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Scripture Reading: Eph. 1:10; 3:9-10
In the Old Testament, in the age prior to Moses, the worship and service to God were all rendered individually, as can be seen in men such as Adam, Abel, and Enosh. But after Moses they were rendered corporately. God delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt through Moses that they might become a kingdom of priests (Exo. 19:6). From that time on, the worship that God desires of His people has no longer been individual but corporate. God did not annul the individual worship, but the individual worship is not the goal that God desires to obtain. God’s eternal plan, or economy, is to have a corporate worship. It is not to have many corporate worships separately; rather, it is to have one great, universal, corporate worship among tens of thousands of God’s people. From the time of Moses, this kind of worship continued for fifteen or sixteen hundred years among the children of Israel.
In the Old Testament the worship rendered to God by His people was formed according to the Mosaic law. That corporate worship was merely an empty shell; it was short of the content of reality. It developed to the extent that the worship of the children of Israel had only a name but did not have the reality, and it fell altogether into outward forms. Thus, it lost the presence of God, even God Himself, the One who was the real content and center of their worship. All their actions in worshipping God were not only vanity but were even detested by God.
In the New Testament we see in the Lord Jesus and in His forerunner, John the Baptist, that the worship that God desires is beyond our imagination, for it is altogether not a matter of formality. The Jews who studied the Old Testament all knew that the Messiah would come and that prior to His coming His forerunner, Elijah, would come to pave the way for Him. However, when Christ and His forerunner came, the Jews did not recognize them. Although the Jews expected the Messiah to come according to the Old Testament prophecies, they interpreted the Scriptures in letters and in forms, and thus they were mistaken and missed Him.
John the Baptist was the Elijah promised by God in the Old Testament (Matt. 11:14). At his conception it was spoken concerning him that he would go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah (Luke 1:17). He was born into a priestly family; his father Zachariah was a priest who took the lead in his course of priestly service. According to what was ordained by the law, John was to inherit his father’s priesthood and serve in the holy temple, wear the priestly robe, and eat the priestly food. However, when he grew up and began his ministry, what he did was altogether different. He put on a garment of camel’s hair and wore a leather girdle about his loins, and he ate locusts and wild honey. All these things were uncivilized, uncultured, and contrary to the religious regulations. He altogether abandoned God’s Old Testament dispensation, which had fallen into a kind of religion mixed with human culture. His intention was to introduce God’s New Testament economy.
In Christ we also see something extraordinary. When Christ was born, although the priests and scribes had the knowledge concerning the birth of Christ, they did not see the vision, nor did they have the heart to seek after Christ; thus, they missed Him and did not gain Him. Although the Bible knowledge they had was accurate, it was in dead letters. This calls to mind the situation of Christianity. Christianity preaches Christ, but it has deviated in its preaching of Christ, having only the name of Christ but not the reality. What is left is nothing but an empty shell, void of Christ as the content. As early as the third or fourth century, Constantine the Great of Rome adopted Christianity as the state religion, and from that point on, the “church” became detached from Christ. It became something in name only, without Christ as its content, something that is mixed with the world. Christ in His ascension is altogether heavenly, yet the “church” on the earth is separated from Christ.
I must point out to you that today both Christianity and Catholicism have become greatly deformed. The reason is that some use the name of Christ, but they put Christ aside. This is a counterfeit. Many things that are not of God are mixed in. The result is something half true and half false. Because of this, the Lord raised up His recovery among us. In 1922 He began His work of recovery in the Far East; then it proceeded to Taiwan, to Southeast Asia, to East Asia, and to the United States, and now it has spread to the six major continents of the whole world. You who are present here have also received the Lord’s mercy and have come into the Lord’s recovery. I hope you realize that you should not compare the Lord’s recovery with today’s Catholicism or Protestantism, because it is different.
At the beginning of this meeting, I read to you two portions of the Scriptures—Ephesians 1:10 and 3:9-10. Both portions mention one thing, that is, the economy of the mystery of God. The Bible shows us that God has an eternal heart’s desire, and according to His heart’s desire, He designed a plan, had a counsel, and made an arrangement. This plan, this counsel, this arrangement, is the economy that we often speak of. In brief, the economy of God is that God desires to have a group of people, who were created in His image, that He may be their life and everything and that He may build them up as a corporate vessel, the church, which is the Body of Christ, the bride of Christ, the house of God, and the kingdom of God, for the fulfillment of God’s goal.
Based on this, God desires that every saved person, every believer as a member of Christ, who has the life of Christ and the Spirit of Christ, should be living, organic, and full of function. If we compare this with the condition in today’s Catholicism or Protestantism, we know that it is altogether different. Among them they have brought forth a clerical class, with a few members of the clergy replacing the organic functions of the majority of the laity. This is contrary to the biblical teaching, and it should be condemned. For this reason God wants to recover the way that He ordained.
Although we say that we are in the Lord’s recovery, a good part of what we have has been inherited from Catholicism and Protestantism. Because of this, it has not been easy for us to break away from these things. We came out from that kind of background. A considerable part of our way of meeting and of preaching the gospel was inherited from them. A principle with all these inherited ways is that they require only a few people and do not require everyone to function. Therefore, we may say that in our standing, we are the Lord’s recovery, but in our practice, a great part of what we are is not the Lord’s recovery, because some of our ways have killed the functions of many members of the Body of Christ. When we speak of church service, we refer mainly to the participation by the brothers and sisters in practical affairs; those who participate in the spiritual aspect of the service are very few.
According to the revelation in the Bible, the gospel preaching that the Lord desires is that every saint should go personally to contact people and to preach the gospel to save sinners. But, fairly speaking, up to the present, the gospel preaching among us has not gone back to the way taught in the Bible. The Lord said that every disciple of the Lord should preach the gospel (Matt. 28:19), and every branch of the Lord should bear fruit (John 15:5, 16) and even bear remaining fruit. For this reason the Lord also wants us to feed His lambs (21:15), to nourish the regenerated believers with the riches of His life. To do this requires us first to set aside a definite time every week to visit our acquaintances to bring God’s salvation to them. If we do this every week, in a year we will surely be able to baptize several people. Then, we need to take care of them and feed them regularly. If we truly mean business to do this, I have the assurance that every one of us will be able to bring two yearly into the church life. This is a great thing.
Furthermore, the Bible requires us to perfect the saints that they may do the work of the New Testament ministry to build up the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:12). This should not be done by just a few; it requires every part of the Body to perfect one another, and the best place to do this is in the group meetings. In the group meetings the saints can understand one another, and if there is any problem or need, they can pray for one another. Furthermore, the mutual fellowship issues in mutual feeding and mutual help. In addition, there is mutual discussing of the truth. We have found a very good way, that is, to take one of the books of the Bible as a line and pray-read two or three verses every day in sequence. Then, when we come to the group meetings, we have more than ten verses that we can bring out for mutual sharing and for discussing together. After we have done this for a period of time, we will be well nourished in the truths of the Bible. We believe that God will recover this condition among us everywhere.
After the preaching of the gospel, the feeding of the lambs, and the perfecting of the saints, we have the final item, which is to prophesy for the building up of the church. To prophesy is to speak to men building up, encouragement, and consolation (1 Cor. 14:3); it is not merely to predict. Every one of us who comes to the meeting should have something that he prepared beforehand. We should bring what we have received of the Lord in our daily life and offer it. You speak something, and I speak something; this will edify people and glorify God.
Up to the present time, these four things—everyone preaching the gospel, feeding the lambs, perfecting the saints, and prophesying to build up the church—have not been fully recovered among us. Since these things are in the Bible, God will recover them. These things are rare in Christianity; but since we are here as the Lord’s recovery, we need to rise up quickly and press on to endeavor and strive in these four things. We should not be content with our condition. We are not rich in content; especially in these four things we are weak and are not strong enough, and we are old and not fresh enough. Hence, we need to be revived every morning and overcome every day. Furthermore, we must determine to endeavor to learn in the God-ordained way. As long as we are willing to learn, nothing will be impossible.
My burden is here: Brothers, the Bible shows us that God has an economy in which He wants to have a corporate vessel, the church, the ultimate consummation of which is the New Jerusalem. Therefore, the situation that will be in the New Jerusalem should be the condition of the church on earth today. However, when we look at the situation in Catholicism and in Protestantism and then look at our condition, we see that the entire situation is deficient and does not resemble what it should be and falls behind what is written in the Word of God. If the Lord cannot gain us, He will go to gain others. Sooner or later the Lord will gain a group of people through whom His holy Word can be fully recovered. His heart’s desire must be fulfilled, and His economy must be accomplished.
Furthermore, according to the entire world situation, it seems that the Lord is quickly doing this very thing; He is speeding up His recovery. I hope that all the saints in Southeast Asia can also see the light of this revelation and practice and learn with dedication. I do not mean that you should immediately do this and do that; you just need to be willing to do these things and to learn, practicing them step by step in earnestness. You do not need to stir up everyone to do them together; that may not be effective. The best way is to take the lead yourself. First, two or three may take the lead to do these things; then gradually there may be five or six, then eight or nine, and so on. In this way, spontaneously there will be an atmosphere in the church in which everyone is preaching the gospel, feeding the lambs, perfecting the saints, and thereby directly participating in the building up, in knowing the truth, in growing in life, and prophesying in the meetings for the building up of the church. As a result, the recovery of the God-ordained way will be widespread; every saint will be filled with the life of Christ and the Spirit of Christ, and everyone will be living, organic, and functioning. This is the true revival of the church, and it is also the real situation of recovery that the Lord desires to have. May the Lord have mercy on us.
