Msg. 2 Knowing the Three Major Items in the Lord’s Recovery

THE UNIQUE WORK IN GOD’S ECONOMY

Message Two
Knowing the Three Major Items in the Lord’s Recovery

Scripture Reading: Prov. 29:18a; Eph. 3:8-10; Matt. 16:18; Col. 1:18b; Eph. 4:3; 1 Pet. 2:5

I. God’s intention in His economy is to dispense Christ with all His riches into His believers chosen by God for the constitution and building up of the Body of Christ, the church, to consummate the New Jerusalem for the full expression of the processed Triune God—Eph. 3:8-10; cf. Jer. 2:13.

II. Because the church has become degraded through the many centuries of its history, it needs to be restored according to God’s original intention and standard as revealed in the Scriptures—cf. 2 Kings 22:8; Ezra 1:3-11; Neh. 2:11, 17; Rev. 18:4.

III. The word recovery means that something was there originally and then was 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 1:3-11; 6:3-5:

A. In Matthew 19:8 we see the principle of recovery: “from the beginning it has not been so”—Matt. 19:8.

B. The words recovery and economy refer to one thing as seen from two different viewpoints; with God, it is a matter of economy; with us, it is a matter of recovery—1 Tim. 1:4; Eph. 1:10; 3:9.

C. God’s economy was unveiled through the apostles, but because the believers lost the proper understanding of God’s economy, there is the need for it to be recovered—vv. 3-5; Acts 2:42.

IV. The Lord’s recovery is the recovery of Christ as our center, reality, life, and everything—Col. 1:18b; Rev. 2:4, 7, 17; 3:20:

A. Christ is preeminent—Col. 1:15, 18:

1. In the Triune Godhead—Phil. 2:9; John 15:26; Col. 1:18b-19; 2:9.

2. In God’s old creation—1:15b; Heb. 2:14a.

3. In God’s new creation—Col. 1:18; 1 Cor. 15:20; Rom. 8:29; Eph. 1:20-23.

4. In God’s exaltation—Acts 2:33a; Eph. 1:22b; Phil. 2:9b.

B. Christ is the governing principle of all genuine wisdom and knowledge, the reality of all genuine teaching, and the only measure of all concepts acceptable to God; Christ is our everything—Col. 2:8.

C. Christ is everything to the believers—Col. 1:12; 3:4; Gal. 1:27; John 8:12:

1. He is the God-allotted portion to the saints—Col. 1:12; 1 Cor. 1:2.

2. He is our life—Col. 3:4a; Gal. 2:20a; Phil. 1:20-21a; Gal. 4:19.

3. He is the hope of glory—1:27.

4. He is our necessities and our enjoyment—John 8:12; 6:51; 1 Cor. 10:4; Matt. 11:28.

D. Christ is the divine provision—1 Cor. 1:24, 30:

1. He is God’s power to us—1 Cor. 1:24a.

2. He is wisdom to us from God as our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption—vv. 24b, 30.

E. Christ is everything to the church—Col. 1:18; 1 Cor. 12:12; 3:11; Eph. 2:20; Col. 3:10-11:

1. He is the Head of the Body—Col. 1:18a.

2. He is the Body of the Head—1 Cor. 12:12.

3. He is the foundation—3:11.

4. He is the cornerstone—Eph. 2:20.

5. He is all the members of the new man—Col. 3:10-11.

F. Christ is every part of God’s New Testament economy in His full ministry of three stages (incarnation, inclusion, and intensification); the Lord’s recovery is God becoming the flesh, the flesh becoming the life-giving Spirit, and the life-giving Spirit becoming the sevenfold intensified Spirit to build up the church that becomes the Body of Christ and that consummates the New Jerusalem—Ezek. 1:15; Col. 1:17; John 1:14; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rev. 4:5; 5:6.

V. The Lord’s recovery is the recovery of the oneness of the Body of Christ, which is our oneness in the Triune God—John 17:11b, 21; Eph. 4:3-4a; Rev. 1:11:

A. The oneness of the Lord’s aspiration and prayer is the oneness of the Body, which is the enlarged oneness of the Divine Trinity—John 17:11b, 21; Eph. 4:4; Rom. 12:4-5:

1. This oneness is in the Father’s name by His divine life—John 17:2, 6, 11.

2. This oneness is in the Triune God through sanctification by the holy word—vv. 14-21.

3. This oneness is in the divine glory for the expression of the Triune God—vv. 22-24.

B. The oneness of the Lord’s aspiration became the oneness in actuality, the oneness of the Spirit—Eph. 4:3.

C. The practice of this oneness is the one accord—Matt. 18:19; Eph. 4:1-4; Acts 1:14; Phil. 1:27; 2:2.

D. The practice of this oneness is on the unique ground of the locality in which a local church is established and exists—Acts 8:1; 13:1; Rev. 1:11; Acts 14:23; cf. Titus 1:5.

VI. The Lord’s recovery is the recovery of the function of all the members of the Body of Christ—Eph. 4:15-16; 1 Cor. 14:4, 26, 31:

A. The gifts, the gifted persons, perfect the saints to do what they do for the organic building up of the Body of Christ—Eph. 4:11-16; Acts 20:20, 31:

1. The gifted persons perfect the saints by nourishing them with the life supply for their growth in life—6:4; Eph. 4:15-16; 1 Cor. 3:2, 6; 1 Pet. 2:2.

2. The gifted persons perfect the saints in the priesthood of the gospel for the carrying out of God’s eternal economy—vv. 5, 9; Rev. 1:6; Rom. 15:16; 12:1; Col. 1:28-29.

3. The Body is built directly by all the members of Christ functioning, each in his own measure—Eph. 4:16.

B. The saints who are willing and ready to be perfected will be the overcomers who constitute the bride of Christ to end this age and usher in the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ—Rev. 11:15; 17:14; 19:7-9.