The Lord’s recovery is according to His purpose for the accomplishing of His economy. Justification by faith, revival, consecration, fellowship by abiding in Christ, identification with Christ’s crucifixion, and resurrection are gold, silver, and precious stones. Where should these valuable things be placed? Should they be in Jerusalem or in Babylon? The Lord has come to the East to recover the ground of the church in order to uphold the items of gold, silver, and precious stone. Simply put, where should we put all the gold, silver, and precious stones? If we say that they should be placed in the universal church, that is too abstract. The New Testament does not provide a location for the universal church, but it does show us churches in various localities, such as the church in Corinth. Not one Epistle in the New Testament was written to the universal church. Likewise, today we cannot speak a message directly to the universal church.
None of the apostles labored directly on the universal church, even though the result of their work was for the universal church. The apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth and to the churches in Galatia, but he never wrote a letter or gave an exhortation that was addressed to the universal church. The universal church is something that cannot be touched directly. It can be touched directly only by the Head, Christ, in the heavens, as shown in Matthew 16:18. In this verse He said, “Upon this rock I will build My church.” We, His humble slaves on earth, have no way to directly contact the universal church. As long as we are in our physical body, we will have no way to touch the universal church; however, we can touch the local churches. Our message, exhortation, and comfort can be addressed only to the local churches. It is nonsense to claim that we can speak directly to the universal church.
The order, the sequence, of the Lord’s work of creation is wonderful, and we believe that the order of His work of recovery is also wonderful. He first recovered justification by faith. If we look at His work of recovery, we will realize that justification by faith causes man to be revived. Once a person is revived, he needs fellowship, and this fellowship takes place by abiding in Christ. However, the reality of abiding in Christ is related to the Lord’s death on the cross and is followed by the resurrection of Christ. Then in resurrection the Body of Christ is produced. This Body needs to have a practical expression, an actual appearance, on earth. Where should this expression be? In other words, where should the gold, silver, and precious stones be placed? We cannot say that the gold, silver, and precious stones are the site; they are the building materials. On the day of Pentecost, God established the ground of locality. For example, Jerusalem is a city, and it was the ground of the church in Jerusalem. Moreover, the many cities in Galatia became the ground for the churches in Galatia. One who sees this light should immediately return to the ground ordained by God. We have been taken captive, and we need to come back to the site of our forefathers. For generations, the ground of the church has been lost. This is what God seeks to recover today.
We accept all the gifts that God has given throughout the past two thousand years, but we reject anything improper related to these gifts. We receive the matter of loving the Lord and choosing the cross that was recovered through Madame Guyon, but we reject the things of Catholicism that she was involved in and the ground of the Catholic Church upon which she stood. Similarly, we receive the matter of fellowshipping with the Lord by abiding in Him, which was recovered through Andrew Murray. At the same time we reject his title of Reverend. We receive the matter of the believer’s co-death with the Lord that was recovered through Mrs. Penn-Lewis, but we reject the ground upon which she stood. In the same way, we do not receive a ground that is only halfway, a ground that stops in the middle, and does not fully arrive at Jerusalem. Not only do we reject the ground of organized Christianity; we also reject any ground that has not fully come back to the local ground. Only one ground is right—Jerusalem. The grounds of Babylon, Assyria, and even neighboring Samaria were not right. Likewise, the ground of the Catholic Church and all the denominations are not right. All grounds other than the local ground are not right.
In regard to spirituality, Madame Guyon was spiritual. Even today there is no servant of God whose spiritual level exceeds hers; nevertheless, she was in the Catholic Church. If some want to take the ground of spirituality, they should go to the Catholic Church and fellowship with her. Yet they would not go to the Catholic Church. This proves that spirituality cannot be the criterion; spirituality and the ground are two different matters. Daniel was very spiritual, yet because Jerusalem was the ground on which God’s people should have stood, he prayed to God with his face toward Jerusalem, asking God to release His people to return to Jerusalem. Sadly, many have not seen this light; moreover, some even say, “Daniel was very spiritual, but he stayed in Babylon rather than go back to Jerusalem to be with those who were not spiritual. Today there are many who are as spiritual as Daniel and who love the Lord as much as he and his three friends; why can we not be in their company?” To say this is to care only for spirituality and not for the ground.
On our part, we care for the ground as well as for spiritual matters. Hence, we accept everything of the last two thousand years that is good and proper, and we will also accept everything in the future that is good and proper, regardless from whom these things come. However, we will say no to everything that is not good or proper related to these things. We want the spiritual things from Madame Guyon, but we refuse to take her ground, the ground of the Catholic Church. Likewise, from a spiritual person, we want only what is spiritual, not what is murky. We are not biased. We accept everything that is right and proper which has been recovered throughout the past two thousand years, regardless from whom it came.
We believe that today God is recovering the matter of the ground. However, quite a number of spiritual ones are not clear regarding this matter. I have come to the conclusion that only those who take the way of the Lord’s recovery can measure those who took the way before them. This is because the Lord has gone further in them. However, those who took the way earlier cannot measure those who come after them according to the standard of their age because such a measurement would be short. The Lord has never stopped with any one person but has advanced on to another. Mrs. Penn-Lewis could measure Andrew Murray, who was before her, in regard to identification with Christ’s death, which was recovered through her. However, she could not use what was recovered through her to measure T. Austin-Sparks, who came after her, because the Lord advanced further to recover the matter of resurrection through Brother Sparks. Likewise, while Brother Sparks can go back to measure Mrs. Penn-Lewis, he cannot measure those who come after him. We sense that after God recovered the truth of resurrection, He did a further work of recovery among us; that is, He showed us the matter of the ground of the church. Can we then say that all the other matters that have come to our attention during the past thirty years are meaningless, superfluous, slanted, extreme, or erroneous? I cannot and dare not believe this.
The matter of the ground is serious. If the children of Israel had built a temple in Babylon with the same materials that they used to build the temple in Jerusalem, they would have been completely wrong. Such a mistake would have been due not to the materials or the work but to the ground. This clearly proves that besides the matter of spirituality, there is still the matter of the ground. Today some people think that to pay attention to the ground of the church is to reduce Christ and the church, making Christ a small Christ, a local Christ, and to make the church a small church, a local church. I deeply feel that this word is illogical. We only say that we need to recover the church to the proper ground. How does this make Christ and the church smaller? Within the denominations there are many Christians who have Christ, yet how does not standing on the proper ground of the church make Christ larger? The ground of the church does not determine whether Christ is large or small, nor does it determine whether the church is large or small. Christ and the church are simply as large or as small as they are in themselves.
The matter at issue is this: If you claim that you are the church, you should return to the ground of the church. If you do not return to the ground of the church, you still have a ground, but it is not the proper ground, not the ground upon which you should stand. If some people say that we have made Christ and the church smaller by returning to the ground of the church, we simply cannot accept their word, because it is illogical.