Will you please turn to the letter to the Ephesians? Ephesians Chapter 1. We will read from verses 15 through 23.
Wherefore I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is in you, and the love which ye have toward all the saints,
cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him;
having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
and what the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of the strength of His might,
which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenly places,
far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come:
and He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church,
which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.
Chapter 3. We will read from verses 14 through 21.
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father,
from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, that ye may be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inward man;
that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God.
Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
unto Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations for ever and ever. Amen.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee for bringing us through this week to the last full day of this conference. We do thank Thee for all the mercies, kindness, and grace that Thou hast so bountifully bestowed upon us.
And Lord, as we come to the last session of the morning ministry, Lord, we do tremble before this. We are afraid that man’s words may hide that which Thou dost desire to speak to our hearts.
Lord, we do pray that this morning Thou wilt set aside man and come in Thy Spirit. Lord, speak. Speak into the very being of our hearts. Do not allow us to go around.
But Lord, we do pray this morning that that which has not been finished shall be finished this morning. We ask, Lord, that Thou wilt touch every heart and bring us into such sympathy and oneness with Thy eternal purpose.
Lord, make us a people who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. Lord, our desire is, “Thy will be done on earth, as in heaven.” We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
This is the last session of ministry in the morning. We have been considering together through the week this matter of recovery.
Recovery, as we have said before, is according to God’s eternal purpose. In other words, God is recovering everything that He purposed in eternity past in Christ Jesus.
Men may fail, and men do fail, but God never fails. He will attain what He has purposed in Himself and in His Son.
In the first session, we thought about the cry of the centuries. It is the cry for recovery. God desires that everything will be recovered to His original design, and all who love the Lord through the centuries respond with crying.
But when God does the work of recovery, we mentioned that He works according to certain principles. Recovery is according to grace. It never is something that originates or is brought into being through men. It is grace from the beginning to the very end.
This is something that we need to remember all the time. Not only at the beginning is it grace that brings in recovery, but all the way to the end it is pure grace of God. Men are the recipients of grace. Men must cooperate with grace. Nevertheless, it is grace.
We also mentioned that the principle of recovery is travail. It is the travail of our Lord Jesus that the church is born. Through the centuries, in every instance of any recovery movement on earth, you will find that it is always preceded by prevailing prayer.
Before Pentecost, one hundred and twenty people travailed in prayer with one accord in that upper room. That principle runs throughout the recovery history of the church.
Recovery is always connected with the Word. It never happens without a return to the Word of God. It is the Word of God that touches the hearts of some people, transforms them, possesses them, and through them that part of the truth is recovered.
Recovery is the work of the Holy Spirit.
Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.
— Zechariah 4:6
In every recovery, there is the sign of the cross. If the cross is missing, no matter how successful, how exciting, or how good things may look, it is not in the line of the recovery work of God.
The cross must work to take away all that stands in the way of God’s purity and to bring in all that is of Christ.
Recovery is the recovery of love: first love toward God, and love for one another. Recovery is unto reality. God is not interested in outward form or outward correctness. God is interested in spiritual reality.
Then we find another principle in the recovery work of God. Due to the slowness and dullness of God’s people, recovery is usually first realized among the overcomers. As our brother already mentioned, the overcomers are not someone special. They are only the normal ones, willing to respond to grace.
These are the principles that govern recovery, and in every recovery movement in church history you will find all these principles involved.
When the church was first born on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem, we saw a glorious church.
There you find these people, a great number of them, gathered together as one. They gathered together unto the Lord Jesus. The headship of Christ was evident. The presence of the Holy Spirit was evident. The love among these believers was evident. Christ was expressed through these people.
But the church needs to grow. As we mentioned already, it needs to grow not only in the increase of the body, so that the body may cover the whole earth, but also in the increase of Christ in the body. That is the meaning of the fullness of Christ.
But again, due to the weakness of our flesh and the attack of the enemy, we find that in church history, instead of the church growing from glory to glory, it begins to depart, to decline, and to go away into something that is not of Christ and not in the original purpose of God.
We find that even in the first century, spots began to appear. In the succeeding centuries, more spots and more wrinkles entered the church.
When you come to the end of the fifteenth century, it seems as if the church had lost all the glorious and wonderful truth that God had given to the church. Tradition reigned over Christianity. Man took the place of the Holy Spirit.
Instead of being a living organism, the body of Christ, to contain the riches of Christ and manifest the glory and power of Christ, the church became a great worldly institution. It had power in the world, but it had lost its power before God.
Today, if we look at contemporary Christianity, what do we see? Do we see the church growing in maturity? Do we see the church growing into glory? Or do we see that the church has drifted further and further away from the truth of God?
Where is the testimony of Jesus in the church? Can we distinguish the church from the world? Where does the world end and the church begin? There is no separation, no distinction. There is no testimony.
We have come to the time, as our brother mentioned last night, of the seven churches in Revelation Chapters 2 and 3. Prophetically, they can be viewed as representing the whole of church history.
The church in Ephesus stands for the church at the end of the first century. What do we see in that church? Outwardly, everything seems to be going well.
They had work, labor, and knowledge. They could distinguish false prophets and false apostles. I am afraid today we do not even have that kind of discernment.
They hated the Nicolaitans, whom the Lord hated. That is, they rejected the distinction between clergy and laity. I am afraid today we endorse it. We live by it. “Without that, how can we live? How can we go on? How can we be a church if we do not have a pastor to take care of us, to take care of every spiritual thing?”
Well, at the end of the first century they were not as bad as we are today. You find that they had all these good and commendable things, and yet the Lord was angry with them.
The Lord said, “I have this against thee: in spite of all your good things, I am against you, because you have lost your first love.”
Brothers and sisters, the church in Ephesus was famed for their love. They had such love for the Lord. You remember how they burned all those magic books, worth a great deal. They loved the Lord and were willing to get rid of anything that stood between them and the Lord.
Because of their intense love for the Lord, Paul was able to communicate to them the whole counsel of God. He was able to share with them the mystery of God. You find that in the letter to the Ephesians.
And yet, at the end of the first century, that first love was gone. They did all these things out of duty, out of habit, out of tradition, and out of themselves—not constrained by the love of Christ.
That is the situation at the end of the first century. God reacted to that condition and sent persecutions to the church.
The second- and third-century history is typified by the second letter, the letter to the church in Smyrna. The church went through great persecution, and through persecution the first love was revived.
Thank God, because as we study church history in the second and third centuries, we find that what is most prominent and impressive is the blood of the martyrs.
You cannot read the story of the martyrs of the second and third centuries without weeping. For the love of Christ, they were willing to go through all kinds of tortures—some very slow tortures.
They had opportunity to escape, yes, only if they would burn incense to Caesar and acknowledge him. They would be spared. Yet the love of God so filled their hearts that they were willing to die for the One who loved us so much and gave Himself for us.
First love was restored to many of the saints, even in the second and third centuries. But unfortunately, whenever there was a relaxation of persecution, it seemed as if many reacted in the wrong way. They began to love the world.
Heresies came into the church in the time of weakness. The most notable heresy during that time was Arianism, which denied the deity of Christ. Think of that: in the church there was teaching that denied the deity, the divinity, of Christ.
They denied the very way of salvation that God had provided for us. Then there was the Pelagian heresy. They denied the sinfulness of man. Man was not born with sin, and therefore man was able to choose the right way. Salvation, they said, was by human effort.
The very basis of the gospel was being attacked. God raised instruments to refute these heresies. Because of the confusion, church councils were called.
Church councils were called in the beginning to refute these heresies and to define the truth. But unfortunately, you will find that the first church council was chaired by Constantine the Great. In other words, the Roman emperor chaired that council.
There was no division between the world and the church. They reduced the living thing into a dead creed, and they used political power to enforce the creed. Whoever did not obey or submit to the creed would be persecuted unto death.
As we have already mentioned, when we come to the fourth and fifth centuries, represented by the church in Pergamum, we find such a marriage between the church and the world.
It was represented by the papal system. The papal system was fully established, and it was during that time that you find all kinds of teachings, such as purgatory and indulgences.
Then, from the seventh to the fifteenth century, represented by the church in Thyatira, Jezebel, the false prophetess, was teaching the church. So we come to what was called the Dark Ages.
Not only was purgatory preached and indulgence practiced, but there was also the worship of Mary, the worship of saints, and the worship of relics.
“Pray to Mary,” they said, “because she is a woman and her heart is soft. If you pray to the Lord Jesus, He may not hear you, but if you pray to Mary, she has a tender heart.”
“Pray to the saints,” they said, “because they have more merits than they need to go to heaven. If you pray to them, then some merit will be imparted to you.”
It seems as if all the truth that God had committed to His church was lost. The church truly entered into the darkest of the Dark Ages.
Then God began to react again. As we mentioned yesterday, it is represented by the fifth church in Revelation Chapter 3: Sardis. The church in Sardis tells us the story of the Reformation and the Protestant churches.
In the beginning, it was such a tremendous recovery work of God. The Bible, which had been chained, was now in the hands of God’s people. Justification by faith was recovered.
But in the letter to Sardis, you can see: “Thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou art dead.” Is that not a perfect picture of the Protestant churches from the sixteenth century up to our time?
When we come to the nineteenth century, so far as the prophetic interpretation is concerned, we come to the time of the church in Philadelphia. Truly, as we mentioned yesterday, when the Brethren movement began, it was Philadelphia.
There was such love among the brethren. They kept the Word of God. They did not deny the name of our Lord Jesus. They refused to be called by any other names or to gather unto any other name.
They made the Word of God the rule and guide of their personal life and corporate life. The simplicity of Christ was restored as they gathered together. It was glorious.
But unfortunately, you remember that the Lord warned the church in Philadelphia. They needed to be careful lest their crown be taken away.
Brothers and sisters, we are now in the twentieth century. Are we not now in the time of the last letter, the church in Laodicea? We are living in the Laodicean age.
If you look at contemporary Christianity, do you not see a lukewarmness that prevails over Christianity? If you say it is hot, it is not. If you say it is cold, it is not. It is just lukewarm.
They seem to have everything, and yet they have nothing. But they are not conscious of it. They are proud of themselves. They think they are rich and are becoming richer.
The Lord said, “Thou knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”
Brothers and sisters, are we not in this Laodicean condition? Is the church, through the centuries, becoming better, or has it become worse? How do you think it?
I am afraid, if we are honest, we have to acknowledge that the church is in ruin. How can we say that the church is not in ruin when we see all these symptoms before us?
Some people even think the church is getting better, stronger, and more powerful; that it is going to dominate the world, convert the world, and prepare for the coming of Christ. This is dominion theology.
“We are getting stronger and stronger. We are going to control the world and prepare it for Christ to come. Christ cannot come until we prepare the world for Him.” Are we?
How we need to ask the Lord to open our eyes to see that the church in general, as we can see it, is truly in ruin—ruined to such an extent that we wonder whether it can ever be restored.
And yet, brothers and sisters, on the other hand, we are talking about the recovery work of God. Throughout the centuries, God has never failed to apprehend some on earth to be true to Him, true to His original purpose, and to bear the testimony of Jesus.
They are always a minority. They are always being persecuted. Their history is always hidden. Nevertheless, God has His own people from the first century to the present time.
There have always been people faithful to the purpose of God. They refused to call themselves by any other names but the name of Christians. They made the Bible the rule of their life individually and corporately. They lived according to the simplicity of Christ.
But, as we said, starting from the sixteenth century, it seems that God is in a hurry in the work of recovery because the time is closing. The recovery becomes more universal, and the influence spreads far and wide.
It begins with the Reformation, and so on and so forth. God is recovering all the time. One truth after another is being recovered. Through these centuries many truths in the Word have been recovered.
One thing you notice: God recovers what has been lost. Not only that which is lost, but He recovers all the way back to the original truth that God gave to His church. It is getting more and more glorious.
To use a few examples: during the Dark Ages of the church, the very basis of the gospel—that we are saved by grace through faith—was lost. People thought they had to be saved by merit, by works.
But then, thank God for the Reformers: justification by faith was recovered. But do you not know that with the Reformers, they knew justification by faith in a limited way?
To the Reformers, how were we justified? It was an exchange. Christ took our sins in His body on the cross, and then He exchanged them by giving His righteousness to us. He took our sins, and we received His righteousness. A good bargain for us!
Potentially, we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ. Even many choruses we sing are still singing that way: “We are clothed with His righteousness.” Is this the correct understanding?
It was not until the nineteenth century, with the Brethren, that when they looked into this matter of justification by faith, they saw that it is not merely by imputation; it is by union.
Christ was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.
— Romans 4:25
In other words, it is our union with Christ that is our justification. We are not merely clothed with the righteousness of Christ; we are clothed with Christ as our righteousness.
There is a great difference there. The righteousness of Christ qualified Him to be the spotless sacrifice for us. If He did not have righteousness, He could not be our substitute—the righteous for the unrighteous. His righteousness qualified Him to be our Savior.
But we are justified because today we are clothed with Christ as our righteousness. He is our righteousness. He is our justification before God.
Brothers and sisters, it was not until our time—I wonder, because I have not read it anywhere else; I wonder if it is through Brother Sparks and Brother Nee—that we find even this truth of justification by faith has gone deeper.
Why? Because what is justification? Our Lord Jesus is not only our Justifier; He is our justification.
But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.
— 1 Corinthians 1:30
What is righteousness? Righteousness is not just an act. Righteousness is not merely some merit of somebody else given to you to make you righteous. Righteousness is a Person. Christ is our righteousness.
So you begin to see that the truth of justification is a Person. It is not an act; it is a Person. Now it begins to go back to the original purpose of God. One truth is brought back to God’s original purpose.
Brothers and sisters, I wonder, do you see this? I think the difference is heaven and earth. Christ Himself is our righteousness. He is not only our Justifier; He is our justification. That recovery is more glorious.
For another example: sanctification. During the past centuries, especially from the fourteenth century onward, there were people seeking sanctification. “How can we live a holy life?”
The mystics desired to live a holy life, completely separated from the world and wholly devoted to God. The way they tried to enter into sanctification or holiness was by self-effort.
They ill-treated their bodies. They beat their bodies and tortured their bodies, trying to get rid of evil and suppress their desires. They did everything in order to reach a holy life.
Some people got away from the world, living in monasteries. Why? Because they wanted to live a holy life. As long as they mingled with people, they thought they could never be holy.
Some people even became hermits. “If in a monastery you have lots of monks, then become a hermit, all by yourself, in order to live a holy life.”
The truth of sanctification that Christ gave to His church was completely lost during those dark ages. Even the Reformers did not recover or restore sanctification.
I think the greatest headache to the Reformers was those who claimed that they were now saved by faith but did not live a separated life. That was the problem with the Reformers.
They preached justification by faith: “If you believe, you are saved.” Fine. “I believe,” and then you live your own life. After all, you are saved. Where is the incentive to holiness? You can go to heaven, so why not have the pleasure of the world too?
But thank God, through Wesley, sanctification was finally recovered. We are called to a holy life, and God has made provision for it. By faith, you enter into a holy life.
But many people found difficulty. They believed, and yet something seemed to be missing. So you find in the nineteenth century the Keswick teaching and the teaching of the higher Christian life.
They said, “We need faith, believing that when Christ died on the cross, we died. We must reckon ourselves dead unto sin in Christ and alive unto God in Christ.”
“But in order to maintain that holiness, you need to consecrate your life to the Lord. Yield your members as instruments of righteousness.” That was the way they taught you could maintain the higher Christian life: consecration.
But is that all of the truth of holiness? Thank God, again I say, in our century, it is again through our brothers that we see: What is holiness?
Holiness is not an act, just a concept or a virtue by itself. Holiness is Christ. God has made Him our sanctification.
The flesh can never be holy. No matter how you work on it, the flesh is flesh. The holy oil cannot be poured upon the flesh. No matter how you try, you cannot be holy.
Not I, but Christ. He is my holiness. Allow Him to live out from us; that is a holy life. If we try to live the Christian life ourselves, we fail.
Brothers and sisters, in the original purpose of God, God has not meant to have holiness as a blessing given to us apart from Christ. That blessing is in Christ Jesus. It is Christ Himself.
So you find that we have been recovered in this matter of sanctification and holiness back to the original purpose of God.
Maybe we should mention something corporate as an example. How about the church?
We find that the church is the body of Christ, the fullness of Christ, who fills all in all. That is the church.
At the very beginning, in the book of Acts, from Chapters 2 to 4, you do find the church as the body of Christ. Christ filled that body. Christ was expressed through that body.
There was such unity and love among the brothers and sisters that even the world began to point to them and say, “See how they love one another.”
But gradually the church lost its vitality, lost the spring of its life, and became an organization. Church life became social life. It became a great kingdom above all kingdoms.
The Reformers concentrated their efforts upon personal salvation. They were not able, and they did not, do anything about the corporate life of God’s people.
But thank God, we find that in the nineteenth century among the Brethren, the truth of the church began to be recovered. They came together simply according to the Word of God.
But has the truth of the church been fully recovered? You have assemblies here and there. They do not have a name because they keep the Name—the Name that is above every name.
You see people gathered together as the church, with elders and with deacons. You even see in these assemblies the teaching of the universal priesthood of believers. But how far is it practiced?
Again, in our century, brothers and sisters, again through our brothers: What is the church? The church is the Christ.
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is the Christ.
— 1 Corinthians 12:12
Now, brothers and sisters, in the past, when people read that, they just read through without sensing anything unusual. Of course, the Scripture cannot be wrong.
But when you read that verse, you stop and think, “There is a mistake here. One body, many members; many members, one body; so also is the church.” Now, that is the word one would expect.
But you dare not change the Bible, so you still read, “So also is the Christ.” Yet in your mind you think it means the church, because it really does mean the church. Yes, it does.
I think probably through Brother Sparks and through Brother Nee this has been brought out. What is the church? The church is the expansion of Christ. The church is Christ in His corporate expression. The church is nothing but Christ Himself.
The church is not just an assembly of people, even believers. Some people think the church is a building. We know better than that. We say the church is the people.
The problem in the Dark Ages was that the church was full of people, most of them unsaved. But that is not the church. So we say, “What is the church?” The church is people—but a special kind of people, a peculiar people: people who are saved, people who believe in the Lord Jesus.
Now, when these people come together—now, I have already passed time, and my brother again gave me permission and said, “Just go on and finish it.” I am only at the beginning of it.
So, if you have to leave, please feel free to do so.
Now, our problem with the church lies here. Thank God, we have a group of people who are truly saved, and we meet together.
We are supposed to have no problem. We are supposed to love one another, care for one another, prefer one another, and work together with one another in perfect harmony.
But as our brother mentioned, where can you find such a perfect church on earth? As long as we are there, there will be problems. Man is always a problem. Our flesh is always a problem, because it cannot be changed.
So what is the church? One year, when Brother Sparks and I were ministering together, I used an illustration. Brother Sparks was sitting there, so I had to say something to cover myself. I said, “I am going to say something that is not spiritual.”
I said, “What is the church? Suppose you have only three believers on earth, and these three believers are Peter, John, and James. They are the best.”
When these three come together, you have the church. Now, unfortunately, Peter always wanted to be the first. He took it for granted that he was the first. He had to be the spokesman. He was so quick.
But one time John and James jumped ahead of him. You remember that story. Now, if the church is composed of these three wonderful, gifted believers, what will happen?
I think at least it will be split into two. John and James, being brothers, stand together as the majority, and Peter, the minority, cannot submit.
So what is the church? Well, the church is the Christ in Peter, plus the Christ in John, plus the Christ in James, equal to the church. Now you are right. The church is Christ in them.
That is the church. But the problem is, they are also there. Christ is there, but they are also there. Sometimes they even try to usurp the place of Christ. You remember Peter did that.
Peter told the Lord, “Never shall this be unto Thee. Do not dare to do that.” Even at Pentecost, when the sheet came down and the Lord said, “Kill and eat,” Peter said, “No, Lord. That is not kosher.”
Well, that is not the church. Then what is the church? The church is Christ in Peter minus Peter, plus Christ in John minus John, plus Christ in James minus James, equal to Christ.
I hope it is clear. It is technical, but Brother Sparks did not approve of that! But it is just an illustration.
So, brothers and sisters, when this is discovered, is it in the Bible? It is in 1 Corinthians Chapter 12. But it is a recovery to the original purpose of God. What is that purpose? Christ.
Everything is to be summed up in Christ. That is God’s original purpose. The church is the expression of Christ—nothing else.
Well, you will see that the church is progressing. The church is progressing all the time, all the way into the eternal purpose of God. It is getting more and more glorious.
The light that shines upon every truth is getting brighter and brighter, and our experience of Christ is getting deeper and deeper.
Brothers and sisters, it is on the way to that glorious church, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.
Now, since your brother gave me liberty, I will go on. We are now standing before these two opposite concepts. One is that the church is in ruin; it is beyond repair. The other is that the church is in progress, being recovered to that glorious church, to that fullness of Christ.
Today we are standing before these two views. It is a paradox. Now, where do we stand?
On the one hand, I believe we have to confess that the church is in ruin. Some people refuse to accept that. They say the church is not in ruin.
Now, there is an explanation that I accept. Maybe I should mention it. I tried to skip it, but our Lord Jesus said:
Upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
— Matthew 16:18
Who is the Builder of the church? Christ. He is building His church on Himself, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Can you imagine that our Lord Jesus would build something on that rock with materials other than Himself? Can you believe that He would use the wrong material in building His church?
Can you believe that somehow He made a mistake in the building of the church and it has to be corrected later? Can you believe that what He builds in the church has some flaw, some spots, that give ground to the enemy to overcome? I cannot.
The Lord said, “I will build My church upon this rock, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” Why? Because our Lord, on the cross, has already overcome all the powers of Hades. He holds the keys of death and Hades.
So nothing that the Lord has built or is building is imperfect. It is glorious, victorious, triumphant, overcoming—no problem.
So how can you say the church is in ruin? If you look at it from that view, we have to say the church is never in ruin. It is always glorious, glorious all the way in the process of building.
What is in ruin actually comes from us. We are trying to help Him build His church, and we use the wrong materials. We are the wrong materials.
We work in a way that is not the way it should be done. We place materials in the wrong places. We are building with wood, hay, and stubble.
If these things are not destroyed by the enemy today, they will be destroyed by fire at the judgment seat of Christ.
So when we say the church is ruined, it simply means that we are building the church, and see what a mess we have made. If the enemy will destroy it, thank God for it. We welcome Him to do that work.
But anyway, to us, looking at the church realistically, we have to say the church is in ruin. That is what we see.
But, dear brothers and sisters, if we deny that the church is in ruin, there is no hope for recovery.
The reason why the recovery work of God is not proceeding as it should is because, in the mind of many of God’s children, they still believe the church is not so bad. It may need a little correction, but it is still all right.
That is the attitude of the Laodicean church: “We are all right. We are rich, and we are getting richer. We have everything.”
If we have that kind of attitude, brothers and sisters, there is no hope. The ruin is final.
So let us see that, on the one hand, brothers and sisters, the Lord has to convict us that the church is in ruin. He has to convict us in such a deep way that we really accept it.
Because of this, we have to rend our hearts, not our garments. When we see the ruin of the church, it brings us to repentance. It brings us to cry and say, “Oh Lord, have mercy.”
This is something still lacking among God’s people. We are complacent and indifferent. We think it is not perfect, but it is all right; we can go on like this.
That is an impossible situation. The Lord says, “I will spew thee out of My mouth.” No hope.
The church, as we can see it today, has no hope. In 2 Thessalonians 2, it says that before the day of the Lord comes, there will be apostasy. There will be a general falling away. The church is not getting better; the church is getting worse. It is beyond repair.
Oh, brothers and sisters, may the Lord convict us to see the condition of the church today: miserable, pitiful, naked, blind, poor. That should bring us to our knees.
We need, as God’s people, to humble ourselves before Him and ask God to spare us.
On the other side, we need to accept all the recovery works of God through the centuries. We need to commit ourselves fully into the recovery work of God.
God is recovering His original purpose in Christ. Thank God, many truths have been recovered. Almost, we can say, all the truth that God committed to the church in the beginning has been recovered.
What are we going to do with that? Are we possessing our possessions? We have all this heritage, but are we possessing our possessions? Is there reality? God forbid that we should merely have doctrine.
Do we really experience our Lord Jesus as our righteousness daily? Do we experience Him as our sanctification? Do we hold on to the headship of Christ? Are we united together in love?
Brothers and sisters, do we follow what the Spirit is doing today?
To me, I feel that the prayers of the Apostle Paul in the letter to the Ephesians are something that needs to be our prayer.
We are now standing on the one hand seeing the ruin of the church as complete and final; yet on the other hand, we see the recovery work of God coming also to its glory.
When we are standing before these two opposite scenes, what we need is to pray: to pray that God will give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation unto the full knowledge of Him, unto the full knowledge of His eternal purpose.
We need to see that not just in our minds, as a teaching that we receive. We need to ask the Lord to give us spiritual sight—not with naked eyes, but in our spirit—that He will reveal the eternal purpose of God to us.
He will open the eyes of our hearts, that we may see the hope of His calling.
Brothers and sisters, He is calling us. He is calling us as His body. As His body, He is calling us to maturity. He is calling us to be His bride.
That is the very heart of our Lord Jesus. He wants to fill us with Himself, not just individually but corporately. The church is the fullness of Christ, as Christ is the fullness of God.
That is His calling. He calls us to be His bride, to be filled with Him—Christ all in all.
God has made Him Head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. He is the Head. He has given all this to the church, that the church may overcome all things and let Christ be all in all.
We need to see the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. Brothers and sisters, we have a rich inheritance. Christ is our inheritance. The unsearchable riches of Christ are ours.
But do you know? In the eternal purpose of God, it is the riches of His inheritance in the saints. In other words, we are given to Him by God to be His inheritance. That is the riches of His inheritance.
Sometimes I think we really got the better part. We got Christ as our inheritance. Oh, how rich it is! And He got us as His inheritance—of barren land!
But that is not God’s original purpose. God’s original purpose is that we be an inheritance so rich for Christ to enjoy.
Unless the unsearchable riches become ours, how can we be a rich inheritance to Him? But you see, how can it be done? It is impossible.
What is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe? We are not able to do that, but there is a power there. This is the power of God—the power that raised Jesus from the dead and put Him on the throne, high above every principality, authority, and power.
That power, brothers and sisters, is today working in the church. But there is a condition: toward those who believe. Brothers and sisters, do we believe?
Believing involves submitting, yielding, and obeying. The work is done by Him, not by ourselves. He is ready to do that. The only thing is whether we are willing to give ourselves to Him and give Him a chance.
That vision of the eternal purpose of God is very costly. As our brother already mentioned, it costs our life.
Are we ready? Do we respond to what the Spirit says to the churches?
Of course, we know our weakness. Therefore Paul prayed again. Seeing that vision—Christ all in all, all things summed up in Christ, the church the fullness of Christ, His bride—you realize that it is impossible with man.
That is the reason why Paul prayed that we may be strengthened with power through the Holy Spirit in the inner man. Oh, how our spirit needs to be strengthened, brothers and sisters.
It needs a strong spirit to accept such a great vision. We must rise up in our spirit. We want to take possession. We want to be united to that vision. We want to be in that vision.
May the Spirit of God strengthen our inner man and give us a strong spirit to desire after this eternal purpose.
That Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith. In other words, Christ will fill our whole soul.
It is like the Shekinah glory of God in the Holy of Holies. Because there is the ark, that glory permeates the whole house.
Brothers and sisters, may the glory of the Lord that dwells in our spirit come and fill our whole being: our love, our thoughts, our will. May He fill our whole being, that we may be rooted and grounded in love.
As Evan Roberts’ heart was melted by love, brothers and sisters, we will be able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, length, depth, and height of the love of Christ—yes, beyond speaking.
And we will be filled unto all the fullness of God.
So, brothers and sisters, as we have considered together these days the eternal purpose of God and His recovery, we do look to the Lord that it will not just become a teaching, something new to take home.
We pray to the Lord that He will convict us. He will not only bring that vision before us, but bring us into that vision and make us willing, for His sake, to pay any cost and to follow what the Spirit is leading.
That we may hasten, as it were, that day when all things shall be summed up in Christ and He will have a companion at His side. May the Lord help us. Shall we pray?
Dear heavenly Father, we do want to praise and thank Thee for such a purpose that Thou hast purposed even before the foundation of the world in Thyself.
We praise and thank Thee that it is Thy purpose to sum up all things in Christ. It is Thy purpose to give Thy Son a rich inheritance.
We thank Thee for involving us, for calling us. Lord, we do pray that we may not be dull, indifferent, or contented.
We pray that Thou wilt stir our spirit, that we may repent and return to the simplicity of Christ, and let Thee do Thy work in each one of us until Thy glory is manifested.
In the name of our Lord Jesus, for His glory. Amen.