THE TESTIMONY OF OUR LORD

E. M. Walkinshaw

2 Timothy 1: 7–11; Jude 1–3; Revelation 19: 9, 10

I desire to say a word, dear brethren, more by way of reminder than anything, about “the testimony of our Lord”, “the faith once delivered to the saints”, and “the testimony of Jesus”.

I am sure we are all exercised and interested in the testimony of our Lord and also, I trust, in Paul His prisoner. The testimony is presented in various aspects, as we know; “the testimony of the Christ” (1 Corinthians 1: 6) presenting to us the anointed Man; and “the testimony of God” (1 Corinthian 2: 1), as Paul took it to Corinth, is the presentation of God to men, so that men might know Him. But when Paul refers to the testimony in days of departure and decline, he refers to it as the testimony of our Lord, no doubt having in mind the need, if we are to be in it, of implicit submission to Him.

How necessary, if we are to be in the testimony of our Lord, to be implicitly subject to Him and to know that it is His testimony. One has thought often of the way in which the Lord has initiated everything and carries everything through Himself. The question arises, of course, as to who will go through with Him. That He will finish His testimony, which will culminate in glory, is, I need hardly say, definite; but what may be indefinite is where I may be in relation to Him. It is a wonderful thing to be settled in the soul about the definiteness of God’s purpose and to know that everything, as being in the hands of the Son, will be put into effect for the eternal glory of God.

However, I believe the exercise the Lord would raise with us is as to our total committal to Him in that testimony which is called the testimony of our Lord. It is complete, as the tabernacle system was complete, so that we should be concerned to be some simple testimony to the truth of Christ as the Head and Centre of another world altogether, of which we have already spoken today. Our committal to that, beloved brethren, I believe is essential. One would appeal to every one of us that there might be exercise to cherish in our hearts what is precious to Christ here, and to learn what it is, as cherishing it, to be prepared to stand in it as related to Himself. But I think the essential thing is implicit subjection to Him as Lord. We must confess that in these days of serious departure His lordship is disowned. There may be many services rendered, and often, alas, promiscuously, but if we are to be in the testimony of our Lord it is essential that we should be under His direction, His control; His interests our interests, His object our object; and if we think of the testimony of our Lord we necessarily involve His people in it, because they are precious to Him.

Now Paul writes to Timothy in the darkening state of the assembly here and in writing says,

“God has not given us a spirit of cowardice”. Often it marks me. I have often failed to speak when I should have spoken in defence of His interests; I have often spoken when I should not have done, out of turn, as we say. But if cowardice marks any of us in seeking to maintain what is due to the Lord in His testimony, that spirit did not come from God. He has given us, it says, a spirit “of power, and of love, and of wise discretion”. How those three things need to be with us as we relate ourselves to the Lord as He moves forward. I believe He is moving forward and acting among His people who are committed to His

testimony, and we need to be marked by these three characteristics if we are to be preserved.

So Paul says “power”. The only authority or power any man has is in his speaking the word of God. It is God’s word that has authority. It should be an increasing exercise I believe with each of us, especially those who may serve the saints, that while the minister may be the speaker, he is not the source of the speaking. That is a very great challenge, because we so readily give a turn to things which suits our own judgment; but I think what has been brought before us today is of the utmost importance, and that is a pure motive, Christ my life, my object, my motive. As the heart is searched one often finds there is a double motive there, and as brought into the presence of God has to learn to judge it so that Christ or, as I might say in this context, our Lord is the motive of my speaking and in particular my speaking in His assembly.

If I may speak from experience, I once dared to raise a question about a brother giving a word in a particular meeting, and a spiritual father of mine said to me, ‘And who might you be to say when or where the Lord should give a word in His assembly?’ I have never forgotten that.

It is His assembly, it is His testimony, it is to Him we are to be related, and we are to have a pure motive, a single eye for our Lord and to be marked by power and love—love for Him, I judge, primarily, in maintaining the testimony here—and wise discretion; and from whom do we receive that if not from Himself who is said to be “made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and holiness, and redemption”, 1 Corinthians 1: 30. How wonderful, dear brethren, is the privilege of being related to the Lord in these days when He is going forward in His testimony.

I do not think everything has broken down. I am sure everything has not broken down; not in His hands. He holds the seven stars. He holds everything. Our exercise should be to be in purity of motive for Himself. Now you may say that has often been said, and I fully agree, but if your experience is mine you will find that there is frequently a lapse and other motives come in. Other things tend to govern us, even unconsciously, unless we are kept in simplicity in the presence of the One whose testimony it is. Now it has been a real exercise to many of the brethren as to where the Lord is in His testimony; and in any matter that arises the real secret is, Where is the Lord in this matter? Because where the Lord is is what really counts for any lover of Him and His assembly.

So Paul goes on to say, “But suffer evil along with the glad tidings, according to the power of God”. We are not left, as we have been reminded, without resource; it is “according 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, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages of time”. Do you not find that establishing? I believe the apostle established Timothy in the permanency and immutability of the purpose of God before he brought him to face the public confusion which is suggested in chapter 2. And we shall find help if we follow that course in simple dependence upon Him whose testimony it is.

I suppose that the testimony and the glad tidings are pretty much synonymous in the way in which Paul speaks of them. “Suffer evil along with the glad tidings”. How far are we prepared to do that? Maybe from without, maybe from within. Of recent years the general attack of the enemy has been from within. He has been very successful too,

but thank God for those who have escaped. If we can only regard ourselves as refugees, thank God for that—we have escaped, and we can still, in humility of mind and soul, relate ourselves to the Lord as He goes forward.

Now Jude speaks of contending “earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints”. We all know, I think, that he had intended to write to them about “our common salvation”, but he had to turn aside because of difficulties. Sometimes we may be turned aside because of difficulties, and our common salvation is not our immediate occupation, although the main line of what the Lord is doing should always be before us. Jude says, “exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints”. That is, as I understand it, the whole structure of what has been committed to the saints—“the faith”, everything that Christ has introduced and brought in through the apostles, the Christian faith, because it was likely to be perverted.

The word “contend” here is not the same as in 2 Timothy 2, as most may know; it is agonising. O, dear brethren, I feel how little I agonise with God about the faith once delivered to the saints. The word in 2 Timothy 2: 24 is that a bondman is not to be quarrelsome, not to contend in that sense, but in meekness to set right those who oppose. But here it is agony. Oh, we do not like that! Let us not avoid it. Let us understand what has been committed to the saints; and I believe there is a parallel in what has been delivered to us in the recovery in the structure of the teaching which the Lord has given us, and we should contend earnestly for it and not be diverted from it. We have been given a spirit of power and love and wise discretion, and are to be with God, we might say, agonising that what the Lord has delivered to our

care in the recovery should be maintained among us.

How easily we are diverted. May I use an example? When I think of the explicit and detailed way in which beloved Mr. Darby set out the truth regarding the sabbath, did we contend for it? We lightly set it aside in favour of the reasonings of the human intellect. How easily it happens that the teaching, so clear and precise, accredited and divinely given, is set aside—

that is but an example. But at the same time I do verily believe that there were those who were agonising for what had been delivered to us in the recovery. Alas, some sound men were diverted through that issue. We do not want to lose any of the brethren, but at the same time the Lord is looking to us to keep the charge as to what He has delivered to us in the recovery of the last 150 years.

Are you going to let it be set aside? Work it out with the Lord in your own soul. That is at any rate part of the burden of these meetings, experience and reality with God, and if the ministry does anything it sends us to the Lord for ourselves so that the truth might be worked out in our souls and we might be able to stand for and in what the Lord has delivered to us in the last 150 years. It is always in danger because the enemy will undermine it if he can. He will strike at the practical enjoyment of sonship or priesthood or Levitical service, and he strikes at it by keeping the saints from their relations with God; and if you have real relations with God it must mean exercise, because immediately I am in the presence of God I realise that He is God and I am but a creature. He is entitled to worship, honour, glory. He is entitled to my fear of Him; not slavish fear, as we have been reminded, but a right fear, a godly acknowledgment that He is God and I am but a man. Now that necessarily raises exercises, and if a person is

exercised, as we have already said, he will come into conflict. He must do if he is exercised about the things of God and the purpose of God.

But my point in reading in Jude was really to urge the brethren to ensure that they are committed to the structure of the teaching that the Lord has delivered to us in the recovery. I believe it to be the ministry of the Spirit. No vessel is infallible, as to that we are all very clear, and weaknesses appear in every vessel that the Lord uses; nevertheless He sustains them and I think that, without question, what has been delivered to us is accredited ministry of the Spirit. Now there is not only a need for us to be urged to agonise for it and to be marked by power and love and wise discretion, but we need to see the solemnity of departing from it, and where it will lead us if we do. We say we have no distinctive gift, such as beloved Mr. Taylor; well, we have the Spirit. Whether the Lord will raise up a distinctive lead or not is His matter. I would not care to say He will or He will not; it is His matter. As the Lord said to Peter, “If I will that he abide until I come, what is that to thee?” (John 21: 22)—the Lord says, so to speak, Peter, that is not your business, it is My will. And we need to understand that He does what He will in His own affairs. But let us, on our side, see that we do not abandon what has been delivered to us in the recovery.

Now in Revelation 19 John says, “And he says to me, Write, Blessed are they who are called to the supper of the marriage of the Lamb. And he says to me, These are the true words of God”. They have been rejected by many persons, but they carry weight with exercised persons; “the true words of God”. But he says, “And I fell before his feet to do him homage”.

John, the apostle, having a man, or an angel, before him was

momentarily diverted. How easily we become diverted by distinguished personalities, as we think them to be. How easily personalities take precedence over the truth in our minds and souls. It is so with me, I am sure. I need to be kept, as we all need to be kept, in the presence of the Lord so that He is before us. This angel is faithful. He says, “See thou do it not. I am thy fellow-bondman, and the fellow-bondman of thy brethren who have the testimony of Jesus”—‘That is all I am’. You will remember the letter of reproof Mr. Darby sent to a brother who called him an ‘eminent minister’. He would not have that; le resisted anyone having himself as an object or regarding him as an eminent minister. This angel says, “See thou do it not”. You may say he is a divine representative, and so he is, and entitled to the respect that such should have; there is no question about that; but he says simply, “I am thy fellow-bondman”—‘I am no more than you’, just a fellow-bondman—“Do homage to God”.

God is to be before our souls, dear brethren, not any other than God—God’s word. God’s truth. Oh, if only our motives were pure for God Himself and worship rendered to Him alone.

Now it is a most remarkable thing that despite this, shall I say, gentle reproof, John fell into the same error again in Revelation 22. And if John fell into it, how easily do we fall into having some eminent minister before us rather than having God before us. I use the word

‘eminent’ minister because I think it is the word that was used of Mr. Darby which he resisted. “I am thy fellow-bondman”. The degree or measure is according as the God of measure has apportioned (see 2 Corinthians 10: 13) nevertheless, “thy fellow-bondman”. As I say, John fell into the same snare again. He fell down to do homage and the angel said, “See thou do it not ... Do homage to (or worship) God”, Revelation 22: 9.

And he adds in the passage from which we have read, “For the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus”. Just that Man, dear brethren. We have spoken today of that order of Man, and from the very outset of prophecy the spirit of it was the testimony of Jesus.

How this servant, this fellow-bondman, would call attention to Jesus, so that the spirit, the essence, or character of all prophecy is the testimony of Jesus. It is not the testimony of any other man or any other kind of man but Jesus, and we are to keep that before us. We think of the truth, “as the truth is in Jesus”, Ephesians 4: 21. That is His personal name. Does it not make an appeal to us? I believe, beloved brethren, that where ever there is prophecy—and it has been so from the very outset of the testimony—then the spirit of it is the testimony of Jesus. There is the setting forth of the character of that Man and that Man exclusively.

May the Lord help us in these things. We all need help. We are helpers one of another. No one could claim to be above another. Each of us needs to be exercised about the testimony of our Lord and to understand that as related to Him each, has a responsibility for the maintenance of the truth, in particular in his or her own locality. Let us not be marked by the spirit of cowardice, but rather of power and of love and of wise discretion. Then let us be prepared to suffer in our souls with God, labouring with God for the brethren, then labouring with the brethren for God that what has been delivered to us may not be lost but that we may cling tenaciously to it, not because it has reached us through certain persons but because it is the truth. It is the structure of the truth and the detail of the truth into which the Lord, I think, is presently seeking to bring us

by experience. Then we are to understand that personalities are not to be before us. However well they may have served us—“I am thy fellow-bondman”. Let none of us, I say, get anyone before us other than God Himself, and His interests, His rights, His glory and His testimony.

May we all be encouraged in it, for His glory.

Address at Buckhurst Hill
1 January 1982