RECOVERY

D. J. Hutson

Luke 15: 3–6, 8, 9, 11–13, 20–24

I seek to speak, dear brethren, from this scripture in relation to the matter of recovery. We speak a good deal of recovery in relation to persons who return to the Lord in these days. We are thankful for every one of them, and we would be constant in our prayers that more may be added to

their number. We are indeed all recovered persons. Man has got away from God; we have all had to retrace our steps from having “turned every one to his own way”, and we have found that “Jehovah hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all”, Isaiah 53: 6. But recovery is to the highest truth, which remains even in this day. It is a tribute to the service of the blessed Holy Spirit that there is here on earth at the present time that which the Lord Jesus can take account of.

It says in John 20: 19 that “Jesus came and stood in the midst”. There is that to which He can come in the light of the whole universal position, in the light of the assembly as it is on earth at the present time. We do not speak of that as a matter of theory, but as something which is very real, which we have proved by experience. We know what it is for the Lord Jesus to come in where the doors are shut. We know what it is for Him to say, “Peace be to you”, and to be sent out into the testimony from an area of privilege where we have experienced such intimate relations with Himself. These things are real, and they are there for persons to be recovered to them in these last days.

Perhaps we have not thought sufficiently of the meaning of that word ‘recovery’. It is not only that persons return—that is their side of the matter—but the question on our side is whether we can bring persons back. James speaks of one who brings a person back, and covers a multitude of sins.

Well, we must begin from the top, and see the way in which divine Persons have operated in recovery. We have experienced it as set out in this chapter, which has been used in the preaching of the gospel for hundreds of years now—how God has moved out from His own side to bring us back. There was nothing in the way of movement back on the

part of the lost sheep, but the shepherd went after it. With the lost drachma there was the sweeping of the house that it might be brought to light. And then it was the father who covered the distance. That is why I went from verse 13 to verse 20. The younger son went into a country “a long way off”, and while he was yet a long way off his father saw him. His father could cover that great distance, and could embrace him, and call for him to be clothed in that which suited him to have part in the merriment and rejoicing which was to proceed in the house because of the recovered son.

The question for us, as we contemplate these things and consider them together, is as to what part we can have in these activities. How do they take place at the present time? We know what was involved in this for Jesus—leaving the ninety and nine in the wilderness and going after that which was lost until He found it. Think of where He has been for each one of us, where He has been to find us. Paul sets it out so clearly—“that one died for all, then all have died”, 2 Corinthians 5: 14. He reached us where we were, dead in offences and sins, and He went into death to reach us. That was how far He went, and as the hymn says,

‘But none of the ransomed ever knew

How deep were the waters crossed,

Nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through Ere He found His sheep that was lost’.

Think of the way He has been, beloved, to reach you and to reach me. That is the way He has moved in recovery so that man might be brought back to God, so that man might be once again for God’s pleasure.

I was impressed with the simple word here “my lost sheep”. Think of the value which the Lord Jesus has set upon each one of us—upon you and upon me. If you are the youngest here, you may

feel you have a very small part in these things and have not gone very far on the road, but the Lord Jesus values you so much that He was prepared to go all that way to reach you and to bring you back. How wonderful these words are—‘his own shoulders’. He did it all Himself—carried the whole load, the whole weight, so that you and I might be brought back.

He “suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God”, 1 Peter 3: 18.

Think of the load that He bore, so that He might bring us back, and how He values each one of us because we are His sheep.

This would lead us, I believe, to have a right valuation of one another. What valuation have we of one another? What valuation have we of our brethren who are not available to us? I say that in the widest sense, even as Mr. Darby could write to his ‘Roman Catholic brethren’

(Coll.Wrtgs. Vol.18, p.1). These brethren are lost for the time being, not only those we have once walked with, but so many in christendom. Who knows how many there are? “The Lord knows those that are his” (2 Timothy 2: 19), and we should be such that other people know that we are His. But then, as to these others, how far are we prepared to go to reach them?

How far was the Lord Jesus prepared to go to reach you, dear brother, and to reach me? I just say this suggestively, although I feel the edge of it myself, as not having gone very far in seeking others with a view to their recovery. When I think of how far He went, how far am I prepared to go? I believe an understanding of His own word “my lost sheep”—what they are to Him, and where He has been for each one—would encourage us. Paul could say—“The Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”, Galatians 2: 20. Think of what Jesus has given for each one of His own—every blood-bought saint on earth at the present time, the myriads of them, whether available to us or not. How far are we

prepared to go, as we take account of the immense value that He has put upon them, so that they might be recovered for His pleasure, and He would say, “Rejoice with me”? What joy it would give to the Lord Jesus if we were able to reach any and bring them back.

So it says that, “having found it, he lays it upon his own shoulders”. How much are we prepared to carry, dear brethren? Think of what Paul could speak of—all that pressed upon him daily. How much presses upon us daily in relation to the testimony? How much presses upon us as to those who are not available to us, with a view to their recovery? How much are we prepared to carry, so that others might be reached and brought in, available to the Lord, at the present time?

We must always bear in mind that Matthew gives us the teaching as to the assembly, and it says there, not that he left them in the wilderness, but that he left them on the mountains (Matthew 18: 12). We have to remember that. There are those who would go out and lower the standard of things, leaving the position which has been reached through the teaching in the recovery as to the assembly. So in Matthew, where the teaching of the assembly is, it would seem that recovery is more difficult, for it says—“If it should come to pass that he find it” (Matthew 18: 13). As taking assembly ground we have to realise that if we are to maintain the level which is due to the Lord in the assembly it is not going to be easy to recover persons and to bring them back to that level. So in Matthew he goes out from that elevation, and that is the level to which he would return, bringing them back to the mountains. Can we bring persons back to the mountains? Can we bring them back to the high level and standard of the truth to which we have been recovered ourselves, which has never been impaired by the breakdown? These glorious matters

which are coming before us now belong to the mountain-top. Are we holding them as such, so that we might bring persons up to that level, and how far are we prepared to go to find them? I raise the question with myself as much as with any, as to how this can work out at the present time.

It must be, of course, that the Lord goes before. We of ourselves can effect nothing by way of recovery. Verse 7 speaks of “one repenting sinner”. What makes the sinner repent? The Lord has worked there; the Lord Himself has gone before, and we would be concerned that He would let His work appear unto His servants, so that we might link on with what He is doing.

Apart from this, our work will come to nought.

Then there is the next section which gives in figure the service of the Holy Spirit, sweeping the house and seeking carefully, as it says of the woman, “till she find it”. Here it is a question of diligence, and it is within the area of the house. There may even be persons in fellowship, as we say, not vitally in circulation. Do we take account of the potential that is there for the divine pleasure? And do we use diligence in relation to them, having in view the value of “the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own”, Acts 20: 28? Do we act like the beloved apostle there as he ceased not to admonish each one? Do we take account of those who are in the house, if I may apply it that way, but perhaps for the moment not vitally responsive because of some leaning towards the world or “earthly things”? Are we concerned to use diligence in relation to them, to rekindle the work that is in them, having in view their value to God? The drachma would remind us of the half shekel of the sanctuary—“the rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less” (Exodus 30: 15)—and the value of every one to God for “the service of the

tent of meeting” (verse 16).

Well, the searching is the service of the Holy Spirit; we may be content to leave it there, but I believe we are to have part in the work. The Lord can, and does, work by Himself, even as He could arrest Saul of Tarsus by a voice out of heaven. We know, too, how He has spoken to each one of us. As I have said, it must be His own work, but there is that in which He would call us to have part at the present time. So also the Holy Spirit is acting sovereignly in persons, but He is pleased, in the infinite grace which marks Him, to use vessels who are available to Him in what He is doing—applying the word of God in its searching character so that more might be available to the Lord in view of the service of God and for His own joy.

Then we have this younger son who gathered all together and “went away into a country a long way off”. Oh how sad it is that some have done that! And the elder son was equally outside his father’s house, although so near. Do we know of persons who have gone into a country a long way off? Again I say, we are dependent upon the work of God. We can effect nothing of ourselves, but are we on the look-out? because it says—“While he was yet a long way off, his father saw him”. At the first sign of movement, “his father saw him ... and ran”.

Can we take account of any in whom God is working, who may be “yet a long way off”? And can we, as the father did, come in with a ministry of reconciliation so that the distance is removed? Again I say, without any sense of compromise or in any way lowering the standard, can we remove the distance? It says “his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell upon his neck, and covered him with kisses”.

Can we reflect the feelings of God—who “so loved … that he gave his only begotten Son”, John 3: 16? Are we rightly representing Him in relation to persons who may have got a long way off? Can we move towards them so that they might be brought back, and are we ready to clothe them so that they might be at liberty in the house? Think of how he clothed him, apart from anything else, by saying “This my son”. These persons who may have got away are never viewed by God apart from what they are as His sons, for He has given so much to secure them, and “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin”, 1 John 1: 7.

They never cease to be what they are, so Paul says to the Galatians—“ Ye are all God’s sons by faith in Christ Jesus”, Galatians 3: 26. They had got into bondage, and gone back to

“beggarly principles”, like this son here. He got away into a beggarly position, but he never ceased to be a son. So the father could clothe him by saying, “This my son”.

Well, how do we regard our brethren who may have gone astray? Do we regard them in any lower light than what they are as of value in God’s sight? Can we not see that what has come to fruition in their going astray is in our own hearts, but through the grace of God alone we have been preserved? I believe that if we look at it that way we shall be helped to view them as God sees them, in the light of what they are to Him. Then we shall be able to bring in a ministry of reconciliation which will remove the distance. We see what God has done from His own side at such tremendous cost so that everything might be established on a righteous basis, a way of recovery secured, and persons brought into the merriment which is set on afresh as each repenting one returns.

So it says, “the father said to his bondmen, Bring out the best robe and clothe him in it, and

put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry—for this my son was dead and has come to life, was lost and has been found”. Think of the joy that there is in heaven, as it says in the other two instances, “for one repenting sinner”. What joy there is for the heart of God in persons being recovered! I believe that would be the motive that would help us on this line, and would stimulate us as we would seek to be available under the hand of God in view of the recovery of persons for His service and praise. We feel for those in small numbers in isolation in other parts of the world. As you see them, your heart goes out for them as not having the privilege we have of gathering together for meetings such as this, their neighbours being thousands of miles away. How we should feel for them! Yet, thank God. His work is very real there, and we would be looking for recovery.

But what is the motive for this? How easy it is to look for increase for the sake of increase, but I believe that as we have these things before us we would have right motives in seeking to recover persons. We would remember that He says, “my lost sheep”; it is nothing that we can lay claim to; it is His, and He has laid claim to it, and laid down His life for it. We would not be as those who lord it over their possessions, but those who recognise that the assembly is the assembly of God which He has purchased with the blood of His own. We would recognise that persons are to be recovered to the full light and dignity of what God has in mind for them, and are those of whom He says “my son”—remembering what we have often been taught, that sonship is for God.

So let us take account, beloved, of the potential that there is all around us. Some we know, many we have never known, and many, I suppose, we shall never

know until we are united with them in glory. Let us have recovery in mind in relation to what is for God. Those who are recovered are to be available for Him at the present time. Let us be exercised as to how far we can go to find them. Let us be diligent to uncover that which is really of God, to bring it to light for His joy and pleasure. May we be encouraged to remove any distance which has come in by bringing in a ministry of reconciliation, and clothe persons with God’s thoughts for them, that they may be fully restored for His pleasure and praise.

Address at Cardiff
22 April 1978