Will you please turn to the book of Acts?
Acts 2:42-47
And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.
And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.
And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
and they sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all, according as any man had need.
And day by day, continuing stedfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart,
praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to them day by day those that were saved.
Revelation 2:1-7
To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These things saith He that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, He that walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks:
I know thy works, and thy toil and patience, and that thou canst not bear evil men, and hast tried them that call themselves apostles, and they are not, and didst find them false;
and thou hast patience and didst bear for My name’s sake, and hast not grown weary.
But I have this against thee, that thou didst leave thy first love.
Remember therefore whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I come to thee, and will move thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent.
But this thou hast, that thou hatest the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. To him that overcometh, to him will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.
May we look to the Lord in prayer.
Dear Lord, we do look to Thee as our Master, to speak to us. We are here not to hear human words, man’s voice, but we are here to hear Thy voice, to see Thy face.
So, Lord, we do ask Thee that Thou wilt, by Thy Spirit, come to us. Come to each one of us, and give each one of us a word from Thee, that Thou mayest be glorified in the midst of Thy people. To Thee be the glory, in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
We mentioned during the first morning that there is a cry of the centuries. And that cry began with God, and has been, and is still being, echoed by godly men and women throughout the centuries. It is the cry of recovery.
We also mentioned in the next session the principles governing recovery. Now this morning, we want to enter into the tragic history of ruin.
As a matter of fact, to me, aside from Genesis 1:1, which is God’s original work of creation, the whole Bible, starting from Genesis 1:2 to the end of the book of Revelation, is God’s work of recovery. God is doing the work of recovery.
Because in Genesis 1:2, it says, “The Spirit of God moved,” or hovered, or brooded, “over the face of the waters.” And out of this, this earth was recovered to be habitable.
Recovery is more than recovering that which was lost. Recovery is to recover all the way back to the eternal purpose of God.
Our brother has already mentioned that God has one purpose. According to His good pleasure, He has purposed that purpose in Himself and in His Son, even before the foundation of the world. God has that purpose, and He is working towards the fulfilment of that purpose. I do hope that we will remember this as we go.
Even in Genesis 1:1, it says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” God spoke, and it was done. So far as the first creation is concerned, the work is complete. God never does an unfinished work. It is complete.
But, dear brothers and sisters, when we look into God’s eternal purpose, we have to confess that even though the first creation is a complete work, yet according to God’s eternal purpose, something has to be added to it to be completed.
That something was not evident at that time, because there was no need of it. In that first creation, the whole universe was in perfect harmony.
Probably an archangel, Lucifer, led all the angelic beings in the worship of God the Creator. There was no discord. Everything surrounded God and glorified God.
But unfortunately, as we know, that archangel, because of his beauty and his many activities, pride began to come up in him. There was unrighteousness in his work. Self began to come up in him. He wanted to rise up to be equal with God. He wanted to be God himself.
And because of this, he was cast out of the heavenly paradise. And because of him, this earth entered into void and emptiness.
When this happened, in Genesis 1:2, the Spirit of God brooded over the face of the deep. With His love and with His power, He restored the earth to be habitable.
What happened? On the sixth day, He created man. As a matter of fact, in the first creation there was no man. But when God restored the earth to be habitable, God created a man.
So far as God’s eternal purpose is concerned, man is destined, even before the foundation of the world, to be the life companion of God’s own beloved Son. God had that in mind even before He created anything.
But He did not do that in the first creation. In the work of recovery, He created man. Why? Because, so far as God’s work of recovery is concerned, man is His instrument.
He made man a little lower than the angels, but crowned him with honor and glory, and gave him dominion over all the things that He has made. Brothers and sisters, this is the reason why God created man. It is for the work of recovery, and it is to fulfil His eternal purpose.
God created man from the dust of the earth. He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul.
So far as the work of creating man is concerned, when man was created, he was perfect. But he needed to be perfected.
God put him before the tree of life, and if he should eat of the tree of life and enter into union with Christ, then God’s work of recovery could be done.
But unfortunately, man fell into temptation, rebelled against God, and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil instead.
And for that reason, again, God continued His work of recovery.
You know, in John 5:17, our Lord Jesus said:
My Father worketh even until now, and I work.
When God restored the earth to be habitable in six days, He rested on the seventh day. But His rest was broken by the fall of man. He started to work again, and He has been working ever since.
When our Lord Jesus came to this earth, He said, “I am just continuing. I am just doing the work that My Father has been doing all the time. I cannot do anything out of Myself. I do because I see My Father doing.”
Now, what is the Father doing? What is His work? Throughout the centuries, the work of God—the nature of God’s work—is the work of recovery: not only to recover what was lost, but to recover all the way back to the eternal purpose of God.
Our Lord Jesus came into this world for this very purpose. So in Psalm 40 He says:
Lo, I am come;
In the roll of the book it is written of Me:
I delight to do Thy will, O my God;
Yea, Thy law is within My heart.
Throughout His life, He was doing His Father’s work. He preached to the poor, He healed the sick, and He cast out demons. All these works were expressions of the work that the Father was doing.
You remember, in John 5, people were amazed that our Lord raised up an infirm man of thirty-eight years. They wondered, “How did it happen?” But the Lord said, “You shall see greater works.” What is that greater work? It is the work He completed on Calvary’s cross.
He went to the cross, and there He bore the sin of the world. There He died in our stead. He brought all creation into that death. And by the cross, He defeated the enemy and put him under His feet.
He cried out, as our brother mentioned, “It is finished.” It is done. The work of recovery is done.
All that was lost was regained. It is said in Colossians 1 that He reconciled all things unto the fullness of God by the blood of His cross.
On the cross of Calvary, our Lord Jesus laid the foundation of recovery. Everything that needed to be done was done on the cross. The foundation was laid.
All that is needed is to have what He has done on the cross realized first in the church, and then through the church to the whole universe.
After our Lord Jesus finished the work of recovery on Calvary’s cross, He was raised from the dead and ascended on high. The Father highly exalted Him and gave Him a name which is above every name. At the name of the Lord Jesus every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.
He is made Head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who filleth all in all.
When the Lord was on earth, after Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, our Lord Jesus said:
Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Our brother mentioned last night how, out of the pierced side of our Lord Jesus, came blood and water. The Holy Spirit came and used that material to build the church, the body of Christ.
Therefore, you find that on the day of Pentecost, one hundred and twenty believers gathered in that upper room. They prayed with one accord—the travailing prayer—with one accord for ten days.
When Pentecost arrived, suddenly the Holy Spirit came upon them. They were filled with the Holy Spirit, and in one Spirit they were baptized into one body.
On that very same day, three thousand were added to that body.
All these people persevered. It was not just an emotional stir. They persevered, continued, and were occupied with the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.
The teaching of the apostles is nothing but the teaching of Christ. What they had received, they delivered to us. They had no teaching of their own. Paul did not have his own teaching. Peter did not have his own teaching. James did not have his own teaching. It is one teaching: the teaching of Christ.
And the fellowship of the apostles: what they had seen and heard, contemplated, touched, known, and experienced, they shared with us. They fellowshipped it; they reported it to us. Their fellowship was with the Father and with the Son.
In other words, the fellowship of the apostles is none other than the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. One teaching, one fellowship: the teaching of Christ and the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
They persevered in it. They were occupied with it. That became their very life, their living.
And in the breaking of bread, there was their first love toward the Lord, remembering Him all the time. They broke bread from house to house. They broke bread at every meal. And they prayed together.
Brothers and sisters, when you read the first four chapters of the book of Acts, what do you see there? You see something glorious appearing on this earth, something that the world had never known.
Here were many people—thousands of people—who were together, not only physically but spiritually. They were together. They were of one mind. There was such unity in their midst.
They exalted the Lord Jesus, and they exhibited the very life of the Lord Jesus. They were totally delivered from self. They were selfless. They loved one another. They cared for one another.
They praised the Lord. They gave thanks in all things. A glorious church! And God added to the assembly daily. What a glorious church it was!
Does not the Lord of glory deserve a glorious church? The Head in glory had now found a body on earth as glorious.
It is true: the first church on earth was a glorious church. But it needed to be completed.
In two ways, there needed to be an increase of the body, so that it might cover the whole earth and all the centuries. This was just the beginning.
At that time, you only had this body appearing in Jerusalem. You did not have it in all Judea, in Samaria, and to the end of the earth. His body needed to grow—grow in size to cover the whole earth.
Secondly, there needed to be an increase of the measure of Christ in that body, until the body came into the stature of the full measure of Christ. It was to be filled to the fullest with Christ.
We may say that the church at that time was in its infancy. It needed to grow into maturity, to grow in size and in depth. It was in an embryonic stage: glorious, but embryonic.
How good it would be if the church would grow and grow and grow into that Head without any interruption, without any departure. But unfortunately, because of the weakness of the human flesh, we find that instead of growing steadily into Christ, it began to depart from Christ.
During the first thirty-some years of the history of the church, we find that in the book of Acts. The book of Acts covers roughly thirty-some years. Our Lord Jesus was on earth thirty-three years, and then the book of Acts gives us the record of the early church during the second thirty-three years of the first century.
We find that it had a truly glorious beginning. They were not without problems.
When the Spirit of God moved upon those people, they were totally delivered from their self. You know, one of the strongest holds on self is possession: “This is mine.” Even in a baby, even in a child, when children are playing with toys, sometimes you find little children struggling and saying, “This is mine.” Self-possession is very deep in the flesh.
But thank God, you find that they were so taken up with Christ that they forgot themselves.
But unfortunately, in Acts 5, you find a couple, Ananias and Sapphira. When they saw other people selling their possessions to help those who were in need, they felt there was such glory and honor in it. They wanted to do the same thing, and yet they could not let go of everything.
They sold their possession, but they gave some and kept some. They tried to deceive the church that this was all. But the Holy Spirit was so present in the early church.
Peter asked, “Is this all?” They said, “Yes.” Peter said, “You cannot deceive the Holy Spirit.” Discipline came swiftly.
Even though there were problems, the problem was solved very swiftly. The result was that a holy fear came upon God’s people. That was great discipline.
It is true that in Acts 6 there was murmuring. The Hellenistic Jews—their widows were overlooked—and they murmured about it.
Thank God, the reaction was quick. The apostles were sensitive to the Spirit of God, and immediately this matter was solved. Seven men were appointed to take care of the tables, so that the apostles could devote themselves to the ministry of the Word and to prayer. The result was that the Word grew.
Out of problems came growth.
The gospel was being preached to Judea, to Samaria, and even to the end of the world. At the end of the book of Acts, Paul was in his hired apartment in Rome as a prisoner, but he preached the kingdom of God and taught Christ.
Even while the body grew, we find in 2 Timothy 3 that Paul says, “In the last days there will be people who are lovers of self, lovers of pleasure, lovers of money, not lovers of God, nor lovers of righteousness.”
I personally believe he does not refer this to worldly people. For the people of the world, they are all lovers of pleasure. That is natural. Lovers of self, lovers of money—that is natural.
I believe what Paul refers to is that even among God’s people there will be lovers of self. We should not love self; we should deny self. But there will be lovers of self.
There will be lovers of money. We should be delivered from mammon, because we cannot serve two masters. We either serve God or mammon. But unfortunately, among the believers, there are lovers of money.
Lovers of pleasure: Moses despised the pleasures and riches of this world. We should be delivered from the pleasure of this world, because God is our delight. He is our pleasure. He satisfies our heart.
But unfortunately, you find that even during those first thirty-three years, towards the end of it, among God’s people there were lovers of self, lovers of money, and lovers of pleasure.
In 2 Peter, Peter mentions that in the last days there will be false teachers. False teachers will come into the midst of the church, and they deny even the Lord who bought them.
These things began to come into the church even in the first thirty-three years of the history of the church.
A number of the epistles were written because of problems. First Corinthians was written because of the problems among the Corinthian believers.
Galatians was written because of the problem there. They began to receive another gospel, which was not the gospel of Jesus Christ. They mixed law with grace.
Colossians was written because of the encroaching Gnosticism in the midst of God’s people. They tried to be perfected through human philosophy and ritualism instead of seeing that all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ, and we are complete in Him.
Oh, thank God. With all these problems coming into the church, we find that through the epistles God gave us more light. God enabled us to enter into a deeper experience of Christ. There was still growth. There was recovery going on.
Then we come to the second thirty years of the first century. Paul was gone. Peter was gone. The early apostles were gone. John, the apostle John, was the only one remaining.
Look at the situation at the end of the first century, the last thirty-three years. Gnosticism entered into the church— theories, speculations about creation, emanations of God. All these things began to come into the church.
Even though they had the three Synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—which gave them the history of our Lord Jesus on earth, yet you find at the time of John, at the end of the first century, people did not have the right concept and understanding of Christ.
For this reason, John was used of God to write the Gospel according to John. John wrote that Gospel in order to refute the wrong concept about Christ.
Thank God, in writing the Gospel of John, he gave us an interpretation of Christ. He shows us the eternity of Christ, the supremacy of Christ, and the great “I am” of Christ. As a matter of fact, we get greater insight into Christ through the Gospel of John.
Also, during that period, even in the church, in 3 John there was someone who wanted to be the head of the church instead of holding fast Christ as the Head.
There was a gradual losing of the first love, as we find in Revelation 2, in the church in Ephesus. Outwardly, everything went on well, but the fire within had gone out.
The Lord said, “I have this against thee: thou hast left thy first love.” So John’s first epistle is all about love. God is love. We know what love is because God has manifested His love to us by giving us His only begotten Son to redeem us, to deliver us. This is love.
How we need to love Him, because He loved us first. And we need to love one another.
Gradually, you find the church was departing. Gradually, love was growing cold. But thank God, God reacted by giving us the epistles and the book of Revelation: more light, deeper insight into Christ, adding to His purpose.
Now we will leave our familiar ground—church history. So far as the Bible is concerned, church history is written in the book of Acts. At the end of the book of Acts, you find Paul there, and sometimes we wonder what happened afterwards.
We are told that of all the books of the Bible, there is only one book that has no ending, and that is the book of Acts. Why? Because the book of Acts is still being written, and it is still in writing today.
But now we move into unfamiliar ground, because we do not have the Word of God written before us. Let us go to the second century, so far as church history goes.
Historically speaking, the seven letters in Revelation 2 and Revelation 3 were written to seven actual churches in Asia Minor, in the Roman province of Asia. These letters were written to them by the risen Lord through His apostle John, to the angels of the seven churches. That is literally true.
But prophetically speaking, we often consider that the letter to the church in Ephesus represents the church at the end of the first century.
Why? Because at the end of the first century, you find the church outwardly. Everything seemed to be fine. The real problem was inside: they lost their first love.
That was the condition of the church at the end of the first century. Because of this, God reacted. God reacted by allowing persecution to come to the church.
So during the second and third centuries, we find that the church went through great persecution. They went through prominent persecution under the Roman Empire.
In the beginning, when the church first came into existence, people did not know who they were. So far as the Roman Empire was concerned, they considered the church as another sect of Judaism.
Judaism, as a religion, had been given legal status in the empire. The Jews were protected. But then the whole situation changed.
The church was separated from Judaism in the eyes of the world. Thank God for it.
So being a Christian became a crime to the empire, because Christians refused to burn incense to Caesar. The Roman emperor, Caesar, was regarded as god, and he was worshipped by the people. Christians refused to burn incense to the idol.
To be a Christian was to be a criminal. They were persecuted ten times, recorded in history. Many died for the testimony of Jesus. But the blood of the martyrs nurtured the church.
Even so, you find that during the second and third centuries, when persecution was lifted, the reaction of the church was not as it should have been.
Instead of being purified by persecution, because of the persecution people had gone through, you find that they began to love the world. They began to lose the simplicity and sincerity of Christ.
It was during that time that the division between the clergy and the laity developed.
It was during that time that, instead of a bishop being an elder, according to the Word of God, the bishop became a separate office. An elder is the person; bishop is his office.
But through the persecution, you find that the bishop became a higher level in the Christian circle. In other words, the whole hierarchical religious system developed during the second and third centuries.
It was in the second century that the teaching of baptismal regeneration was taught—that you are regenerated by being baptized. It was also in the second century that infant baptism was practiced.
Why? If you believe in baptismal regeneration, what will happen if an infant dies before he is baptized? So you find that infant baptism began to be practiced in the second century.
But thank God, in spite of what was happening in the church of the second and third centuries, the testimony of God was not lost.
About the middle of the second century, an anonymous writer wrote about the Christian community. This is what he wrote:
Christians display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life.
They live in their own countries, but simply as sojourners.
Yet they endure all hardships as foreigners.
Every foreign land is to them as a homeland, yet their homeland is foreign.
They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven.
They obey the laws of the land, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives.
They love all, and are reviled by all.
That is the testimony of Jesus, in spite of the decline of the church.
To make a long history short, we will consider the period from the fourth century to the fifteenth century.
The Roman Empire used all its power to destroy the church of God. But the result was that the church came out victorious. The Roman Empire was destroyed.
Anyway, in the beginning of the fourth century, I suppose you all know the story of Constantine the Great. When he was contending with his rival for the throne of the Roman Empire, he said he saw a vision.
It was a vision of a cross, and there were words written: “By this sign conquer.” So he made a flag.
History tells us that the army under him, many of them, were Christians. So I do not know whether he used that to stir up the Christians to fight for him, for his kingdom. I do not know.
But anyway, he overcame his rival. He came to the throne of the Roman Empire.
In the early years of the fourth century, he made a proclamation that there would be freedom of religion of all kinds. But he favored Christianity.
Big cathedrals were built. Money was given. Any soldier who was willing to be baptized would be rewarded with garments and silver. Now, who would not do that?
Christianity became popular. Those bishops were invited to the palace. They began to have political influence.
Constantine was not only the head of the Roman Empire; he chaired the councils of the church. He was the head of the church.
The church and the world were joined in marriage into one. Whether it was the church that baptized the world or the world that baptized the church, I do not know. But you could not see the difference.
Outwardly, Christianity prospered. People flocked into the church. But inwardly, that was the true condition.
Many heathen festivals were baptized to become Christian festivals. The heathen, even while worshipping idols, had many festivals in which they could enjoy themselves. But when they were baptized into Christianity, there were no festivals for them to enjoy themselves. How were you going to hold them in the church?
Very clever: the Roman Church baptized the heathen festivals and made them Christian. So you could still enjoy the pleasure of the world.
By the sixth century, the whole gigantic system of the Roman Catholic Church was settled. The pope was the head of the church. The church ruled the world.
My brothers and sisters, it was in the sixth century that the abominable notion of purgatory was first mentioned.
You know, at that time people did not know that we are saved by grace through faith. They trusted in their own virtues, and because they did not have enough virtues to go to heaven, everybody had to go to purgatory.
We will speak about that later. But anyway, you find that purgatory was first preached in the sixth century, and of course, many, many other things.
To fight against all heresies, there were councils in the third and fourth centuries, and they continued on. Through these councils, they tried to define faith and refute heresies.
The result was that they reduced faith into creeds, and they used physical power to enforce these creeds.
The ignorance of the clergy, the superstition of the people, and all these things grew darker and darker. So we call that time the Dark Ages.
It seemed as if the church had gone into Babylonian captivity.
But then God, in spite of all this, still left with Him His testimony upon this earth. From the fourth century to the fifteenth century, you find that there were here and there groups of Christians who kept the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
For instance, in the second century, you had the Montanists. They emphasized the place of the Holy Spirit among the people of God.
In the third century, you had the Novatians, who stood for pure church fellowship.
In the fourth century, you had the Priscillianists. They knew the gift of God and accepted it by a living faith.
In the seventh to ninth centuries, you had the Paulicians. They called themselves Christians and claimed to be collectively the holy and apostolic church of our Lord Jesus Christ.
During the tenth to fourteenth centuries, you had the Bogomils in Bosnia and the Albigenses in France. Their simplicity and piety were a contrast to the self-indulgence of the clergy at that time.
You had the Arnoldists in Italy, the Waldenses, and the Poor Men of Lyons. They found the Scripture a complete rule of daily life and church order.
The knowledge of Christ dwelling within by the Spirit was to them a truth of prominent importance. Salvation was through faith. The proof of salvation was the believer’s life. Baptism was a testimony to faith in Christ, and the Lord’s Supper was a remembrance of His sacrifice.
Then in the fourteenth century, you also find the Friends of God and the Brethren of the Common Life. They emphasized inner life.
The representative book of the Friends of God is that little book, Theologia Germanica, or German Theology. The representative book of the Brethren of the Common Life is The Imitation of Christ, with which we are familiar.
In the fifteenth century, you had the Hussites—the Church of the United Brethren. One of their leaders, Comenius, said:
Only the one thing needful: return to Christ.
Look to Christ as the only Leader, and walk in His fellowship, setting aside all other ways, until we all reach the goal and have come to the unity of faith.
Then you had John Wycliffe and the Lollards in England. Wycliffe said:
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the only source of true religion, and the Scripture alone is true.
Thank God, even when the church went into the Dark Ages, there were here and there sparks of light.
But even so, these people were labelled as heretics. They were persecuted by the church. The persecuted church became the persecuting church. Many of them were burned. Their books were burned and destroyed.
The church had gone into ruin.
Shall we pray?
Dear Lord, we do confess: when Thou dost deliver Thy treasure to us, how we will despise it, hate it, and corrupt it. Have mercy upon us.
We pray that we may learn the lesson from history, that we may humble ourselves before Thee, that by Thy grace we may stand with Thee against the current. We ask in Thy precious name.