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Acts 5:1-11; 6:1; 15:1-2; Col. 2:8, 16, 20-22; 2 Tim. 1:15; Ezra 1:3-11; 1 Tim. 1:3-4; John 5:17
I. The failures in the churches
II. The degradation of the church
А. During the New Testament
B. After the New Testament
III. The recovery of the church
А. Typified by the return of the children of Israel from their captivity
B. Indicated in the later epistles of the New Testament
C. To be recovered:
1. From the divisive and apostate ground with its deviation from the truths concerning:
а. The person of the Triune God
b. The person and work of Christ
2. Back to the unique and pure ground of the oneness of the Body of Christ with its truths concerning:
а. The New Testament faith and God’s economy
b. The person and work of Christ
c. The person and the dispensing of the Triune God
d. The church, the Body of Christ, the Corporate Christ
e. The universal and local aspects of the church
3. To build the Body of Christ, the temple of God, the house of God
4. To establish the kingdom life
In the previous lessons we have only considered the positive things of the church. In the Bible there is a record not only of the positive things, but also a record of the failures in the churches and the degradation of the churches. The Bible also covers the recovery of the church. The Bible is very balanced in all these aspects.
[There are no failures in the universal church; however, there are failures in the local churches. All the failures come out of one source, and this source is Satan, who instigates the weak saints to cause all kinds of local problems. The universal church is heavenly, holy, and even divine. But when the universal church reaches a certain locality to be expressed in a local church, the church in that locality may become contaminated and polluted by certain local customs, practices, and philosophies.]
Hypocrisy — [The first failure in the churches was that of hypocrisy seen in the case of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11). Hypocrisy is a matter of pretending to be somebody in order to get a name that we may have vainglory. This is altogether related to ambition.]
Racial Difference — The second failure was that of being overcome by racial differences (Acts 6:1). “There was a murmuring of the Hellenists against the Hebrews’’ because of eating. This caused the practice of having all things common to wane.
Legal Practices — Another failure was that of bringing in the legal practices of the Old Testament (Acts 15:1-2). Acts 15:1 says, “certain men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.’’ This type of saying is an annulling of the faith in God’s New Testament economy, and is a real heresy. This failure annulled the believers freedom in Christ. This even caused Peter to be hypocritical and caused the rest of the Jewish believers who were with him to join him in hypocrisy. Even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy.
Compromise — A very serious failure in the churches was the compromise with Judaism led by the apostle James (Acts 21:20-26). This failure brought in the mixture of Judaism to contaminate God’s pure grace, which spoiled the purity of the church life, and damaged the pure testimony of Jesus Christ as the embodiment of God’s pure grace. This failure brought about the termination of the church when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman army (under Titus) in A.D. 70, as a result of God’s judgment.
Other failures included: judging one another in the matters of eating and the observing of days, and not building one another up (Rom. 14); making divisions and causes of falling contrary to the teaching of the apostles (Rom. 16:17); being puffed up on behalf of one gifted person against another unto strife and divisions (1 Cor. 1:11-12); committing fornication (1 Cor. 5:1); having lawsuits one against another (1 Cor. 6:4-7); questioning the apostleship and charging the apostle with being crafty in making gain with guile (1 Cor. 9:1-3; 2 Cor. 12:16); partaking of the table of the Lord and of the table of the demons (1 Cor. 10:21); eating the bread and drinking the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner and not discerning the Body (1 Cor. 11:27); abusing the gift of tongue-speaking (1 Cor. 14:19-20, 23); saying that there is no resurrection of the dead (1 Cor. 15:12); and finally, walking disorderly (2 Thes. 3:11).
[God’s intention in recording these failures in the holy Word is to give us a warning concerning the possibility of such failures recurring in the church life. We need to learn from all these failures and do our best to avoid them. If the churches in the apostles’ time could suffer all these failures, it is even more likely that today, if we are careless, we also shall suffer the same kind of failures. Therefore, we need to look to the Lord that we may be kept from these failures.]
[There is a difference between the failures in the churches and the degradation of the church. The failures are not serious in a basic way. Whereas the failures in the churches are not that basic, the degradation of the church is more than basic, for it cuts the root of the life, living, and growth of the church. Unlike failure, degradation not only brings in wrongdoings but cuts the root of the church “tree.’’]
Gnostic Philosophy — [The first aspect of the degradation of the church was the church’s being taken over by the Gnostic philosophy and the elements of the world — the rudimentary teachings of both Jews and Gentiles, consisting of ritualistic observances in such things as meats, drinks, washings, and asceticism (Col. 2:8, 16, 20-22; Titus 1:14-15). Gnosticism is a composition of Greek and Oriental philosophy and Jewish religion. When the church spread to the Gentile world, the church was contaminated by Gnosticism. This contamination became a root problem in the church; it nearly cut off the entire root of the church life. Therefore, Gnosticism was a serious threat to the existence of the church life.]
Different Teaching — [Another aspect of the degradation of the church was the teaching of things different from the economy of God taught by the apostle, resulting in turning away from the apostle’s teaching. Acts 2:42 tells us that all the new believers continued steadfastly in the teaching of the apostles. What the apostles taught was according to God’s New Testament economy. But at a certain time some teachers began to teach certain biblical things, yet those things were different from the economy of God, that is, different from the teaching of the apostles.] [To teach differently was to teach myths, unending genealogies, and the law (1 Tim. 1:7-8), all of which were vain talking (v. 6), differing from the apostles’ teaching centered upon Christ and the church.] [Eventually this resulted in a turning away from Paul’s teaching (2 Tim. 1:15).]
Base Gain — [In 1 Timothy 6:5b Paul speaks of those who suppose “godliness to be a means of gain.’’ They make godliness a way of gain — material profit, a gain-making trade. The desire for material gain is another reason certain ones teach differently from the economy of God taught by the apostles. Thus, because of pride and the desire for profit, for riches, some are teaching differently. Pride is related to wanting a name and a good reputation, and gain is related to money and material profit.]
Turning Away from the Apostle — [Paul’s Epistles are the completion of the divine revelation concerning God’s eternal purpose and economy (Col. 1:25). His ministry completes the revelation concerning the all-inclusive Christ and His universal Body, the church as His fullness to express Him. Nevertheless, in the degradation of the church, many turned away from Paul’s ministry. “This you know, that all who are in Asia turned away from me’’ (2 Tim. 1:15).] [Those who turned away from Paul’s ministry deviated from God’s complete revelation, the center of which is Christ as the mystery in the saints (Col. 1:27).]
Heresies — [Second Timothy 2:16-18 says, “Avoid profane, vain babblings, for they will advance to more ungodliness, and their word will spread as gangrene, of whom are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who concerning the truth have misaimed, saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and overthrow the faith of some.’’ Here Paul refers to those who bring in heresies as gangrene.]
Factious — [Titus 3:10 and 11 say, “A factious man after a first and second admonition refuse, knowing that such a one has been perverted and sins, being self-condemned.’’ A factious man is a heretical, sectarian man who causes divisions by forming parties in the church according to his own opinions. The Gnostic Judaism referred to in the preceding verse must be related to this. The divisiveness is based on differing teachings. This is the reason that verse 10 comes after verse 9. Certain believers may have insisted on the teaching of the law and in so doing became divisive.]
Backsliding to Judaism — [In Hebrews 10:25-29 Paul warns the Hebrew believers not to forsake the church to sin willfully, that is, to go back to Judaism to offer the sacrifice for sin which has been terminated.]
Denying the person of Christ — [First John 2:22 says, “Who is the liar if not he who is denying that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, who is denying the Father and the Son.’’] First John 4:2 says, “In this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses Jesus Christ having come in the flesh is out of God.’’ These verses reveal to us that some did not believe that Jesus Christ is God Himself come in the flesh (John 1:1, 14; 10:30; 20:28; Acts 20:28; 1 Tim. 3:16; Heb. 1:8).
Not Abiding in the Teaching of Christ — [Second John 9 says, “Everyone who goes beyond and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; he who abides in the teaching, this one has both the Father and the Son.’’ Literally, the Greek word translated “goes beyond’’ means to lead forward (in a negative sense), that is, to go further than what is right, to advance beyond the limit of orthodox teaching concerning Christ. This is contrasted with abiding in the teaching of Christ. The Cerinthian Gnostics, who boasted of their supposedly advanced thinking concerning the teaching of Christ, had such a practice. They went beyond the teaching of the divine conception of Christ, thus denying the deity of Christ. Consequently they could not have God in salvation and in life.]
Forsaking the Faith — [In the degradation of the church some forsook the faith. This was the reason Jude wrote, “Beloved, using all diligence to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you, entreating you to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints’’ (Jude 3). The faith in this verse is not subjective; it is objective. It does not refer to our believing, but refers to our belief, to what we believe. The faith denotes the contents of the New Testament as our faith (Acts 6:7; 1 Tim. 1:19; 3:9; 4:1; 5:8; 6:10, 21; 2 Tim. 2:18; 3:8; 4:7; Titus 1:13), in which we believe for our common salvation. This faith, not any doctrine, has been delivered once for all to the saints. For this faith we should contend (1 Tim. 6:12).] There were more points of degradation in Revelation. We will consider those in the next lesson.
The church further degraded after the completion of the New Testament. Satan tried his best to destroy the church because he knew that the builded church would destroy him. He used the Roman emperors to persecute the church in an attempt to terminate her. [Persecution, as we know, did not terminate the Christians; it rather helped them. Then Satan changed his strategy. Under the rule of Constantine the Great the Roman Empire made Christianity legal, and Christians had the full freedom of worship. Because of the favors he granted the Christians, thousands of pagans were baptized and became Christians in name. These were the tares spoken of in Matthew 13:24-30. That ruined Christianity.] Constantine [acted openly as head of the church, which in his reign was first called Catholic; at the same time he kept his title of high priest of the heathen.]
[This ruin progressed from the fourth to the sixth centuries, by which time the papal system was fully established. With this the Roman Catholic Church reached its full development; it claimed to be the one, universal church (catholic means universal) and exercised worldly power over people and nations. No protest or dissent was tolerated. Over the centuries when it held sway, the Roman Catholic Church killed more genuine Christians than the pagan Roman Empire had killed. Under such a dark church, the so-called Dark Ages were produced, lasting about ten centuries, from about A.D. 500 to 1500.] Shortly thereafter, the Lord began to recover the church. Hallelujah!
[When we speak of the recovery of the church, we mean that something was there originally, that it became lost or damaged, and that now there is the need to bring that thing back to its original state. Because the church has become degraded through the many centuries of its history, it needs to be restored according to God’s original intention. Concerning the church, our vision should be governed not by the present situation nor by traditional practice but by God’s original intention and standard as revealed in the Scriptures.]
[First, God purposed and then He came in to accomplish His purpose. Furthermore, the New Testament also gives us a clear record of how God’s enemy came in to destroy what God had accomplished.] [Nevertheless, God is a God with an eternal purpose. He is a purposeful God, and once He has made up His mind to do something, nothing can change His mind or stop Him. Therefore, after Satan’s destruction, God comes in to redo the things that He had done before. This redoing is His recovery. This is to bring back whatever has been lost and destroyed by God’s enemy, Satan.]
[The recovery of the church is typified by the return of the children of Israel from their captivity (Ezra 1:3-11). In order to understand the recovery of the church, we need to consider the history of the people of Israel in the Old Testament.]
[The entire history of the nation of Israel is a full type, an all-inclusive type, of the church. The nation of Israel began with the exodus. The children of Israel were in slavery in Egypt, but through the lamb of the Passover they were redeemed out from Pharaoh’s usurpation. They made their exodus from Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, entered the wilderness, and came to Mount Sinai, and there they built the tabernacle as God’s dwelling place on earth. Eventually, the people of Israel crossed the Jordan and entered into Canaan, the good land. After conquering the people and gaining the land, they built the temple. The time immediately after the building of the temple was a golden time. However, that golden time did not last very long. Mainly due to the failure of Solomon, the temple was destroyed, and the children of Israel were taken to Babylon as captives. The Babylonian army not only destroyed Jerusalem with its temple but also brought the utensils of the temple to Babylon and put them into idol temples. What a shame! The people of Israel remained in Babylon for seventy years.]
[As typified by the latter part of the history of the children of Israel, the recovery is from Babylon — the capturing and divisive ground (Ezra 1:11). For the children of Israel to be recovered meant for them to be brought back to Jerusalem from Babylon. Negatively, to be recovered means to be brought out of Babylon; positively, it means to be brought up to Jerusalem,] [the God-ordained unique ground. Jerusalem was the place the Lord had chosen (Deut. 12:5). Jerusalem, therefore, was the center for God’s people to worship Him, and this unique center preserved the unity of the people of God. Without such a center, after the children of Israel had entered the good land, they would have been divided.] [The recovery of the church is also typified by the rebuilding of the temple of God, the house of God, in Jerusalem after the return of God’s people from Babylon] (Ezra 1:3). [Finally, the recovery of the church is typified in the Old Testament by the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem (Neh. 2:11, 17). After the recovery of the building of the temple, there was still the need to build up the city. Without the city, there would have been no protection for the temple. The temple, the place of the Lord’s presence, needed protection. The wall of the city was the defense to the temple.]
[Spiritually speaking, the church, due to its degradation, has been in captivity. God’s people have been divided, scattered, and carried away from the proper ground of unity to a wrong ground. In the Old Testament type, the children of Israel were centered around Jerusalem, but later they were scattered and carried away to many places, in particular, to Babylon. This portrays the situation among many of today’s Christians. In a very real sense, the believers today are more scattered than the children of Israel were. Therefore, we need to be recovered. We need not only revival but also recovery.]
[The recovery of the church is fully revealed in the New Testament even though the word “recovery’’ is not used. This recovery is revealed mainly in the later Epistles of the New Testament. We do not find the recovery of the church in such Epistles as Romans or 1 Corinthians, but we do find it in Titus, 2 Timothy, 2 John, and Revelation. In these later writings of the New Testament the recovery is fully unveiled.]
[For the recovery of the church, we need to be separated from the factious — the sects and denominations. This is indicated by Paul’s word in Titus 3:10. “A factious man after a first and second admonition refuse.’’ A factious man is a sectarian man who causes divisions by forming parties in the church according to his own opinions. A factious, divisive person, after a first and second admonition, should be refused, rejected. This is to stop intercourse with a contagiously divisive person for the church’s benefit.
Nearly all believers today are factious. They honor, respect, and uplift their denominations. Furthermore, they nourish and build their denominations. Hence, they are builders of sects and denominations. Millions of Christians today are members of these sects. Because they are members of sects, we cannot join them, even though they may be genuine brothers in Christ. We surely love our brothers in Christ, but they are in the denominations and the sects, where we cannot be. It is not that we separate ourselves from other believers; it is that the sects and denominations separate us from the church life. If we are to share in the recovery of the church, we need to be separated from all the sects and denominations. Like Ezra, Nehemiah, and other faithful ones in the Old Testament, we need to leave Babylon and come back to Jerusalem.]
[We need to be recovered from the divisive and apostate ground with its deviation from the truth concerning the person of the Triune God. During the centuries, three main schools of teaching concerning the Trinity have emerged: modalism, tritheism, and the pure revelation according to the Bible. Modalism teaches that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are not all eternal and do not all exist at the same time, but are merely three temporary manifestations of the one God. Tritheism teaches that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three Gods. We should have nothing to do with modalism, for that extreme view of the Trinity is a heresy. It is also a great heresy to teach that there are three Gods.]
[The truth concerning the person of the Triune God is twofold.] [The twofoldness of the truth concerning the Trinity is embodied in the word “triune.’’ This adjective is actually a Latin word composed of two parts: tri-, meaning three, and -une, meaning one. The word triune, therefore, means three-one. On the one hand, our God is uniquely one; on the other hand, He is three. In the aspect of God’s being one, there is no separation between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. However, in the aspect of God’s being three, there is a distinction between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Lord Jesus said, “I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me’’ (John 14:10). Because the Father and the Son are mutually in each other, They cannot be separated. Nevertheless, there is still a distinction between the Father and the Son.]
We also need to be recovered from the divisive and apostate ground with its deviation from the truth concerning the person and work of Christ. Some deny that Jesus is the Christ (1 John 2:22-23). These people deny the deity of Christ, not confessing that the Man Jesus is God becoming a man. In turn, these also reject Christ’s redemption, insisting that His death was a martyrdom rather than for our redemption. According to 1 Cor. 15:12-17, some do not believe that Christ resurrected. If He did not resurrect, then we have no proof of our justification (Rom. 4:25), and He would not be the life-giving Spirit to regenerate and transform us. Therefore, the church needs to be recovered from this apostate condition also.
[In 1 Timothy 1:3 and 4 Paul says, “Even as I urged you, when I was going into Macedonia, to remain in Ephesus in order that you might charge certain ones not to teach differently, nor to occupy themselves with myths and unending genealogies, which give occasion for questionings rather than God’s dispensation which is in faith.’’ The Greek words translated “God’s dispensation’’ may also be rendered “God’s household economy’’ (Eph. 1:10; 3:9). This is God’s household administration to dispense Himself in Christ into His chosen people, that He may have a house, a household, to express Himself, which household is the church, the Body of Christ (1 Tim. 3:15). The apostle’s ministry was centered upon this economy of God (Col. 1:25; 1 Cor. 9:17), whereas the differing teachings of the dissenting ones were used by God’s enemy to distract His people from this.]
[In 1 Timothy 1:4 Paul tells us that God’s dispensation is in faith. The dispensing of the processed Triune God into us is altogether by faith. The dispensation of God is a matter in faith, that is, in the sphere and element of faith, in God through Christ. God’s economy to dispense Himself into His chosen people is not in the natural realm, nor in the realm of the law, but in the spiritual sphere of the new creation through regeneration by faith in Christ (Gal. 3:23-26). By faith we are born of God to be His sons, partaking of His life and nature to express Him. By faith we are put into Christ to become the members of His Body, sharing all that He is for His expression. This is God’s dispensation according to His New Testament economy, carried out in faith.] We need to be recovered back to this item.
[Concerning the person and work of Christ, we must preach that Christ is God incarnated to be a God-man, that He is both divine and human. We must also preach His redemptive death. In His redemptive work He died on the cross for our sins and for us sinners. Then He was resurrected so that He could impart Himself into us as the divine life. Therefore, the gospel we preach is that Christ, the God-man, died for our sins and was resurrected.] He is the complete God and the perfect and genuine man. He alone is qualified to be our Savior. The matter of His person and work is covered in the second year of summer school of the truth.
[The recovery of the church also requires that we be recovered to the truth concerning the person and the dispensing of the Triune God. This matter of God’s dispensing is something that is altogether missed by many Christians today. By the Lord’s mercy we have been enlightened to see that in the New Testament economy of God there is the divine, triune Person for the dispensing of Himself into His chosen people to be their life, life supply, and everything. Because this has been neglected by many today, we need to be recovered to the proper understanding and apprehension of the divine dispensing of the riches of the processed Triune God into our being.]
[God’s New Testament economy is His plan to dispense Himself into His chosen people in His trinity. This dispensing has three steps. First, it is of God the Father, who is the source, the origin. Second, this dispensing is through God the Son, who is the course. Third, God’s dispensing is in God the Spirit, who is the instrument and sphere. Through these steps of God the Father, through God the Son, and in God the Spirit the processed Triune God dispenses Himself into His chosen people.]
[Ephesians 1:22-23 speaks of “the church, which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.’’ The Body of Christ is an organism constituted of all the believers, who have been regenerated and have God’s life, for the expression of the Head. The Body is the fullness of the Head, and the fullness is the expression of the Head.
Because the church is the Body of Christ and Christ is the Head of the church (Col. 1:18), the church and Christ are one Body, the mysterious, universal great man, having the same life and nature and sharing the same position and authority. Just as Christ is far above all and sits in the heavenlies (Eph. 1:20-21), so also the church sits together with Him in the heavenlies (Eph. 2:6). Just as Christ has received all authority in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18), so also the church participates in His authority (Luke 10:19). Today the life of the church is hidden with Christ in God, and in the future the church will be manifested with Christ in glory (Col. 3:3-4). What Christ is, what Christ has, where Christ is, and what Christ does are what the church is, what the church has, where the church is, and what the church does. Christ is the life and content of the church, and the church is the organism and expression of Christ. The church receives everything from Christ, and everything of Christ is expressed through the church. The two, Christ and the church, are thus mingled and joined as one, with Christ being the inward content and the church, the outward expression.]
[The truth concerning the universal and local aspects of the church also needs to be recovered. In a very real sense, these matters have been lost, even annulled. Therefore, we need to be recovered to the truth concerning these two aspects of the church.
In the universal aspect the church is uniquely one. This aspect of the church is revealed by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 16:18, where He says, “On this rock I will build My church.’’ What is revealed here is the universal church for the unique testimony of the Lord in the universe.]
[In the local aspect the church is expressed in many localities as many local churches. The one universal church expressed in many places on earth becomes the many local churches. The expression of the church in a locality is the local church in that particular locality. Without the local churches there would be no practicality and actuality of the universal church. The universal church is realized in the local churches.]
[In the recovery of the church, we are building the Body of Christ, the temple of God, the house of God. This was typified by the rebuilding of the temple under the leadership of Ezra in Old Testament times. Today we are rebuilding the church life as God’s temple, the Body of Christ.
Ephesians 4:12-17 has much to say about the building up of the Body of Christ. Verse 12 says, “For the perfecting of the saints unto the work of ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ.’’ In this verse “unto’’ means for the purpose of, for, with a view to. The many gifted persons in verse 11 have only one ministry, that of ministering Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ, the church. This is the unique ministry in the New Testament economy (2 Cor. 4:1; 1 Tim. 1:12). Furthermore, according to the grammatical construction of verse 12, “the building up of the Body of Christ’’ is “the work of ministry.’’ Whatever the gifted persons in verse 11 do as the work of ministry must be for the building up of the Body of Christ.
The four special gifts in verse 11 — the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherd-teachers — do not build the Body of Christ directly. Instead, these special gifts perfect the saints that they may build the Body of Christ directly. First, the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherd-teachers perfect, equip, the saints. This means that they build up the saints. Then the perfected saints become the building members to build the Body of Christ directly. From this we see that the Body is not built directly by the special gifts but by all the members of the Body. If we realize this, we shall avoid the great heresy of the clergy-laity system. In the church there is no clergy or laity. On the contrary, in the church every member of the Body functions to build up the Body of Christ directly.]
[Finally, the recovery of the church involves the establishing of the kingdom life. This is indicated by Paul’s word in Romans 14:17. “The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.’’ This verse reveals that the kingdom of God is the living of the church. According to the context of Romans 14, the kingdom is today’s church life. The reality of the church life is the kingdom. Romans 12 speaks of the Body life and Romans 14, of the kingdom life. This indicates that, according to Romans, the kingdom life is the reality of the Body life.
The kingdom of God as the living of the church is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. When the authority of God’s kingdom operates in us, righteousness, peace, and joy will characterize our daily life. To have such a living is to establish the kingdom life as typified in the book of Nehemiah by the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem. Therefore, in the recovery of the church, we are building up the church as God’s house and city.]
Although there were and still are many failures in the churches as well as the degradation of the church, the Lord is always recovering. He is never defeated or discouraged. He has an eternal plan. He will not change His mind because of problems. He will not stop until He finishes His work. Jesus said, “My Father is working until now, and I am working’’ (John 5:17). But He needs people to cooperate with Him for His recovery. Many Christians do not see what God is doing. Some have heard about His recovery, yet without the proper vision they have come and gone. May the Lord be merciful to us, to open our eyes to see His eternal purpose, the degradation of the church, and the failures in the churches, that we may remain in His recovery and not repeat history.
Pray like this, “O Lord! I see Your eternal purpose for the church. I see Your economy for the building up of Your church. I see Your recovery of the degraded church. I give myself to You for the recovering and building up of Your church until You come back for her. O Lord, keep me faithful until the end.’’
