It may be a part of the Scripture that some of us are fearful of, because of the extreme uses to which it has been put in the past, but this is a very blessed scripture—“the firm foundation of God stands”. It stands amidst all these hostile currents, and it has this seal, “The Lord knows those that are his”. That is a great comfort, but it is also a proof or evidence of the decline. It is true, “The Lord knows those that are his”, but they should be known amongst men.

In the early days of Christianity those who were the Lord’s were known publicly, and united into one body; but in the day we are in they are scattered, they are unrecognisable as a collective body. We are thankful for every one that we can walk with in happy fellowship.

Our company is found in fellowship by the pursuit of these great principles, righteousness, faith, love and peace. As they are pursued you will find those with whom we can have fellowship—“those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”. They do that characteristically. I think the apostle is speaking of persons who are committed to the testimony of our Lord here in His absence; they call upon Him characteristically, and they do so out of a pure heart. Their motive is a pure one. He exhorts him too to avoid vain babblings and disputes of words, and he tells him in this very chapter that a bondman of the Lord ought not to contend. He is not to become involved in such disputes. They are a side issue, they would distract from the great matters on hand. You will remember that in Acts 6 a dispute as to money arose concerning the widows, the Hellenists. The apostles put that matter into competent hands, that it might not cause bitterness among the brethren, but they were not themselves diverted from their work. He tells him to avoid these things. May we heed his exhortation, dear brethren. The tendency of our hearts is often to become involved in such things; babblings and disputes and arguments. These things will reduce the impact of the testimony of our Lord and we are to avoid them.

Now the apostle in chapter 3 says that Timothy had been acquainted with his teaching and with his conduct. He knew what Paul taught and he knew how he lived. There was in this servant of the Lord a way of life that commended the testimony and the ministry that he ministered. That has been a matter of great weakness in the testimony, that there have been persons who, to put it simply, have not practised what they preached.

There is a great need, with each one of us, for consistency with the truth in the detail of our lives, so that there should be power in the testimony. So that it should be seen that the truth is practical and it works and it is seen, not in a creed, but in the lives and conduct of men and women. It was seen in the life of this beloved man. He says to Timothy, You have been acquainted with it. He knew how Paul lived; he knew what he taught, he knew what he had suffered, and what he had endured. He knew how brave Paul had been in the testimony, but he gives him the secret of his courage here. He says in chapter 1, “for God has not given us a spirit of cowardice”. If I have that spirit I have not got it from God. Paul was brave in the testimony, but he speaks here of the Lord, “the Lord delivered me out of all”. I think that is a most touching reference. It rings with the affection the apostle had for Christ personally.

Then he says, “And all indeed who desire to live piously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted”.

We are in a world where the light is rejected still. Christ was rejected, He who was the light of the world. The testimony to Him in glory is rejected, and those who seek to be true to it will come under persecution. But the resources are here, that the Lord delivered him out of all.

In the next chapter he speaks of not being delivered. He does not speak in his first defence of the Lord delivering him from that. He had to go through with it. What an ordeal that must have been for the apostle to appear before that corrupt and depraved Roman Emperor with the absolute power of life or death over him at his cruel whim, and no one stood with him.

Many had been happy to travel with Paul as he moved and ministered, as miracles were wrought, but here he says they turned away from him. “At my first defence”, he says, “no man stood with me”. O, dear brethren, I am affected by it as I speak of it; to think of the precious heritage that has come down to us; the faithful men that have gone before. They have ministered, they have devoted their lives that we might have such a heritage. How do we

regard it? Is it precious? If the Lord does not come, will it be passed on by us unimpaired?

What has come down to us in our time at such cost! He says, “At my first defence no man stood with me”. Immediately he says, “May it not be imputed to them”. You see how he is reflecting the testimony even in the hour of trial. What is coming out of the apostle is not bitterness or resentment, but the testimony. The grace of God is radiating from this beloved man as he completes his course. And he give us the secret of it; he says, “But the Lord stood with me”. He did not deliver him out of it, but He went through it with him. He committed himself to the Lord, and the Lord committed Himself to Paul, He stood with him. I have no doubt there are others in this room who have proved that. There are persons in this room who have had to appear before tribunals and the like, who have proved the reality of what Paul speaks of here; that the Lord did not forsake them, even though their brethren may have done, but He went through it with them. What an experience!

One often thinks of the family at Bethany in John 11. The Lord could have delivered them out of that trial, but He waited two days. They sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick”, but He waited. He did not remove the pressure, He did not remove the suffering, but He entered into it with them. He went to that tomb and wept with them. What you find later in John 12 is that they made Him a supper. He had become supreme to their hearts. Martha could speak of the resurrection, saying, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection in the last day”, John 11: 24. That was a blessed thing to know, but she knew something more, something greater of the love of God. They made Him a supper; He had become everything to them as they proved Him in the worst and found that He was equal to it. These are very real things, and there are many who are passing through deep waters of suffering of one kind and another. As the Lord is sought He will be found, and He will stand with you. That is a

very blessed experience. This is not exactly doctrine or teaching, it is experience. As Paul stood up before that dread and arbitrary and immoral man, he was conscious of a power that was not his own. He was conscious that the Lord Himself could personally identify Himself with him and give him power.

So he says in these verse in Philippians, “Rejoice in the Lord always”. I just wanted to close with that word. Let us think about these three words in this section—‘always’, ‘nothing’, and

‘everything’. Let nothing take away your joy in Christ or spoil your portion in Him. The burden of all the assemblies pressed upon Paul, the man who wrote this, as well as the physical persecution that he suffered. But when he wrote to the Corinthians he said, “as grieved, but always rejoicing; as poor, but enriching many; as having nothing, and possessing all things”, 2 Corinthians 6: 10. I wonder if anyone in this room has ever been reduced to that—“as having nothing”. Those were the conditions that the testimony led this beloved man into, but he says, “Rejoice in the Lord always”. I think if I had nothing it would press upon me greatly, but he says, “Be careful about nothing”. He is not exhorting us to be careless, but he is speaking about agitation and distress of mind that would interfere with our portion in Christ. So he says, “Be careful about nothing; but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God”. The apostle who wrote these words could speak of boasting in tribulation. I do not think I could say that, but the knowledge of the Lord in his soul was such that he could speak about giving thanks in everything, because every experience yielded, I suppose, in his soul a fresh knowledge and appreciation of the Saviour.

May that be our exercise, dear brethren, that we are on more intimate terms with Him, that He means more to us, and that our committal to His precious Name here in testimony, still despised and rejected, may be the greater. I believe the two go together. If there is

greater committal and attachment to the testimony, there would be an intimacy with the Saviour that perhaps we have never known before. These things are addressed as much to me as to anyone in this room, but I feel, and no doubt others would share it, that we are at a crucial point in the testimony. It is a great question as to whether we are going to be entangled with the affairs of life, or whether we are going to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ.

May it be the latter, for His name’s sake.

Address at Maidstone
7 November 1998