We know grace when we are strong, and we know grace when we are weak.
In the last month, my wife and I have lost her mom and dad. It has had a psychosomatic effect on me, and I have become quite weak. I had a cold that lasted for a while, and I am just rebounding now.
But, you know, I am so thankful for the saints, for your prayers, and for the strength that comes in that grace. I take it tonight with thanksgiving. My wife and I thank all of you for caring for us in this time.
Times like this make you think about glory more, as more of our loved ones fill the glorified ranks up in heaven above. Surely this is a time as we think about our Lord coming back. As Peter says, “The end of all things is near.” And so we need to consecrate ourselves with a discerning mind and a sober spirit for the purpose of prayer in these days.
I am so thankful for what our brother shared this morning. We want to continue sharing some of these things regarding the coming of our Lord. My responsibility is dealing with this matter of recovery work in light of the Lord’s return.
I would like for us to read a Scripture in the Gospel of John, a Scripture in the letter of John, and a Scripture in Revelation.
Let us go first to the Gospel of John, at the very end, John 21, because we are going to be talking about the recovery of the testimony of Jesus.
First, we want to see our brother, the apostle John, the one whom Jesus loved, bearing testimony regarding this One he loves. In John 21:24, we read:
This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true.
Then let us turn to 1 John 1, the very beginning there, with which we are all quite familiar. First John 1:1-4:
What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes,
what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life—
and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life,
which was with the Father and was manifested to us—
what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us;
and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.
These things we write, so that our joy may be made full.
Then in Revelation 1, we will begin in verse 9 and read this very familiar vision that John received on the Isle of Patmos of the Lord Jesus.
I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus, was on the isle called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet, saying, “Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”
Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands;
and in the middle of the lampstands I saw One like a Son of Man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash.
His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire.
His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters.
In His right hand He held seven stars; and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.
When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
Therefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things.
As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”
Now, if we are going to talk about this matter of recovery and this matter of the Lord’s testimony, we certainly need tonight among us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus.
As soon as we open this book, the Revelation of Jesus Christ, we realize we are in territory where our human understanding is not enough. So, if we could bow for a moment of prayer, let us pray and ask the Lord to give us such a spirit.
Lord, we come to You. We thank You so much for Your precious Word. We have read these words so many times, and yet we know that without Your Spirit breathing upon these words and opening our eyes with revelation and wisdom, we cannot understand.
Lord, there is a desire, even a burden, in our hearts to understand these matters of the last days—all the things spoken about by the various brothers this week. We desire to know these things and to enter fully into cooperation with You according to Your eternal purpose.
But indeed, without a revelation by Your Spirit, we can only go through some mechanics. We can only go through some understanding that has no fruit and life. Oh, Lord, we come to You. We ask that You would help us.
We thank You for Your precious Spirit, sent to us to be our Teacher. Oh, teach us tonight of divine things, we pray. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Tonight, we are just going to try to ask and answer two questions:
Then, Lord willing, tomorrow night, as I share, I would like to bring this matter of the recovery work in line with the end times and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
By the end of the first century, as you know, the church had expanded throughout the world. The apostles had been faithful. They had gone out and shared the gospel, the kingdom had come in, and the church was being built.
Most of the apostles had been martyred, some of them far, far away from home and Galilee. Yet the church was strewn all over the world. Now there was a time of severe persecution being experienced, especially within the bounds of the Roman Empire.
Most of those apostles had been martyred, but John had been kept by the Lord for such a time. There was this simple brother, this disciple whom Jesus loved, who, through a profound relationship with his Lord Jesus, grew deeper and deeper in wisdom and understanding.
Just by the end of the first century, when the church was beginning to lose the clarity that it initially had, as the church was beginning to experience problems in its life, there was John ministering recovery—sharing things that could recover the way for the church as it waited for the Lord to return.
We can see the testimony of Jesus in the Gospel of John, in his letters, as well as in the book of Revelation. I want you, if possible, to understand that this testimony of Jesus has three different levels to it. It is important to understand that all three of these levels are connected.
The first level, when we ask the question, “What is the testimony of Jesus?”—the first answer that comes back, and is even expressed in the differing translations of that phrase, the testimony of Jesus—is that the testimony of Jesus entrusted to the church is the message of who Jesus was, of what He did, and of what He revealed.
The Gospel of John is a wonderful example of John, who bore the testimony of Jesus. As we read here in Revelation 1, he was on the Isle of Patmos for the testimony of Jesus. In his Gospel, he wrote down the testimony of who Jesus was, what He did, and what He revealed regarding God and man.
What a tremendous testimony this Gospel of John is.
By the end of the first century, some of the teaching of the church was beginning to slide into areas that were losing life. That is to say, they were talking more about doctrines and justification, matters of righteousness and forgiveness of sin, and how to avoid eternal damnation. Such things were coming to the forefront.
It was for John to recover the basis of the gospel, which is this: we are given the life of Jesus Christ Himself, and this is our eternal life. It is not a doctrine; it is a life.
The testimony we find throughout the Gospel of John is a testimony of life. Jesus testified of Himself:
I am the way, the truth, and the life.
John the Baptist testified about Him, and we saw, as we read at the end of the Gospel of John, that even John testified of Him, and we know his testimony is true.
Let us look at this matter in the Gospel for just a moment. I do not know if you know this, but the word testimony, or its cognate witness, is used forty-five times in the Gospel of John.
Let us look at a few times where Jesus Himself testifies of Himself. This is the testimony of Jesus: who He is.
In John 3:31-34, we find Jesus saying:
He who comes from above is above all;
he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth.
He who comes from heaven is above all.
What He has seen and heard, of that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony.
He who has received His testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true.
For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure.
Now there is Jesus testifying—testifying as to who God is and testifying as to who man is. It is testified in His life, and yet this testimony is being rejected by men.
We notice, when we go over to John 18 and see His encounter with Pontius Pilate, these words that He spoke in John 18:37:
Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a King?”
Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a King. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world: to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”
John so wonderfully encapsulated the testimony of Jesus when he said:
We beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
We could see reality. We could see life when we looked at Jesus. That is why this Gospel is such a tremendous Gospel. It seems to go beyond all limitation. It is beyond the Gospel just to the Jews, or just to the Romans, or just to the Greeks. It is a Gospel recovering this aspect of life:
I am the way, the truth, and the life.
Here we see the first level of the testimony of Jesus, which is the message proclaimed by the church of who Jesus is and of what He did.
But we also see, when we read the letters of John, that there is a second and deeper level of this matter of the testimony of Jesus. It is one thing to proclaim and to witness as to who He is. It is another thing to live in the good of who He is by living by His life.
When John opens his letter, he says, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life—these things we want to share with you.”
He goes on and shares in this wonderful letter to the children of God this whole matter of the Word of Life abiding in us, giving us strength to overcome.
Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.
The little letter of 1 John is full of this word: abide, abide.
John is saying this: it is not enough just to know the gospel, and even to preach the gospel. You must be living by the life of Jesus if we would overcome.
In 1 John 2:8-10, we read:
On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining.
The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now.
But the one who loves his brother abides in the Light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.
Then in 1 John 2:24:
As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning.
If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.
Here he is talking about a light that abides in us, and it becomes an anointing to tell us when truth or error is being spoken.
In 1 John 2:27-28:
As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you;
but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.
Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.
Then we go over to 1 John 4. Let us read a section about love in verse 12, and living in the good of it by abiding:
No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.
By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
Then, 1 John 5:4:
Whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world—our faith.
John is sharing with the saints the testimony of the abiding life of Jesus. The church needs to live not by their own life, striving to be Christians—a sure project that is going to fail—but to live by the very life of Christ, an overcoming life.
Having seen the Gospels and the epistles, when we come to the book of Revelation, we see that God has given to the apostle John an even fuller understanding of the testimony of Jesus, and how it relates to this matter of holding the testimony of Jesus in the last days.
The book of Revelation was given to bondservants—that is, those who really love the Lord. I am glad we have many here tonight: bondservants.
This book was written out of a revelation of Jesus Christ that was sent to encourage bondservants to hold the testimony of Jesus until He comes.
When we touch this matter in the book of Revelation, we see this term, the testimony of Jesus, in its deepest level of meaning, especially for us as the church.
Let us look at the verses so you can see what I am talking about. Then we will try to entertain this question: What is the testimony of Jesus?
Notice, in the very beginning of the book of Revelation, it says:
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bondservants, the things which must soon take place;
and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bondservant John,
who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.
Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.
You see there, in Revelation 1:2, the testimony of Jesus Christ. Again, in Revelation 1:9, we read:
I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus, was on the isle called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
When we go over to Revelation 12 and see the woman running in the wilderness and the dragon pursuing the woman, we read Revelation 12:17:
So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.
Finally, in Revelation 19:10, having heard about the marriage supper of the Lamb, John says:
I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
You notice that, in the book of Revelation, this phrase is used these numbers of times. This phrase has a deep meaning. It is beyond just the message that the church gives. It is even beyond the life that the church lives by.
What is this phrase, the testimony of Jesus?
The first thing we notice is that there is a corporate context involved. There are people, or faithful servants, together holding—or actually, literally, in the Greek, it just says having—the testimony of Jesus.
Immediately, that means something more than just preaching. It means something more than witnessing. There is something they have in common together. There is this testimony of Jesus that they are holding to.
This becomes a vital matter in the understanding of the book of Revelation and the recovery work of the Lord.
What does this now mean in its deeper meaning? It means something more than just the message. It is more than just that which the church witnesses about Jesus.
When the church witnesses of Jesus, there is also this aspect of the risen, resurrected Lord testifying of Himself within the church.
Now, you see, it is a corporate matter, and there is something very transcendent there—something ineffable and hard to define. But it is very important for us to understand the value of this testimony of Jesus.
When the church is holding the testimony of Jesus, there is something over this church: the very life of the risen Lord Himself.
As the church testifies—and there is no holding of the testimony of Jesus to a church that does not preach the gospel and the message of who Jesus is; these have to be together—when there is a church faithful in sharing the message of who Jesus is, there is this life over the top, this resurrected life.
What a tremendous aspect this is of the church life. What a vital aspect this is of the church life. How wonderful, when it is seen, that beyond the church’s witness, there is this life that is shaping the people, leading them, restraining them, and giving them wisdom. There is something upon them, you see. It is the testimony of Jesus.
What a precious thing this is. It is hard to define, but when it is there, it makes all the difference in the church.
The Lord entrusts this testimony by His grace. When we look in the book of Acts and see the early church, there is this testimony of Jesus in their midst.
The early church in the book of Acts, we know, was not necessarily made up of mature Christians. There were apostles and some who had known the Lord for several years, but many of them were babes in Christ. Nevertheless, by the grace of God, our Lord Jesus entrusted this living testimony for the church to hold.
When we look at the church in the book of Acts, it is amazing what we see. I like to use just a small church as an example, so right now I pick the church of Lystra.
Paul went out on his first journey with Barnabas, and they went by a little place called Lystra. They preached the gospel there, and so the church of Lystra was born. The apostle Paul and Barnabas went back, of course, to Antioch, but there was this little church in Lystra—maybe smaller than the group with which you gather, wherever you gather.
But because they held the testimony of Jesus, there was something larger about the church than their small size.
When they spoke the Word, there was a depth of the Word. When they spoke, it revealed men’s hearts. There was something prophetic about the Word, something defining about the Word. There was much more than the wisdom and preaching ability of the brothers who were gathered there.
There was a presence in the midst. There was a heavenly character to this earthly group. Outsiders could not put their finger on it, but we remember in the book of Acts, even though they could not put their finger on what there was about the church that made it so different, they respected it—indeed, even feared it.
They knew there was something more than just an institution of man. There was something there: the testimony of Jesus.
We find these little groups all over the place with something large and transcendent about them, something wholly other about them. As human as they were, they were just made up of men and women and boys and girls, but they held the testimony of Jesus.
I mentioned a few characteristics that you would be likely to find in a church that holds the testimony of Jesus.
First, as you see them living their lives together, you see God in the midst—among them, over them, with them, standing with them, as it were.
Oh, I mean, you cannot see God, but there is something very definite there about the presence of God beyond them that you could note.
Secondly, even though you could not see it, there was evidently a throne over these people. Why? Because they were being led by another drummer.
They were being restrained sometimes, and other times being protected. At other times, it was a providence that went far beyond man’s luck that brought them here and there. Sometimes they were scattered, but when you looked back, you saw that there was a throne over this assembly.
When they spoke, there was a wisdom that was well beyond their natural wisdom. There was something about this group that was tremendous because of this throne that was among them.
Third, when they ministered the Word, there was a light.
We know in 1 Timothy 3, when Paul defines the church, the house of God, he defines it as:
The church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.
When the church is holding the testimony of Jesus, their ministry can be done by simple brethren, but it is more profound. Their words are prophetic.
When people come into the midst, as it says in 1 Corinthians 14, they are liable to say, as their hearts are exposed:
Indeed, God is here.
There was something more than just the words.
Fourth, we notice that the members are coordinated with a coordination that is beyond the skill of organizational man.
When a need arises in the assembly, is it not amazing? There is a provision that rises in the assembly at the same time. There are people doing things, not because somebody said, “You go do this; you do that,” but they are just doing this as the Lord is leading them.
Somehow, one person comes with the broom and the other person comes with the dustpan. There is some kind of coordination going on that is beyond them, as the saints are responding to this presence in their midst.
Of course, the fifth thing that is always evident in such a group that is holding the testimony of Jesus is that they face persecution.
The world, the enemy, and even religious people can take just a group of people not harming anybody. But if such a group is holding the testimony of Jesus, they become an intimidating bunch, and they must be dealt with. They must be given grief. They must be persecuted, because they are a threat.
This ineffable presence is a threat to people all around.
Well, I do not know if I have described or explained this mystery to you, but I hope you see that the testimony of God is more than just us preaching about Jesus. There is something corresponding: His life in our midst, His life affirming the testimony that we may give.
The best illustration that I think we can find of what this means is when we look in the Old Testament and see what is called the Shekinah glory.
You remember these amazing times on Mount Sinai when the glory came down and there was thunder and lightning, and everybody knew God was there. You remember those times.
You also remember this wonderful time when the tabernacle was completed. As they arranged everything just as it was supposed to be, the glory of God came down, and no man could work. You remember the same thing happened with the temple. There was also another time when Aaron and his sons were being sanctified for the priesthood, and fire came down and consumed the sacrifice. There were these glorious moments.
But the testimony of Jesus is more like the Shekinah glory. By that I mean the daily glory that was with the saints as they went from place to place.
The first example, of course, is when we see the tabernacle going through the wilderness, and there is a cloud over it by day and a fire over it by night.
Balaam and Balak looked from the mountain and looked down at this group, and Balaam said, “Hey, I am not touching them. God is with them.”
There was something there, this element, this Shekinah glory.
The Jews testify that when Solomon built his temple and put the ark into the midst of the temple, there was this Shekinah glory experienced on the Temple Mount every time you came there.
There was something ineffable, something tangible, something that made the saints want to go there because the ark was in the midst, the testimony was there, and there was just something wonderful there called the Shekinah glory.
As a matter of fact, there is testimony that the city of God also knew this Shekinah. You know the wonderful psalm:
O city of God, glorious things are spoken of you.
There is just something about Zion. There is something there. Well, we cannot put our finger on it exactly, but it is glorious. It is glorious.
Now there is an illustration of what it means for the church to hold the testimony of Jesus. It is like the tabernacle with that glory over it, with that sense of presence over it.
Oh, what a tremendous thing to have. When that happens, you know that God is dwelling in the midst.
Even in the Old Testament, such great saints as Moses and David realized the importance of that glory.
You remember in Exodus 33, when Moses is up on the mountain. While he is talking to the Lord, he finally says, “Lord, show me Thy glory.” You remember that? Now, that is quite a death wish. The Lord said, “Well, I am going to have to cover you up, or this is going to be too much.”
But just before that, here is what Moses said:
Lord, if Your presence does not go with us, we do not want to go.
Because Your presence is what distinguishes us from all the other people.
What makes us unique is Your presence. So do not send us up with an angel. If You do not send Your presence, we do not want to go.
David, in like kind of spirit, when he finally became king of all Israel, the first thing he did was say, “We must take Jerusalem.” The second thing he said was, “We must have the ark in Jerusalem.”
How can you have a city of God without the ark? We have got to have the glory. How can you worship except before the ark?
These brothers had this desire for the glory of God. They could see the importance of it.
So we are not surprised when John, at the beginning of his Gospel, says this:
The Word became flesh, and tabernacled among us.
We saw that glory over the tabernacle. It was glory as of the only begotten of the Father. It was the most unusual glory—full of grace, reality, or truth.
Jesus came, and there was that glory again, that presence in the midst. John tells the story so wonderfully, but we all know it so well: wherever Jesus went, glory showed up.
That is a wonderful story in itself, and that is the testimony of Jesus.
But this brings us to the second question. If the church receives the testimony of Jesus by grace, and grace alone, how would it ever need to be recovered?
It seems like something we all would desire and know so much about. Why would it ever need to be recovered?
Again, I think we need to go back in the Old Testament and see the example there, where the glory did depart.
Is that not a terrible thing to say? The glory departed.
I will turn you to two sections, though this was not only in these two cases.
In 1 Samuel 4, you remember Phinehas’s wife. As she bore a son and died, she named her son Ichabod, which means, “No glory.” At the very end of this portion, in 1 Samuel 4:21, it says:
She called the boy Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel,” because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father-in-law and her husband.
The glory of God departed.
Soon, evidently, the Philistines swooped down on Shiloh, and they had to move the tent, the tabernacle, now without the ark. They moved it here and there. They got to Nob, and eventually got to Gibeon. Here you find a tabernacle without an ark.
A terrible loss, I would say.
Then we go to Ezekiel and see that tremendous picture. It goes for several chapters, but in Ezekiel 10:4:
Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub to the threshold of the temple, and the temple was filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of God.
Thus began the exit of the glory of God from the temple, in reluctant stages as it moved away.
What a terrible loss this was. How could the glory ever depart from Israel? What was the cause of that? Maybe this will help us understand why the church has to recover the testimony of Jesus.
In one sense, we could say that God entrusted His glory to the children of Israel. But we learn a first lesson immediately in either one of these passages: although God entrusted that glory to the children of Israel, their lives had to maintain a life that related to the covenant.
When their life fell into idolatry and fell into evil, the glory could not remain.
Eli’s blindness and his sons’ wickedness were what this dying woman referred to when she said, “Ichabod is my son’s name, because the glory has departed because the ark has been taken, and because of Eli and his sons.”
There was such wickedness among the people of God that that glory could not remain and was taken off by the Philistines.
In Ezekiel, it is the same story. Before the glory lifts and is removed reluctantly from the temple, there is a whole section where God says, “Look, Ezekiel. Look. Crawl through this wall and look inside the temple. What are they doing?” Worshiping idols, doing all kinds of iniquity.
“How can I abide with this iniquity?” So the glory begins to depart.
We realize that they were not living in the good of the covenant. They were not living in such a way that the glory could abide. This first lesson we learn.
But the question arises, I think, to me: how could the glory depart without an immediate outcry and reaction and tears and repentance and seeking for the return?
I have no doubt that when the glory departed, there were some who did exactly that. But here we learn a second lesson from the Old Testament that I am sure applies to us as well, and it is this: there is that blindness the brothers have been talking about since we began this conference.
There is a blindness that falls upon the people of God until they do not see anymore the Shekinah.
Poor Isaiah, who said, “Here am I; send me,” and the Lord said, “Okay, I am going to send you to a people who have this blind problem.” Here is the definition of it:
They see, but they do not perceive.
Now, we as Christians know that is vital to our Bible study, is it not? If we are going to study the Bible, we cannot just look at the words and read the words. We need to perceive if we would gain life from the Bible.
The same is true in our prayer meetings. If we just come and pray according to what we see—“Oh, this trouble; oh, this and that”—but we do not perceive anything, then our prayer meetings go flat.
You see, it is this principle of these cataracts, this spiritual blindness. Of course, the trick of it is this: we do see, but we do not perceive.
If we had just become totally, profoundly blind, we would immediately repent. But this spiritual blindness just kind of blinds us. We come to the place where that daily Shekinah glory that was over us becomes something with which we become familiar, and perhaps do not value as we should.
Our hearts and our eyes grow foggier and foggier. What a terrible thing that is.
Then, of course, the third thing, which is universally true about man, is that he has a genius for adjusting to darkness, for accommodating and adjusting and making do.
To me, one of the saddest statements of the Old Testament is when David went to get the ark. He got his fellows together and said, “Fellows, if this is the Lord’s will, then let us take the ark and bring it to Jerusalem, where it belongs. For in the days of Saul nobody sought the ark.”
Now that is truly incredible.
That means for a generation—let us say forty years, including some years of Samuel and Saul and everything until David became king of all Israel—there was a period of time where nobody even asked about the ark anymore.
It was out of sight, out of mind. Everybody got used to the tabernacle without the ark.
After a while, you figure that is the way it is. We go and worship. We go and sacrifice. We have the brazen altar. We have the priests busily making sacrifices in their feast days. They went to Gibeon and sacrificed all these things, but they were quite satisfied with just the tabernacle—no ark.
Now, that is a blindness, is it not? That is an adjusting to darkness and not realizing what has happened.
Man has this genius for adjusting, and even more, man has the genius of substituting for glory man’s beauty. He substitutes beauty for glory.
Now, the story I am thinking about is this. When the remnant came back from captivity and they rebuilt Nehemiah’s temple, you remember that some of the old-timers who had been around for the Solomon temple days were weeping and crying, saying, “Oh, how pitiful is this?”
But anyway, they went on and built the temple, and the young people thought it was the greatest thing since sliced toast.
The temple was small and, you know, built well, built to worship. Then King Herod came along.
King Herod decided to substitute beauty for glory. This guy built Herod’s temple, as it is called, that existed in Jesus’ day. It was one of the wonders of the world, ladies and gentlemen—one of the wonders of the world.
He built three stories of a building surrounding the temple, all with storage space and special little booths and this and that for various different things. He had a huge golden grapevine across the front of the temple. He had Corinthian Greek columns that he erected up there. He overlaid all the doors with gold.
Man, this guy really built a beautiful devil. Everybody went, including the disciples. Oh, how they were taken with this beautiful, beautiful temple.
Of course, then the Talmud says, “Well, there were only a few things missing.” Number one: the ark. Can you believe that? Number two: the rabbis said the Shekinah was missing. Number three: the Urim and Thummim.
But who needs that stuff? We have beauty. We have worship. We have professional singers. They get rid of the Levites who have to sing the melody, and they hire guys who can sing the better tune. They get better instrumentalists. Get a couple of jazz sax guys up there, or anything that is going to enhance it.
Oh, Herod, he was a genius at beautifying. But where was the glory?
Even the disciples thought it was glorious. Do you see how we adjust?
It brings us to that word where Jesus is speaking to the church in Ephesus, and He says to them:
Remember from where you have fallen.
Can you remember that?
It is amazing, the testimony of people who have cataracts and then have them removed. If they were the kind that came on gradually, when they are removed they say, “Oh, wow—colors. Oh, the sharpness. I can see things now I could not see before.”
I mean, cataracts are really quite a phenomenon, are they not? That milky shadow of fog over the eyes—when it is removed.
Jesus stands before His church and says:
Remember from where you have fallen.
Do you remember what it was like to be the church where you held the testimony of Jesus, and it was there? It was so precious.
Life in the church, as difficult as it might be, was truly life.
Let us leave the Old Testament and come back to the New Testament and the church. Let us ask this question: How can the church possibly go on without the testimony of Jesus?
What is the church, anyway, without the testimony of Jesus?
You remember, by the end of the first century, we had many people preaching and witnessing to Jesus, but the testimony was in jeopardy.
Listen to that. It is possible to preach and preach about Jesus and preach the gospel, but the testimony is not there at that deepest level we are talking about, because that is the most essential level to the glorious life of the church.
How could these things possibly happen, especially when the Lord entrusts this testimony to His church by grace?
Of course, we know the church must live in the reality of the life of Christ in order to hold the testimony. You know, the problem with reality is it is reality.
We cannot be super-spiritual and say we are holding the testimony of Jesus if we are not living by the life of Christ. If Christ is not our life, if we are doing that out of our own effort, we cannot possibly hold the testimony of Jesus.
I think you are all familiar enough with Jesus as He looks over the seven churches and speaks to each one of them. The issue is always: “The life in your midst is not My life.”
How can you think you will hold the testimony unless the life in your midst is My life lived through you?
You see, it is such an important issue.
When we go to Revelation 3, we see the church at Laodicea, and we see the church that has been caught with cataracts.
In Revelation 3:17, we read:
Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.
The thing that we have to believe that Jesus says is this: you really do not realize where you are.
I think when Jesus stood over the church—or, namely, specifically, when they read this letter to them—they were so surprised. They had no idea they were blind. They had no idea they were poor and wretched and naked. They had no idea.
But the church that has lost that testimony of Jesus is all of that and more.
Jesus goes on to say:
I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.
Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.
Oh, how those cataracts had gotten across their eyes.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is not even worth making the case of something that you already know: when we look at the contemporary church today in these last days, the church is full of the genius of man’s ideas, man’s substitution of beauty for glory.
It is no longer the church; now it is the mega-church. There are all kinds of nifty, novel ideas about how we are going to capture people, and the church is captive to human genius.
When we come to the book of Revelation, we have to ask ourselves the question: Why does the testimony of Jesus need recovery?
Because the church has come to the place where it looks at outward things, and it has lost this ineffable reality that, in the end, is the whole distinction of the church.
If you give it a generation or two, frankly, when you say, “Have you ever known that glory?” most people say, “I do not even know what you are talking about.”
“We just get together. We have meetings. I am sick and tired of listening to my preacher, and we sing songs. They are okay. We have a worship team. We are doing this and that.”
We say, “No, no, no. How about the testimony of Jesus? Are you holding the testimony of Jesus?”
If we gave some kind of national report today or took some kind of survey among Christians and said, “Would you please say what this term in the book of Revelation means—the testimony of Jesus?” I wonder how many Christians even today know what we are talking about.
Jesus in the midst, testifying of Himself—have they ever tasted it? Have they ever touched it? They do not even know what it is about.
Or is it just a horizontal gathering, fidgeting and doing things together, without that presence over the top?
Some people say today the church is in ruins. I will agree with that statement if you define the church in ruins as being the church that has lost the testimony of Jesus.
With all that in mind, what we really want to talk about, which will happen tomorrow, is this work of recovery of the testimony of Jesus. But let me just tell you what it is about.
Let us go back and think about John for one last moment, and then we are through.
There is John on the Isle of Patmos for the testimony of Jesus. He knows all about it. He has been faithful in sharing the Gospel of Life. He has been faithful as an elder brother and a loving brother, telling the saints, “My little children, abide in Him.”
He has spoken of living in that abiding life with the Lord as your basis of overcoming:
O young men, the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
But now there he is on the Isle of Patmos. Here is the question: “Oh, Lord, how can the testimony of Jesus be recovered?”
There are so many things that John can see as he looks at these various churches—at Ephesus, Laodicea, Sardis, Smyrna, Philadelphia, and so on. He sees various problems in the midst.
How can recovery possibly come? How can the Lord’s testimony be strengthened? How can the saints together hold the testimony of Jesus until He comes?
Then one day, while he was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, he heard a voice. He turned, and in an instant, he saw the way of recovery.
When he turned, he saw three things that spoke to him of the way of recovery.
The first thing he saw, of course, was a glorified potentate, priest, and Son of Man—even Jesus—now presently on earth, ministering among the seven churches.
This One who is the Alpha and Omega, he saw. What He starts, He finishes. He is the One who is the Recoverer of the church. That is the first thing he saw.
Then he saw the seven golden lampstands. Suddenly, the spiritual reality of what the church always has been was shown to him.
I am going to be so bold as to say even John needed clarification on this. The spiritual reality of the church upon earth is that it is a golden lampstand—glorious, beautiful, and corresponding with this glorious Lord who is standing in the midst of them.
He saw that in a flash.
Then he saw, in the right hand of the Son of Man, the angels—the messengers of God, held by the Lord, sent by the Lord—and he knew the recovery work would happen.
Of course, it was a revelation which he was then told to share with His bondservants. Thus began the opening of the way of recovery.
As we will look at tomorrow, it starts when we see the church as God sees the church. If we start by looking at the church the way we see the church on earth, with all of its problems, we will never get to the end.
But what if we saw the church as the golden lampstand, and what that means? That is the basis upon which the church can be recovered.
If you see that the glorious Son of Man, the Lord of lords, is in the midst—He to whom nothing is impossible, able to do all things—oh, if you see for just a nanosecond that the glorious Lord is in your midst here on the earth, nothing is impossible.
If we do not see Him, it is impossible.
Then, to see the messengers in His right hand—hey, it will be fulfilled. The message will get out. The recovery will be done.
John, greatly encouraged after falling down as a dead man, was raised up by the Lord and shown that the way of recovery is completely on resurrection ground.
The church cannot be recovered by newfound strength among the saints to try and try harder. Resurrection ground is necessary for the testimony of Jesus to be recovered.
We will try to discover that next time we are together.
In these last days, Lord, we need spiritual vision of the Lord Jesus as He presently is: full of glory, unlimited, absolute Lord and King.
Lord, as we live in these days and assemble together in various places, oh, Lord, that we might see the spiritual reality of the church, and not just the outward forms and things so easy to see.
Lord, in this day, we pray that we could see Your hand upon Your servants, Your angels, Your messengers, enabling them to be dealt with and then to deal faithfully and share the truth.
Oh, Lord, if for one moment Your glory could shine upon us, we would see that we are in ruins. Then we would see the spiritual reality.
Lord, we pray that You would help us in these last days not to work from the basement up, but to work according to Your glorious plan.
Lord, would You give us such a vision of the church and all of its glory—that golden candlestick? Would You so give us a sense of the beauty of the church that we would absolutely be unsatisfied with anything other than that glory: a lampstand holding the testimony of Jesus in this world?
Oh, Lord, for such a vision we plead.
We thank You for the precious Holy Spirit working among us in these last days. We thank You for bondservants who serve You and love You and desire Your coming. We thank You for those who are awaiting the consolation of the church and who love Your appearing.
Lord, we thank You for all the saints who are gathered with us even tonight. We pray, Lord, that You would bring us under such an understanding of Your glorious way that we could see the church and the testimony recovered, even in our midst, even in the places we live, as we wait for You to return.
Lord, we pray that You would do this mighty work in our midst, for Your own sake. Amen.