Date: August 24, 1948Place: Kuling
The subject of our discussion this time is how the gospel is accomplished in the sinner, rather than how God accomplishes His work through the gospel. Once we are clear how the gospel is accomplished in the sinner, we will know how to preach the gospel. If a sinner has a subjective grasp of how he is saved at the time he receives the gospel, he will know how to convey the same gospel to others. Many times when we preach the gospel, we do not know what sinners need. This is the reason we waste so much time.
There are two basic truths with regard to preaching the gospel. The first is the work of God which He has accomplished in Christ. God's work in Christ consists of His sending the Lord Jesus to the cross. By shedding His blood and dying on the cross, Christ redeemed us from our sins. God raised up the Lord Jesus because He satisfied God's righteousness. This is a basic truth in the gospel of God. Of course, this is a very important truth, but as far as the sinner is concerned, this truth is a past act. A sinner must do something else before he can be saved. Hence, there is a second step: God must send His Spirit to man. God transmits the past work of Christ to us by sending the Holy Spirit. This also is a basic truth of the gospel. If the Spirit does not come, we cannot be saved even though the Lord Jesus has accomplished redemption and God is ready to receive us. Without the Holy Spirit, the work of the Lord Jesus is objective; it cannot be subjective to us. It is outside of us; it cannot be ours inwardly. It belongs to God alone and cannot be ours as well. The coming of the Holy Spirit applies Christ's accomplished work to us. The question now is: What should the sinner do? The Lord Jesus has finished His work, and the Holy Spirit is waiting to operate in the sinner. How then can the sinner be saved? Among gospel preachers, some emphasize repentance, while others emphasize faith. Still others emphasize confession. What should a sinner do before he can be saved? This is what we have to find out today.
Gospel preachers today are subconsciously affected by their own theology in their preaching. They lay up in store three things for the sinners. The first is a collection of gospel truths. The second is a mixture of exhortations on the vanity of the world and the evil of sins, etc. The third is some demand for actions, such as repentance, confession, prayer, believing, or baptism. Most gospel preachers today are well equipped in these few categories of things. This is their basic arsenal. They first try to help people to understand a collection of gospel truths. Then they lead them to take some action, thinking that a man will be saved by taking these actions. But is this practice biblical at all? What does the Bible teach concerning the preaching of the gospel? We have to point out a few examples from the Bible. In the New Testament, we find many people believing in the Lord and being saved; we find this in the Gospels and in Acts. But how did the Lord Jesus and the apostles lead these ones to salvation? From their pattern, we can learn how we should preach the gospel to sinners, and how wrong our ways are today.
Luke 7:36-50 speaks of a sinful woman being forgiven of her sins. She was full of gratitude to the Lord for the forgiveness she received. She realized that the multitude of her sins had not stopped the Lord from forgiving her. This led her to appreciate the Lord's love. She was not conscious of any condition for believing; she simply felt the Lord's compassion. She touched the Lord with her heart, and she was full of gratitude for His salvation. That was all she did to be saved. Believing simply means touching the Lord with the heart. In preaching the gospel, our emphasis should not be on how much men understand salvation. As long as they touch the Lord once, their sins are forgiven. The woman was forgiven of all her sins because she loved much. Once she exercised her love to touch the Lord, she was saved.
In Luke 18:13-14 the Lord said, "But the tax collector, standing at a distance, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, be propitiated to me, the sinner! I tell you, This man went down to his house justified rather than that one; for everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted." Here was a man who was saved. He did not have to make any so-called commitment. He did not have any spiritual knowledge. He only felt that he was a sinner and prayed for God to be propitiated to him. That was all he did to be saved. When a man comes to God, we do not have to worry if he understands the truth of the gospel. As long as his heart turns to God, he is saved. For this reason, we do not have to pay too much attention to what we preach concerning God's accomplishments for us. All we need to do is to make the sinners feel that they have sinned and make them come to God.
Luke 15 speaks of the parable of the return of the prodigal son. He was able to return home because he came to himself. This is all that was needed. Once the prodigal son came to himself and decided to turn back to his father and confess his sin, he was saved. In saving men, we do not have to make them understand too much. It is enough to have a sincere heart to come to God. We can help them understand the truth of the gospel later.
Luke 19:1-10 is the story of Zaccheus's salvation. His "seeing" was similar to the "touching" of the woman with the issue of blood (Mark 5:25-30). Many people pressed against the Lord, but He did not feel anything. As soon as the woman with the issue of blood touched Him, however, He felt something. The look of Zaccheus was the same. Once he looked, the Lord's attention was drawn towards him. Our Lord does not save anyone who does not care to be saved; He saves only those who are eager to be saved. He does not save the pressing ones; He only saves the touching ones. He does not save the noise-loving crowd; He only saves those who have come purposely to look for Him. Zaccheus was saved because he was intent on seeing the Lord. His penetrating concern earned him the Lord's salvation. Once a man's heart stretches out, the Lord's attention is drawn to it.
In Luke 23:39-43 we find the two thieves being crucified with the Lord mocking Him at the beginning. Before one of them died, however, he suddenly had a change of heart. He said to the Lord, "Remember me when You come into Your kingdom." His heart was stirred up to touch the Lord, and his whole being was drawn forward. Although his words missed the mark, the Lord knew his heart. The Lord was not wrong. He answered him, saying, "Today you shall be with Me in Paradise." As soon as the thief's heart was stirred up, the Lord saved him. His salvation was not dependent on the amount of doctrine he knew.
In John 4:1-10 the Lord preached the gospel to the Samaritan woman. He did not explain the truth of the gospel to her in detail. He did not tell her how He was going to die for her. He only said, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, Give Me a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." The Lord's word shows that God is willing to grant men salvation. As long as a sinner says in his heart, "This is the Savior that I need," he will be saved immediately. We have to follow our Lord's example. The most economical way to preach the gospel is to save the most number of men with the least amount of teaching.
John 8:3-11 speaks of the salvation of a woman spared of her judgment. She was a sinful woman, and there was no question that she should be condemned. Yet the Lord said to those who caught her, "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." In this picture we see three parties. There was the sinful woman, fearfully waiting for the pronouncement of her judgment. There were the prosecutors and the crowd. As soon as they were challenged by the Lord, their consciences pricked them. They knew that they were sinful, and they left one by one. Finally, there was the Lord Jesus. Only He was without sin, yet He would not condemn the woman. Instead, He forgave her and granted her salvation. We have to pay attention to this picture. The Lord was sinless, while the woman was sinful and in shame. Both the sinless One and the sinful one were there. When the Lord asked, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?", she immediately replied, "No one, Lord." Here was a tender spirit, a stricken spirit. The woman did not do anything; she only said, "Lord..." The Lord replied, "Neither do I condemn you." She was saved. As long as a person humbles his spirit and acknowledges the Lord as Lord, he will be saved. How wonderful are God's accomplishments and how simple are man's requirements!
Acts 2:14-36 tells us how the apostles preached and how men were saved through the gospel at the time of Pentecost. In his preaching, Peter did not give lucid orations. The words he spoke were words taught by the Spirit. He only spoke about the humbling and exaltation of Christ, about Jesus of Nazareth, the despised One, being made Lord and Christ by God. As he spoke, the listening Jews were pricked in their hearts. There is no need to use articulate teachings to bring men to salvation. All that is needed is a little speaking. The first thing one should do is to save men; expounding the truth comes afterwards. We have to save the greatest number of people with the least belaboring of truth. As long as we can turn men's hearts back to God, our job is done. Peter did not give a clear presentation of the gospel truth at Pentecost; he waited until the book of 2 Peter to do this.
Acts 10:34-43 gives us an account of Peter's preaching in the house of Cornelius. All he did was to recount the Lord's acts on earth. When he said at the end, "Through His name everyone who believes into Him will receive forgiveness of sins," the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the gospel (v. 44). In preaching the gospel, all that one has to do is to bring the sinner to God; there is no need to insist that they understand too much of the teaching concerning salvation. The same can be said of our own understanding of the truths of salvation; we only understood them gradually after we were saved. All that a sinner needs is a little word concerning salvation. In Cornelius's house, the Spirit was waiting to come down. Today the Lord is waiting for sinners. As soon as their hearts are touched, they will be saved. In the past we have paid much attention to Christ's accomplished redemption for us before God. Today we are studying how the gospel brings about salvation in the heart of sinners. Being saved is not a question of knowledge but of a sinner touching God.
Romans 10:8-13 shows us that when a man believes unto salvation, he is not believing in the reason, the doctrine, or the history of salvation. In preaching the gospel, the main thing is not to preach a doctrine but to tell men that this salvation is now in our mouth and even in our heart. The gospel is a matter of the mouth and the heart. It is a hard thing for men to be saved by any kind of work. Today the word of the gospel is for all men; everyone can receive it. As long as a man confesses with his mouth and believes in his heart, he will be saved. "For whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Once a man calls and says, "Lord Jesus," he is saved, and salvation comes into him. All it takes is for a man to believe in his heart and confess with his mouth. How perfect is the work of salvation before God, and how simple it is for man to receive it.
In addition to studying the examples in the Bible, we have to study how salvation has come about in the brothers and sisters. If we check with many brothers and sisters, we will realize that they were all saved through coming to God once in a genuine and sincere way. It takes some time to study their history one by one. After we have studied them thoroughly, we will find that some were saved one way and some were saved another way. We will know the kind of things we should do when we meet certain kinds of people. In preaching the gospel, we would rather sacrifice our sermon for the sake of saving more men. Never try to present a clear doctrine at the expense of bringing men to God. We are not here to preach a beautiful message on the gospel; we are here to save men. We have to open their hearts to the Lord, and we have to open their mouths to Him. Once a man opens his heart to the Lord and calls on Him, he is saved.
