Will you please turn to the Gospel according to John, chapter 5, verse 17? John 5:17.
But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
The letter to the Ephesians, chapter 1—Ephesians 1:9-10:
Having made known unto us the mystery of His will,
according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,
unto a dispensation of the fullness of the times,
to sum up all things in Christ,
the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth.
Verses 22 and 23:
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 fullness of Him that filleth all in all.
Colossians, chapter 1. We will read from verse 15 through verse 23.
Who is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation;
for in Him were all things created,
in the heavens and upon the earth,
things visible and things invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers;
all things have been created through Him, and unto Him.And He is before all things,
and in Him all things consist.
And He is the head of the body, the church;
who is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead;
that in all things He might have the preeminence.For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in Him should all the fullness dwell;
and through Him to reconcile all things unto Himself,
having made peace through the blood of His cross;
through Him, I say, whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens.And you, being in time past alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil works,
yet now hath He reconciled
in the body of His flesh through death,
to present you holy and without blemish and unreproveable before Him:
if so be that ye continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast,
and not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye heard,
which was preached in all creation under heaven;
whereof I Paul was made a minister.
Let us pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, we do praise and thank Thee that the veil was rent within, that we can approach Thy throne of grace with holy boldness. We do praise and thank Thee, knowing that we are in Thy presence, and we do expect the light of Thy countenance to shine upon our hearts.
We pray that Thou wilt quicken Thy Word to our hearts, that they may be living and operative, and it may be unto the praise of Thy glory. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
The burden the Lord has put upon my heart is on this matter of recovery.
We will share together on this matter in four different areas:
First of all, brothers and sisters, we know that our God is a God who works. If God does not work, then nothing will come into being, and nothing will be done. God will be all by Himself alone from eternity to eternity.
But thank God, He is a working God. As we open the Word of God, we find immediately, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” God created. He worked.
And the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters. The Holy Spirit is like a hen brooding over the eggs, imparting His warmth to the eggs that will bring forth life. Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. The Word speaks, and it is done.
So from the very beginning, we find that the Triune God is the God who works.
Then, when we turn to the New Testament, we find in the Gospel according to John, chapter 1, verses 1 through 3:
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
All things came into being through Him;
and without Him was not anything made that hath been made.
Again, we find the Word—the expression, the speech, the utterance of God. God desires to express Himself, to reveal Himself, to make Himself known to us. It is by the Word that all things were created.
Then, following that, we find in John 1:14:
And the Word became flesh,
and dwelt among us,
full of grace and truth.
The Word not only creates, but the Word became flesh. The Word came into the world to do a very special work.
In John 5:17, the Lord Jesus said:
My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
The Father works, and the Son works. Then, of course, when you turn to the book of Acts, you find that on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came down from heaven, and the one hundred and twenty believers were baptized in one Spirit into one body. The Holy Spirit has come to do a very special work.
You know, in Revelation 5, we find that the Holy Spirit is like seven horns and seven eyes, sent into all the world to do a very special work. So again, you find the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are all working, and they are all working with a very specific work to do.
Secondly, we would like to ask the question: What is the work of God? In John, chapter 6, verses 28 and 29, we read:
They said therefore unto Him, What must we do, that we may work the works of God?
Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.
Here you find these people asking the Lord that question: “What should we do, that we may work the works of God?” And the Lord answers, “This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent.”
You notice immediately the difference between the question and the answer. In the question, the people ask, “What do we do—the works of God?” To them, the works of God are many. God does many works, and all these works are isolated, unrelated, as it were, from one another.
For instance, as we find in the book of Exodus, how the Lord gave them manna to eat in the wilderness—that is the work of God. And how the Lord opened the rock to give them water to drink—that is the work of God. The children of Israel saw the works of God, the acts of God.
In Psalm 103, we find that God made known His ways unto Moses, and His acts unto the children of Israel. The children of Israel knew the acts of God, the works of God. God did this, and God did that. But Moses knew the ways of God.
Now, if we only know the works of God, we will be occupied with works—what God has done. But if we know the ways of God, then we will be occupied with God Himself.
To the people, God did many works. But to God Himself, He has only one work to do. So you find in our Lord’s answer, He says, “This is the work of God.” You are talking about the works of God and what you should do, but I will tell you that this is the work of God.
The work of God is only one. God has only one work to do. He has committed Himself only to do one job: that you believe on Him whom He has sent.
In other words, there is that overall work of God, and that overall work of God is according to God’s eternal purpose. That eternal purpose is one; therefore, the work of God is one.
We read Ephesians and Colossians, and when you put these passages together, you can see that this is the work of God. This is the purpose of God.
Now, what is the purpose of God? The purpose of God is to glorify His only Son; to make His Son the heir of all things; to give all things to His Son to be His inheritance. The purpose of God is to provide a helpmeet, a bride, to share with His Son glory and responsibility.
Now, this is the purpose of God, and according to this one purpose, God works. All the works of God are centered upon this particular work. So the Lord Jesus said, “This is the work of God.” The work of God is for us to believe on Him whom God has sent.
Instead of trying to do the works of God, brothers and sisters, our problem is that our mentality is always thinking of what we should do—what we should do that we may do the works of God.
We do not realize that what God requires is not what we should do, but that we believe. We believe on Him, the One whom God has sent. In other words, we believe in Him and all that He has done for us.
By believing in Him, by trusting in Him, then you will find that the work of God can be, and is, done in and through us. So this is the work of God.
Thirdly, we would ask the question: God is not only a working God, and there is not only the work of God, but what is the nature of God’s work today?
In one word, the nature of God’s work today is recovery.
Now, you may not find the word recovery in your Bible, but we do find the words recover, restore, reconcile, and return. All these are descriptions of the fact of recovery.
As a matter of fact, some people say that in the whole Bible, only the first verse in Genesis 1 is the work of creation. After the first verse, you find the rest of the Bible actually is God’s work of recovery. So the work of God today is the work of recovery.
What is recovery? When we think of recovery, of course, the first thought that comes to us is that there must be something lost that needs to be recovered. If nothing is lost, then there is no need for recovery.
We think of Luke 15. The shepherd has one hundred sheep, and one sheep is lost. He has to go out and find that lost sheep. There is a woman with ten coins, and one coin is lost; it has to be found and recovered. The father has two sons, and one son has become a prodigal; that prodigal son has to be recovered.
Usually, our thought of recovery is that something originally possessed has been lost, and because of this it has to be recovered. But in the Word of God, recovery means more than that. Recovery means more than just recovering what has been lost.
Recovery, according to the Word of God, is to recover all that God has originally planned.
You know, there is a great difference between the fact of creation and the purpose of creation. We find, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” That is the fact of creation. But even when God created the heavens and the earth, the purpose of creation was not made known.
We find in Colossians 1:15-19 the purpose of God’s creative work. Or you may go to Revelation 4:11:
Thou art worthy, our Lord and our God,
to receive the glory and the honor and the power:
for Thou didst create all things,
and because of Thy will they were, and were created.
In other words, creation is not just a matter of creation. Creation is according to God’s good pleasure; creation is according to the will of God. There is a will behind creation.
So you find there is a difference between the fact of creation and the will, or purpose, of creation. When God created the heavens and the earth, the heavens and earth were created, but the purpose for which God created them was not yet fulfilled. Something more had to be done to creation before the purpose of creation would finally be attained.
So recovery is actually to go back to the very purpose of God in creating all things. Recovery is to recover not only that which has been created and lost, but also to go further back to God’s original purpose, to recover all. That is the concept of recovery in the Word of God.
Now let me illustrate. In Genesis 14, you find Lot was taken captive by the four kings. Abraham heard of it, so he went to rescue Lot and his family.
In verse 16, you find Abraham not only brought back Lot, his family, and his property, but Abraham actually brought back all the riches of Sodom, the king’s family, and all the people in Sodom. In other words, Abraham took lots of spoil.
He not only recovered Lot, his family, and his property, but he also captured the men, the women, the children, and the wealth of Sodom. He recovered more than what was lost.
In another instance, you find in 1 Samuel 30 that David and his men, when they came back to Ziklag, found that the Amalekites had broken into the city and had taken their wives and families away.
So David and his men pursued after the Amalekites, and finally David recovered all. When David recovered all, he recovered not only his own family and all his men’s families, but he also took much spoil, because the Amalekites had been attacking different places.
These are illustrations showing us that recovery is not only just recovering something that is lost to you. Recovery is to recover all; it is to recover more than that which has been lost.
Now let us go back to reality. In Genesis 1:1, it says:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
If you read the book of Job, you find that when God laid the foundation of the earth, the morning stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted for joy. In other words, when God created the universe, it was so perfect. It was so good. There was great rejoicing, singing, praise, and worship in heaven.
In the beginning, when God created the heavens and earth, it was so perfect, and everything was in harmony. There was great worship in the universe. Why? Because all things were created for Him. Because all things worshipped Him. There was no discord. There was perfect peace, and there was great worship.
But even so, the purpose of God in creating all things had not yet arrived. There was something more yet to be done.
But unfortunately, before God was to do something more to creation, something happened. We know it was the rebellion of the archangel Lucifer. He rebelled against God, and with him a third of the angelic host rebelled. Because of this, there was punishment.
Satan, that archangel, was cast out from the paradise of God, and this earth entered into waste and emptiness. That is Genesis 1:2. There was ruin, desolation, signs of curse, and signs of punishment.
Before God was able to fulfill the purpose of creating all things, you find all things had already disintegrated because of the rebellion of the archangel.
But God did not give up. There you find in the third verse the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters, and God said, “Let there be light.” In six days, you find God repaired this ruined earth to make it habitable.
But, brothers and sisters, it is more than just a matter of recovering the original earth to make it habitable. Actually, you find God did something more.
In other words, God never retreats; God always advances. So here you find, on the sixth day, He created man. The very creation of man was toward the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose in creating all things.
In the beginning, God created heaven and earth, but we do not see that He created man. He reserved something to do. Now you find, when He restored the earth to make it habitable, on the sixth day He created man.
He created man in His own image and according to His likeness. He gave dominion to man to rule over what He had created, and He told man to subdue all things.
If we may put it this way, it is as if God said, “Now, man whom I have created, I will count on you to recover all things to My original purpose, to subdue all things, to bring all things back to the feet of My beloved Son. There you will rule and reign with My Son together.”
Here you find God is working the work of recovery. But unfortunately, before man grew up to maturity, able to share with the beloved Son responsibility and glory, again man failed.
Man sinned in the Garden of Eden, and God had to come to the garden and say, “Adam, where art thou?” God came to find him.
But we find God never gave up. Even the first man, Adam, fell—and fell terribly—but God is still working.
So you find in John 5, the Lord Jesus said, “My Father worketh hitherto.” The Father continues to work. He does not give up until one day, in the fullness of time, He sent His beloved Son into this world.
The first man, Adam, failed. But the second Man, Christ, recovered.
Let us turn to Colossians 1. From verses 15 to 19, we find the original purpose of God in creating all things. What is God’s will concerning all things?
It says that our Lord Jesus is the image of the invisible God. Now, no one has seen God at any time, because God is Spirit. But the beloved Son is the exact image of the invisible God. He is the One who came to declare the Father.
He is the firstborn of all creation. Now, of course, we know that “firstborn” here does not mean that He is the first of the created.
The word firstborn here is used in a very specific way, because in Scripture we find that it has two different meanings. In one sense, it means the ordinary meaning: you are born first, and perhaps another will be born after you. It is a matter of time.
But in Scripture, firstborn has another specific application. That specific meaning is a matter of priority and sovereignty. In other words, you may not be born first, and yet the father can make you the firstborn of the sons. That is, he gives you priority and sovereignty over all.
So here you find our Lord Jesus is the firstborn of all creation. It does not mean that He is the first created—that is heresy. It means that He has the priority and sovereignty over all creation.
Why? Because it is explained later on: “For in Him were all things created.” The word “by” actually should be “in.” In Him all things were created.
Now, how can all things be created in Him? The idea is that He is the Architect. When an architect is going to build a building, that building is in his mind. Then he puts it into blueprints, and the blueprints are the expression of what is in his mind. Eventually the blueprints turn into the building.
So we can say that the building is in the mind of the architect; it is in the architect. Everything concerning that building takes its character from that architect. If the architect is very artistic, then the building is very artistic, because it expresses the thoughts and character of the architect.
So here you find that when God created all things, He created all things in His beloved Son. The beloved Son is the Architect. It is out of His character; it is out of His thought, that all things come into being. All things were created in Him.
Then it says, “The things in the heavens and the things upon the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or lordships or principalities or authorities.” You find everything—not only the things in heaven, but the things on earth; not only the visible, but even the invisible.
All these things come out from Him. It is out of His thoughts; it is out of His character. All these things were created.
Secondly, it says that all things have been created by Him. He is not only the Architect; He is also the Engineer, the Builder. He actually builds all this. Then, not only that, but all things were created for Him. He is also the heir, the owner of all things.
This is the reason why He is the firstborn of all creation: because all creation comes out from Him, comes through Him, and will return back to Him.
He is before all. Before things were created, He was there. He was there with the Father from eternity. And all things subsist together by Him. In other words, all things are held together by Him, supported by Him.
This is concerning creation—the will of the Father. Then you find, concerning the new creation, that He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the beginning of the new creation, because the new creation takes its character from Him.
He is the firstborn from among the dead. All that will be resurrected is according to His resurrection. It is because He might have the first place in all things.
So here you see the purpose of God in creation. This is the original will of God concerning creation: everything is in Him, by Him, and for Him—both the old creation and the new creation—that He may have the first place in all things.
But, of course, we have already seen that before the Father’s will was carried out, there was rebellion in the heavens and rebellion upon the earth. All things became disintegrated, scattered, ruined, purposeless, and empty. The purpose of God was not seen, nor was it fulfilled.
But here you find in Christ Jesus, from verse 20:
And through Him to reconcile all things unto Himself,
having made peace through the blood of His cross;
through Him, I say, whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens.
Our Lord Jesus came to this world. He is the second Man. The first man did not fulfill God’s purpose. God meant to use the first man to bring all things to His purpose, but the first man failed, and all who were in that first man fell in him.
But here you find God sent a second Man, Christ, His beloved Son, into this world. By Him, He reconciled all things.
When He went to the cross, He did something far more than we ordinarily realize. We always think that when Christ went to the cross and died there, He shed His blood for the remission of our sins. We thank Him for that. We thank Him for the salvation that came to us.
But, brothers and sisters, we must see that on Calvary’s cross God has done something far more than that. On Calvary’s cross, He reconciled all things to Himself.
Now, the word is itself. Some versions may put Himself, but originally it is itself. What is this itself? It is the fullness that we find before us: all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him.
So, in other words, on Calvary’s cross you find that our Lord Jesus is able to reconcile all things to the fullness of God—that is to say, to bring all things back to the full purpose of God. Now that is recovery.
All things have been in enmity. All things have been scattered and disintegrated. Now, on Calvary’s cross, by the blood of His cross, He has brought peace to all things—things in heaven and things on earth.
He takes away all the enmity. He takes away all the disintegration. He takes away everything that falls apart, and He brings peace to all things. He brings everything back to harmony. He brings everything to what God originally purposed for all things.
That is the work of our Lord Jesus on Calvary’s cross. He reconciles all things to the fullness of God.
Then He says:
And you, being in time past alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil works,
yet now hath He reconciled
in the body of His flesh through death,
to present you holy and without blemish and unreproveable before Him.
Here you find that on Calvary’s cross, not only has the blood of His cross reconciled all things, but especially us—men. Why? Because He says, “And you, who once were alienated and enemies in mind by wicked works.” That is where we were.
We were alienated from God, enemies of God. But by the cross of our Lord Jesus, He has reconciled even us to Himself, to His holiness.
“In the body of His flesh through death”—it seems to me that something is added here. Not only does the blood reconcile all things, but the body of His flesh through death reconciles us to His thought and purpose.
Brothers and sisters, it is not only the blood of our Lord Jesus that has washed away all our sins and redeemed us. In His body, in His flesh, He has opened a new and living way for us through His body, through His flesh.
In other words, when His body was broken, we were broken in Him. When He was crucified, we were crucified. When He was buried, we were buried. When He was raised from the dead, we were raised from the dead.
So, brothers and sisters, here you find the Lord has done something more to us than to all things. The blood purifies all things and cleanses all things, but more than what the blood has done, His broken body, His death, and His resurrection have brought us into new life, into new creation.
We become a new creation, created according to His likeness. Why? Because we are to be His counterpart, His like, that He may present us holy, separated, uncommon, unique; unblameable, without blemish, with nothing to be blamed; and irreproachable, with nothing to charge against us.
He wants to present us to Himself in this way. Brothers and sisters, this is what Ephesians 5 says concerning the church: how He will sanctify and purify it by the washing of water with the Word, that He may present to Himself a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing—holy and without blemish.
Brothers and sisters, you find this is recovery. On the cross of our Lord Jesus, He is doing the work of recovery. He recovers us.
He does not only forgive our sins, but He has put our old man, our old creation, on the cross and put it out. He has made us a new creation, that we may become His bride, His like, and that we may be presented to Him as such.
This is what Christ has done on Calvary’s cross. There He lays the foundation of full recovery. In other words, all the works of recovery that need to be done, so far as He is concerned, He has already done. It is finished. It is already done.
The foundation has been laid. Then you find in Colossians 1:23:
If so be that ye continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast,
and not moved away from the hope of the gospel.
Now, brothers and sisters, when we come to verse 22, we find that our Lord Jesus is to present us holy, unblameable, and irreproachable before His fullness. That is what He has done, and so far as He is concerned, it is done.
Because with God there is no past and no future—there is always the present. So far as the Lord is concerned, it is done. But, brothers and sisters, so far as we are concerned, it is still being done.
That is why verse 23 says, “If.” When you see the word if in Scripture, you know that it does not refer to the eternal truth of God which Christ has done, because what Christ has done is eternally true and already done. It is eternal.
But when you come in Scripture to the word if, it always refers to us. In other words, it refers to our subjective experience.
So far as objective truth is concerned, the recovery work of God is already done. It is done in Christ Jesus. But so far as subjective experience is concerned, something more has to be done. Something is still being done in us who are redeemed, who are saved, who are in that new creation.
That is the reason for the word if: “if indeed ye continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel.”
Brothers and sisters, we are in the faith. In other words, we have believed. Because we have believed, we have received what Christ has done on the cross for us. Therefore, we are now a new creation.
But do we abide in the faith, founded and firm? Are we grounded and rooted in Christ? That is our responsibility in this matter of recovery.
God has done something to us and in us. But here He says that we need to abide in the faith, founded and firm, and not move away from the hope of the gospel.
What does it mean? God has put us in the faith. God has put us in Christ. In 1 Corinthians 1:30 it says, “Ye are in Christ Jesus” by God. God has put us in Christ, in the faith, in all that Christ has done for us.
He has put us there, but we need to abide there. We need to continue there. We need to live there steadfastly. We need to make our home there. We should not come out of it. We should not move away from it. Instead, we should be grounded, firmly rooted, and firm in the hope of the glad tidings.
Now this is our responsibility. If we abide in the faith—in other words, if we accept what Christ has done and allow the Holy Spirit to continue to bring it to completion—then we find that the recovery work of God is completed in us.
But if we do not abide in the faith, that is to say, if we do not allow the Holy Spirit to continue to work in us what Christ has done for us, then, brothers and sisters, that recovering work of God in our lives is frustrated, hindered, and delayed.
This recovery work of God is a very serious thing. There is a responsibility upon us.
Brothers and sisters, we are living at the very end of the last days. I believe we all realize the seriousness of our time.
We find the pressure in our days is getting bigger and bigger, more intensified. We find there are many temptations. We find there are many false prophets, false teachers, and false apostles.
We find that the enemy is trying to move us away from the hope of the gospel. Unless we abide in the faith, grounded and firm, how easily we will drift away. We will be disappointed, discouraged, even losing our faith.
Brothers and sisters, if we do that, then we hinder instead of cooperate with the recovery work of God in our day.
This is not the time for us to retreat. This is the time for us to advance. You know, God is always advancing; He never retreats, no matter what happens.
Now, our history seems to have many, many drawbacks, but you find that God is always advancing, working toward that full realization of His purpose in creation: that His Son may inherit all things, that all things will be summed up in Christ, and that He will have His glorious bride.
God is always working in that direction. Brothers and sisters, it is now up to us how we need to cooperate with the Holy Spirit, how we need to abide in the faith, and how we need to press on, that the work of God in recovery may be fully realized.
So, brothers and sisters, this morning this is the one thing that I feel burdened that we need to recognize: the recovery work of God in our days.
In recognizing it, we need to yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit and let the Holy Spirit work out in us all that Christ has already done for us on Calvary’s cross.
Shall we pray?
Dear Heavenly Father, how we praise and thank Thee that no matter how man may fail, Thou dost never fail. We thank Thee, Lord, that Thou art working always toward Thy full purpose.
Thou didst send Thy beloved Son into this world, and on Calvary’s cross He has recovered all. Oh, how we thank Thee for the finished work of Christ on Calvary’s cross.
Now, Lord, we thank Thee for saving us. We thank Thee for putting us in Christ. We thank Thee for all the works that Christ has done for us.
Now Thy Holy Spirit is given to us, dwelling in us and among us, to work it out in fullness. Lord, we do pray that we may not be a people who rebel against Thee, who will hinder Thy work, but that we may be a people who really yield ourselves to Thee and allow Thy Holy Spirit to perfect and complete the work for which He was sent.
Lord, we do desire to see the work of Thy recovery quickly fulfilled. Lord, this is our hope. This is our expectation. How we desire to see the day coming when Christ shall return and receive His bride, and glory shall fill this earth.
Oh Lord, we look forward to that day. So we just ask Thee to take us up today and work in us. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.