GENERAL SUBJECT
THE RECOVERY OF THE CHURCH
Message One
Seeing God's Eternal Purpose concerning the Church and Enlightening All concerning the Economy of the Mystery Hidden in God
Scripture Reading: Eph. 3:3-5, 8-11; Rom. 8:28; 16:25
I. In order to participate in the recovery of the church, we need to see God's eternal purpose concerning the church—Eph. 1:9, 11; 3:9-11; Rom. 8:28:
A. A purpose is a determined intent to do something or to gain something:
1. The determined will of God became the purpose of God—Eph. 1:5.
2. God's purpose is His determined intent to gain the church—vv. 9, 11.
B. The eternal purpose (lit., "the purpose of the ages") was made by God in eternity past for eternity future—3:11:
1. Thepurpose of theagesisthe purposeofeternity, theeternal purpose.
2. In eternity past, before the foundation of the world, before the heavens, the earth, and all things were created, God made a purpose for something in the future, in eternity to come; therefore, it is called the purpose of eternity, the eternal purpose—1:4-5, 9, 11; 3:11.
C. The word purpose in Ephesians 3:11 is equivalent to the word plan; we may speak of the eternal plan which God planned in Christ:
1. God has a plan, which He planned in eternity; God's eternal purpose is God's eternal plan.
2. His purpose in Romans 8:28 refers to the purposeful determination in God's plan.
3. God's plan is to have a corporate expression of Himself in Christ the Son by the Spirit through the Body composed and built up with many regenerated and transformed people by the mingling of Himself with humanity—Eph. 1:22-23; 4:16.
D. Ephesians 3:10-11 reveals that the existence of the church is according to the eternal purpose which He made in Christ Jesus our Lord:
1. The church was planned by God in eternity; before time began, in eternity, God purposed to have the church—1:4-5, 9, 11, 22-23.
2. In eternity past and for eternity to come, God planned and purposed to have the church in Christ and for Christ—3:10-11:
a. The church is not a temporary matter but an eternal matter in the eter-nal purpose of God; the church is the center and subject of God's eternal plan.
b. God planned in eternity past to have the church, and He expects to have the church in eternity to come.
c. The church is in this age and throughout this age, yet it is from eternity past and for eternity future—Matt. 16:18; 18:17; Rev. 21:2, 9-11.
E. God planned to have the church composed of regenerated and transformed human beings who are coordinated and built together as a corporate Body— Eph. 1:22-23; 2:21-22; 3:14-21:
1. God planned that this corporate Body wouldbeacorporatevesselintowhich He would work Himself—vv. 14-17.
2. God's purpose, His determined intention, is to have a corporate Body, a cor-porate vessel, with which He could mingle Himself and all that He has; this vessel is the church—4:4-6, 16.
3. The church is dear, lovable, and precious to God because the church is His good pleasure, the desire of His heart—1:5, 9, 22-23.
F. The existence of the universe is according to God's eternal purpose to have the church—Rev. 4:11; Eph. 3:9-11:
1. The full revelation of the Scriptures unveils to us that all things in the uni-verse are for the church—v. 9.
2. Even the three persons of the Godhead are for the divine purpose of having the church to fulfill God's eternal plan through the dispensing of God in His Divine Trinity into humanity so that the church may come into existence— 1:3-23; Matt. 28:19; 16:18; 2 Cor. 13:14; 1:1.
3. The heavens, the earth, a multitude of other things, and the tripartite man are required in order that the church may exist to express God; without these things God cannot have the church in the universe to be His corpo-rate expression—Zech. 12:1; Rev. 4:11.
G. God's intention concerning the church is threefold: to express Himself through the sonship (Eph. 1:5), to make His multifarious wisdom known to the enemy (3:10), and to head up all things in Christ (1:10).
II. We need "to enlighten all that they may see what the economy of the mys-tery is, which throughout the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things"—3:9:
A. The New Testament tells us that the church was a mystery in God; throughout all the generations before the New Testament time, the church was a mystery— vv.3-6,9;5:32.
B. In the Bible a mystery refers not only to things that are hidden and unknown to us but also to things that are hidden in God's heart; this is the principle con-cerning the mysteries mentioned in the Bible—Mark 4:11; Rom. 16:25-26; Col. 1:26-27;2:2;4:3;Eph.1:9;3:3-4,9;5:32; 6:19.
C. God's mystery is His hidden purpose, which is to dispense Himself into His chosen people; hence, there is the economy of the mystery of God—3:9.
D. From the beginning of the world the purpose of creation was a mystery hidden in God; no one knew what the purpose of creation was—Rev. 4:11; Eph. 3:9; Col. 1:16:
1. Job was right in saying, "You have hidden these things in Your heart: / I know that this is with You"; what was hidden in God's heart was the mys-tery of the ages—Job 10:13; Eph. 3:9.
2. After creating man in His image and according to His likeness, God kept His intention hidden throughout the ages—Gen. 1:26; Rom. 16:25.
3. Before the New Testament time God did not unveil to anyone what His pur-pose was; the mystery, God's hidden purpose, was made known by revelation to the apostles and prophets—Eph. 3:3-5.
E. The mystery hidden in God's heart is God's eternal economy (1:10; 3:9; 1 Tim. 1:4), which is God's eternal intention with His heart's desire to dispense Him-self in His Divine Trinity as the Father in the Son by the Spirit into His chosen people to be their life and nature so that they may be the same as He is as His duplication (Rom. 8:29; 1 John 3:2), to become an organism, the Body of Christ as the new man (Eph. 2:15-16), for God's fullness, God's expression (1:22-23; 3:19), which will become the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2—22:5).
F. In Ephesians 3:4 Paul uses the expression the mystery of Christ to explain the church as the Body of Christ in God's eternal economy, indicating that the church is the mystery of Christ.
G. The economy of God's mystery is to have the church for the manifestation of God—vv. 9-10.
H. Paul preached not only the gospel of the unsearchable riches of Christ; he also preached the gospel concerning the economy of the mystery hidden in God— vv. 8-9:
1. The gospel concerning the economy of the mystery hidden in God is to pro-duce the church for God's expression and glorification according to God's eternal purpose—vv. 10-11, 21.
2. Today we must announce the gospel concerning the mystery hidden in God in order to enlighten all so that they may see what is the economy of the mystery hidden in God, who created all things for the fulfillment of His will, the desire of His heart, and His eternal purpose—1:5, 9, 11; 3:8-11.