I’d like to ask you—pardon me—I’d like to ask you to turn with me to the book of Revelation. I’m going to read just a few verses from the New Testament and then a few from the Old Testament. I think, by the time we get through these verses, you’ll have a good sense of our direction for these times.
Revelation 1:1-2:
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John;
Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Now, this is the part: “to His servant John, who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
Revelation 1:9, speaking again of John:
I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Again, that phrase: “for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
Turn with me later in the book to Revelation 12. These are familiar verses. Revelation 12:17:
And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Revelation 15:5:
And after these things I saw, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened.
Finally, Revelation 19:10. This concerns John falling down to worship the angel:
And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God:
For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
Now, turn with me to the Old Testament—to Exodus 16. I’ll read a few verses, beginning with Exodus 16:32-34, speaking of manna:
And Moses said, This is the thing which the Lord commandeth, Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations; that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt.
And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the Lord, to be kept for your generations.
As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept.
Turn to Exodus 25:14-16, speaking of the ark:
And thou shalt put the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark, that the ark may be borne with them.
The staves shall be in the rings of the ark: they shall not be taken from it.
And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee.
Then, Exodus 38:21:
This is the sum of the tabernacle, even of the tabernacle of testimony.
You’re getting your biblical exercise this morning. I will not let you off that easy. Let me send you to Psalms. I expect you’ve memorized a good part of these so far and committed them to memory, and we’ll call on you by name to help me as we go back to them. So I hope no one was sleeping.
Psalm 78:5:
For He established a testimony in Jacob.
Let’s pray.
Lord, we believe that Your words are holy. We come again into Your presence, knowing that You alone have the words of eternal life.
As we wait in Your presence, Lord, we are asking that the Holy Spirit would breathe upon what we’ve read, would move in our midst this morning, and that our eyes would be open to the thing that is on Your heart, dear Lord.
Save us from man’s thought. Give us Your thought as we wait on You, as we look to You, as we look away from everything that would distract, unto Jesus, who is the Author and Finisher of our faith.
Meet us as we’ve read these words, and reveal Your heart to us. For we ask this in the precious name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.
Well, I think you know by now what we’re going to be talking about. If you missed the word testimony, I’m concerned about you.
Obviously, lately this is a word that I have been meditating on, considering before the Lord, and burdened about: this word testimony.
Now, I realize I’m at some risk here as I speak, because some of us have ideas of words and automatically react to them. We consider them lingo. We consider them language maybe that others use, that I don’t use; and maybe it’s sort of this mysterious thing that no one seems to understand, but everybody seems to talk about.
You know, they go from here and there, and they say, “The testimony this, the testimony that,” and we wonder, “What do they mean, the testimony?”
Now, I don’t think these words are just lingo by any stretch of the imagination. Throughout the Word of God, this is a precious word given in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. It gives us real insight into God’s purpose and God’s heart.
So I’m hoping, at least with some of us, that there’ll be a chance that we could demystify this word. When we leave here today, maybe by the grace of God, we will have a better understanding—an apprehension—of what the testimony entails. What does it involve? How is it expressed?
Now, I don’t know about you, but often when I think of testimony, my initial reaction is to think of personal testimony—my testimony, the testimony that often I’m called on to give.
You remember Peter in 1 Peter 3:15:
But sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord: being ready always to give answer to every man that asketh you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, yet with meekness and fear.
Now, that’s testimony. It’s real testimony. Every one of us should have a personal testimony. If you don’t have a personal testimony, you certainly can’t have a corporate testimony.
If you don’t have a personal knowing of who God is, where you can say, “He has revealed Himself to me,” then there is absolutely no hope that we, as the people of God, would express that broader testimony that is the subject of my burden.
So I believe in personal testimony. But I think often, as believers, when you look at Christianity as a whole and raise this question, “What is testimony?” people automatically gravitate to the thought of a personal experience—what I give as testimony.
When in fact, dear ones, that is only part of testimony. That, if you will, is the beginning of testimony. Every one of us should have a personal testimony. Every one of us should be like Peter: when we are called on to give an answer concerning the hope that is in us, we should be ready to do it—ready to give an account, only with meekness and fear.
That personal testimony is vital. But the burden that is on my heart—and I hope you don’t think this is at a level so mystical that we can’t understand—is that, in the end, what testimony really means in the Scripture is that God has a testimony.
It is God’s testimony. In the end, we as the people of God are called, in fact, to have a testimony; but we are called to be the expression of God’s testimony.
I was drawn by these words in Revelation that repeat this thought concerning John—and concerning others, by the way. I didn’t read all the verses, but it occurs a number of times in the book of Revelation: the testimony of Jesus.
Right at the end of the Bible, this thought comes to the forefront. If you read Revelation from chapter 1 right through chapter 19, you come to understand God’s thought at the end: Will there be the testimony of Jesus? That’s God’s heart.
Now, just a little play on words: I think the real issue before the people of God, borrowing from this thought that Revelation is the last word, at least in order, is this: In the end, do we have the testimony of Jesus?
That’s the question.
When you read these things that we have read, John was there on the island of Patmos for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus. He was the bondservant of God, and that was his reason and his circumstance.
When you read Revelation 12, we read about the man child born of the woman. The enemy is agitated—the dragon and the beast—and he sends out a river, a flood, to overcome the woman. Why do you think that is? It is so that the testimony would be wiped out.
But born of that woman is a man child. It is called the remnant of her seed who have—notice that phrase; I want you to notice that phrase. If you don’t, I’m going to say it so many times you’ll give up—but in the end, it says these are those who have the testimony of Jesus.
That phrase began to awaken in my heart a prayer: “Lord, will we, in the final analysis, be those that have the testimony of Jesus?”
Likewise, in Revelation 19:10, when it speaks of the marriage feast of the Lamb, we see that glorious scene. John, the apostle, falls before the angel who is announcing it, does homage, and worships the angel.
As you know the story, he was rebuked, and the angel, in the gentlest way, said, “See thou do it not: for I am thy fellow servant.” But catch this point: “of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus.”
Then he goes on to say, at the end of verse 10:
For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
Now, have you ever wondered what that phrase means? I used to wonder. I used to think, “What does that phrase mean: ‘For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy’?” Surely it’s dogmatic enough, but what does it mean?
Let me read to you from the Amplified Version. I used to appreciate it when Carolyn would sometimes read the Amplified Version to us. She’s fallen off her course—I’m only kidding. Such meaning would come out of those enlarged expressions, such thought.
Concerning that phrase, “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy,” it says:
For the substance, the essence of the truth revealed by Jesus is the spirit of all prophecy.
Listen to this:
The vital breath, the inspiration of all inspired preaching, and the interpretation of the divine will and purpose.
For the substance, the essence of the truth revealed by Jesus, is the spirit of all prophecy. Every writing, every utterance, every thought, in the final analysis, as far as God is concerned, has to do with the testimony of Jesus.
It is the spirit of all prophecy. It is the vital utterance. It is the essence.
Now, I like words like that. Essence has a sort of full ring to it, doesn’t it? I remember, marketing people are brilliant. If you remember some of my stories—I promise not too many stories today, though—marketing people are brilliant.
I remember recently, and it may still be out, little do I know, but a perfume came out and it was called Essence. Some of you may have it on this morning. I’ll try to see if I pick up the scent. But it’s brilliant—brilliant.
Marketing people are far more brilliant than engineers, I’ll tell you that all the time. How could they come up with this fragrance and catch the whole thing with one word: essence? Isn’t it beautiful?
Think of the little green lizard. By golly, a green lizard—what does that have to do with insurance? But somehow these brilliant marketing people discovered this green gecko, and all we can think of every time is GEICO and insurance. This is brilliant.
I hope, in my teasing, you get the essence: the fullness of the thing, the purpose of the thing, the full thought of the thing, the full breadth of the thing, the very nature of the thing.
I don’t know how else you could describe it, but the testimony of Jesus is the essence of all prophecy. Every utterance is to that end.
Well, I do believe I need to move on. What we’ll do, at least in these few times I’ll share—and I think it’s three; I will try to hold it to three—is take a sort of macro look at the Old and New Testaments regarding this issue of the testimony of God.
I believe it would be helpful to us in the time that we live. One thing we need to be clear about, just as John was clear about where he was and why he was there, we need to be clear about it.
So we will take a macro look at the Old and New Testaments. If you want to, and I hope this doesn’t offend you, you can consider it a three-act play.
We will look at the Old Testament as the beginning. Then we’ll look toward the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament as the middle. Then, if God is willing, you all aren’t sick of me, and I have the third time, we’ll look at the New Testament as the end—these three movements of God.
In each of these movements, what we need to see is this: What is God’s testimony?
I’ll give you titles. You know I like alliteration, so be prepared for it.
Our brother read about Hezekiah as part of that great recovery work, and there are others that we’ll get into.
But remember the burden: if you forget everything I said, in the end the question remains, Do we have the testimony of Jesus?
Everybody clear where we’re going and where we’re headed? No one’s confused? At least too many don’t look confused. If you snore, don’t disturb me, at least. Just snore quietly if I’m putting you to sleep with these things.
But brothers and sisters, there is not a thing more vital in the view of God. All prophecy, the essence of all He’s done, all of His movements, all of His speaking, all of His working, has been so that in the end there would be the testimony of Jesus expressed for all eternity.
Now let’s go to point number one, now that you’ve understood all that. We will begin again at Psalm 78, and we begin to see the whole reason for Israel—what Israel was called to and what Israel was supposed to be.
Psalm 78 is just one of the places I’ve chosen, but let’s look at it. It says in Psalm 78:4-5:
We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and His strength, and His wonderful works that He hath done.
For He established a testimony in Jacob.
Now, brothers and sisters, in this verse, in a capsule, in an instant, the Holy Spirit captures the whole reason for Jacob—the whole reason for Israel.
The whole reason for all their calling, and all that they were to be, was to be a testimony of God in the land.
Don’t you know that we, as the church, are also to be that testimony of God in the land? If people in this land are ever going to know who God is, what He does, and what He is about, there has to be, in the end, an expression of the testimony of God. There has to be.
I’ve talked with people, and you have too, who wax eloquent about this stuff. They talk about it, muse about it, think about it, and can explain it. But in the end, it is not about talking about it, musing about it, or explaining it.
In the end, it is a practical expression that was to be manifest in Jacob and is to be manifest in the church. Absent of that, there is no testimony—only word.
This is the reason for Israel’s existence. This is the only reason they existed. God was determined that, in this people who were under such bondage, He would call them out, redeem them, make every promise and provision, bring them into the land, and there, as a peculiar people among all the peoples on the face of the earth, they would be that expression of Himself.
This was Israel’s calling. They would be a living witness.
The word testimony occurs in both the Old and New Testaments, as you can see from the verses we read. As a matter of fact, it occurs more in the Old Testament than it does in the New Testament. You might say that’s fair; the Old Testament is larger. But it does occur more in the Old Testament.
The Hebrew word and the Greek word are both translated the same way and can be translated in two ways: testimony or witness.
So sometimes, if you’re hung up and say, “Brother, my version doesn’t say testimony; my version says witness,” well, if you look it up in Strong’s Concordance, Word Helps, or whatever, you will discover that this Hebrew word or Greek word can mean testimony or witness.
The bottom line is that there is to be in Jacob a testimony of who God is—God’s testimony, a living expression, a corporate witness.
So often today among God’s people, everything is based on the individual: the individual need, the individual thing. All of those are important. I believe the Lord meets individual need. I am here as a testimony to it.
But in the end, there has to be something more. I don’t want to disturb you. I don’t want to ruin your self-esteem or break down your image too much this morning, but you’re not the most important thing in the room.
I know that’s harsh. With all the teaching we’ve had in the last forty years, I know that’s cruel. You’ll forgive me for being so cruel: you’re not the most important thing in the room.
Praise God, the testimony is that He is the most important One. Out of His love and mercy, He looked on my poor estate and redeemed me for Himself. Praise the Lord.
First of all, this testimony is to be an expression of who He is. That’s the first thing.
Have you ever heard a testimony, and at the end of it you wonder where God was? You hear a brother speak, and the whole testimony is about, “I did this, and I was so bad, and I was this, and I did that; and now that I’m redeemed, I can do this, and I’ve done that, and look what God’s doing through me.”
In the final analysis, the clear expression in the Word of God is that the testimony concerns God Himself. Praise the Lord, that includes me, but that is God’s testimony.
Everything begins with God revealing Himself. Everything.
Brother Nee said this, and I like this expression. I’ll borrow from it, but I’ll give him credit. In his little book, The Testimony of God, he says, “Testimony is the self-revelation of God.”
I hope that’s not too weird or too ethereal for you. Let me put it in simpler English: Testimony is God revealing Himself.
You remember the children of Israel and their condition in Egypt: in bondage, overcome, inept, and impotent to do anything in the service of God.
Even Moses, you remember the story, attempted to be the deliverer for the children of God. But, brothers and sisters, no deliverance started until the God of glory revealed Himself on that mount.
He appeared to Moses out of that burning bush. Moses was still thinking about how he would deliver the people and what he would say. God said to him simply, “Moses, I AM THAT I AM.”
That is who God is. Moses was still confused: “But who do I say? Who do I say, when I go to deliver these people, has sent me to you? What can I say?”
And He said, “Say, ‘I AM’ sent you.”
It is God revealing Himself. What is pertinent is that this is the beginning of deliverance from bondage. This is the beginning of a people being brought into an expression for Himself.
Just think: if they had stayed in Egypt, there would have been no expression except more bricks.
In the final analysis, we need to understand that God’s testimony is when He reveals Himself.
There are some people, I think, who react to that word. But let me tell you: you can go nowhere without revelation.
My testimony is this: I was an unhappy, paranoid college student. In one night, in the mercy of God, heaven was opened and He revealed Himself to me.
In an instant, there was a change. I’ll never forget going home that night. I had never been happier in my life. I went home that night filled with God and sang to the top of my lungs. You would know how miserable that is if I sang to you right now.
I was singing of the mercy and grace of God. But deliverance began at the moment God revealed Himself.
I hope you understand that this is a principle throughout the Word of God. Do we want to see the people of God changed? Do we want to see the people of God transformed? Do we want to see the people of God delivered?
Do we want to see a living expression of the testimony of the Lord Jesus among, in, and through the people of God? It will begin as God reveals Himself.
We could spend the whole rest of the morning speaking about different stories. But think of Job. Everybody knows the story of Job. In Job 42:5, he said:
I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee.
That’s the difference. All those forty-one and a half—or forty, well, whatever—years of sloughing through the mud and going through that great trial were erased in an instant when the eyes of his heart were enlightened and he beheld the living God.
Then he could say:
I know that my Redeemer liveth.
What a testimony.
Or think of Isaiah. You remember the story in Isaiah 6. After King Uzziah died, Isaiah’s own testimony was that God revealed Himself, and he describes himself as one whose eyes have seen the King.
Everything begins with it. Pray each day, “Reveal Yourself to me.”
This burden—the testimony of God—is God revealed.
We can think of Paul. There are so many examples. But Paul, in Galatians 1:15-16—you remember the story of the Damascus road. This was the greatest antagonist of Christianity before he was named Saul. He was the greatest antagonist of the Way.
Something happened that day on the Damascus road when light from heaven shone into his existence. When it shone into his existence, that light of the glory of God began to open his eyes to see something he had never seen.
Later, in Galatians 1:15-16, he describes the whole thing in the simplest terms:
But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me.
That’s the start of testimony: God revealing Himself. Without it, it’s just words. Without it, it’s just expression. That is the beginning.
Our brother Stephen shared something recently that I thought was most profound: “Who are we, and why are we gathering? What is our testimony?” This thought, this word testimony, had been on my heart preceding that, and it helped ignite a flame in me.
We are nothing special. There are those who say they think they are special. We are not special.
This is our testimony: He is.
Do you see the difference? All that He is, God is pleased. All that He is, God has provided. All that He is: unlimited, without end, full of mercy. This is our testimony.
The testimony is who He is. Now let me tell you, in this first point—turn with me to 1 John. I think this is one of the most profound promises in all of the Bible. I’m sure you have your favorites, but this certainly goes up there with one of mine.
1 John 3:2:
Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that, if He shall be manifested, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him even as He is.
That’s our ending testimony. Think of it. It couldn’t be a grander purpose. I don’t know what I could say to you this morning, but in the end, when you see Him, you will be like Him.
Could you ask for anything more? You could spend your years with a scribe, a computer, and a fast typist, typing up every request known to man and thinking, “What could I ask God? What could God do for me? What should I request?”
In the end, God’s purpose and testimony is that we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
That’s what the revelation of God does. We get bits and parts. You get bits and parts. Don’t tell me you’re any different than I am. Here a little bit of light, there a little bit of light.
But one day, brothers and sisters, there won’t be any limit to the light. One day, in that moment when we see Him, we will be transformed into His likeness.
All the work up until then is partial work. In that day, we shall be like Him. Isn’t that glorious? That’s God’s testimony.
May the Lord give us living revelation. The testimony begins with God revealed.
Let’s go to the second point. There’s another word used probably more in the Old Testament about this matter than anything else, and that is the ark.
There is a phrase that occurs again and again in the Old Testament, particularly in Exodus and Leviticus: the ark of the testimony.
Now, the ark has several names. We often think of it as the ark of the covenant. But when you look up this phrase, you begin to see that the ark is the ark of the testimony.
The last two points I want us to focus on are these: there are two vessels that become the expression of the testimony of God.
Hopefully, I’ve embedded at least a little bit in your mind what the testimony is. It is God revealed, and God received in all of His fullness.
But there are two vessels in the Word of God that express, or are to express, the testimony of God. One of them is the ark of the testimony.
Now, all of you know what the ark is, I suppose. I don’t want to spend much time going back. If any of you don’t know what the ark is and need some private help, one of us will try to explain it in a little more detail.
Moses was commanded to make an ark. The ark was made out of acacia wood, and this vessel, which you read about in Exodus, was overlaid with pure gold.
Over the top of the ark were two cherubim, one at one side and one at the other. That was called the mercy seat, which, interestingly enough, the Bible refers to as above the testimony.
The ark is the testimony.
In that ark there were certain things put in the ark. We know this from Hebrews 9:4. It says there were three things put in the ark:
So those three things are in this vessel, the ark.
That’s interesting to me. The first mention of the word testimony is in regard to the ark. I think that’s significant. When you study the Word, it’s always a good idea to pay attention to first mention. We’ve heard other brothers say that. It’s also a good idea to pay attention to last mention, because those things sort of set tones.
The first mention is in Exodus 16:32-34. We have already read it. It is concerned with the ark, although it doesn’t mention the ark by name. You understand it when you read it:
So Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept.
The phrase “before the testimony” is used exclusively in relation to the ark of the testimony. All of the furniture was to be before the testimony: the veil, the ark of the testimony—everything in the tabernacle was before the testimony.
The mercy seat, where God said, “I will meet with you,” was over the testimony. So when you come down to it, the vessel of testimony is the ark.
You are looking at me puzzled, like it took all of that to say that. This is very significant. There is a vessel where everything is in that vessel, and that vessel fully expresses the testimony of God.
Who do you think that is? You think it’s Moses? Hardly.
It is the Lord Jesus. He is the vessel that fully expresses the testimony of God. Everything is in the Lord Jesus.
That wonderful phrase, when the ark is first described, says, “There is the mercy seat above the testimony, and I will meet with you there.”
Where has God met us? Where has God met you? It was in the Person of His Son—the ark of God.
I think this is the most profound thing. As a matter of fact, when it is first mentioned in Exodus 16:32-34, the word Testimony is capitalized.
It is the only time in all of Scripture that the word Testimony is capitalized, with all its many references. It is the first mention.
I think it jumps off the page when you begin to understand that God is saying of this ark, “It is the Testimony.”
It is just like when the Lord revealed Himself to Moses. The Word of God says:
I AM THAT I AM.
They tell me, when you type an email, you don’t capitalize words because it’s yelling. I’m a digressor; I despise email. I’ll go in tomorrow morning and have two hundred fifty emails. Good grief. No one needs to talk to me that much.
They say when you’re doing an email, you don’t capitalize words because it’s yelling. I didn’t know that. One of my partners always wrote me everything in capitals, and I said, “Pete, would you quit yelling at me?” He said, “What on earth do you mean?”
I said, “You’re not supposed to capitalize everything in an email.” So you geeks know that, right? Or is this all news to you? Maybe I was misinformed, but you don’t do that.
But God, in His expression of His Son, capitalizes it: “This is My beloved Son.” This is who He is. He is the ark of the testimony.
Now let’s look for a moment at these three things. Not only is He the vessel of the expression of that testimony, but if you look in it, Christ is everything, because everything is put inside the ark.
Now, you might argue with me, “Brother, not everything was put inside the ark.” But at least from these three things, everything was put in the ark. Let me see if I can explain.
First of all, there was the omer of manna. What does the Lord Jesus say?
I am the bread of life.
He is the bread. He even goes on in John 6 and says:
Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.
I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever.
He who eats that bread will never hunger. He is the bread of heaven.
Furthermore, the rod budded. Think of it. All of these other challenging rods—not one of them budded—but Aaron’s rod.
I don’t know if you are familiar with the story, but Aaron’s rod didn’t just bud. It bloomed into full flowers. This was a dead stick.
Not only did it bloom into full flowers, but it bore full almonds. I love almonds. That’s the greatest nut.
This speaks that in the Lord Jesus is resurrection life—fullness of life.
Not only is He the life, that we can eat of the bread of life and never hunger again—this is God’s testimony—but He is the resurrection and the life.
Then we see the tablets of testimony. What do you think of that? The law of God.
You know, brothers and sisters, how much we have labored trying to keep some law. But it is the greatest relief to me that the Lord Jesus said:
I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
Thank God He did it. Nowhere in the New Testament are we called to fulfill the law. In the Lord Jesus, in that ark of the testimony, in that expression which satisfies God, is the fulfillment of the law. You and I live under grace—mercy.
Now, it just so happens, if you read Jeremiah 31, it says He will write His laws in our hearts. Praise the Lord.
This simply means that in this ark of the testimony, everything is provided. You don’t have to go anywhere else—just to the Lord Jesus.
I love 1 Corinthians 1:30:
But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption:
That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
Praise the Lord. I think of 2 Peter, where it says:
Seeing that His divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.
Life: the bread of life, the resurrection life; and godliness: the law fulfilled in Christ. As Christ dwells in me, it says in Romans that the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled. This is God’s testimony.
Third point. You still with me? There is another vessel mentioned in the Old Testament: the tabernacle of testimony.
I really encourage you to look in your concordance. It is over and over: “the tabernacle of testimony.” Some say “the tabernacle of witness,” but over and over you will find this expression: “the tabernacle of testimony.”
Here are a few points I want to make. My last point is always my shortest, so bear with me.
There will be no expression of the testimony of God without the ark. That’s as dogmatic as I can be. Unless the Lord Jesus is lifted up and made the center of everything, and in Him is all the preeminence, there will be no expression of the testimony of God.
But secondly, and listen to me very carefully: there will be no expression of the testimony of God unless there is a tabernacle. No full expression.
I think it is amazing that some of us have so little heart for the house. When God called His people out, He first said to Moses, “Build Me a sanctuary.”
Can you imagine God saying that? “Build Me a sanctuary, and there I will tabernacle.”
God loves His house. The Lord Jesus so loves His house that it says in Ephesians 5 that He gave Himself for it.
You thought He came for you. He did. But He gave Himself for the house of God. May we have a renewed appreciation for the house.
I can’t think—some of you are going to think I’m preaching at you now, and maybe I am—the house of God is so low on our priority list.
If it fits in our schedule, after all the other things are checklisted, then we’ll have time. Brothers and sisters, I just implore you: reconsider what God’s testimony is.
There will be no testimony without the tabernacle.
Furthermore, let me read you a verse in Numbers 1:53:
But the Levites shall encamp round about the tabernacle of the testimony, that there be no wrath upon the congregation of the children of Israel: and the Levites shall keep the charge of the tabernacle of the testimony.
Now, I know a few of you, at least, have sighed with relief. “It didn’t include me. It’s the Levites.”
But when you come to the New Testament and see the testimony of God in its New Testament light, you begin to understand that every believer is a priest.
Think of 1 Peter 2. We are a royal priesthood, a holy priesthood. Think of Revelation 1:5-6: God has made us kings and priests. Every one of us is a priest.
If you read this, it says that the priests, the Levites, encamped round about the testimony—the tabernacle. I think there is something to that.
Oh, I think there is something to that. I don’t think this is my imagination. I believe there is a message there to the people of God. That was a priority. You are a priest.
Secondly, they kept the charge of the tabernacle.
I don’t know if you like the Three Stooges, but I do. Maybe I can relate to them. All this slapstick comedy: they come in and say, “Who’s in charge here?” “I don’t know who’s in charge here.” “He’s in charge.” “They’re in charge.” We don’t know who’s in charge here.
All of us as the people of God say, “They’re in charge here.” But it says of the priests, the Levites, that they kept the charge of the tabernacle of testimony.
Are we doing that? “Oh, the responsible brothers are in charge. Blame them.”
No. The priests are in charge. If you can exclude yourself from that number, you have no responsibility. But if you have been redeemed and made a priest, you’re in charge.
Every priest.
You can read more of this in Numbers 1:53. The sons of Kohath carried the furniture and utensils. The sons of Gershon carried the curtains. The sons of Merari carried the boards, the bases, and the pillars.
Not one of the priests, the Levites, was exempted from the service of the tabernacle of testimony—not one.
I was so encouraged by a young brother’s testimony the other Wednesday, when he got back from a conference. He shared with us, “The Lord has shown me that every joint is to supply.”
I believe he saw something of being a priest. The next week, I noticed his service. It might have been minimal to you. It was a blessing to me.
“Well, it’s just carrying boards.” Is it so? It is service in the tabernacle of testimony.
Don’t demean the littlest service. Give yourself to the service of the tabernacle of testimony, or there will be none.
Well, that to me is the substance of it. There are other things we could say. We could talk about the service according to the pattern given on the mount.
Sometimes—let me say this, now that I’ve already stretched you beyond your human limit—not all service is acceptable to God.
You may think that’s strange. We talked about service just a moment ago. Not all service is acceptable. We cannot serve any way we want. Some believers think as long as we serve, it’s okay.
Linda and I are cleaning out after years of children. I love my children; this is not against my children. But we’re cleaning out all the stuff we’ve accumulated, and we’re going to Goodwill.
I discovered Goodwill doesn’t accept everything. It’s amazing. You think they would be grateful. Well, old socks—how is it God accepts everything?
They won’t accept the old socks. Okay, I’ll do that. I remember that.
Dear brothers and sisters, I think we can look at stories like Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu. They were priests, but they offered what God had not commanded them. You remember the story. They offered strange fire, and the fire of God came out and consumed them.
You can think of other stories. Everybody knows Uzzah. You remember when the ark of the testimony was being taken up by David, and there was rejoicing and dancing. Neither one of these men did a bad thing.
But Uzzah, when they came to that point and the ark began to rock, reached up with his hand. Surely it was an honorable thing to stabilize the ark of the testimony of God. Yet in an instant, he was taken.
I have often said, “God, why did You do that? That doesn’t seem fair.”
But you know, with God—let me leave this final thought with you—service in the tabernacle of testimony has to be according to God’s way. Not anything goes.
Sometimes we think, “Well, they’re serving. Hallelujah. Anything goes.” It has to be according to the pattern on the mount.
Now, this is what I want to leave with you. Don’t let that sober you in a way that stops you from keeping the charge of the sanctuary. Because there is a worse thing: those who bury the gift, hide their talents, and in that day all is lost.
Well, this is the burden. May the Lord help us to see God’s testimony. It is concerning His Son—everything in Christ. Praise the Lord.
It is concerning the ark of the testimony. Praise the Lord. Jesus is all; everything is provided.
It concerns the tent, or the tabernacle of testimony. Without the ark, there is no testimony. Without the tabernacle, there is no testimony.
May the Lord help us.
Lord, we bring back to You all of these thoughts. We are asking for the Holy Spirit to take the things of God and make them living and real to us, that every one of us would see what the Word means by the testimony.
Help us, Lord. Give us that revelation of Yourself. It will liberate us. Give us, Lord Jesus, that seeing eye of the heart to see Jesus.
We also pray that Christ would be the center, source, and supply of everything that we need, as that vessel of God in whom You are well pleased.
Then, Lord, we ask that we would be those priests who serve in this tabernacle of testimony unto God. Lord, we want to be those who keep the charge in our generation.
Would You grant us that anointing, that we would, like You, love Your house? We can’t live without it. May we serve according to Your pattern.
In Jesus’ precious name.