THE TESTIMONY OF OUR LORD
P.W.Burton
I am going to make some assumptions on this occasion. I am going to assume that the Spirit of God has been, and is, working in your heart. I am going to assume that something of the glory, favour and blessings of the kingdom have attracted you towards it, and towards its Centre, our Lord Jesus; and that you have faced the moral exercises necessary to enter into that kingdom and take your part and place in energy in it. I am going to assume that, while we have been here for the past two days listening to the four readings and the address that have already taken place, something has changed in your heart. It needs exercise and it needs sacrifice to effect that change, but I am going to assume that what has been brought before us has had an effect upon your heart; that something of the kingdom and of that Sovereign, to whom we owe everything, has laid hold of your heart; and that the kingdom means something to you by way of practical reality and enjoyment.
So, on the basis of these assumptions, I want to speak about being ambassadors for that kingdom. As having taken on something of the characteristics of the kingdom and its Sovereign, you are now equipped, able, ready, and I trust willing, to represent that kingdom in a foreign land. That is what an ambassador is. He goes away from his home country to live in another country in order that he may look after the interests of his country in a foreign land. He represents his country and is the sovereign’s representative in that foreign country. Now the Lord Jesus would call you to do that for Him as you have taken on something of the characteristics of that kingdom. He has left you here in a foreign scene to represent Him and to care for His interests here; “We are ambassadors therefore for Christ”, 2 Cor.5:20. Are you? Are you an ambassador for the Lord Jesus? Are you a representative of that One and of everything that is precious to Him; caring for that which bears His name here in a scene where He is not? I would challenge your heart and mine as to whether you have taken your place in what Paul refers to here as “the testimony of our Lord”, the testimony of our Sovereign, and the testimony of all that is representative of His kingdom in this foreign sphere - an ambassador for Christ.
We have read of Paul and we have read of John. I am not going to speak of the differences between them. I am sure there is much you could read about the difference of the character of the testimony of our Lord, and the testimony of Jesus, but I want to put them together. The testimony as it is represented to us in Scripture is a position of suffering; Paul in prison, John exiled. Diplomats and ambassadors have certain privileges. Ambassadors have diplomatic immunities; under international law they are protected from things that can happen to them in the country in which they serve. Satan recognises no such diplomatic immunities. Paul speaks of himself in Ephesians as “an ambassador bound with a chain”, Eph.6:20. That is not allowed under international law. Satan recognises no such niceties in his dealings, and if you are to be an ambassador for Christ, it will involve suffering. Satan is attacking the testimony of our Lord, and I feel that his attack is ferocious and relentless. In every aspect and in any way he can he is attacking the testimony. I feel that, and I think we are to feel it, and we are to take notice of it; not to be over occupied with it but to take notice of it. It does not matter at what level you look, Satan is attacking. Persons in the highest places of government are working against the moral order of God, against what God has established in creation; Satan is attacking it. In legislation, through the authorities, in the education system, through the schools, he is attacking, attacking, attacking. In the religious sphere, he is attacking. We well know that there are many dear believers for whom that attack is through real physical persecution. It comes right down through every sphere, into the households of the saints; Satan is attacking, he is seeking to destroy the atmosphere of a holy character in the households of the saints. In the marriage relationship, he is attacking. As to the preciousness of what has been brought out in this dispensation in regard to the truth, whether it be the truth of the assembly, the truth of separation, or even the very fundamental truth of the gospel, he will attack in any way he can. You may say, that is all very negative, but I feel that it is very, very easy for the enemy to get an advantage over us without us realising it. We can sometimes get worn down by the attritional way in which the enemy attacks us, in our minds, in our thoughts, in our affections and in the different spheres of our responsibility in school, the workplace and the home.
Now against that, there is what we have had, which I do not want in any way to obscure; there is the sovereign work of the Spirit going on, and there is that which cannot be attacked by Satan, that which remains inviolate despite his efforts. But there is much in our practical walk and lives here that he can and he will attack to rob us of the practical enjoyment of what we have been speaking of, and to prevent the true testimony of our Lord being maintained and held. I just say that because I think it is worth pondering and considering. You will tell me it has always been so, and I am sure it has, but we are told that the devil goes about as a raging lion seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet.5:8), and that his time is short. I do not think it should be any surprise that Satan is doing all that he can at every level to attack what is precious to God.
So I would say in the light of that, there is the testimony of our Lord to stand by. We touched on it yesterday in our brother’s address; standing for the testimony of our Lord in the midst of a scene where Satan is so active, standing true to Christ, and seeking to preserve and protect what is precious to our Lord Jesus. He has left what is precious to Him here. He asks you to carry His name in testimony here. He asks you to confess it amongst men, to confess the name of the Lord Jesus amongst men. He has left His people here, the Lord’s people. Every believer is precious to Christ, and here in this scene He would ask us to preserve, protect, encourage and strengthen whatever we find of the work of God and what is precious to the Lord Jesus. He has left His assembly here. I think that is a remarkable thing. Last week, a brother brought before us that beautiful expression of Paul’s as he writes of the Lord in regard to His assembly, “even as the Christ also loved the assembly, and has delivered himself up for it”, Eph.5:25. He loved His assembly and He delivered Himself up for it; it is precious to Him.
We have been speaking together of what the Lord went through. We have spoken a little of the cross and the side of what He knew as meeting sin, meeting our need, but He delivered Himself up for His assembly. For you and me to be part of that, to be the personnel of the assembly, we needed to be redeemed through His work of redemption on the cross. But He delivered Himself up for His assembly – that which was so precious to His heart. As out of death and in resurrection, the Lord could take account of those that were to compose His assembly; how precious it was to Him. As coming out of death, He immediately sees Mary, and He appropriates something in her of the assembly. He says to her “Woman” (John 20:15): the woman for the Man; what joy it was to His heart. May I say simply, the sufferings were worth it; He had something that He could have had in no other way. Not just each one of His own individually, but His assembly. How beautifully and faithfully He served His own that they might be ready to livingly form that vessel. Mr Coates speaks of it so beautifully in an address on ‘The active grace of Christ risen’ (CAC ‘Outline of John’s Gospel’, p.229). You may say, was not the work on the cross enough; had He not done enough for His own, to give His life for them? But He would serve to consolidate that work in their hearts and souls. A distraught Peter is brought back into full communion and assurance. A doubting Thomas is brought back from making a shipwreck of the faith. Those two despondent hearts going away to Emmaüs, who thought He was about to redeem Israel, are brought back into the centre, and there He gathers that nucleus of what would be His assembly. I know it needed the Spirit to come, but there it was, what He gave Himself for; and then He left it here. He left it in a scene where you might say, speaking naturally, it was most vulnerable. He had secured it, He had given His life for it, and then He left it, and the Spirit came. He left it in the care of another divine Person, and from that point of view you can say it is in absolutely safe hands of the Spirit.
But I do not think we can just look abstractly at that and absolve ourselves of any responsibility. The Lord Jesus has left His assembly here in this scene of testimony, and He has committed its care to you and me in the power of the Spirit to look after His interests and what is precious to Him here; His assembly is here. I would like to say that the Lord has confidence in you to do that. I do not think He would have done that unless He had confidence in the saints. Not in our natural ability, or our human weakness; we know well the whole history of the testimony, and what each one of us has done on the line of our own responsibility. But I believe that the Lord has committed what is most precious to you with confidence that you will care for it, and that you will stand in faithfulness to it, and you will look after its interests. He has committed it to you, and now He would say, Do not be ashamed of the testimony of your Lord. Do not be ashamed of it. We have spoken of the thought of the assembly in its beauty, in its pristine glory in the Acts as under the hand of Christ and the coming of the Spirit; that beautiful working together, that oneness and mutuality in the assembly. Even then, how quickly Satan attacked; he got in through Ananias and Sapphira, but despite that, there was the working of the assembly and Paul ministered greatly in regard to it. He devoted his life to ministering to that assembly, seeking to educate, to edify, to build up, to encourage and to strengthen that assembly; and Timothy had his part in it too. Then you come to 2 Timothy, and from an outward point of view it all seemed to have gone wrong. Perhaps that was Timothy’s view; it all seemed to have gone wrong. The enemy had come in and attacked and had had success outwardly. Satan cannot touch what is held in the Spirit’s power in the assembly; we can always think of that, “hades’ gates shall not prevail against it” (Matt.16:18); there is always that which is beyond the attack of the enemy. But as far as the public testimony went, the enemy had had quite considerable success and in this epistle Paul had to speak quite a bit of what had gone away, what had been lost, those who had not stood faithfully. It would appear that the circumstances of Paul in prison and all that was going on had perhaps worn Timothy down a little. So this exhortation came to him about not being ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, and I would like to pass that exhortation on. It is from the very apostle himself: do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. As we well know, the footnote in verse 6 of this chapter speaks very affectingly about energy in the darkening state of the assembly. We have spoken about the energy that the Lord looks for; and He is looking for energetic, devoted and faithful hearts to stand in a day when outwardly so much seems to have gone wrong, where the enemy seems to have had so much success. He asks you and me not to be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord and to stand by it.
Mr Stoney used to like to speak about being true to the colours, and as we say, nailing the colours to the mast. You might ask; What does that mean? It was the colours of the regiment. Now the world has moved on, but some things have not. What is the allegiance of a soldier in the British Army? You may answer, his allegiance is to the Queen, to the Sovereign, and that is absolutely right. You may also say, his allegiance is to the British Army, but it is not. The allegiance of a soldier is not exactly to the British Army; his allegiance is to his regiment and to the colours, the flag of that regiment. A soldier signs up to a regiment, and his allegiance is to that regiment and its colours. He can sometimes trace back in his ancestry many generations of persons who have been in that regiment, and the allegiance was always to the colours of the regiment. That is the allusion that is being made when we speak about being true to the colours; it is to the colours of our regiment. I would ask you what the colours of our regiment are. The idea of the colours has been lost a little bit in modern warfare, but their purpose was that in the confusion of battle, when soldiers got separated from each other, and you had little pockets of fighting happening all over the place, the colours would be raised as a rallying point for the soldiers. They would know where to gather again, to come together, to re-form the battle group and to move forward in strength. Before radios and other means of communication, that is what the colours were for.
So we look at the battlefield of the public testimony, where Satan seems to have had so much success, where he has infiltrated what should have been a tight-knit cohesive fighting force, and he has managed to split away little groups here and there. There are little groups all over the place, and in the confusion of the battlefield, where are the colours to rally to? What do you think they are? To be true to the colours of our regiment and to our Commanding Officer, you need to know what they are. What do you think they are? You say, it would be Christianity, would it not? Well, I am not sure that the way in which the term ‘Christianity’ is used publicly represents the true colours. The colours of Roman Catholicism, are they the colours we gather to, is that the point of rallying? Or the Church of England, or any other name that man might put on a denomination? Are they the colours that are described in Scripture, the colours where you are going to gather? Is the colour of some name or denomination what you are going to gather to? No, and I trust it may not be brethrenism either. As far as I know, the colours are described as the testimony of our Lord, and it is the name of the Lord Jesus that is the only gathering point. The name of the Lord Jesus is the only banner I would gather under. There is no other name. Men like to put other names on things, they like to sign up to a creed or a testimony of faith that gathers them together in some way. Those statements of faith are not always wrong, but to sign up to a creed of truth that we all agree to is not what gathers us. It is a Person whose name is here in testimony, and it is the name of the Lord Jesus. These are the colours that are raised.
That was the exercise, I believe, of those who came out of the established church. They came to the colours of the name of the Lord Jesus, and it was the last thing on their minds to set up anything else and give it a name. It was often referred to that they gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. That was their point of gathering, that was the rallying cry. I would say to all who seek to be faithful to the Lord, do not be ashamed of His testimony, rally to the true colours of the name of the Lord Jesus. You may ask, is it not my job, as surveying this battlefield and seeing all these skirmishes happening all over the place, to try to rally all these different groups of soldiers and get them all back together again? Is not that really what Scripture speaks of, about all being one; is that not what I am supposed to do? That is not what the battle orders are in this epistle. I think there is a very great risk, if you go out and seek to gather all these different and scattered groups together, that you will be picked off by the enemy yourself. The battle orders are to rally to the colours - the testimony of our Lord, and calling upon the Lord. The best thing you can do, the greatest influence you can have on any other believer, whether it is the person sitting next to you or your neighbour in the street, is to rally to the colours, rally to the name of the Lord Jesus, and to stand true to those colours.
Another expression that is often used is to nail your colours to the mast. Where does that come from? It was the fact that in a naval battle, you could not surrender if you nailed your colours to the mast. No one who got a bit concerned and scared about the fierceness of the battle could come along and haul the colours down as an act of surrender. They were nailed to the mast. Is that your committal, dear believer? As having enjoyed something of the bounty, favour, preciousness and grace of our Sovereign, can you nail your colours irrevocably to the mast, be true to Him whatever the enemy may do. Are you going to do that? Do not be ashamed of it. If you are true to Christ, you will suffer. I do not know much about suffering, which in itself is a testimony to the fact that I have not been very faithful to the testimony of our Lord, because it will bring suffering. We might suffer because of the ways God passes us through; we might suffer through His discipline; we might pass through suffering for our education. That is not quite the same as suffering for the testimony of our Lord, suffering because you are true to Christ and you are showing your colours. I am humbled by it, but the testimony of our Lord should be something we value as a privilege to be identified with. I think it was expressed when those in the Acts rejoiced that “they were counted worthy to be dishonoured for the name”, Acts 5:41. They rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for that Name. They were overjoyed that they had drawn the enemy’s fire because it showed that they were coming out in the characteristics of their Lord Jesus. They rejoiced about it because it was proof that Christ was being seen in them. They were being true to the testimony, they were being true ambassadors and it was drawing the enemy’s fire. I wonder if we are ready to truly suffer for the Lord Jesus. At the moment in this country it is not physical suffering that we face, but I think increasingly it will be. Suffering comes in many ways; discrimination, scorning, belittling, the mockery of man, all these things that naturally we would seek to avoid, but it is suffering for the name of our Lord Jesus as truly representing another sort of kingdom that is so different from the world around.
Well, it is a suffering way, and I want to say one other thing that I trust may give help and strength to stand in the testimony. There may be many things that could be spoken of that would give us strength not to be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord and the testimony of Jesus. But there is one particularly that I would like to suggest which will give you strength for the way, and that is to be occupied with and to feed upon our Lord Jesus, to feed on the character of the Man that walked here. Why do I think that will give you strength and help? Because the character of that Man was what in type was given to the children of Israel as the only divinely intended food to sustain them in a barren and desert scene. It was the manna. If you look at the way in which God brought things before His people as they come out of Egypt, it is full of typical allusions to the character of the manhood of Jesus as He was here. The first thing they came upon was that bitter water, and God showed Moses wood, He showed Him the character of Man that would change the water from bitterness to sweetness. Then when they hungered, Moses spoke about seeing the glory of God; it is a remarkable expression. When God spoke about the manna to Moses, He spoke first about the evening; that was when the quails would come, and they would have flesh to eat. It says in Exodus 16:6, “Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, In the evening, then shall ye know that Jehovah has brought you out from the land of Egypt”. Although it was the power of God, His provision was in relation to the flesh, but that was not really the food that God intended. It was only to address their weakness and feebleness and murmurings, to show what God could do, not necessarily what He wanted to do. Then it goes on to say, “and in the morning, then shall ye see the glory of Jehovah”. I wonder what they thought they were going to see; some fantastic manifestation of power, some glorious road that would lead them through the wilderness straight into the promised land? They were told that they would see the glory of Jehovah. What did they see? They saw a fine, white substance. Was that the glory of Jehovah? Yes it was, just as the glory of God was seen in that manhood of Jesus, despised, mocked and ignored by the world, just a Man among men as the world would see it, but in all His precious attractiveness to God. That is the food to sustain you here. Feeding on the manna day by day begins to give you the constitution of acacia wood. That is another type of the humanity of Jesus. That wood was used in the ark; it speaks of the durability, the enduring character which went through. That is what we need, the enduring character that will go through, and as you feed on that blessed Man, you will begin to be formed in that enduring character on which the fiery darts of the wicked one will have no effect, and in which there will be no corruption or decay or decline. It is that character that will stand true to Christ and the testimony of our Lord.
Then there are two men particularly brought forward in this epistle. It is addressed to Timothy, who was maybe beginning to feel the pressure of the pathway and perhaps finding it a little discouraging. Many others are spoken of who were either going away or who had made shipwreck of their faith, or for whatever reason were not with Paul. But there are two men who are spoken of: Luke – “Luke alone is with me”, Paul says, and Mark – “Take Mark, and bring him with thyself, for he is serviceable to me for ministry”, 2 Tim.4:11. I think that was a gracious touch for Timothy, was it not? Paul asked him to bring Mark. Perhaps Mark would be able to speak to Timothy of a time when he had got discouraged, when he had found the going hard, when he had turned back and how he got helped and strengthened and recovered from that. But anyway, Luke and Mark were there; and I could add John from the Revelation, as standing true to the testimony of Jesus in a very similar day. I am sure even the very youngest can tell me what links Mark, Luke and John together. There you have three of the four gospel writers, three men that had thought and contemplated, recorded and imbibed something of the character of the humanity of the Man that was here. It is those who have done that who are able to stand true to the testimony of our Lord when many others have gone away. I would say, Be occupied with the preciousness and the character of the humanity of Jesus as He was here. Not to the exclusion of everything else; it has often said, to be like Him where He was we have to be occupied with Him where He is. I do not mean that we should overlook that. We are occupied with a glorious heavenly Man; that is absolutely true and it is important because the character of this testimony is a heavenly one, and it must be so. But to develop endurance in this testimony, study prayerfully and contemplatively the life of Jesus, the Man that walked here, the Man that went through. Feed on Him. Feed on His faithfulness. As we feed on the character of that One, it will build up our strength so that we will not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, and we will be a true ambassador for Him.
May we be helped, for His name’s sake.
Address at Sunbury
30 March 2013.
Edited and Published by John A Brown
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