The Ruin of the Church As a Testimony

 •  3 min. read  •  grade level: 9
God does not re-establish what man has ruined. The ruin of the church as a testimony, and looked at on the side of human responsibility, will continue to the end of its history. It has become unfaithful, till at last it has become established in the midst of the world, mixed up with iniquity of every kind which goes on to the close. God compares it to a great house with vessels to honor and dishonor (2 Tim. 2). And yet the moment will come, when the history of man’s responsibility being over, the Lord will present to Himself His Church, glorious, having neither spot, nor wrinkle, nor any such thing (Eph. 5). At that time it shall be said of her, as of Jacob, not “what hath man wrought,” but “what hath God wrought!” (Num. 23:2323Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought! (Numbers 23:23)).
It is no longer a question of retracing the pathway; the edifice is in ruins: to replaster it, would be but to adorn its decay, which would be worse than the ruin itself.
The Lord abhors pretension to power in a day such as the present. Forfeited strength cannot be recovered. The display of human, fleshly power which we see on all sides, is utterly different from the power of the Spirit. Those who talk loudly about the power of God being with them, savor somewhat of the crowd who followed Simon Magus, saying: “This man is the great power of God” (Acts 8:1010To whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. (Acts 8:10)); and of Laodicea, who says, “I am rich,” not knowing that she is “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Rev. 3:1717Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: (Revelation 3:17)).
However, we must never forget that, although the church as a corporate witness has failed, God has preserved a testimony to Christ in the midst of the ruin, and those who seek to maintain it, acknowledge and weep over their common failure in the presence of God. We find something similar in Ezekiel 9:44And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. (Ezekiel 9:4). The men of Jerusalem who sigh and cry, are marked on their foreheads by the angel of the Lord; they are a humbled people, as in Malachi 3:13-1813Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee? 14Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts? 15And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered. 16Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. 17And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. 18Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. (Malachi 3:13‑18).
There are two classes in this chapter; those who say: “What profit is it that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of Hosts?” (ver. 14); and the faithful ones, a feeble and afflicted remnant who speak one to another, acknowledging the ruin, but waiting for the Messiah Who alone can give them deliverance. These latter do not say: “What profit is it?” This humbling is for their profit, turning their eyes to Him who “raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes.” (1 Sam. 2:88He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and he hath set the world upon them. (1 Samuel 2:8)).
God grant that this may also be our attitude, and that we may not be indifferent to the state of the church of God in this world, but rather weep at having contributed towards it. Let us, like Philadelphia, be content to have a little strength, and we shall hear the Lord say for our consolation: I have the key of David, power is Mine, fear not, I place it entirely at your disposal.
How touching is the grace which provides for worship in the midst of the ruin.