GENERAL SUBJECT
THE RECOVERY OF THE CHURCH
Message Two
The Original Condition of the Church, the Degradation of the Church, and the Recovery of the Church
Scripture Reading: Matt. 16:18; Rev. 1:11; Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5; Col. 1:18; 2:19
I. Our history in the Lord's recovery is not that of an organization or of a movement; it is a history of recovery—John 1:1; 1 John 1:1:
A. In Matthew 19:8 we see the principle of recovery: "From the beginning it has not been so":
1. Recovery means to go back to the beginning; we need to go back to the be-ginning, receiving the Lord's grace to go back to God's original intention, to what God ordained in the beginning.
2. The word recovery means that something was there originally and then was degraded, damaged, or lost; thus, there is a need to bring that thing back to its original state and to its normal condition—Dan. 1:1-2; Ezra 1:5; 6:5.
B. When we speak of the recovery of the church, we mean that the church was there originally, that it became degraded, and that there is the need to bring the church back to its original state.
C. The Lord's recovery of the church brings us back to the beginning for the ful-fillment of God's eternal purpose and original intention regarding the church— Eph. 1:4-5, 22-23; 3:9-11.
II. We need to understand the recovery of the church in relation to God's intention and accomplishment and Satan's work of destruction—v. 11:
A. The New Testament reveals that regarding the church, God has a definite inten-tion,purpose,and goal;first,God purposed,and then He came in to accomplish His purpose—Rev. 4:11; Eph. 1:4-5, 9, 11, 22-23.
B. The New Testament also gives us a clear record of how God's enemy came in to destroy what God had accomplished—Matt. 16:18; 13:24-32:
1. The satanic way to destroy God's accomplishment has an inward aspect and an outward aspect:
a. The inward aspect is to damage and corrupt God's people—Acts 5:3.
b. The outward aspect is to destroy God's accomplishment—Matt. 13:32.
2. Satan produced many substitutes for Christ, divided the Body of Christ, and killed the function of the members of the Body by the clergy-laity system— Col. 2:8; Rev. 2:6, 14-15.
C. Because God is a purposeful God with an eternal purpose and because once He has determined to do something, nothing can change His mind or stop Him; after Satan's destruction God comes in to redo the things that He had done before—Ezra 1:3-11; 6:3-5.
D. God's redoing of what He has accomplished is His recovery; this is to bring back whatever has been lost and destroyed by Satan and to recover the church according to His eternal purpose and original intention—Matt. 19:8; 16:18.
III. In order to recognize the need for the recovery of the church, we need to know the original condition of the church and the degradation of the church:
A. The original condition of the church had the following characteristics:
1. In the original church there was no hierarchy among the believers—Rom. 12:4-5:
a. The believers were all brothers without distinction in rank—Matt. 23:8.
b. As members of the Body, the believers coordinated with one another on an equal level, and each one fulfilled his particular function—Rom. 12:4-5.
c. The believers were all priests to God, without an intermediary class or the distinctions between clergy and laity—1 Pet. 2:5, 9.
2. The early church was completely separated from the world; it was in the world but not of the world—Rom. 12:2; 1 John 2:15; 2 Cor. 6:14-17.
3. The original church forsook idols and fully allowed God to speak—1 John 5:21.
4. There was only one church, one expression of the Body of Christ, in a local-ity—1 Cor.12:27;1:2;Rev.1:11.
5. The churches were one in fellowship, but each one was independent in ad-ministration, and there was no head church or federation—1 Cor. 10:16.
6. The churches honored Christ as the Head and allowed the Holy Spirit to have authority—Col. 1:18; 2:19; Acts 13:1-2; 10:19-20; 11:12.
B. The degradation of the church involved hierarchy, union with the world, idols, divisions, not allowing God to speak, having organization for unification, and usurping the headship of Christ and encroaching on the authority of the Holy Spirit.
IV. The recovery of the church has been gradual and progressive:
A. Before the end of the first century, the Lord's recovery began, and century by century the recovery has continued on—2 Tim. 2:19-26.
B. In the sixteenth century Martin Luther rose up to begin the Reformation, and the sealed Bible was unlocked; based upon the Bible, he recovered justification by faith, but the proper church life was not recovered—Rom. 1:17:
1. The Protestant churches were not separated from the world, and they did not eliminate the intermediary class.
2. Among the Protestant churches there were more divisions, and the various denominations did not put away organization for unification.
3. The denominations did not allow Christ to have the absolute position and did not allow the Holy Spirit to have absolute authority.
C. In the eighteenth century Zinzendorf was raised up by the Lord to lead the Mora-vian brothers to a recovery of the church life; they were separated from the world, removed distinctions of rank, emphasized fellowship and coordination, endeavored to keep the oneness, removed formal organization for unification, and allowed Christ to be the Head and the Holy Spirit to rule among them.
D. In the nineteenth century the Lord raised up a group of brothers in England, who went further in the recovery of the church life—Rev. 3:7-13:
1. In the hands of the Brethren, the Bible was truly an opened book, a shining book, for they absolutely obeyed the Lord's word; many important truths were released through them—1 Tim. 2:4.
2. They absolutely eliminated hierarchy and were brothers together and mem-bers one of another with an emphasis on mutual love and fellowship.
3. They eliminated sectarianism and maintained the testimony of oneness.
4. However, in certain aspects they were a failure, and because of this the Lord could not go on at that time anywhere in the Western world.
E. We need to see the crucial points of the recovery of the church in the Far East:
1. In 1933 and 1934 we clearly saw a crucial matter—the principle of the church taking a locality as its boundary—Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5; Rev. 1:11:
a. On the one hand, this prevents division and confusion; on the other hand, it also prevents "extra-local" unions.
b. According to the teaching of the Bible, the church in each locality should live directly before the Lord and be responsible to the Head, Christ— Col. 1:18; 2:19; Acts 13:1-2.
2. We kept the principle of the administration of the church being local and the fellowship of the church being universal—14:23; 2:42; 1 Cor. 10:16-17:
a. The church in each locality has its own administration, and the admin-istration of the church cannot go beyond the local boundary.
b. The fellowship of the church should not only be local; rather, it should be universal because it is the fellowship of the Body of Christ.
3. We clearly saw that churches in different localities should not have an or-ganization for unification, for all churches should be directly under the rul-ing of Christ, the Head, and should directly obey the authority of the Holy Spirit—Col. 1:18; Acts 13:1-2.
4. We emphasized the universal priesthood; that is, we stressed the fact that every believer is a priest—1 Pet. 2:5, 9.
5. We also emphasized the Body's coordination in service, exhorting all the saints to keep the principle of the Body by serving together in coordina-tion—Rom. 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 12:12-27.
6. We emphasized the practical service in the church—Rom. 12:5-11.
V. The Lord's recovery is different from today's Christianity; it is impossible for there to be reconciliation between the recovery and Christianity— Matt. 13:31-33, 44-46; Rev. 18:4; 19:1-3, 7-9:
A. The recovery of the church is for bringing us out of the unscriptural system of clergy-laity back to the beginning for the pure practice of the church life accord-ing to the divine revelation—2:6, 15; Matt. 16:18; Eph. 2:20-22.
B. The history among us has been one of coming completely out of Christianity without compromise—Ezra 1:3-11; 6:3-5; Rev. 18:4.
C. There should be no bridge between the local churches and Christianity; we should be what we are without compromise or pretense, maintaining the gap between us and Christianity—1:11; Gal. 1:4.