Our heavenly Father, we do thank Thee for gathering us together and for Thy beloved Son this morning. We do gather in the name of our Lord Jesus, and we have the assurance that Thou art here with us.
Lord, speak; Thy servants hear. Thou knowest each one of us, where we are. Lord, wilt Thou now speak a personal word to each one of us—a word that touches the very depths of us all, a word that will turn us around to Thy thought and Thy heart, and shall deliver us this morning from vanity?
Reveal Thyself to us through Thy Word, by Thy Spirit. We are all here. Speak to us, please, in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Last night, our dear brother began to unfold to us the eternal purpose of God. And we know that recovery is according to God’s eternal purpose.
God is a God of purpose. In Ephesians, we are shown that even before the foundation of the world, God had purposed a purpose in Himself and also in His Son. And that purpose will be fulfilled in the eternity to come.
Time is used by God to work out His purpose. Once God’s purpose is decided, He never changes it. God’s purpose is everlasting, unchanging, and is sure to be fulfilled. He is God. Who can resist Him?
And yet, we do find that there are hindrances, resistances, oppositions, and rebellions against God’s purpose. Sometimes we wonder, why is it that God allows resistance, opposition, and rebellion against His purpose?
He can create a creation that will obey Him automatically. And yet, it pleases Him to create angels and men who are given a will. And because of this, there is resistance and opposition. We do not understand why God wants to do it this way, but it pleases God to create in this way.
Now today, with time’s view, we can see the wisdom of God: that where sin abounds, grace overabounds, and God is much more glorified in the weakness of man.
But anyway, we know that because of all these oppositions, resistances, and rebellions, there is the need for recovery. Recovery is necessary, because if God does not do the work of recovery, how can His purpose be realized? Recovery is a must.
And thank God, we know that recovery is sure and certain. We know that a day will come when all things will be summed up in Christ. And we do know that even now God is using His church to manifest His wisdom to the principalities and authorities.
So, brothers and sisters, when we talk about recovery, we have the confidence that it will be done.
Now this morning, we would like to share together on the principles governing the recovery work of God. First, recovery is according to the principle of grace.
In Romans 5:21, it says, “Where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly.” What is grace?
We are told that grace has in it three essential thoughts. First, the beauty and graciousness of a person or a thing is such that it causes pleasure and delight. Yes, grace.
Secondly, grace is dispensed freely and universally. There is no partiality, no withholding.
And thirdly, grace works in the life of those who receive it, transforms them, and produces in them the same character of being gracious.
Now, brothers and sisters, our God is the God of grace. When Moses on the mount desired to see the glory of God, he wanted to see the face of God. And God said, “I will pass by. I will declare My name. You cannot see My face, but you shall see My back.”
So when God passed by in Exodus 34, He declared:
The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness and truth.
Our God is a God of grace. He is gracious.
Brothers and sisters, in this work of recovery, it is pure grace. That is to say, it all comes from God Himself. We are the recipients of His grace.
In the garden of Eden, when man rebelled against God, man did not seek God. Man hid himself from God. It was God who came to the garden to seek and to call man. That is grace.
Even though man did confess, when God said, “Adam, where art thou?” Adam said, “When I heard Thy voice, I was afraid, and I hid myself because I was naked.” And God said, “Who told thee that thou wast naked?”
And then, even in his confession, he was not very sincere, because he said, “The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me.” And in spite of that, God saved him. God provided a sacrifice for him, God clothed his nakedness, and God promised him the most precious promise: that in the seed of the woman there should be restoration.
So, brothers and sisters, you find that even from the very beginning of the work of recovery, it is pure grace.
It is grace that kept Noah and his family through the flood. The Bible says Noah found favor—found grace—in the sight of God.
It is grace that called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees. He was in a city of idols. Tradition says his family manufactured idols, and yet it was the grace of God that called him out.
It was grace that delivered Moses, called Moses out of the palace of Egypt, called him out of the wilderness, and commissioned him to deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt. It is grace.
It was grace that enabled the children of Israel to enter into the promised land. God said in Deuteronomy 7:7-8, “It is not because you are more numerous than all the peoples of the world. Actually, you are very few. It is because I love you. It is because I keep My covenant with your fathers that I do it. Do not think that you deserve it, that you have anything to do with it. It is pure grace that you enter and possess your possession.”
It is grace that a remnant returned from Babylonian captivity. God remembered His promise—not because the people repented, but because God remembered His covenant. And God allowed His people to return. It is grace.
But, brothers and sisters, the greatest manifestation of grace is when He sent His own Son into this world. The Word became flesh, tabernacled among men, full of grace and truth. Our Lord Jesus is grace itself.
It is pure grace that He took upon Himself our sins. It is pure grace that saved us. There is nothing in us that deserves restoration. We are recovered from sin, from death. It is because of the pure grace of God.
So, brothers and sisters, let us remember that in this work of recovery, the first and foremost principle is the principle of grace. God does not owe anything to anybody. He recovers us because He is gracious, and for this we should be very thankful.
So, brothers and sisters, God’s people should be a thankful people. When you think that we owe Him so much and He owes nothing to us, and yet He comes to us in such a gracious, kind way, it is free and it is universal.
And it should produce within us a like character of grace, that we be gracious—a gracious people—that we be gracious to one another and gracious to the people in this world.
Let us never remove from this ground of grace throughout our Christian life, brothers and sisters. It is from grace to grace. Let us grow in grace, as the Word says.
So this is the first principle of recovery. The second principle of recovery is travail.
I wonder, when God first created the creation, I wonder whether He travailed. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He spoke, and it was done.
In Proverbs 8:27-31, you find that when God laid the foundation of the world, wisdom is a personification of the Son. Wisdom was with the Father. He was His delight, and He rejoiced in His presence, and He rejoiced in the habitable earth.
In other words, when God first created, it was pure joy. I personally do not sense there was any travail in God. It was pleasure. He spoke, and it was done. What a pleasure it must be. And He looked at what He had done, and it gave Him great rejoicing. There was no travail. There was no need to travail.
But after sin entered into the world, then you discover that travail becomes the law of birth. In other words, if there is no travail, there can be no birth. It becomes a universal law.
Because of the rebellion of the archangel, judgment came upon the former world. This earth was surrounded by water, drowned by water. Darkness filled this world—desolation, emptiness, void. That was the result of sin, the sin of the archangel.
And then in Genesis 1:2, the Spirit of God brooded over the face of the deep. The Spirit of God is like a hen that sits upon the egg and uses its warmth to bring forth birth.
When the Spirit of God brooded upon the face of the earth, manifesting His warmth, His warm love, as it were, over the desolate world, I believe there was travail. There is travail. God travailed to restore the earth, to become habitable.
God created man so that he could have the earth, to subdue the earth, to bring all things back to God. But unfortunately, man sinned. Man failed.
And God came. God pronounced His judgment. His judgment over man was: from now on, man has to sweat to earn a living—that is travail. Woman has to go through pains in bringing forth—that is travail. Travail to bring forth: that becomes the universal law.
It is actually through the travail of Abraham that the nation of Israel came into being. It was the travail of Moses—how Moses travailed to bring the nation out of Egypt to the border of the promised land.
It was the travail of David that brought in the kingdom that God had in mind for His people. I believe it was the travail of Jeremiah—how he wept—and through the travailing prayer of Daniel that God remembered His promise and brought His children, His remnant, back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.
But the greatest travail is here in our Lord. Isaiah 53:11:
He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied.
Brothers and sisters, our Lord came into this world. He is called a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. As the Son of God, He is the joy of His Father’s heart, and the Father said, “This is My beloved Son.” And yet, He came into this world and became a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.
Not only in the garden of Gethsemane—how He agonized in travailing prayer in order to bring forth a new creation—but on the cross, how He cried, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” He travailed in birth.
Out of His side, from the thrust of the spear, came out blood and water. And this is the travail of our Lord Jesus. Out of this travail, a church is born; a new creation comes into being.
Brothers and sisters, on the day of Pentecost, those one hundred and twenty people travailed in prayer for ten days with one accord. They obeyed the Lord’s word. They returned from the Mount of Olives, where they saw the Lord ascend. They went to that upper room, and with one accord they travailed in prayer for ten days.
And then, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down upon them. Now the Bible says a wind, a strong wind, blew through the room and filled the room. We are told that in the original it means a mighty rushing breath—someone breathing hard. God was travailing, and out of that travailing breath the church appeared for the first time on this earth.
Dear brothers and sisters, if there is no travail, there is no birth.
So in the work of recovery, we find that it is, on the one hand, grace; on the other hand, it is travail. Our Lord has travailed, and He is calling His people, even today, to travail in prayer with Him, that what He is longing for may be born.
The third principle that governs recovery is the Word—the living Word, the revelational Word, the prophetic Word.
You remember our Lord Jesus said:
It is the Spirit that quickeneth;
the flesh profiteth nothing:
the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life.
It is the Word of God that brings in recovery. This is a sure principle throughout the centuries.
Even in the garden of Eden, how was recovery done? Now, it is true that God pronounced His judgment over man and over the serpent. But the real recovery is in the Word of God. God said:
The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head,
and the serpent shall bruise His heel.
That prophetic Word is the beginning of the recovery. Wherever there is departure from the Word of God, there is ruin. Wherever the Word of God is restored, there is recovery. It is the Word of God that does the work of recovery.
Our Lord Jesus, on the cross, said, “It is finished.” That Word pronounced that the foundational work of recovery is done.
See: the world, all creation, the enemy—anything and everything that stands in the way of God’s recovery work—is now done away. It is on the cross that all these oppositions and resistances have been overcome. And He said, “It is finished.” The work of recovery is done.
And all that is left to be done is to carry it out into full realization. It is the Word that recovers.
In the days of Eli the judge, in 1 Samuel 3, it says that during the days of Eli the judge, the Word of God was rare and vision was infrequent. Why was the Word of God rare? That is degradation.
The whole system of the judges actually was a temporary measure of God. God’s purpose for His people is a kingdom, a king.
The judges were raised up to solve temporary problems. When the children of Israel in the promised land rebelled against God, God allowed their enemies to come over and rule over them. Then they cried to the Lord, and the Lord raised up a judge to deliver them from their sufferings.
But it was only for a short period. After the judge died, the children of Israel went back to sin. Again there was foreign invasion, and they were under oppression again. They cried unto the Lord, and the Lord raised up another judge. It was a temporary emergency measure of God. It was never God’s permanent measure with His people. But even that system was a failure.
Now, how is God to recover—even to a kingdom, a king? He begins with His Word. The Word of God came to Samuel.
When the Word of God returned to the children of Israel through Samuel, then you find the recovery work beginning again. It is through Samuel that David was anointed, and through David the kingdom was established—God’s kingdom on earth in His people.
In church history, you discover that whenever God’s people depart from the Word of God, there is declension, degeneration, and ruin. And every time God begins a work of recovery, it is always the recovery of the Word of God. People return to His Word.
But, brothers and sisters, it is more than just the Word. As our brother mentioned last night, this is the Word of God. But you can take it and even keep it in letter, but not in the Spirit.
For instance, the remnant returned after Babylonian captivity. They rebuilt the temple and reestablished the temple services. More than that, together with the temple, they had synagogues.
More than that, it was during that period that you find a class called the scribes. The scribes arose among them, and their work was to copy the Word of God and to study the Word of God. Also, there was a sect raised up in their midst, the Pharisees. The Pharisees made it their life mission to know the Word and to keep it to the minutest point.
They strictly kept the tradition of the fathers. But for four hundred years, the people who returned to Jerusalem and Judea—with the temple, the priests, the services, the Pharisees, and the scribes—outwardly were very godly people. They had the Word, they studied the Word, they kept the Word.
But, brothers and sisters, God did not speak to them for four hundred years. There was no living Word. They had the letter in their head. It did not help them.
Not until one day there was a cry in the wilderness: “Repent; for the kingdom of the heavens is at hand.” A voice in the wilderness—God began to speak.
And that is the beginning of the recovery work of God through John the Baptist, continued by our Lord Jesus, and by the apostles and the church.
So, brothers and sisters, it is more than just the letter of the Word. We need prophetic Word, revelational Word. In other words, not something extra to the Word of God, but something that is revealed livingly to us. And every time such a thing happens, there is recovery. We will talk about that later.
But anyway, you will find the third principle of recovery is the Word.
The fourth principle is the anointing.
Zechariah 4:6:
Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.
Together with the Word of God, it is the Holy Spirit who does the recovery work of God. The Holy Spirit is God’s power.
Our Lord Jesus laid the foundation of recovery, and it is the Holy Spirit that brings to us, communicates to us, all that our Lord Jesus has done and makes it real to us—and also works in us to do the work of recovery.
Even when our Lord Jesus was on earth, He was anointed before He began His public ministry. And it is by the eternal Spirit that He offered Himself spotless to God to be our sacrifice.
So, brothers and sisters, let us remember that in the recovery work of God, it is not the effort of man. It is not the wisdom of man, the power of man, or the influence of man. In the recovery work of God, it is a pure work of the Holy Spirit.
But He works in you, anyway. He works in the church to bring in that recovery.
That is the reason why you find in Revelation 2:7:
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.
Today, if you hear His voice, harden not your heart. The Holy Spirit is speaking. He is communicating, quickening, breathing God’s spoken Word into our very heart, touching us deeply, changing us, transforming us, and bringing us around to what He says.
That is revelational Word, and that is how the work of recovery is done. So what is needed on our side is to have ears to hear. How we need to cry unto the Lord that He will open our ears, that we may hear His voice.
Recovery is through the anointing.
Number five: recovery is by the cross. The Word, the Spirit, and the cross—you cannot separate them.
Wherever there is recovery, you see the sign of the cross. Brothers and sisters, there may be many movements on this earth, but if you do not see the cross there, it is not recovery. The cross is the sure sign of recovery.
Abraham went into Egypt through lack of faith. He saw the famine, and he looked to Egypt. But God, in His mercy, brought him back. And when he came back, he returned to the place where he had built an altar. That is where he returned.
In the Old Testament, it is the altar. The altar represents recovery. The remnant returned to Jerusalem. Even before they laid the foundation of the temple, they first built the altar. That is a sure sign of recovery.
So, brothers and sisters, in New Testament times, in our time, whenever there is recovery, there must be the working of the cross.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians. The church in Corinth was in spiritual confusion and disorder. They had many, many problems. And how did Paul deal with the Corinthians?
You find that in 1 Corinthians he proclaimed, “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” In other words, the cross of our Lord Jesus is the solution to all their problems.
Whether their problem was division, the cross solved that problem and returned them to unity. Whether there was sin, gross sin, it is the cross that works unto repentance and brings people back.
Whether there was the flesh, the pride of their intellect and their knowledge—knowledge puffs up—it is the cross that brings them down. Whether there was disorder in the church, it is the cross that brings back order.
Whether there was disbelief—some people did not even believe in resurrection—it is the cross that brings in death and resurrection. So, brothers and sisters, you find that the cross is always connected with recovery.
Look for the cross in your individual life. If the cross works in your life, you know there is a measure of recovery going on in you.
If you seem to receive something that lifts you up, and yet there is no sign of the cross there, beware.
This is not only true individually; this is true corporately. Wherever you do not see the cross working, it is a counterfeit. It is not true recovery. You cannot escape the cross.
So let us deny ourselves, welcome the cross, take up the cross, and follow Him.
Number six: recovery is by way of love.
Wherever there is recovery, it is recovered through love, and it is recovered into love.
Love never fails. In 1 Corinthians 13, everything may fail, but love never fails. And you find it is the love of God that will not let us go. It is the love of God that pursues us.
Peter denied the Lord three times. He went out weeping. His weeping did not recover him. It is the love of Christ that recovered him.
You remember the scene by the Lake of Tiberias? Our Lord Jesus, to recover him fully, went to the very root of his problem. The Lord did not say to him, “Why did you lose courage? Why did you not keep your promise? You promised that you were willing to die with Me. What happened to you?”
No, the Lord knew He had to recover Peter through love.
“Lovest thou Me more than these?” More than the fire? You denied Me by a fire. You wanted to be comfortable. “Lovest thou Me more than these”—your companions, people? “Lovest thou Me? Art thou really attached to Me?” Love.
It is love that restored Peter.
In Revelation 2, the church in Ephesus—if you read the letter to the Ephesians, you find the church in Ephesus was a church full of love.
God was able to reveal His mystery to them, not because they were more intellectual. As a matter of fact, the Corinthians were highly intellectual. The Ephesians were not famed for their intellect. It was because they loved the Lord.
Grace be to all who love the Lord in incorruption. They loved the Lord, and because they loved Him, therefore the Lord was able to open His heart to them.
But their strongest point became their weakest point. In the letter to the church in Ephesus, the risen Lord wrote them, “You have everything. I know your works, your patience, your labor, your knowledge, your discernment.”
“But I have this against you.” In spite of all the good things you have, “I have this against you.” Very strong words. Why? Because you have left your first love.
Brothers and sisters, recovery is the recovery of love. If first love is not recovered, nothing is really recovered.
That is why you find God raised Peter to cast the net and bring in many people. God raised Paul to build the tent—to build the church. And God used John to mend the net. And John is the apostle of love: “Love God; love one another.” Brothers and sisters, this is recovery.
Again, I will say recovery comes by the way of love—not by force, compulsion, or pressure, but love.
And if there is recovery, there must be love there. If you do not see love, it is a counterfeit.
Number seven: recovery is on the principle of reality.
Man looks at the face, but God looks upon the heart. In Psalm 51, David prayed that God looks at truth in the inward parts. That is what God is looking for.
Appearance can deceive man, can deceive ourselves, but appearance can never deceive God. God is not after outward appearance—how good, how perfect, how correct, how orthodox. God always looks for reality. He wants the real thing, the heart—the real thing.
In that last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, the last word of God’s controversy with His people is over this matter of reality. “You do not have reality. You have all the appearance, but no reality.”
And even in the New Testament, at the end of the first century, the last letter—the letter to Laodicea—has the same problem. God is looking for reality.
“You have all the appearance. You are rich, have become rich, and have need of nothing. You are proud of yourself.” But God says, “Where is the reality? Repent.”
I do believe that in the recovery of God, God does not look at appearance. He only looks at reality.
In 1 Timothy, even at that time, Paul still mentioned how to behave in the house of God, how to have elders, and the qualifications of elders and deacons.
But in 2 Timothy, a few years later, you find that Paul said, “In a great house there are all mixtures: vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor, vessels of gold and silver, and vessels of wood and earth.”
“Purify yourself, that you may be a vessel of honor, fit for the Master’s use. Seek the Lord with those of a pure heart.” Brothers and sisters, nothing is mentioned about elders or deacons—only a pure heart. Reality, not appearance.
In the seven letters to the churches, Paul mentions deacons and elders. But in John’s seven letters to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3, the letters are addressed to the angel of the church.
There is an interpretation—you may take it or leave it. I personally believe the angel, which is messenger, here is not a celestial messenger, an angel. It is collective: those in the church who have the reality of spiritual responsibility.
No mere appearance, but reality. That is a principle.
And finally, recovery is along the principle of overcomers: “He that overcometh.”
In the Old Testament, you have the remnant principle. Isaiah mentioned it. The Word of God came through Isaiah to Hezekiah: there would be a remnant that escaped.
In the prayer of Israel, he prayed about that remnant that God had spared. In the Old Testament, you have a remnant principle.
When the children of Israel came out of Egypt, two million people came out of Egypt. But how many returned from Babylon to Jerusalem? The first group came back—with men and women, children and servants—fifty thousand: a remnant.
But that remnant, when they returned to build the house of God and when they built the altar, offered twelve sacrifices. In other words, that remnant represented the whole house of Israel.
Now in the New Testament, it is the overcomer principle—the same thing. It is the will of God. He called the church to be a victorious church, a glorious church. That is our calling.
Who overcomes the world? He that believes in the Lord Jesus. Faith is the victory. The church is supposed to be an overcoming church, standing for the testimony of God—a glorious church.
And then you find in Revelation 2 and 3, God says, “He that overcometh.” When the church does not respond to Him, He is calling for some who will respond. And those who find the grace of God respond to Him. They are the overcomers of the church.
They are not anyone special. They are just normal Christians. They are normal because they respond to the Lord, and they represent the whole church.
So you find in Revelation 19:
The wife of the Lamb hath made herself ready.
She is clothed with fine linen, bright and pure:
for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
Who composes this wife of the Lamb in Revelation 19? Again, it is my humble understanding—accept it or reject it. I believe at that time that wife is composed of the overcomers of the church.
In Revelation 21, again we see the bride, the New Jerusalem, coming down from heaven. I believe that is the whole church—Old Testament and New Testament—all together. The work of God is done.
So, brothers and sisters, these are some of the principles of recovery. And we mention these principles because God calls us to work together.
You know, sometimes we have zeal, and yet we do not know the principles along which God works. Sometimes we may work just in opposition to His work without our knowing.
And how important it is that we learn to work together with Him according to His principles, not according to our ideas. Shall we pray?
Dear Lord, we believe that these are the principles along which Thou dost do the work of recovery. And Lord, we just pray that Thou wilt impress upon our hearts the ways in which Thou dost Thy work, that we may not in any way, unknowingly, oppose Thee, hinder Thee, or work against Thee.
Lord, we want to work with Thee. We pray that we may be vessels in Thy hands. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.