May it always be our prayer: “Open my eyes, that I may see.”
You know, Ben called me and said he and June were coming to the conference. I was thrilled. We talked about that first family conference in 1975—fifty-one years ago. How precious, how enduring, is our fellowship. How grateful we are to have been together with brothers and sisters from all over the world, hearing the deep things of God. How blessed we are.
Oh, by the way, I do need to say this. It is not an announcement. There is another—I will call them ancient brothers, because I am getting in that category. There is a dear brother, and we thank Linwood Wiggins for coming here from North Carolina, driving all the way up. He was at Roslyn, at the conferences before the family conferences. Linwood, thank you for coming. It is a blessing.
I will read Isaiah 11:11, the first part. This is the verse Dana shared with us concerning his burden:
Then it will happen on that day that the Lord will again recover the second time with His hand the remnant of His people.
I will read Exodus 19:4-6. This is one I will be majoring on in my two sessions:
Ye have seen what I have done to the Egyptians,
and how I bore you on eagles’ wings,
and brought you unto Myself.Now therefore, if ye will indeed hearken unto My voice,
and keep My covenant,
then ye shall be Mine own possession among all peoples:
for all the earth is Mine:
and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests,
and a holy nation.These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
Please remember that. That verse is repeated in the New Testament, in 1 Peter 2:9. This is the New American Standard Bible:
But ye are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood,
a holy nation,
a people for God’s own possession,
that ye may proclaim the excellencies of Him
who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Joshua 1:11b. This is Joshua’s command to the people:
Go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you, to possess it.
And finally, Obadiah 1:17. A young brother shared this with us, and it became one of the theme verses. This is the New American Standard Bible:
But on Mount Zion there will be those who escape,
and it will be holy.
And the house of Jacob will possess their possessions.
Let us pray.
Lord, we thank You for Your mercies in gathering us through so many years. We are thankful for opening the things You have opened to our hearts, to our ears, and to our spirits. We tell You once again: we come utterly dependent upon You, because You alone have the words of eternal life—no one else.
We are saying, “Lord, speak to us. Do indeed open our eyes. Do indeed open our ears. Do indeed open our hearts, that we may be those who are possessed by You as Your own possession, and that we may be counted among those who possess their own possession in Christ Jesus.”
These things we ask in Your holy and precious name. Amen.
Well, I think everyone knows by now the conference theme: God’s Cry for This Hour: Recovery and Possessing. This is the whole burden.
Now, this burden did not come from us here in Richmond. We had several meetings. We had a meeting in Richmond with the assembly where we talked about the burden for the conference, the capacity for the conference, whether we could do it, and what the Lord’s thought might be.
In that time, many wonderful things came out. It seemed like Jeopardy! on television: “Name all the Bible verses with the R word.” People were saying, “Remember, refresh, refocus.” Others were saying, “Rebuild, revive.” That was a big thing that night—R words everywhere.
Then a young brother spoke up concerning Obadiah 1:17 and shared that verse with us. How wonderful it is that the house of Jacob—and not only the house of Jacob, but the church of God—will possess their possession. This is the burden the Lord laid upon us.
Then we had a family meeting, where we brought in all thirteen assemblies that help share the responsibility. Do not ever think this is a Richmond conference. If you do, you will miss it.
Again, we shared a few thoughts, and all these R words started spilling out: the riches of Christ, remembrance, and all these things. Dana shared that wonderful verse. He was on Zoom, and he said, “I have this one verse on my heart”—Isaiah 11:11, which he shared about last night: “The Lord will again recover.”
We knew immediately what the theme was going to be: recovery and possessing.
Then we had one more meeting. It was a few of us, the leading brothers in Richmond. We met and said, “What do you think the Lord’s burden was?” You brothers and sisters made this very easy. I can tell you, from years past, sometimes we have looked at one another and said, “What is the burden?” But not this year. We knew. We knew this was the Lord’s heart.
A brother among us said, “It has to be more than just words. It has to be a cry from God—the cry of this hour: recovery and possessing.”
That is how the burden came together, for those of you who need a little inside baseball. It was the contribution of many. It was the sharing of many. And it was a convincing, a persuasion, that this indeed is the Lord’s burden.
Now, I have been asked to share two messages. The first one is today, and then another one later in the week.
The first message is recovery and God’s own possession. That is my emphasis. Make sure you hear me: recovery and God’s own possession.
If we do not see that, we are lost as far as God’s purpose from the beginning is concerned. Often, as believers, we start with ourselves and say, “What is our possession?” But the Bible does not start with that. The Bible starts with, “I want something for My own possession.” What a perspective we need.
The second message will be recovery and our own possession. You will need, in this lifetime, to possess more of Christ if He is going to have His recovery work done.
Every one of us is called to possess Christ, to lay hold of Christ, to apprehend that for which we have been apprehended in Christ Jesus. This short lifetime is what we have.
You know, I will be seventy-five in a few months. I used to always say, “Life is long.” I was wrong. Life is short.
What will you do with your life? What is your ambition? What is your burden? What is your heart? Is it set upon this world and all that you can accumulate? Is it set upon your career? Is it only your family?
I love families. I could talk to you about grandchildren all day long—and children. But is that your goal? Is that your aim?
I would ask you one question: should we come to that day, what are you here for? Are you not here to possess your possession in Christ?
When we go before the judgment seat of Christ and look into the face of our beloved Master, that is the one question I think He will ask: “Did you possess all that I made available to you in Christ Jesus?”
These are the burdens on my heart, and I hope to share a little bit in this time. First of all, we are going to look at God’s recovery work.
God is the One who does the recovery work. We need to understand that, lest we somehow think we are the ones who do the recovery work. Now, the Apostle Paul did say that we are coworkers with God. We are. But I would like to reword that as cooperators with God, because I believe He is the One who does the work.
We will look at God’s recovery work, the recovery work of His own possession, and finally, the privilege of God’s own possession. You cannot even begin to estimate the privilege that you and I have been given.
Eye hath not seen,
nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man,
the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.
Unimaginable. May we see that great privilege. It will change your life.
We will begin with God’s recovery work. Recovery is the vehicle God uses to accomplish His work. He is a God of recovery, and that is the vehicle He uses to accomplish His work.
You can never understand God unless you understand that God is, first of all, a God of recovery. That is what He does.
What did Dana say last night? “Repo”? The repo man. I think they have a lot of that going on in New York. We do not break any laws down here, brother.
You can never understand the Bible unless you understand that the Bible is a sacred record of the recovery work of God. You need to read the Bible in a different light. From the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation, what you see time after time—again and again and again—is God’s recovery work.
Even in the complete failure of man, of Israel, and of the church, you cannot understand the eternal purpose of God—an important phrase for this conference—unless you understand that God is a God of recovery. Those things are essential. Those things are vital. How we need to see that and ask the Lord to help us.
Well, I hope I have a little encouragement for you this morning. First of all, God’s recovery work is wholly His own work. I hope I get an amen.
Oh, that was a weak amen. I think the lack of air conditioning has gotten to you. I want to hear an amen. You did not know I was charismatic, did you?
God’s recovery work is wholly His own work. The most we can do in this short period of life is cooperate with Him and allow Him, by the Holy Spirit—the left hand of the Holy Spirit, as I heard last night—to do His recovery work.
This is what we need to do in this short space called life.
I think it is beautiful, the phrases that are in Isaiah 11:11a:
The Lord will recover again.
Is that not encouraging? Are you not so glad it did not say, “Dana will recover again”? And I know you are glad it did not say, “Kenny will recover again.” The Lord will recover again.
It means He has done it before, and He will do it again. I want to tell you, if you read the Bible in the right light, He will do it again and again and again, because He never gives up. That is the encouragement.
Notice the phrase, “with His hand.” That whole thing last night from Dana, concerning the right and left hand, came out of this one phrase: “With His hand He will recover.” What is of His interest, He will recover.
We will be filled with joy at what we see Him do—filled with wonder, filled with delight.
Then there is the phrase, “on that day.” The recovery work He will do on that day—that is the day of the kingdom, I believe, and the start of the millennium. A second time He will do it. That is the final, full, complete recovery of God’s work on that day.
How wonderful. We are looking forward to a day that is beyond anything we could ask or imagine, according to the book of Ephesians. May the Lord open our eyes so that we can see.
Habakkuk 1:5 is a wonderful verse—one of those minor prophets, greatly used during the last recovery of the Old Testament:
Behold ye among the nations,
and regard,
and wonder marvelously:
for I work a work in your days,
which ye will not believe,
though it be declared unto you.
Is that not wonderful? Oh, I am so glad He did not say Habakkuk works a work, or Isaiah works a work. He said, “For I work a work.”
What beautiful encouragement: “In your days, which ye will not believe, though it be declared unto you.” That is how wonderful it will be when He does His work.
In Paul’s first recorded sermon in the book of Acts, he quotes that verse from the Old Testament. He quotes it in light of the work of Christ—that great recovery work, the greatest recovery work. He quotes it in relation to salvation and justification, as he spoke in the synagogue at Antioch of Pisidia.
How wonderful: God does that work.
I will read you this prayer, because you have God’s declaration, “I will do that work,” but there needs to be something else. There needs to be cooperation, where we offer up a prayer and say, “Lord, do what You said You will do. Speak. Move. Come down. Visit us.”
That wonderful prayer of Habakkuk, in Habakkuk 3:1-2, says:
A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, upon Shigionoth.
O Lord, I have heard Thy report, and was afraid:
O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years;
in the midst of the years make it known.
This has to be our prayer. “Lord, revive Your work.” We ought to remind Him. He is waiting for us. The one thing He is waiting on us for is to say, “Lord, do what You said You will do in our day, in our generation.”
“Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years; make it known.” I believe this is so precious.
You remember Joel 2:25. I do not know that I will say the verse perfectly, but it says of God:
I will restore to you the years
that the locust hath eaten,
the cankerworm,
and the palmerworm.
I do not even know what a palmerworm is. But He says, “I will restore.” This is the One who is the God of recovery.
The Bible is an encouragement to us that He is the great “I AM.” You remember when Moses was at the burning bush. The story is that “I AM” is the God who recovers. “I am everything you need.”
In the New Testament, I think of Philippians 1:6. This is one of those wonderful verses of the Apostle Paul, that grand divine assurance:
Having confidence of this very thing,
that He who hath begun a good work in you
will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.
Is that not wonderful? I do not know about you, but I get excited about these verses. They thrill me. I know that this God who has saved me, and who began that work, is the very same God who will complete that work.
Dana said that last night, I think in the context of Hebrews 12:2:
Looking unto Jesus,
the Author and Finisher of our faith.
And then he said, “Make sure you read all the verse.” You remember:
Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame.
We like to leave that part out. Brothers and sisters, if you are going to possess your possessions, you need to know the One who is the Author and Finisher of your faith.
Oh, I would be so depressed if that anointed, anonymous writer of Hebrews had only said, “He who begins the work”—the Author. But thank God, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the divine message from the Word of God is that He is the Author and the Finisher of our faith. That is who is doing the work.
Finally, on this matter of God being the God of recovery, I need to mention these verses from Revelation. You know, “I am the Alpha and the Omega.” It occurs four times in the book of Revelation.
This is the extreme assurance at the end of the Bible. As He closes out this divine record of recovery, He has one last thing to say:
I am the Alpha and the Omega.
Those are the beginning and end of the Greek alphabet. But what you may not know is that the only places in the Bible where Alpha and Omega occur are in the book of Revelation, in these four verses. This is only about one Person—our Lord Jesus Christ.
He alone is the concluding assurance. You can get lost talking about plagues and vials and bowls and wars and destruction, but He says, “Keep your eye on the ball.” This is the ball. Do not get lost in all these things.
Stay on the immediate. The immediate is, “I am the Alpha and the Omega.”
Look at Revelation 1:8, Revelation 1:11, Revelation 21:6, and Revelation 22:13. In Revelation 1:11, in the King James Version, it says:
I am Alpha and Omega,
the first and the last:
and, What thou seest, write in a book.
It is as though the Holy Spirit is more repetitive than I am. He wanted to make sure you got this. I say to people, “Do you get this?” It drives me crazy, and I do it all the time, so I must drive myself crazy.
The Holy Spirit is saying, “Did you get this?” Four times, to close out the divine record. This is the divine assurance: Alpha and Omega, first and last, beginning and end. How wonderful that is.
The second thing about recovery work is this: the Bible is a divine record of God’s recovery. It is.
I read it in that light, because every time I see something fall, God is always recovering. He may discipline. He may judge. He is a righteous God. He may send His people into captivity. But it is always with one single thought in view: at the end, it is for recovery. It is not to destroy.
Let me go to Genesis 1. We will have a debate on this later. No debates during the ministry, okay? No debates. Like the senators and congressmen: “This is my time. This is my time.” You can argue with me later if you disagree.
Genesis 1:1-2. The Bible begins with recovery:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
And the earth was waste and void;
and darkness was upon the face of the deep:
and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
I do not know how much you have thought about that verse, but there always seemed to be a disconnect to me between verse 1 and verse 2. Now, this is the point where you might want to stand up and say, “I object.” Please do not do it.
There are some who call this the gap theory. Something happened. Something terrible happened. God had to begin this holy record we have with a recreation—not a creation, but a recovery.
Brothers and sisters, I believe this is very clear. I know there are different strong opinions. You can keep me up all night. Linda will push me out on the sidewalk and debate with me. But God’s work—the Bible—begins with recovery.
Do you know what convinced me? Isaiah 45:18:
For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens;
God Himself that formed the earth and made it;
He established it,
and created it not a waste,
He formed it to be inhabited.
That opened my eyes. I said, “I am a gap theorist.” I think I can show you. I have a tattoo—no, I trust you know I am kidding. Linda would not let me get a tattoo.
Something diabolical happened: Satan’s primordial rebellion. You read about it. You know about it in the Bible. It is so dark. We see it in Isaiah 14.
Satan said:
I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God:
I will be like the Most High.
Can you imagine? That was this cataclysmic event. Original creation, if you want to use that phrase, was brought into ruin because of this rebellion with a third of the angels.
We come to Genesis 1:1, Moses’ record, and hear about a time in the past: “God created the heavens and the earth.” Then we have what I call that gap: “The earth was waste and void.” God did not create it waste and void.
I hope I win the argument. A few people are nodding, and others are going, “Well, well.” God is a God of recovery. The Bible begins with recovery.
Instantly, the Godhead had this purpose: He would create man in His own image and likeness and use mankind to overcome and destroy the enemy.
Now, that was ultimately done in the Son of Man, our Lord Jesus. He made an open show publicly of the enemy. He destroyed him.
At last, when we come to the end of the Bible in Revelation 20, those overcomers—those who have possessed their possession—are linked with the Lord Jesus in heaven. Satan is thrown into the lake of fire and ultimately defeated eternally because of God’s recovery work.
Well, that is the story of creation. You remember Eve and Adam’s sin. You would have thought maybe God would give up. The angels did not make it. Adam and Eve, created in His image, did not make it.
You had better be glad I am not God. I know you are. I would have given up. Two strikes—you baseball fans, you Dodgers fans—two strikes, you are almost out. Three strikes, you are out. Well, we have had many more than three.
But the God of recovery never gives up. That is the encouragement.
He said to Satan, when He cursed him:
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman,
and between thy seed and her seed:
He shall bruise thy head,
and thou shalt bruise His heel.
The seed of the woman will crush Satan’s head, and His heel will be bruised—speaking of the Lord Jesus upon the cross. This is the God of recovery.
I want us to think about this supreme encouragement of the Bible: God never gives up. It happened again in Noah’s time. The whole earth was wicked.
Listen to Genesis 6:5:
And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth,
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart
was only evil continually.
That is bad stuff. Did God give up? Did the God of recovery say, “That is it. Third time: angels, Adam and Eve, Noah. There is no hope. We have to look for a new choice”?
But He found Noah. One man righteous. Can you imagine? One man and one family of eight, put into an ark and saved from the judgment of the world.
That is what happened to us in the greatest recovery of all. You were put into Christ Jesus, that new creation Dana was speaking about. When you were put into that new creation, you were in the ark. You are in Christ, and you are saved from destruction forever.
This is the encouragement of the Bible: God never gives up.
Think of the children of Israel. They had a good beginning, right? Moses the deliverer, the law, all these things. Then it did not take them long to make that golden calf. You remember that. It did not take long.
Surely you think God gave up. But He did not. He disciplined. He sent that terror through the camp to recover, eventually, those who would walk with Him. The Levites stood up.
Praise the Lord, this God of recovery continued to recover. At the end of the Old Testament, you know the stories: Ezra, Nehemiah, Habakkuk, Malachi, Zechariah—all those books of recovery, the last recovery.
The loving discipline of God sent Israel into Babylonian captivity, but He did not leave them in Babylonian captivity. In His mercy, He called them again through a Gentile king: “Come back to Jerusalem. Build the house of God.”
Thank God, a remnant responded. We read about a remnant in Isaiah 11:11, that verse Dana shared with us. Praise the Lord: He never gives up.
Praise the Lord that He found a remnant to respond. That is what Isaiah 11:11 is talking about. If He can find a remnant, He can do His recovery work. No remnant, no recovery work.
Do you see how important these two things are linked? For God to get what He wants, He has to find a man, a woman—ones who will respond to Him. Then He can do what He always intended to do. This is the story of the Bible.
I think of 2 Timothy 2:13. This is a wonderful verse. I have quoted it so many times in sharing:
If we are faithless,
He abideth faithful;
He cannot deny Himself.
When we are unfaithful, He remains faithful still. I think some melancholic Christians read it as, “When we are unfaithful, God gives up.” Thank God for the encouragement of this wonderful record we have from the beginning to the end, when He finally gets what He wants. How beautiful.
I will never forget a story. Linda—let me say that Linda is my wife. Sometimes people must think I have some strange woman. She says, “Why do you not say ‘my wife’?” So I do not have multiple women: Linda, my wife.
I remember a story about basketball. I love college basketball. NC State—UVA college basketball, by the way, NC State. There was a fellow you may remember, Jimmy Valvano, the coach. He won a national title.
He was riddled with cancer, only forty-seven, and died early. ESPN was just a little television sports station, and for the first time they had what was called the ESPY Awards. I still remember listening to that speech. It was the most encouraging, inspiring human speech I have ever heard.
He was riddled with cancer, needing help even to ascend the steps to get to the lectern. The essence of his message was, “Don’t ever give up.”
He repeated himself. He could hardly get enough volume: “Don’t ever give up.”
I remember thinking about that: there is only One who never gives up. It was not Jimmy V. I like old Jimmy V. But there is One who truly never will give up.
You think the eternal purpose of God is in jeopardy? You would think wrong. You think the end of Revelation is only a storybook that will never be fulfilled in Revelation 20, 21, and 22? You would be wrong.
The One who wrote that story is the One who will never give up. This is the encouragement.
Well, let us look at the recovery work of His own possession. What do you think the focus of God’s recovery work is?
Is it saving souls? Yes, I love saving souls. I think we ought all to do the work of evangelists. I think evangelism is so important.
But if you focus on one thing, I think it is much grander than that. The focus of the whole recovery work, I believe, can be traced through this one phrase that we read in Exodus 19: a people for God’s own possession.
It is much more than getting saved and getting your train ticket. Some people came down on the train to Ashland. I hope you had a good ride. You had your train ticket, right? I guess they are on your phone now; I do not know.
Oh, we think of just going to heaven. We are lounging, waiting to be in heaven. That is the popular view of the Christian life, but it is not God’s view.
God’s view is that, in this short period of life for every one of us, He wants a people for His own possession.
If you trace that verse all the way through the Old Testament and into the New Testament, you will discover that this is the eternal purpose of God. Those people become a living testimony of Jesus Christ on the earth, and they express who He is.
Together, we have the God who possesses us and those of us who possess God, and therefore God gets what He has eternally been after. That is my quick explanation of the eternal purpose of God.
I hope we see it. This phrase is in both the Old Testament and New Testament: “a people for God’s own possession.”
This was Israel in the Old Testament. They were the testimony of God in the Old Testament to all the world. In the New Testament, this is the church. They are the people of God’s own possession. They are the eternal expression of the testimony of Jesus.
When you read the book of Revelation—only say Revelation, not Revelations. There is one revelation. It is the Revelation. If your Bible does not say that, trade it in on a new model.
That is the biblical revelation: God getting what He has been after forever.
The phrase “the testimony of Jesus” occurs only in the book of Revelation. I think it occurs six times in the book of Revelation. Brothers and sisters, the testimony of Jesus is what we are to be.
The people for God’s own possession express who He is—all that He is.
It is a marvel to me when I read Ephesians 3. Paul did not say, “In the future, in the kingdom.” He said:
To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in the heavenly places
might be made known through the church
the manifold wisdom of God.
Not through Christ—through the church. Is that not amazing? Those who possess their possession are the ultimate expression of who Christ is.
This is what He is looking for: God’s possession, a people for His own possession.
You know the verses we read in Exodus. When the children of Israel had just come out from Egypt, the bondage of Egypt—the Bible calls it the iron furnace.
We have been to see the iron furnace, right, David? Over there when we tramped around the desert? I thought I would die.
They were delivered out of the iron furnace, and remarkably, they were immediately brought to Sinai. Three months later, they came to Mount Sinai.
Exodus 19:3-6, because I read verse 3 also, records when they first came to the mountain. It was the first revelation Moses had at that mountain. It was before the law. We always talk about the law, but it was before the law. The law starts in Exodus 20.
God wanted to show Moses one thing before they ever started. He wanted to say, “Moses, do you know what I am after? Do you know what I want? Have you seen the heart of God?”
“What I want is a people for My own possession. Together with that people, I will express all that I am.”
This is what that revelation at Sinai, three months in, was all about.
Of course, they wandered in the wilderness and all that. But God never gives up, right? If you forget everything I say—stories included—remember: God never gives up. Do not ever forget it. That is the most important thing.
This perspective—that God wants a people of possession for His own self—runs throughout the Bible. It is expressed in different ways, but it is the purpose of God.
You see it repeated again and again.
Let me tell you a short story, if you believe I can tell a short story.
I remember when I was a young Christian, newly saved in the Jesus movement, the charismatic movement. Within six months, I was with brothers and sisters in a room like this—those like you, maybe an earlier version.
I remember this dear old sister. She was my spiritual mother. Many here knew her. She has gone to be with the Lord: Llewellyn Miller.
We always said there were five sisters in Richmond whom the Lord used greatly to start something. Let me tell you this: if it were not for those sisters, we would not be here today.
Here I was, young—my daughter Jessica says, “My daddy was a hippie.” That is what she says. My long hair—Jerry exaggerates the story down to the middle of my back. That was never true, Jerry. But I have a picture. I will show you if you talk to me nicely.
This dear sister looked me in the eye, with wet eyes and trembling lips, and she said, “Kenny, do you understand? He wants a people for Himself.”
I will never forget it.
I bore you on eagles’ wings.
I delivered you from the iron furnace.
I brought you to this place
that you may be a people for Myself.
How wonderful. As dull as I was spiritually, that landed. Do you know what I mean by saying that it landed? It was engraved upon my heart.
By the way, years ago she gave me this little tract by A. B. Simpson. I think there is a newer version. I wore the old one out: Himself.
That day, I discovered everything in the Bible is about Himself. That is what the recovery is about.
I will never forget. She used to read it to me. I guess she thought I could not read. Linda still does not think I can read, so I get it. They did not teach engineers how to read, by the way.
She would read me the first verse in A. B. Simpson’s song—this poem, Himself, all in capital letters. I will never forget that. It is written upon my heart.
She would read this, and I would be big-eyed. I thought, “Wow, this lady has seen something.” It changed her forever. It changed us forever.
Once it was the blessing,
now it is the Lord;
once it was the feeling,
now it is His Word.
Once His gifts I wanted,
now the Giver own;
once I sought for healing,
now Himself alone.
Oh, man, I was in the charismatic movement. We had blessings coming out of every orifice.
Once it was the feeling; now it is His Word. Once His gifts I wanted. We used to debate among us charismatics: “Well, I want the gift of discernment.” “Well, I want the gift of prophecy.” “Well, you cannot get that. I am going to pray for that; you pray for something else.”
I said, “Well, maybe helps. I will just ask to get some help.”
Once I sought for healing. There are brothers and sisters in this world whose whole focus in the Christian life is simply, “Heal me.” I am not against healing. My wife is a miracle of healing. But it is not my emphasis.
Once it was the healing; now Himself alone.
I am so grateful for that sister.
Those five sisters went to a strange little conference in Wabana, Maryland. I suppose most of you have never heard of Wabana, Maryland. They went because they had read a book by DeVern Fromke called The Ultimate Intention, and something registered that changed those ladies forever.
In the back of this book—Dana was talking about sovereignty—in the back of this book was a flyer, an invitation to a conference in Wabana, Maryland.
There was this speaker, Theodore Austin-Sparks. Who in the world was T. A. Sparks? There was this speaker, DeVern Fromke. Who was DeVern Fromke? There was this speaker, Stephen Kaung. Who ever heard of Stephen Kaung?
They went for three years: 1967, 1968, and 1969. They were changed forever.
Because of that, Stephen started coming to Richmond. Because of that, Richmond exists. Because of that, we met dear brothers and sisters from all over the country. Because of that, the family conferences started. And because of that, you sit here today in this un-air-conditioned auditorium.
You get it? Oh, I said I would not say that. I said I would not say that.
This phrase, this moment at Sinai—three months out of the iron furnace—made such a deep impression upon Moses. It left such a deep impression upon him.
He quoted this phrase, “a people for God’s own possession,” more than anybody else in the Bible. Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. I am still confused about how to pronounce “Pentateuch.” I have heard Pentateuch, Pentateuch, and Pentatouch. I do not know about that. But it means the five writings in Greek.
The fifth writing, Deuteronomy, is the summary of all five. It is a summary book.
Moses, at the end of his life, wrote it at 120 years old. God buried him. You know the story.
In that summary, he had something to say for all eternity. At the beginning of it, in Deuteronomy 4:20:
But the Lord hath taken you,
and brought you forth out of the iron furnace,
even out of Egypt,
to be unto Him a people of inheritance,
as at this day.
In Deuteronomy 7:6, he says:
For thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God:
the Lord thy God hath chosen thee
to be a people for His own possession,
above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth.
In Deuteronomy 14:2, he repeats it:
For thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God,
and the Lord hath chosen thee
to be a people for His own possession,
above all peoples that are upon the earth.
In Deuteronomy 26:18, the final time, it says:
And the Lord hath avouched thee this day
to be a people of possession unto Himself,
as He hath promised thee,
and that thou shouldest keep all His commandments.
Do you understand? In the book of Deuteronomy, the summary of the whole Torah, the summary of the first five books of Moses, this phrase is repeated more than anywhere else in the whole Bible.
If you are clumsy, a little bit like me, and run into the corner of a wall, we say, “That is going to leave a mark.” This left a mark on Moses.
Sinai left an indelible mark. He knew it was God’s heart. He could not escape it.
You know the end of the Old Testament. This phrase occurs again in Malachi 3:16-17. I do not recommend any of you melancholics read Malachi. It is pretty depressing. Oh, you should read it. It is in the Bible. I am joking with you.
But there is one bright spot:
Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another:
and the Lord hearkened, and heard it,
and a book of remembrance was written before Him
for them that feared the Lord,
and that thought upon His name.And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts,
in that day when I make up My own possession;
and I will spare them,
as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
Dana was talking about that day. “They shall be Mine,” says the Lord of hosts, “in that day when I prepare My own possession.”
It is not only in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, we read in Titus 2:14:
Who gave Himself for us,
that He might redeem us from all iniquity,
and purify unto Himself
a people for His own possession,
zealous of good works.
This was not just for Moses and the children of Israel.
Then we come to 1 Peter 2:9. Peter was writing to those dispersed in the Dispersion. If you read Peter, there is a lot in there about suffering. I have heard people complaining about the air conditioning. Read 1 Peter before you go home, before you report another lack of air conditioning to me, please.
But ye are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood,
a holy nation,
a people for God’s own possession,
that ye may proclaim the excellencies of Him
who hath called you out of darkness
into His marvelous light.
This is the end of the New Testament teaching. Let me say a few words. I always prepare people for this: the third point is the shortest point. Some of you, in this lack of air conditioning, are laying out in the aisle. I get it. But the third point is always the shortest point. Hang with me.
There is a tremendous privilege wrapped up in being a people for God’s own possession.
I heard a news reporter the other day, before I left home, talking about extreme privilege in such a derogatory context. That is the spirit of the age. I do not even know what privilege is, growing up, but “extreme privilege” is considered an awful thing.
But do you realize that we, the people of God’s own possession, have the most extreme privilege that ever existed? A people for God’s own possession. A people who will be made in His very image. A people who, when they see Him, shall be like Him, because they shall see Him as He is.
What a day. In that day, we long for that day.
Brothers and sisters, there are only two points I want to make on this last matter, this privilege of being the people of possession.
First: a chosen race. I like this better in the King James Version. You know, I sort of go between Bibles. I get them all mixed up. If I quote from memory, I have half King James and half NASB and half—well, that would be too many halves there. You wonder how I ever made it as an engineer. I faked it the whole way.
It says in the King James Version:
Ye are a chosen generation.
Is that not beautiful? Did you know that, brothers and sisters? Everyone in this room, everyone redeemed by the precious blood, everyone born of the Spirit, is part of that privileged, chosen generation.
When I hear people talk about generations today, it makes my head spin. Since my parents’ generation, we have decided to divide people into seven generations. I cannot even keep them straight. I do not know where I am, and I hardly know where you are.
We have the silent generation. We have the baby boomers. I am a boomer. Do not do it to me. Do not come up and say, “Hey, boomer.” I think that is what the millennials are supposed to say to people like me. I may be wrong.
We have Generation X. We have millennials. We have Generation Y. We have Generation Z, and they affectionately call them Zoomers. We have boomers and Zoomers running all over this auditorium, working up a sweat in the un-air-conditioned auditorium.
There is Generation Alpha. I guess they did not know what to do, so they went to the Greeks. It was good enough for the Lord Jesus to say Alpha. Let us go. Then they have Generation Beta. I guess they have a long way to go before we run out.
All by birth dates, separated generations. But God’s heart was never to have more than one generation: the chosen generation.
When you were born of the Spirit of God, you were not in another generation than me. Believe it or not, I know it may upset you to be in my generation, but you are in the one chosen generation. God only sees one. He chose it. They are His people for possession.
Psalm 24:6 says of Israel:
This is the generation of them that seek Him,
that seek Thy face, O Jacob. Selah.
You are part of that one generation. I think we do damage in the church by having Zoomers over here and the silent generation—if they have not all kicked the bucket—and Gen Zs and Gen Ys.
Brothers and sisters, what do we need for the recovery of God to happen? We need to be the one chosen generation. I hope you understand. That is what God is after.
Let me end with this phrase again, to give you a little more insight into “a people for God’s own possession.”
There cannot be much more privilege than to say, “My own possession.” Can you imagine that God says that of you and me? It seems too good to be true, but it is true. It is absolutely true. We are His own possession.
There cannot be a higher privilege, out of all the peoples on the face of the earth. How wonderful that is.
As a matter of fact, what this means in the King James Version, in Exodus 19:5, is “a peculiar treasure.” Can you imagine that God calls you and me His treasure?
It is almost unimaginable. “My treasure.”
In Hebrew, it means a valued, highly valued possession; a treasured property; a special jewel. When you look in the King James Version in Malachi 3:17, He says:
When I make up My jewels.
Is that not wonderful? What privilege. What privilege. I cannot imagine greater privilege than this.
There are two very short kingdom parables in Matthew. Both are in Matthew 13, back to back.
There is the parable of the hidden treasure. This is one verse, but there is a whole eternity loaded into this one verse, Matthew 13:44:
The kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field;
the which when a man hath found, he hideth,
and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath,
and buyeth that field.
Do you know that is exactly what the Lord Jesus did? He sold everything. He gave up everything. He laid down everything just to buy this treasure.
What a cost. What an unspeakable cost He paid to have His treasure.
In this parable, the field is the world, the treasure is the church, and the man is Christ—the only One who gave all.
There is a famous saying: “All give some, but some give all.” Very often that speaks of those who laid down their lives in service. I would love to change that: “All give some, but One gave all.”
He gave it all so that you might be His special treasure. That is what it means: a people for My own possession.
In Matthew 13:45-46 is the parable of the pearl. It is similar:
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man,
seeking goodly pearls:
who, when he had found one pearl of great price,
went and sold all that he had,
and bought it.
That is what you mean to the Lord.
You know, the King James Version talks about “a peculiar people.” I think most of us would agree with that translation. Oh, yes, I have been in church life a long time. They are peculiar people—really peculiar.
But “peculiar people” is archaic in the way it is used. It really means a treasure: a people for God’s own treasure.
Well, I think that is about all of my burden. Let me mention one sentence: a people for God’s own possession also means a people for God’s own inheritance.
Can you imagine a poor inheritance like that? Linda and I received an inheritance of part of a pig farm in North Carolina. We were among, I think, forty-two people. Well, enough pigs to go around.
What a measly inheritance. But we are God’s inheritance.
I will never forget. One time, Jerry, I think it was here at this conference, Stephen Kaung was reading Ephesians 1:10. He spoke of Christ as our inheritance. Now that is an inheritance. We have Christ.
Then you read Ephesians 1:18:
The riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.
Oh, what a mystery. I do not know if I would ever have been anointed enough, like Paul, to write “the glory of His inheritance in the saints.”
I will never forget Brother Kaung saying, “Who do you think got the best deal?”
Oh, dear brothers and sisters, open our eyes that we may see.
Open our ears that we may hear. Lord, capture us to be part of that people for Your own possession.
Lord, cause us, by the work of that left hand, the Holy Spirit, to ourselves possess our possession in Christ Jesus.
All these things we ask in Your precious name. Amen.