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[00:00:00] Now, this evening, shall we take the word of God, and we'll look up the different references to the testimony of Jesus in the book of revelation.
[00:00:14] Chapter one, verse two.
[00:00:21] Revelation. Chapter one, verse two.
[00:00:30] John, who bear witness of the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, even of all things that he that is John saw.
[00:00:46] Chapter one, verse nine.
[00:00:49] I, John, your brother, and partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patience, which are in Jesus was in the isle that is called patmos for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
[00:01:10] Chapter twelve.
[00:01:13] Teen.
[00:01:18] Chapter twelve, verse 17.
[00:01:21] And the dragon waxed wroth with the woman and went away to make war with the rest of her seed, that keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus.
[00:01:38] Chapter 19 and verse ten.
[00:01:43] Chapter 19 and verse ten.
[00:01:46] And I fell down before his feet to worship him. And he saith unto me, see thou do it not. I am a fellow servant with thee and with thy brethren that hold the testimony of Jesus.
[00:02:03] Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
[00:02:13] Then one corinthians, chapter one, verse four to nine. I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything ye were enriched in him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that ye come behind in no gift, waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye be unreprovable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:03:05] God is faithful, through whom ye were called into the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
[00:03:16] Now, those are all the references that there are to this phrase, the testimony of Jesus or the testimony of Christ. Now, there are a number of others that we will compare with it.
[00:03:26] One corinthians, chapter two, verse one. One. You will notice in the authorized version, I think I might say it's the authorized version. It is translated mystery. Am I right?
[00:03:43] Testimony. Then it is the revised standard version, perhaps, that it's mystery.
[00:03:50] Or it could be the revised version, the English revised version.
[00:03:54] Well, there are one or two that have put. If you look in your margin, you will see that some ancient authorities do put mystery. But here we've got it. And I, brethren, when I came unto you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.
[00:04:10] Then shall we turn to two Timothy, chapter one.
[00:04:19] Two Timothy, chapter one, verse eight.
[00:04:26] Be not ashamed, therefore, of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but suffer hardship with the gospel according to the power of God. Two other references in revelation, chapter one.
[00:04:50] Now, we haven't got the word testimony, but we have the word that is so closely related to it, the word witness, or testifier, if you like, same word, chapter one of revelation, verse five.
[00:05:09] And from Jesus Christ.
[00:05:13] This is the message that's coming to us in this book of revelation. And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth. The faithful witness.
[00:05:31] And chapter three. And verse 14.
[00:05:38] Chapter three, verse 14. These things saith the amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning, the creation of God.
[00:05:53] Well, now, those are just a few of the references. To refresh your memories from last week, the notes of this series of studies which we have been taking entitled why are you at Halford House? They are here on this table. That is the first lot that were duplicated, and then the second. I am only sorry to say that we have not yet got last week's notes because we felt it was better to take last week and this week together on this matter of the testimony of Jesus. Now, I'm not going to go over what really we have said already last week, because in one sense, there's a certain amount of that which we are going to say this evening, which does cover what we've said. All I'm going to say is this, that all these seven points which we have here on the board, which we have considered in these past months are all bound up with this phrase, the testimony of Jesus.
[00:07:10] Now, unfortunately, in some of the modern colloquial versions, the meaning of this little phrase is entirely obscured.
[00:07:21] It appears for the most part in the book of revelation and elsewhere only a few times.
[00:07:29] It is not the testimony or witness that we bear to Jesus, but it is the testimony that the Lord Jesus himself bore.
[00:07:46] And that's what we considered last week, something of its nature.
[00:07:51] It was not merely that the Lord Jesus defined for us God's true character.
[00:08:04] He himself in himself expressed that character. In other words, it is not just simply that he drew a picture for us in words of what God was like.
[00:08:20] We see God in flesh and blood in the Lord Jesus. That is the testimony of Jesus.
[00:08:31] Or again, we can say that it is not just that he, as it were, proclaimed God's eternal and original purpose for mankind, he just proclaimed it to us.
[00:08:49] It is more than a proclamation. It is perfectly true that again and again the Lord Jesus by word explained something of what was in God's heart in the beginning, in the creation of this world in the creation of man. But he did far more than that in himself in the most practical circumstances, the most concrete situations of life down here on this earth. He revealed to us in himself what God's eternal purpose is all about.
[00:09:25] And he did more than that.
[00:09:28] He realized in himself that purpose. So that we can truly say that the eternal purpose of God centers in and is summed up in our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the testimony of Jesus means.
[00:09:44] Or again, we can say he did not merely preach to us God's redeeming love and salvation.
[00:09:56] He was himself the very embodiment of divine love, love incarnate.
[00:10:06] He is himself the salvation of all God's people.
[00:10:13] So it is not only that he did something, but it is that he is something.
[00:10:19] Not only that he acted, but that he was, you understand, that is the testimony of Jesus.
[00:10:30] He not only pointed us all to the way back to God, but he was and is himself the means and the way back to God. Well, we could sum it all up very simply in this way. We can say the Lord Jesus not only gave light, he was the light.
[00:10:56] He not only gave life, he was the life.
[00:11:03] He not only gave love, loved, he was love.
[00:11:11] That's the testimony of Jesus. And we spent the whole of last Thursday thinking about that. This world, it's darkness, it's perversion, it's corruption, it's blindness, it's alienation from God, the lie that is woven into the very fabric of human society. The world founded and built basically on a lie.
[00:11:40] And it was into that world that the Lord Jesus came not only to proclaim truth, but to reveal truth, to be the truth, so that it was not only his words, but his very presence. And we looked at the gospel of John, and we saw how John takes eight great claims that the Lord Jesus makes all the great iams, and then the eight signs and many other incidents, all of which he uses to set forth what we call the testimony of Jesus.
[00:12:20] So that we find that the Lord Jesus is not just of doing this and doing that, working miracles for the sake of miracles, but that by his very presence, he's dynamiting a whole kind of society, dynamiting a whole kind of world, a whole world order, a system that has come to be accepted by man, a philosophy that is in the very being of man. He by himself, by his very presence, dynamites the whole thing.
[00:12:57] That's the testimony of Jesus that supremely we see in the cross when he gave his life for us.
[00:13:14] That's why, you've got that wonderful little word that perhaps few of us have really understood.
[00:13:19] There is one mediator between God and man himself, man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all the testimony to be born in due time.
[00:13:41] There you've got it. It was the testimony which he bore in due time supremely, in the giving of himself a ransom for us all. The mediator, the middleman between God and fallen humanity. Fallen humanity and God. That's the testimony of Jesus. Well, now we can't go any more over what we said last week, or we'll be here the whole of tonight.
[00:14:13] When the Lord Jesus was exalted to the right hand of the Father, that testimony of his was committed to the church.
[00:14:29] In other words, the testimony of Jesus, it is not too strong a word to use, is vested in the church of on earth, the church ourselves.
[00:14:42] If you turn to acts, chapter one and verse one, we read this, the former treatise I made, o Theophilus, concerning all that Jesus began, both to do and to teach. Now I want you to underline that little word. Began the former treatise that served gospel according to Luke I made, o Theophilus, concerning all that Jesus began both to do and to teach. Now, the book of acts is the continuation of the doing and the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, we've got it all in the epistles.
[00:15:29] All came out of this. He continued to do and to teach, but through it throughout. How? Through his body. So we could say that acts, the book of acts, is the continuation of the testimony of Jesus, the head through the body, his church.
[00:15:53] So you find in the book of acts a glorious continuation of the testimony. And it starts with these very words.
[00:16:02] Ye shall receive power when power is come upon you, ye shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.
[00:16:24] Then again, I think we ought to very carefully note this little phrase, which is very easy to pass over.
[00:16:37] Holding the testimony of Jesus. Now, if you will just take some of those scriptures we've read, we'll go back to them again. Revelation, chapter twelve, verse 17, the last part, and hold the testimony of Jesus. Chapter 19, verse ten.
[00:17:05] Thy brethren hold the testimony of Jesus. This word hold is just the normal word have. And I believe that some of the versions just put it that way, have the testimony of Jesus. What it means is the testimony of Jesus has been vested in these people. They hold it.
[00:17:27] They hold it. They have it.
[00:17:30] You see? Now, it is not something in one sense which originated with them. It's not something that was initiated by them or in them. It was something they received.
[00:17:42] It is the testimony of the Lord Jesus which has been committed to their keeping. It's been vested in them the testimony of Jesus. That's why I'm sad that in the modern colloquial versions, the meaning has been so completely obscured.
[00:18:00] It's very sad. Now, you've got the same idea in the golden lampstands, if you turn to them in revelation, chapter one and verse twelve, all this whole book is all about the testimony of Jesus. Verse twelve, chapter one. And I turn to see the voice that speaks. And having turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks. Now, the authorized version says candlestick, and the revised version and the american standard version says candlestick. But you will all see in your margin that it is more correctly, lampstand. In the ancient world, they didn't have candles in the very ancient world. They had these little oil lamps. And the golden lampstand in the tabernacle was a seven branched stand into which fitted seven lamps. There were seven lamps that fitted into it, and the correct term is a lamp stand. Now, in the old world, the ancient world, some of you have been to the British Museum, you've seen them. You can have a single stand with a lamp on top, or sometimes you can have one with two.
[00:19:14] But the one that was in the tabernacle, which has become for us so important in scripture, had seven lamps.
[00:19:23] It was a lamp stand. Now, the stand holds the lamps, and the lamp contains the light, perhaps throws a little bit of light upon why certain brothers known to us in the past always used to insist on lampstand, which mystified some of us, because we thought the whole thing about the lampstand was just simply that it had a candle, it gave light.
[00:19:54] But the idea, is it something to do with his holding of the testimony of Jesus? And the perfect picture of it is the golden lampstand which holds the lamp which give thee a light.
[00:20:11] Well, now, leave that for a moment. We'll come back to it in a moment.
[00:20:16] The church's function in this world, and I don't think any Bible scholar would contradict this, the church's function in this world is testimony.
[00:20:31] She is not merely to proclaim the truth, but she is to express the truth in her own being, not just simply to shout the word of God from the rooftops, but by her very existence, by her very way of life, by her very being.
[00:20:56] She is to reveal and to express the truth of God. The truth is in her. That's why the Lord Jesus said, the spirit of God says in one of the epistles, ye are all light in the Lord.
[00:21:12] It's in you. You're not just giving it, it's in you. You see, Jesus said, ye are the light of the world.
[00:21:22] He said of himself, I am the light of the world. The thing's got to be in us.
[00:21:31] We can take it further than that. We are not only to preach Christ, to bear testimony to him, testifying to him, witnessing to him in office, in school, in college, at home, wherever we are, amongst friends, out on the streets, but we are to reveal him in our being.
[00:21:55] And that's the thing that counts more. More damage has been done, has it not, by people opening their mouths? We all know such folk who open their mouths and speak inadvisedly about the Lord when their lives do not tally.
[00:22:12] And in that office, in that home, in that wherever it is, the Lord's name is held in disrepute.
[00:22:22] This is what we mean by holding the testimony of Jesus, something of his authority and power, something of his risen life and fullness, something of his sensitive, tender compassion and love, something of his destiny and his glory, to be expressed in and through us. Now that's what we mean by the church holding the testimony, testimony of Jesus.
[00:22:57] It's not just that we are a collection of religious people. No, nor is it more than that, that we are a people, a collection of people who are born again. Thank God, we are born again believers. That's not what God wants.
[00:23:15] It isn't so hard for the Lord to collect a group of people that are born again. But that's not the candlestick, that's not the lampstand. It is more than that. It is that that people united with himself, disciplined by himself, something of himself inwrought into the very fiber of their beings.
[00:23:37] They express the authority and power of the name of Jesus.
[00:23:42] They become evidence of the risen life and fullness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:23:48] They become, as it were, a vehicle, if you like, a vessel through which the compassion and love of God can be expressed not only to each other, but to the world outside.
[00:24:04] There's a tremendous amount in scripture about this. Once you see it, when you don't see it, it all seems a bit up in the air. But once you've seen it, the whole, I say, the whole, the New Testament starts to live with a new meaning. For instance, take that little reference we read in one corinthians, chapter one and verse six. Why did Paul say this to this poor and pathetic church at Corinth with so much trouble, so much division, so much carnality amongst them. Listen to what he says. Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed, here it is. He starts off refusing to accept things as they are.
[00:24:56] There are people who believe in that kind of realism. Oh, you must accept things as they are. That's where they begin. And they're always in a mess. And they lead the rest of us into a mess, too.
[00:25:07] The apostle Paul is a realist of God's kind. He starts with the real position, which is in Christ.
[00:25:16] And he says, the testimony of Christ has been confirmed in you. That's why you've got these gifts. That's why you've got why you're saved. That's why you are named with the name of Christ. The testimony of Christ has been confirmed in you. And then he goes on and he says he'll confirm it to the end, too.
[00:25:34] God is faithful through whom you were called, into the fellowship of his son. Not fellowship with his son, but the. Tell us about his son.
[00:25:43] Here is this company of called out people in courage.
[00:25:50] What are they to be? Just a collection of dear little believers? To be a collection of people who are proclaiming the gospel in a very simple way to the unsaved. To be a collection of people. A gathering of people who are concerned about their own transformation and sanctification? No. They are to be a lighted lampstand in that darkened and wicked and perverse city.
[00:26:15] There. They are to show, as it were, they're to give evidence of what God is like.
[00:26:22] There. They are to reveal something of the true character of God. They are to express in themselves something of God's eternal purpose. They are to show the love of God. That's why we get one. Corinthians 13.
[00:26:34] They ought to be the very embodiment of it.
[00:26:37] Not in a, as I've often said, in a sentimental way, with lovely rosy skies and twittering birds and all that kind of thing. But in the dark, seamy, vice ridden city of currents, no doubt there were rosy skies and twittering birds if you looked for them. But there was also the dark and evil side of Corinth. Now it is there that there is the testimony of Christ.
[00:27:12] Well, now, if you turn to Ephesians chapter three, you get it again in another way.
[00:27:17] Ephesians chapter three, verse nine to eleven, to make all men see what is the dispensation of the mystery which for ages hath been hidden? God, who created all things to the intent that now, not then, but to the intent that now, under the principalities and powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now, here is a mystery, is it not?
[00:27:51] In other words, what the apostle Paul is saying. Look here, you gathered out saints, you sinners saved by grace in Ephesus. Do you know what God is doing with you? He is actually educating the invisible angelic hosts through you.
[00:28:10] So you know those dark experiences you sometimes go through, those un inexplicable pressures that come to bear upon you? There's a whole host invisible to you that are all you watching.
[00:28:27] In other words, the far greater company is not the seen company, but the unseen company. In every true church gathering, they're all there in their serried ranks, watching.
[00:28:43] They are being instructed both by our falling and by our rising.
[00:28:49] God is teaching them. Now, some of you say, oh, dear, this is just going a little too far. Well, now, I'll give you two headaches. The first is in one Peter and chapter one and verse twelve, to whom it was revealed that not unto themselves, but unto you. Did they minister these things? That's the prophets which now have been announced unto you through them that preached the gospel unto you by the Holy Spirit sent forth from heaven, which things angels desire to look, look into.
[00:29:22] So there they all are, thousands of them here this evening.
[00:29:28] They're absolutely desiring to look into these things. God bless them.
[00:29:34] They had not been permitted as we had. This is our privilege. Sinners saved by grace. Now we are becoming the flesh and blood vehicle through which God is allowing them to see.
[00:29:51] I give you another little phrase which might make some of you think.
[00:29:58] Hope it makes all of you think. It's one corinthians, chapter eleven and verse ten. And it says that rather inexplicable phrase for this cause. Ought the woman to have a sign of authority on her head because of the angels? Think that one out.
[00:30:15] People say there's no need for it. Well, there's something to do with the angels. They're looking. They're watching. We don't understand what it is, what's happening, why, but there's some reason. Some. You see, in other words, this testimony of Jesus is not just to do with the flesh and blood things we can see all around us. Richmond. Of course, it's a lot to do with Richmond. But it's not just to do with Richmond. It's to do with the unseen, both the fallen angelic host and those that are still servants of the most high.
[00:30:51] Again, if you turn to one Thessalonians and, well, you see, we'd be here the whole evening. But I'll just give you a few more of these references once you start to see this. The whole of your New Testament takes on a new complexion. One Thessalonians, chapter one, verse seven. So that ye became an ensample to all that believe in Macedonia. They didn't just talk. They were an example to all that believe in Macedonia and in Arkhya. For from you has sounded forth the word of the Lord, not only in macedonian archive, but in every place. Your faith to God ward is gone forth.
[00:31:32] That's the testimony.
[00:31:34] Something's happened. It is the faith and love which is in Jesus.
[00:31:40] These dear folk in these places, they've found it. There's a lanika they've become, not just by word, something. Thank God, they've got something to proclaim, but it's inside of them corporately.
[00:31:54] Then again, if you turn to Romans, chapter 16.
[00:32:00] Romans, chapter 16, verse 19 and 20. Here again we've got at the church in Rome. For your obedience is come abroad unto all men. I rejoice therefore over you. But I would have you wise unto that which is good and simple unto that which is evil. And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.
[00:32:21] That's what the Lord does.
[00:32:24] He takes fallen sinfully human beings that have been saved by his grace, joined to his own risen, triumphant son, and then through their very frail experience, their circumstances, the situations into which corporately he allows them to come, he bruises Satan under their feet so that again and again all things work together for good. To those who love God and who are the called according to his purpose.
[00:32:59] Well, we could go on. You see, we've mentioned acts one eight.
[00:33:04] Ye shall receive power, and the Holy Ghost is come upon you. Ye shall be witnesses unto me. Jerusalem, Samaria, the uttermost parts of the earth. Now, that's not just a question of. Of just sort of running around giving a little word of testimony on a platform here or a pulpit there.
[00:33:28] It is more than that.
[00:33:31] We are bearing the testimony. It's in us.
[00:33:37] It's in us. It's perfectly right and true to say that we witness to him. We speak of him. But what good is that if the testimony isn't in us? Is to be something much more than just a few personal words given concerning the Lord Jesus and his saving grace.
[00:33:58] That's the value and power of the church. Now you've got it. If you turn to Matthew, chapter 28 and verse 19, and 20, of course, we all know this terribly well. Here we've got it. All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. Now there you've got the whole thing. That's the testimony of Jesus. He has himself borne it. Now he's ascended to the right hand of God the Father. Now he tells us to go, and he says that he's with us.
[00:34:52] The testimony of jesus is committed to us.
[00:34:58] You've got it again, of course, slightly different words in mark 1615 where it says, go ye therefore into the whole world and preach the gospel.
[00:35:12] Well, now, when you look at it like that, I say there's something very wonderful about this whole matter of testimony. You see, it's much more comprehensive than just preaching the truth, just defining the truth either personally or corporately. Something far, far more than that. You've got it, I think, again in revelation, chapter twelve and verse eleven.
[00:35:38] Revelation, twelve and verse eleven where we read, and they overcame him because of the blood of the lamb and because of the word of their testimony. Now what was their testimony?
[00:35:53] Their testimony was that although they may have felt quite different, the facts concerning the Lord Jesus Christ were absolutely true and eternally so.
[00:36:08] That's how they overcame. That's why martyrs could die at the stake or die in the lion's arena.
[00:36:17] They overcame by the word of their testimony in death.
[00:36:22] They knew they were one, the Lord Jesus Christ. They proclaimed that. Now that's the testimony. Just like the Lord Jesus said, I and my father are one. So we can say he and we are one.
[00:36:34] Whatever we feel, whatever the circumstances, whatever the situation. Don't forget the Lord Jesus said that before Gethsemane before he went to the cross, I and my father are one.
[00:36:49] It was tested in Gethsemane in a way that you and I will never be tested to the nth degree. When the Lord Jesus said, if this cup can pass from me, nevertheless, that's the word of the testimony.
[00:37:06] Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. There's union.
[00:37:12] That's union. So don't ever think that union means that the devil never comes to you and you don't ever have doubts. The very presence of doubts can be just the glorious arena for the setting forth of it, of the triumph of the Lord Jesus.
[00:37:30] It's the nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt, that proclaims the victory.
[00:37:40] Well, now we, as I say, we could go on and we could go on.
[00:37:45] We've come a wide circle. Here we are back. Revelation, chapter one, verse nine.
[00:37:53] I, John, your brother, partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patience which are in Jesus was in the isle that is called Patmos for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. The testimony of Jesus. We've come right back.
[00:38:13] What really then is the testimony of Jesus?
[00:38:18] If you turn to revelation 19 and verse ten, we read the last part of the verse. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
[00:38:34] The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. I tell you that for many years I have been mystified by this little phrase. I have always felt that somehow this was the most comprehensive thing said about the testimony of Jesus in the Bible. It's the last thing that said about the testimony of Jesus. And as we would expect, it gathers everything together. It's, as it were, the last word in the Bible about the testimony of Jesus. Here it is. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. I often wondered just what it meant. I read the context again and again and thought, what does that mean?
[00:39:21] Does it mean something to do with the prophets in the Old Testament or the prophets in the New Testament? Or is it something to do with John himself?
[00:39:33] Now, if you look through all your different versions, you will find that although basically they say the same thing, there's a wide variety of translation.
[00:39:43] The testimony of Jesus is the breath of all prophecy, says Moffat. Someone else says, witness born to Christ is the inspiration of the prophets.
[00:39:56] And so it goes on and goes on. But I believe if we look at it like this, we'll get nearer to the heart of the whole thing. This is how it's come to me only today.
[00:40:06] The testimony of Jesus is prophetic in its content.
[00:40:15] You understand, of course, the spirit. Prophecy is not the Holy Spirit. It is the human spirit, the spirit in the sense that influence, understand that testimony of Jesus is prophetic in its content. Now think. Think what I've said last week and think what we've said tonight that is comprehensive.
[00:40:43] In other words, what we're saying is this, the Lord Jesus is the divine prophet and in him the word of God is proclaimed and expressed.
[00:40:55] What we mean is this, that the mind of God, the heart of God, is expressed in the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:41:02] It is prophetic. Now, I think all of you know that prophecy is not predicting the future in its biblical sense, one aspect of prophecy is predicting a foretelling. But the main idea behind prophecy in the Bible is the revelation of the mind of God concerning his people or his way.
[00:41:28] It can be the interpretation of history. It can be the explanation of the present. It can be the predicting of the future.
[00:41:40] Now, if you want to bear out what ive said, you take your old testament and look and you will find that some of the prophets talk about the past and they say to the people, this and this and this is going to happen to you because of that and that and that.
[00:41:55] In other words, theyre interpreting history.
[00:42:01] Theyre prophets.
[00:42:03] Now, the Lord Jesus is the supreme prophet, king, priest and prophet.
[00:42:10] He is the one who interprets history.
[00:42:16] He is the one who explains the present.
[00:42:21] He is the one who predicts the future.
[00:42:28] Isn't that so?
[00:42:31] The testimony of Jesus. When the Lord Jesus came into this world, suddenly the whole of history was interpreted, certainly the history of God's chosen people under the old covenant, the whole thing. Why did God take Abraham? Why did he yank him out of ur of the Chaldees? Why did he, as it were, taking through a howling wilderness? Why did he bring him into a land which he never really gave to?
[00:42:58] Why did he covenant with his son Isaac, who was born in the most extraordinary circumstances? Why was Jacob Chosen, not Esau? Why did God, the angel of his presence, wrestle with Jacob and change him into Israel? Why did Joseph go down into Egypt? Why was Moses hid in the bulrushes?
[00:43:20] Why did God bring ten great plagues upon the egyptian people, the greatest civilization of the ancient world?
[00:43:29] Why did he deliver out of Egypt that people, that poor tribe of slaves?
[00:43:44] Why did he open the Red Sea? Why did he go before them in a pillar of clown by day and a pillar of fire by night? Why did Sinai smoke with fire? Why did the voice of God sound like a trumpet? Why were the ten Commandments given to this strange people? How odd of God to choose the jew.
[00:44:11] Why did God do all this? Why, in the last book of the Old Testament is the whole of Old Testament history and revelation, summed up in a few words? Jacob, I have loved gainsaying, contradicting, rebellious peopled. God sent them into captivity twice, brought them back twice.
[00:44:48] Why did God do it all?
[00:44:51] I say there is really no explanation till Jesus came.
[00:44:56] And when Jesus was born of the royal line of David, then suddenly the whole of history was explained.
[00:45:12] He explained what the Quakers used to call the bad seed, and he explained the good seed.
[00:45:24] Why Cain was a murderer, why Abel was accepted.
[00:45:30] It was the Lord Jesus. That was the explanation of dog by his very person. Do you understand? Oh, but it's much more than that. Why, you take the Lord Jesus and there he is. He faces the whole system of the temple with its priesthood, its sacrifices, its many orders and ranks, Levites, priests, its magnificent temple, its services, its holy days, its fast days and everything else. And the whole thing comes into collision with him.
[00:46:03] That whole system shuts out a blind man, given his sight.
[00:46:09] It excommunicates him.
[00:46:12] And what does the Lord Jesus do?
[00:46:15] He goes and finds out the man and he says to him, I am the door.
[00:46:21] Buy me. If any man enter, he shall be saved.
[00:46:29] It was the explanation of the present.
[00:46:33] Ye have made my father's house a den of thieves when he called it a house of prayer for all nations.
[00:46:47] Explanation of the present owes much, much more. When you see that wicked, evil man, outwardly so pious, so good, so respectable and so religious, Caiaphas and his aged and more vile father in law Annas, representing the whole of the religious world of his day, and you see Jesus.
[00:47:11] It's an explanation of the present religion and life.
[00:47:22] The Lord Jesus is the explanation, rather the prediction. I don't like that word really completely. But the foretelling, if you like the significance of the future, perhaps is the best word.
[00:47:33] He explains the future. Death.
[00:47:36] Death has lost its sting.
[00:47:39] The one day the dead in Christ have been arrives, and we which are alive and remain are going to be caught up together with them poor old bodies we've got. Though redeemed, we're going to have redemption bodies one day.
[00:47:53] It's all foretold. It's the Lord Jesus that's given the significance. If Jesus has not been raised from the dead, your faith is vain.
[00:48:03] He is the significance of it all.
[00:48:07] He's coming back and with him is coming the kingdom.
[00:48:15] Now, that's the testimony of Jesus. It's prophetic in its content. Now, dear, dear, dear child of God, dear children of God, you and I hold this testimony. It's been entrusted to us.
[00:48:27] It's prophetic in its content. In other words, what I'm trying to say is simply this, that God is not just interested in getting people together to come to Bible studies and prayer meetings and go out on the streets evangelizing. That's not just what God is. Interesting. He wants that. But there's something of far, far greater significance than that. He wants that to be just as it were, the overflow of something else, much deeper and fuller. And that deeper and fuller thing is this the testimony of Jesus.
[00:48:59] In other words, what God wants to do is he wants to, as it were, be able to interpret history through his church, explain the present through his church, and give significance to the future through his church. If necessary, sometimes predict it.
[00:49:18] And that's what I say the churches ought to be.
[00:49:23] What a tragedy.
[00:49:25] When we look around the christian world and see what's happening. Oh, my goodness me.
[00:49:32] Isn't it so?
[00:49:37] It's like Petticoat lane on market day instead of pall mall at a coronation.
[00:49:51] Clutter that with all kinds of little things.
[00:49:55] Pity narrow the testimony of Jesus.
[00:50:03] I say that's the explanation why the Lord would plunge a company into all kinds of inexplicable things and experiences, why he will take this one and that one within a company and do it with them personally, that he might show forth something, and then history has meaning.
[00:50:25] Well, I mustn't stop here or we'll be here the whole evening, but I'd love to stop with church history, because I think this is exactly so. In church history, it doesn't matter where you turn the Waldensians in. When it was a real movement of the spirit of God, they explained what God was doing.
[00:50:47] And the same with the reformation.
[00:50:49] Why, when you think the way the Lord engineered things, he just engineered all kinds of things so that politically, economically, everything was right for the reformation.
[00:51:05] Wycliffe was the forerunner. John Hus was another.
[00:51:09] Before that man we called Martin Luther appeared on the scene and burst the thing wide open.
[00:51:21] Interpretation of history, prophetic in its content, the testimony of Jesus.
[00:51:29] We can, as I say, say very much more about that, but I hope that gives you some little inkling of what testimony of Jesus is. It's prophetic in its nature. That doesn't mean that we all just become prophets, would to God we all were, be a wonderful thing. But it doesn't just mean that.
[00:51:51] It means that our life together is prophetic.
[00:51:57] It is the revelation of the mind of God.
[00:52:01] Everything according to his mind, everything, the expression of his will, prophetic. So it's not just what we say, but what we are.
[00:52:17] Well, in the Old Testament, we see something of this typified in the tabernacle.
[00:52:23] Now, just go back to it for a moment.
[00:52:27] First of all, I think you all must have read again and again the phrase the testimony in the autist.
[00:52:36] Let me give you two examples of it. Exodus, chapter 25.
[00:52:44] Exodus, chapter 25, verse 16.
[00:52:51] Thou shall put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee.
[00:52:57] Chapter 31, verse 18.
[00:53:04] And he gave unto moses when he had made an end of communing with him upon Mount Sinai. The two tables of the testimony.
[00:53:14] Tables of stone written with the finger of God.
[00:53:21] The testimony.
[00:53:25] That's the first thing I want you just to note.
[00:53:29] In the Old Testament, the testimony were the two table of stone written with the finger of God.
[00:53:47] Now, if you turn to the New Testament, what verse do you think I could turn you to? I'll tell you the one I will turn you to. You may have others. It's John, chapter one, verse one.
[00:54:00] In the beginning was the word.
[00:54:04] There you've got it. The testimony of Jesus. And the word was with God.
[00:54:12] And the word was God.
[00:54:17] The testimony of Jesus.
[00:54:20] Now, those two tables of stone, those ten commandments, you know what they are? They are the moral law of God.
[00:54:34] The moral law of God.
[00:54:40] In other words, although to us they seem so negative, they are the only expression of the kind of life that is in God.
[00:54:54] Of course, it's all summed up in the New Testament. In this word or in deuteronomy. And in the new testament, the Lord Jesus summed up, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soul, with all thy strength, with all thy might. And thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. The ten summed up love. That's the testimony. Think of the Lord Jesus. He is God's moral law.
[00:55:17] Negatively, thou shalt not.
[00:55:20] Did he sin in one single way. Did he fall short in one single way.
[00:55:29] Positively, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soul, with all thy strength, with all thy mind. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Did he both. Absolutely.
[00:55:41] The testimony of Jesus. He's more than that. Much more than that. 10th of Martin's.
[00:55:49] Can I put it reverently? It is the word of God written with the finger of God.
[00:55:56] That's the Lord Jesus.
[00:55:59] But now I want you to look at something else. The testimony. But the next phrase you'll find again. Here's the ark of the testimony. Now we find that one reference to it. Anyway. I'm just going to give an example. In Exodus 26, verse 33. Exodus 26 33.
[00:56:16] And thou shalt hang up the veil under the clasps. And shall bring in thither within the veil, the ark of the testimony.
[00:56:26] Now, this ark of the testimony, as you all know, was a book, was a box of acacia wood. Acacia wood is rather like cedar wood. It never corrupts, it never rubs and overlaid. All that Acacia wood was overlaid with pure gold so that you couldn't see the wood. But only the go now, what scripture do you think we could give for that? Who is the ark of the testimony within which the word of God resides?
[00:57:04] I will give you the scripture. John, chapter one, verse 14. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. Glorious of the begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. Verse 18. No man hath seen God at any time. The only begotten son who is in the bosom of the father. He hath declared him the perfect humanity of the Lord Jesus. The perfect deity of the Lord Jesus. The Ark.
[00:57:41] But just wait. We find then that there is something else. We find a reference to the veil of the testimony.
[00:57:49] If you look at Leviticus, chapter 24.
[00:57:55] Leviticus, chapter 24, verse three.
[00:58:00] Without the veil of the testimony. This is the veil. It parted man from God and God from man.
[00:58:12] It was the veil that separated the holy of holies from the holy place. The tent of meeting.
[00:58:21] It divided it.
[00:58:23] Now, can you think of any scripture?
[00:58:29] Well, I'm sure most of you ought to have thought of Hebrews chapter ten.
[00:58:36] And here you've got the ark of the covenant.
[00:58:39] The ark of the Testament in another way.
[00:58:42] Verse 20.
[00:58:47] But we have to read verse 19. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which he dedicated for us a new and living way through the veil. That is to say, his flesh.
[00:59:07] In other words, the ark speaks of the perfect being of the Lord Jesus. But the veil speaks of his sacrifice, wounded for us, open, torn, so that we can go through the veil of the testimony. But finally, in this old Testament picture, we find it all summed up in the tabernacle of the testimony.
[00:59:41] You'll find that in numbers. Chapter nine. Just one reference only that I selected numbers. Chapter nine and verse 15.
[00:59:57] And on the day that the tabernacle was reared up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, even the tent of the testimony.
[01:00:04] And at even it was upon the tabernacle, as it were the appearance of fire unto the morning.
[01:00:09] The testimony. The tabernacle of the testimony. Now, in other words, the first thing you and I would have seen if we had been living under the old covenant was the tabernacle. As soon as we got in the outer court, we would have looked beyond the altar, beyond the labour. Then we would have seen the tabernacle. That's the thing we would have seen. That was the tabernacle of the testimony.
[01:00:35] Then beyond that was the veil of the testimony. And beyond that, the ark of the testimony. And within that, the testimony what scripture could we give for the tabernacle of the testament? The one I thought of amongst many is Ephesians, chapter one and verse 22.
[01:01:01] Ephesians, chapter one, verse 22. And he put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. There, you've got it. Dear children of God, the testimony of Jesus. We hold the testimony of Jesus like the tabernacle, it is within us.
[01:01:34] You go through the tent of meeting, through the veil, to the ark.
[01:01:41] It is within the ark.
[01:01:47] I don't know if that's too much, really for you this evening we'll end.
[01:01:54] We will have more to say next week, I'm afraid.
[01:01:59] But we'll end, I think, tonight with what is, after all, in the Bible, the supreme symbol of the testimony of Jesus, of all the furniture in the tabernacle or the temple. The piece that was selected finally through the word of God as the supreme picture or symbol of the testimony of Jesus was the golden lampstand.
[01:02:28] I think you all know that.
[01:02:31] Well, it doesn't matter where you look in your Bible.
[01:02:37] This golden lampstand may not appear a lot of times, but when it does, it is always significant.
[01:02:44] You first find it in Exodus, chapter 25, verse 31 to 40. Now, I think you all know about it. It's a pure gold beaten work of one piece.
[01:02:58] I think you all know about that. In chapter 27, verse 20, you read about the oil, and yet we are told that it is to burn continually, never to go out, day or night, unto all generations. That lamp is never to be allowed to go out, ever.
[01:03:19] And we are told about the oil, how it is to be crushed, how it's to be prepared.
[01:03:25] Pure oil of the finest kind. Pure olive oil.
[01:03:33] When we take a leap over the tabernacle and the temple and that whole period of history to Zechariah, chapter four, we find the prophet talking about recovery, rebuilding. It's all to do with the rebuilding of Jerusalem, the rebuilding of the temple, the recovery of the house of God, the reinstitution of the services and everything else.
[01:03:57] The prophet is very burdened and bothered.
[01:04:00] And what does he see in a vision? He sees a golden lampstand. He doesn't see a house. He sees a golden lampstand. And he sees two olive trees on either side that feed it with dough, literally. And you'll see that they've added the word in the modern version, oil. Golden oil.
[01:04:26] But it doesn't seem to make sense.
[01:04:29] The two olive trees empty gold out of themselves into this land. Poor old Zechariah, he doesn't quite understand it. Now, Zechariah knew a lot about the house of God, but he couldn't understand this. And he asked the angel, what does it mean? He said, the angel completely ignored his question about the two olive trees. Those were the two things that so interested Zechariah. He ignored that. And he said, this is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts, this great mountain shall become a plain, and the top stone shall be brought forth with shouts of grace, grace up to it. In other words, the whole thing's to do with building, with the completion, with the recovery and the completion of this building. And then he says, and they shall rejoice, the seven eyes of the Lord, when they see the plummet line in the hand of Zerabbabel. The plummet lines all to do with building according to plan.
[01:05:32] You don't need a plummet line if you don't bother about plans.
[01:05:37] But if you're very bothered about plans, you need a plummet line. Then before that it just says this. The rubbable's hands laid the foundations, the rubber ball shall complete it.
[01:05:49] Well, poor old Zechariah, not to be outdone, says, just wait. What about the olive trees? Oh, the angel, don't you know what those are? They are the two anointed ones stand by the Lord of the whole earth. In other words, the rabbab and Joshua, king and priest, the two great ministers.
[01:06:12] We are made kings and priests under God.
[01:06:15] Isn't it interesting that the golden lampstand comes into view just at that point in the history of God's people? Just before the coming of the messiah, just when it was absolutely necessary for the house of God to be completed, its the testimony of Jesus.
[01:06:32] The next time you find the golden lamps down, you take another leap.
[01:06:37] You come down in revelation, chapter one, two and three.
[01:06:40] And there a tremendous amount has happened. The whole point of history has been reached and fulfilled in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection. Now the risen ascended, triumphant Lord is in the midst of seven golden lampstands and he's talking to each one of them.
[01:07:07] He has a message for each one of these lampstands.
[01:07:11] Then we find there are seven churches.
[01:07:18] There's seven churches.
[01:07:21] Don't you think all that tremendous significance? Take another leap. Now you're going to find this last leap difficult take another leap and where do you come down? Ah. I wonder if I'm going to catch some of you. Revelation, chapter eleven. That's a mysterious chapter.
[01:07:45] You thought I was going to go on to the end, didn't you?
[01:07:49] Revelation, chapter eleven. And what happens in revelation, chapter eleven? You have the two witnesses, you have the temple. And the angel says, rise, measure the outer court.
[01:08:02] And then we see the temple, and then we see two witnesses. And then we are told, these are the two olive trees and the two golden lampstand.
[01:08:16] It's the testimony of Jesus again.
[01:08:18] These two, whoever they are or whatever it represents, are slain at the end of the age, and their bodies lie dead until God raises them up from the dead and they ascend into heaven.
[01:08:40] It's the testimony of Jesus again. The golden Hampstand.
[01:08:47] Take another leap. You'll find this in one sense I know, mostly because you know me. You know where I'm going to end. But you're going to find it difficult, perhaps, some of you, to see just where you get the golden Lampstander. Take a leap to revelation, chapter 21 and chapter 22. And what have you got there? You've got what? The holy city. The holy city of God, the new Jerusalem, the bride, the wife of the lamb.
[01:09:13] Now, I have said before that if you look very, very carefully into those two chapters, what do you find? You find that the city is one great lampstand.
[01:09:30] That's all?
[01:09:32] Well, you can look through it yourself and see it has many figures. We see it first as a wife, then we see it as a city.
[01:09:40] We see pearls, we see precious stone, all kinds of things.
[01:09:46] But I remind you that it's gold, pure gold, like under pure glass? Transparent as glass.
[01:09:55] We're told in verse eleven of chapter 21 that her light is like unto a precious stone, a Jasper stone. And that word light is the word light giver, light bearer. It is the word from sun or moon.
[01:10:17] Then if you look at verse 23, I think it is, you'll find this remarkable thing. You'll find, and the glory of God did lighten it. So the flame of fire in the lamp is the glory of God.
[01:10:33] And then you read, and the lamp thereof is the lamp.
[01:10:40] So the glory of God is in the lamp.
[01:10:44] Who is the lamp and where is the lamp?
[01:10:48] The lamp is in the lampstand.
[01:10:51] Sevenfold lamp. Jesus held by the stand.
[01:10:59] What do you read in verse 24? The nations shall walk in the light thereof. There, you've got it.
[01:11:06] It's the seven branched golden lampstand.
[01:11:12] So that's the explanation of eternity to come. The nations will walk in the light of it. The testimony of Jesus.
[01:11:22] Not just something to do with time alone, but eternity.
[01:11:31] Well, I don't know if that's made it difficult for you.
[01:11:35] I don't think it's hard for us to see that. The lampstand is the symbol of the testament of Jesus.
[01:11:43] Pure gold of his nature and character. The deep inwrought travail and suffering out of which the lampstand is produced. Beaten work so that every branch is beaten out of it and turned, not added, not soldered on, brazed on, but beaten out of one piece and then turned deep inward travail. Sufferings produced it.
[01:12:26] We can see it in the absolute unity of the whole thing.
[01:12:30] One peace.
[01:12:34] That's what it says. Says it shall be of one piece.
[01:12:41] We can see it in the pure oil of the spirit of life, and we can see it in the lighted oil.
[01:12:54] The light of his life. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
[01:13:06] I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
[01:13:14] You've got it all in the golden lampstand there. We shall end this evening. Next week we shall take up the last little piece and we will think about the book of Revelation and the holding of the testimony.
[01:13:35] As far as the churches are concerned, I think we have come quite away. Now, if the Holy Spirit has been able to write anything into our hearts at all, then one thing that I think we can be quite certain of is that though this phrase, the testament of Jesus, does not occur a lot of times, it is one of the keys to the whole Bible.
[01:13:58] And thats why this book of Revelation, the last book, the book that sums up everything in the Bible, thats why it uses this term more than any other.
[01:14:12] The testimony of Jesus. Oh, dear children of God, family, if only God can do such a thing in us that we are consistent with holding the testimony of Jesus.
[01:14:27] All those works of darkness, all that belongs to the shadow, all that belongs to another system, to another world. Oh, if we would only let the Holy Spirit deal with it.
[01:14:39] Of course, the church down here will always be a kind of melting pot, a place where the scum comes to the surface, the rubbish is cleared out and all the rest of it. Of course, we don't expect a perfect church down here.
[01:15:01] We're not meant to, but, oh, that the testimony of Jesus could be held.
[01:15:07] That's what we should be thinking about next week. Week when the Lord in those midst of those seven golden lampstands speaks to each one and to each one. He judges everything in relation to the holding of his testimony. And to each one, he says, he that overcometh.
[01:15:26] It's all in relation to the testimony.
[01:15:30] He that overcomes.
[01:15:35] May God give us all grace, that by his life that is within us, we might overcome and sit down with him in his throne. Shall we pray, Lord?
[01:15:58] Thou hast spoken to us in the past year or two a number of times about this golden lampstand.
[01:16:06] And we have all been perplexed by it, Lord.
[01:16:13] Even when we understood quite a measure.
[01:16:18] We've been concerned, Lord, as to whether we really understand it.
[01:16:22] We pray, Lord, that by thy holy spirit thou wouldst bring home to us the meaning of. Of it, the testimony of Jesus.
[01:16:30] Burn it into our hearts, Lord. Write it with thy finger upon the fleshy tables of our hearts.
[01:16:39] Let it get into us, Lord, and do its work individually and corporately.
[01:16:45] Thou hast also spoken to us, Lord, about those who can bear the ark of the testimony upon their shoulders.
[01:16:59] We remember that, Lord, and we pray that thou wouldst help us to understand more of what it means to shoulder divine things, to hold the testimony of Jesus, our beloved. Lord. Our greatest desire, all of us, is that at the end we may be in the city and part of the bride.
[01:17:23] We may be in that lampstand in whose light the nations will walk.
[01:17:32] O God, give us grace, we pray, every one of us, by thy life within us, by thy victory on Calvary, by thy holy spirit, to overcome and situation down finally with thee.
[01:17:48] We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[01:17:52] Amen.
