Search
Scripture Reading: Acts 9:20-22; 10:36; 1 Cor. 12:3; Rom. 1:16
The preaching of the gospel is a significant matter. Some people, however, may regard it merely as an event full of excitement. When they meet their friends, relatives, schoolmates, and colleagues, they may mention the church’s gospel campaign as a topic of conversation and may invite people to come to the gospel meetings. However, we need to see that in preaching the gospel, there should be no human excitement.
In our consideration of preaching the gospel, we need to pay attention to the spiritual burden within. On the negative side, we are fearful that in preaching the gospel we may have only outward excitement and pay little attention to the inner spiritual burden. Although we desire that many will have a heart for the gospel and offer themselves for this, their offering of themselves should not be the issue of outward excitement. We can never give the Lord’s life to others through excitement. If we preach the gospel out of excitement, we will bring others only into excitement, and it will be difficult for them to have a thorough repentance and receive the Lord Jesus. Preaching the gospel out of natural enthusiasm and excitement cannot stir up the sense of sin and the emptiness of human life within people. It will not help them to sense their need to gain the Lord Jesus and to have God in them as their satisfaction and life.
The Holy Spirit has done some amount of work in people’s hearts. However, we often frustrate the work of the Holy Spirit because of our natural enthusiasm and excitement. Whenever the Holy Spirit has led a person to sense his need for God and feel the heaviness of sins, the emptiness of life, and the longing for a Savior, we need to cooperate with the work of the Spirit by denying our natural excitement and by speaking in the spirit by faith a few sentences that can touch the person’s inner being. This will open to him a new and living way to touch God, to gain God’s salvation, and to receive the Lord Jesus as his Savior. To cooperate with the Holy Spirit’s work in this way is a very difficult lesson that we need to learn.
All natural enthusiasm and excitement comes from and flows out of the self, and whatever issues from our self cannot cause others to gain life or receive salvation. The more we exercise to deny our self and whatever issues from the self, the more we will exercise our spirit to speak the gospel.
When we preach the gospel, we need to be filled with Christ. As we consider and wait before the Lord, we should sense a special spiritual need concerning the preaching of the gospel. This spiritual need is Christ as the burden of the gospel. We should not only have Christ as our burden, but our inner being also needs to be filled with Him. When we go out to contact people, we should not boast about our gospel meeting, nor should people sense our natural zeal or excitement. Rather, after being contacted by us, people should have the impression that we have nothing but Christ within us. They should sense that we are full of the element of Christ and that Christ is in us as our spiritual weight. The people whom we contact should never have the sense that we are zealous or excited or that we are religious people. Instead, they should sense that there is something special that fills us inwardly and that this special thing is Christ.
Christ our Savior died for us on the cross so that our sins could be forgiven (Rom. 5:6, 8-9). He shed His blood on the cross and washed away our sins (Heb. 9:14; 1 John 1:7, 9). Hence, we can have peace in our conscience. Today He is in us as the Spirit (Col. 1:27; Rom. 8:9-10), and we have joy and satisfaction in our human life because He fills us inwardly. When we give Him the ground in us, He as our life and our strength delivers us from the world and every sin that entangles us. Hence, we preach the gospel by contacting people not because we are zealous or excited but because the Lord has filled us inwardly. He is our spiritual weight and our unique burden. He fills us to the extent that we need to overflow and unload Him into others. When we speak the gospel to others, they should not have the sense merely that the lake of fire is horrible, that a life of sin is miserable, or that salvation will bring peace and joy. That kind of gospel is shallow, low, and light. When we contact people, they should sense only the Lord Jesus and contact Him. We need to give people a gospel that is high, deep, and weighty. When we contact people, they should sense that we are filled with Christ.
Our being filled with Christ within is not a matter of pretense. If a person has no joy inwardly yet pretends to be joyful, it will be apparent that his joy is not real, and his false joy will be short-lived. Whatever a person is and whatever he is filled with inwardly will eventually be expressed. Therefore, if we are filled only with excitement and are eager only to see many people come to our gospel meeting, those who come to hear the gospel will sense only our excitement when we contact them. However, if we are filled with Christ inwardly, we will spontaneously and naturally express Him in our behavior and speaking when we contact others. When we contact unbelieving people with Christ as our content, satisfaction, inner weight, and outward expression, they will sense that there is something special within us that is not religion or excitement. They may not be able to say what this special thing is. Nevertheless, as we converse with them, they will gradually realize that we have something within us that they do not have. This something is Christ. We should help them to see that they need to open their hearts to receive Jesus as their Savior and their Lord.
In Acts, although the apostles spoke concerning sins, perdition, God’s judgment, and God’s righteousness, these things were not their focus when they preached the gospel. Rather than stressing these things, they emphasized the Lord Jesus Himself. They preached the Lord Jesus not only as the Savior but also as Lord of all (Acts 2:36; 2 Cor. 4:5; 1 Tim. 6:15). Their central topic was Christ, because they were filled with Him inwardly.
Some Christians pay much attention to being filled with the Holy Spirit. However, they may not realize that to be filled with the Holy Spirit is to be filled with the Lord Jesus. The Holy Spirit is the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17). Thus, to be filled with the Spirit is to be filled with the Lord. Some people say that when a person is filled with the Holy Spirit, he should shake, experience a burning sensation, or feel that he is being electrified. Others say that in order to be filled with the Holy Spirit, a person must jump and speak in tongues. However, the genuine, valuable, and weighty experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit is the experience of being filled with Christ within. When Christ fills us with Himself in our spirit and in our mind, emotion, and will, we love Him, follow Him, and live for Him. In addition, we learn to live in Him and allow Him to possess every part of our being. This is the experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit.
After the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, Peter stood with the other eleven apostles to preach the gospel (Acts 2:14). We can tell from his speaking that the one hundred twenty disciples were full of Christ inwardly. The disciples had followed Christ for three and a half years. They were in contact with Him every day. When the Lord was betrayed, they were there. When He was crucified, they were there also. They knew of the Lord’s resurrection, and they saw the Lord’s ascension into heaven. Therefore, when the Holy Spirit came upon them, their hearts, including their thoughts and feelings, were full of Christ. If anyone had asked them the way to have life, the way to have peace, or the way to be saved from perdition, they might have responded that life is Christ and that peace also is Christ. They might have said that a person can have real life and be saved from perdition only by gaining Christ and that a person can have true peace only when he has given Christ all the ground in his being. At Pentecost the disciples were full of Christ within.
Before he was saved, Saul of Tarsus was a person altogether in Judaism (Gal. 1:13-14; Phil. 3:4-6). He was filled with the Old Testament teachings and the Jewish law, and he opposed the Lord. However, when Saul was on the road to Damascus, the Lord Jesus appeared to him, called him by name, and revealed Himself to him (Acts 9:1-5). After the Lord’s appearing, Saul had a complete turn. Previously, he was filled with Judaism, and his mind was filled with the law. After the Lord’s appearing, he was thoroughly filled with Christ. Christ was the subject of his speaking. Christ was his center, life, strength, and power. We may say that Saul was “crazy with Christ.” He was full and even “drunk” with Christ. In his Epistles, although Paul, who was Saul, spoke concerning sin, judgment, and God’s righteousness, his center, content, and focus were Christ. We may say that when Paul interacted with others, he spoke only concerning Christ. Only Christ is the unique and real gospel. If God is to have a way through us to flow out Christ and impart Christ into others so that they may gain Him, we must be filled with Christ instead of being filled with excitement.
In order to preach the gospel, we must be persons who are consecrated to the Lord and who are filled with Him. However, if we are to be filled with Christ, we need to give Him the ground to be the Lord in our being. We have received Christ as our Savior, but is He our Lord? How much ground does He have in us? If we cannot say that Jesus is Lord in the universe and that He is Lord within us, we will have little demonstration of the power of the gospel. The gospel is not spread by natural zeal or excitement. Rather, the gospel is Christ overflowing out of us. It is not sufficient only to receive the Lord Jesus as our Savior. We need to enthrone Him as our Lord. We need to yield to Him all the ground in our being. Only He must be the Lord and have the full ground and the complete authority in us. This is not the same as having an overcoming life or a life of consecration. It is a life that honors Jesus as Lord, a life that allows Him to have the ground in us and the authority over us. Although the Lord is meek, He must be Lord over all our affairs. We need to give Him all the ground and authority in our being.
On the negative side, we need to cast away any natural excitement. On the positive side, we need to receive Christ and give Him the ground in us so that He can gain us and fill us with Himself. The more ground we give to the Lord, the more He will fill us and occupy us. This will be our power and our gospel. Therefore, in order to preach the gospel, we must be persons who are consecrated to the Lord and are given to Him by accepting Him as Lord of all and giving Him all the ground in us. We all need to consider and receive this fellowship in a thorough way before the Lord.
Second, we must have proper prayers before the Lord. We should not only have much prayer but also have proper prayers before the Lord. A proper prayer is a prayer in which we touch God and God touches us. It is not merely to go before the Lord and to ask Him to do things. Such prayers do not touch God and cannot touch His throne. So that our prayers may touch God and His throne, we need to let Him touch us first. We need to be persons who are consecrated, who allow the Lord to be our Lord, and who allow the Lord to touch us. When we pray, the Lord will first touch us. He will touch our feelings, and He will touch matters that we have not completely surrendered to Him, matters in which we have not allowed Him to gain the ground in us, and matters that we have reservations about. When He touches us, we need to open to Him and let Him win. Otherwise, our prayers will be annulled. We should respond by saying, “Lord, I open to You and allow You to touch everything that You desire to touch in me. I want You to win. Whatever You touch, I turn over and surrender to You.” When the Lord touches us and we surrender in this way, we will be able to stretch out our hands of faith in prayer to touch God and His throne. Such prayer will be a proper prayer. When we open to the Lord, allow Him to touch every matter that He desires to touch in a thorough way, and turn over to Him every matter that He touches without reservation, our prayers will touch God Himself. Then our prayers for the gospel will ask the Lord not only to save souls but also to pour out the Holy Spirit from the throne upon thousands of sinners so that they may repent.
We sometimes pray long prayers without touching God or His throne. Such prayers, although zealous, are empty and improper because we have not allowed God to touch us. If we do not allow God to touch us, it will be difficult for us to touch God, and God will not easily let us touch His throne. Only when we surrender to the Lord and allow Him to touch our inner being will we be able to receive a burden from Him and stretch out our hands of faith in prayer to petition Him to carry out His burden and to issue a command from His throne. This is a proper prayer, and this is the kind of prayer that we need, which is based on our consecration to the Lord.
Third, we need to learn to be full of faith when we go out to preach the gospel. However, if we do not have a thorough consecration, if we do not enthrone the Lord as our Lord, and if we do not have proper prayers, it will be difficult for us to have faith. In order to have faith when we preach the gospel, we need a thorough consecration and proper prayers. If we have these two things, we will be full of faith no matter what our outward circumstances are. It is easy for the brothers who give messages to be affected by the outward environment. If a speaking brother sees that the meeting hall is only half full, he may become disappointed. If he notices that some people are falling asleep, his spirit may become suppressed. Satan may cause some of those listening to shake their heads so that the speaker will be unable to continue to release the word. Those who release the word of the gospel need to be full of faith in their spirit when they speak (2 Cor. 4:13). However, we need to realize that faith comes by enthroning the Lord and allowing Him to touch us thoroughly. If we are consecrated persons who allow the Lord to gain us and who pray proper prayers, we will speak not according to the environment but out of faith when we preach the gospel. When we see someone in the audience shaking his head, our faith will not be shaken; rather, we may say, “The first one to repent will be this person who is shaking his head.” When we notice that a few people are falling asleep, the faith in us may say, “If only a few words of God can enter into them, it will be sufficient to cause them to be saved.” Actually, some who fall asleep through the entire meeting may wake up for a moment, hear the words “Jesus is Lord,” and call on the Lord to receive salvation. This is not a hypothetical situation but a true story of faith.
We should never consider that those who speak highly of Christianity, who admire our meeting hall, or who appreciate the content of the gospel message will be saved easily. Many who say such things are not saved. Some others may have doubts about believing in the Lord or may not agree with what is spoken. They may even criticize our meetings. However, we should never put our trust in any of these things. Rather, we need to believe in God’s power. We need to be full of faith and be able to work without being affected by an opposing outward situation, because the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes (Rom. 1:16). We do not need to care about people’s reactions; we only need to have faith in God.
Fourth, when we preach the gospel, we need to avoid debating with people. If someone has doubts about Jesus Christ, we do not need to argue about how good Jesus is. We do not need to argue or contradict what people say. We only need to relate to them in a simple way the Christ whom we have gained. Although people may speak many words contrary to what we have said, we simply need to give a testimony concerning ourselves in plain and simple words, presenting to them our condition before we were saved and the change we experienced after we believed in the Lord. We do not need to speak for a long time. Rather, we need to speak the words of faith and authority, which come from our being persons who are consecrated to the Lord and who pray proper prayers. Prior to a gospel meeting, we all need to pray proper prayers and have thorough dealings before God concerning our person. Then, from the beginning of the meeting to its end, we need to exercise to do everything by faith. Particularly, when we contact people after the meeting, we need to exercise to speak to them in faith. If they respond with opposing words or are proud, we should neither be angry nor anxious, and we should not argue with them. Rather, we only need to speak into them some words of faith in a calm way.
D. L. Moody, a great evangelist in the United States, led many people to believe in the Lord. He was not highly educated but was a lowly shoe salesman. Nevertheless, he was full of the burden to preach the gospel. On one occasion, after he preached the gospel, one of his listeners came to him and criticized his grammar. In response to this criticism, Moody said in a polite manner, “Your grammar is correct. So please go up and speak, and see if anyone will be saved.” Moody’s word to this listener indicates that whether people receive the Lord or not does not depend on our grammar. A person who speaks with correct grammar may not be able to lead anyone to be saved. Although Moody was not highly educated, he led almost a million people in Europe and America to believe in the Lord and be saved. He was a person who preached the gospel in power.
On another occasion, after Moody preached the gospel, a person came up to him as he was leaving the meeting. Immediately, Moody said to this person, “My God said that the wicked man does not have peace,” and then he asked him, “Friend, do you have peace?” That person responded angrily and said, “I have peace.” Then Moody said to him again, “My God said that the wicked man does not have peace,” and then he said goodbye. On the following evening, after Moody finished his speaking, that same person came to Moody, held his hand, and said, “Mr. Moody, please forgive me. I lied to you last night. I really do not have peace, and your words last night kept bothering me. I understand that I am a wicked person, and it must be that I do not have peace because I have certain sins from which I have not been delivered.” Moody’s simple words worked inside this sinner. On the one hand, this was due to the power of the Holy Spirit, but on the other hand, it was due to the fact that Moody was full of faith while he spoke.
When we preach the gospel to people, we do not need to speak for a long time. Sometimes, the longer we speak, the more we quench the work of the Holy Spirit, and the weaker others’ faith becomes. This does not mean that we should not say anything. Rather, it means that we need to remain under the ruling of the Holy Spirit when we speak. We need to be persons who are consecrated, who pray in a proper way, and who work together with God. If we are such persons, when we contact people, God will speak in our speaking. When we speak to others, we are not merely passing on knowledge to them about philosophy, science, or biblical doctrines. Those things will only keep people in their mind; they cannot touch people’s spirit. Our unique message is the gospel of God, which is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes (Rom. 1:16). Every word that we speak should demonstrate that the gospel is the power of God. This is the faith that we should have.
On one hand, we only need to speak simple words in faith. On the other hand, we should not expect immediate results. We should speak the words of the gospel by faith and believe that the Holy Spirit will operate in people through our words. We may not see the fruit of our speaking immediately after we speak. The time when the fruit will be manifested is entirely in the hands of the Holy Spirit. We only need to be full of faith in speaking the words of the gospel.
Fifth, although we need to have faith, we should not be proud. Sometimes, after being strengthened by faith, we become proud in our speaking. If we are overconfident in our preaching of the gospel, it will be difficult for those who listen to us to believe in the Lord. We should be full of faith and should also be humble. When we preach the gospel, we should never look down on people. We should have no intention to criticize people or judge them. We need to realize that our condition might have been more pitiful than theirs if we had not believed in the Lord. Since our words are not of ourselves but of God, and since our power is not of ourselves but of the Spirit of God and the gospel of God, we should be humble when we contact people. On one hand, we should be confident and not discouraged. On the other hand, we need to be humble before men.
Many times when we preach the gospel, we either become excited when people receive the Lord or become discouraged when they do not receive Him. This should not be the case among us. Another problem is that we sometimes become proud and begin to condemn others in our preaching of the gospel. Some people preach the gospel to others by telling them that God is a severe God, that man cannot escape from His hand, and that He will judge all those who oppose Him. But God is not “severe” in this way. Therefore, we need to be confident yet humble in our preaching of the gospel. We need to have a thorough consecration, we need to pray proper prayers, and we need an appropriate measure of confidence, but we should not be proud.
Everyone who participates in preaching the gospel should ask the Lord for timely utterance, that is, instant words to speak according to the need. Whether we are giving a message or participating in other activities, such as inviting gospel friends to the meeting, ushering them to their seats, speaking to them after the meeting, writing down their names, or praying with them, we should learn to ask God for instant utterance. We should never repeat the same old things to people. Too often we have repeated the same thing in our preaching of the gospel: “There is one God in the universe. He created all things, including man. However, Adam, the first man created by God, sinned, and thus the entire human race became sinful and came under God’s condemnation. Therefore, God sent His Son to die on the cross so that we might be redeemed. After His death on the cross, He was resurrected, and He ascended to the heavens to become our living Savior. Today in order to receive eternal life, joy, and peace and to be saved from perdition, man only needs to repent. Oh, believing in the Lord Jesus is the greatest blessing!” We may repeat these words time after time so that they become old. Although these words are words of the gospel, our speaking may no longer be fresh. When we preach the gospel, Jesus should be our unique subject. However, we need to speak this unique subject with fresh utterance.
The unique subject of the apostles’ preaching in the book of Acts was the Lord Jesus. However, every word that they spoke concerning this One was fresh, because they spoke not only the written words of the Bible but also the instant words from the Holy Spirit. We must learn to pray and look to the Lord for instant utterance. Before attending a gospel meeting, we should begin to pray from our homes so that we will not only have feeling for the people whom we contact but will also know their inward condition and have the instant words to speak to them. Although the people we speak to may not have a full understanding of doctrines such as God’s creation, Jesus as the Savior, and man’s fallen condition, we can ask the Lord to make known to us their inward condition and give us living words that speak to their condition.
A brother once preached the gospel to some college students in Nanking. After his speaking, a bright young student said to him, “Sir, I really want to believe in Jesus, but I need to wait for a little while. My parents are over seventy years old, almost approaching the end of their lives. I need to wait until they have passed away before I can believe in Jesus.” Although this brother did not have much experience in preaching the gospel, he did not argue with the student. Instead, he received the Holy Spirit’s instant utterance and said to the student, “What a loving son you are! You want to send your parents to the lake of fire, and then you will enter into the heavenly kingdom.” After hearing these words, the student asked, “Sir, what do you think I should do?” Then the brother responded by telling him that the best way was for him to receive salvation first, and his salvation would open the way for his family members also to be saved. Immediately after hearing this, the student knelt down to pray and received the Lord Jesus. The simple words spoken by this brother completely subdued that student and led him to the Lord. Although the words spoken by the brother sounded like words of rebuke, at that moment they were crucial to the salvation of that student because his words were the instant utterance from the Holy Spirit.
In preaching the gospel, we should not merely rely on the doctrines that we know. Rather, we need to have instant utterance from the Holy Spirit. On one hand, we need to prepare certain words to speak concerning the gospel. On the other hand, we should never use the words of the gospel in an inflexible way. Rather, we need to speak according to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. If we have no feeling inwardly and merely recite words from the Bible to others, our speaking will have little effect. Therefore, we should not recite the words of the gospel to others in a rigid way. If we merely recite to others, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23), “The wages of sin is death” (6:23), and “It is reserved for men to die once, and after this comes judgment” (Heb. 9:27), they may have no response. We need to speak such words under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. These portions from the Bible show that according to God’s plan, sin leads to death, judgment follows death, and perdition follows judgment. Sin, death, judgment, and perdition are all connected. These are heavy words. When we speak these words, we should not speak them rigidly, repeating them in the way that we did in the past. Rather, we should use these words flexibly, according to the leading of the Holy Spirit. We should not only speak the word of the gospel from the Bible but also receive the living utterance from God.
It is important when preaching the gospel that we do not argue with others. Someone may respond to our preaching by saying that it is not necessarily true that there is only one God in the universe. Although we do not agree with him, we do not need to argue with him. We only need to speak the facts in a positive way. We may simply say to him, “There is only one God.” We should do everything in our power to avoid arguments. Arguing can never subdue people. On the contrary, it causes resentment and stirs up the flesh. The more we argue with someone, the more points of argument we will create, the more that person’s fleshly nature will be stirred up, and the less possibility there will be that he will receive God’s salvation. We need to speak the truth in a positive and calm way and avoid all arguments.
In order to have good results in our preaching of the gospel, we need to earnestly care for all the points that we have covered. We need to be persons who consecrate ourselves to the Lord, who pray proper prayers, and who are full of God as our faith. When we preach the gospel, we need to have faith because we are speaking God’s words, and God’s words will never return to Him vainly (Isa. 55:10-11). Also, we should never offend people by speaking argumentative words. Rather, we should speak positive words in a polite and humble manner. When we contact people, we need to ask the Lord to give us the proper feelings and the instant leading so that we can speak timely and living words rather than merely repeat what we have spoken in the past. Man cannot teach us how to speak living words. Only God is able to give us the timely words that match a person’s condition and mood, touch his inward feelings, and satisfy his inward need. God desires all men to be saved (1 Tim. 2:4). We need to be those who spread the gospel. For this reason we need to practice all these points faithfully in our preparation to preach the gospel.
