We find that the church is the body of Christ, the fullness of Christ, Who filleth all in all. That is the church.
At the very beginning, in the book of Acts, from Acts 2 to 4, you do find that the church is the body of Christ. Christ fills that body. Christ is expressed through that body.
There is such unity and love among the brothers and sisters. 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 a gigantic, gigantic organization. Church life became social life. It became a great kingdom above all kingdoms.
The Reformers centered 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 began to meet together simply according to the Word of God.
But has the truth 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 that the teaching of the universal priesthood of believers is taught. But how far is it practiced?
Again, in our century, brothers and sisters, through our brothers, this question has been brought out: 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 it, either they just read it through without sensing anything wrong. Of course, Scripture cannot be wrong.
But when you read that verse, you stop and think, “There is a mistake here.” The body is one, with many members; then many members, one body; so also is the church. Now, that is the word that seems right.
But you dare not change the Bible. So you still read it, “So also is the Christ,” but in your mind you know it means the church. Does it really mean the church? Yes, it does.
I think probably it was through Brother Sparks and through Brother Nee that this was 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. You know, as our brother mentioned already, some people say they forgot their umbrella in the church. Now, people think that the church is a building. We know better than that.
We say that the church is the people. The problem in the Dark Ages was that the church was full of people, most of them unsaved. Some few were saved, but that is not the church.
So we say, “What is the church?” The church is the people. Yes, it is 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. He said, “Just go on and finish it.” I am only in the beginning of it.
So if you have to leave, 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, and Peter, a 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. Now that is the church. But the problem is, they are also there.
Christ is there, but they are also there. Now, as long as they are there, sometimes they even try to usurp the place of Christ. You remember Peter did that.
Peter told Him, “I will never do that. Do not You dare to do that.” Even at Pentecost, when he saw the sheet coming down and the Word said, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat,” he said, “Oh, no, Lord; for I have never eaten anything common and unclean.”
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 would 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 12—but it is a recovery to the original purpose of God. And what is that purpose? Christ.
You see that everything is to be summed up in Christ. That is God’s original purpose. And 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, 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.
Well, since the 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, to be recovered to that glorious church, to that fullness of Christ. Now 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 that. 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 has to correct it later? Can you believe that what He builds in the church has some flaw, some spots, that give ground to the enemy to overcome? Can you believe that?
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 Jesus 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 in this building is imperfect. It is glorious. It is victorious, triumphant, overcoming—no problem—holy, without blemish.
So how can you say the church is in ruin? Now, 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 this: we are trying to help Him to build His church, and we use the wrong materials. We are the wrong materials.
We work in a way other than the way it should be done. We place materials in the wrong places. We are building with wood, hay, and stubble.
And these things, if they are not being destroyed by the enemy today, will be destroyed by fire at the judgment seat of Christ.
So, when we say the church is ruined, it simply means that because we are building the church, 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, 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. They think it needs 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.
And 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, “O Lord, have mercy.”
This is something still lacking among God’s people. We are complacent, indifferent. We think, “It is not perfect, but all right. We can go on like this.”
That is an impossible situation. The Lord said, “I will spew you out of My mouth.” No hope.
It is true: 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, and poor.
And that should bring us to our knees. We need, as God’s people, to humble ourselves before Him and ask God to spare us.
Yes, that is one side. 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 that 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 a rich heritage, but are we possessing all our possessions? Is there the reality?
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.
Because we are now standing, on the one hand, seeing the ruin of the church as complete and finalized; yet, on the other hand, we see that the recovery work of God is also glorious.
And when we are standing before these two opposite views, 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 mind, as our brothers say, just as a teaching that we receive. We need to ask the Lord to give us vision—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 heart, 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 filleth all in all. He is the Head over all things to the church, that the church may overcome all these things and that Christ may 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, and that is the riches of His inheritance.
Sometimes I thought, we really got the better bargain. We got Christ as our inheritance. Oh, how rich it is! And He got us as His inheritance—a barren land.
But that is not God’s original purpose. God’s original purpose is: can 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? You say, “How can it be done?” It is impossible.
Well, what is the surpassing 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 all principalities, authorities, and powers.
That mighty 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? But believing involves submitting, yielding, obeying.
The work is done by Him, not by ourselves. And He is ready to do that. The only thing is whether we are willing to give ourselves to Him, to 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 willing? Do we respond to what the Spirit says to the churches?
Of course, we know our weakness. And therefore Paul prays again. See that vision: Christ all in all; all things summed up in Christ; the church, the fullness of Christ, His bride.
When you see such a vision, you realize it is impossible with man. And that is the reason why Paul prayed that we may be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inward 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 that vision. We want to be united to that vision. We want to be in that vision.
May the Spirit of God strengthen our inward man and give us a strong spirit to desire after His 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 the veil is rent, 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. He fills our whole being, that we may be rooted and grounded in love.
As Evan Roberts’ heart was melted by love, then, brothers and sisters, we will be able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ.
Yes, beyond speaking. And we will be filled with all the fullness of God.
So, brothers and sisters, as we consider together these days the eternal purpose of God and its recovery, we do look to the Lord that it will not just become a teaching, something new to us, or another hope.
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.
Make us willing, for His sake, to pay any cost, to follow what the Spirit is leading.
That we may speed the day, as it were, when all things shall be summed up in Christ, and He will have a companion that is His likeness.
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 do 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 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 and among us, until Thy glory is manifested.
In the name of our Lord Jesus, for His glory. Amen.