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Date:Monday, February 6, 1950Place:Jordan Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Christians are God's goal, but they are also God's means. Today, we also have to see clearly that the church is God's goal as well His means. Ordinarily, if an object is a goal it cannot be a means, and if it is a means it cannot be a goal. However, God makes His goal and His means one and the same. What do we mean when we say that Christians are God's goal? God's goal is to redeem us. Once God redeems us, He has reached His goal. It is God's intention and goal that we be saved, but God does not stop there. He wants to use us to save others. First, we are God's goal, then we should place ourselves in His hand and allow Him to use us to save others. In this way we become God's means. To God, we are His goal, and to the world, we are His means. If God does not use us, He will have no way to spread the gospel.
Today every one of us can say that we are God's goal. We have no argument about this. The issue today is that God wants us also to be His means. Do you have a problem with this? God can use many people to be His goal but not many people can be His means. Although they are saved, God cannot get through in them. As a result, He cannot reach His goal in others.
When the early apostles forsook everything to follow the Lord, their goal was not to go to heaven, but to bring others to the same salvation. They were not only God's goal but also God's means to bring others to salvation. God used other men to gain us and to accomplish His goal in us. Today we should do the same. God first made us the goal and then the means. Do we want to be God's means? God wants to use us in such a way that He can promptly say, "I want to save a certain person, and he only needs to come in contact with you." How many people today can say that they are God's means? If God finds any reservation, any frustration, or any blockage in us, He cannot reach His goal of saving others through us. As a result, many sinners will not receive any blessing from us; they will not hear the gospel from us nor will they be saved through us.
God does not have many means on earth today. If He wants to save fifty thousand people here in Hong Kong, He does not rely on fifty thousand isolated means. No, God does not work separately one by one. He has established the church and has baptized everyone into one Spirit. The many members have become one new man, one Body. They can no longer be separated; they are all fitly joined together. When we were saved, we were saved individually one by one. When we spread out as God's means, however, we spread out as the Body. When we were saved we became living stones. When we spread out, we are coordinated as a spiritual house (1 Pet. 2:5). In other words, God's means is the corporate Christian — the church, not the individual Christians. Let me say a direct word to you tonight. What is the church? In order to save the world, God has instituted a body, an organization, or you may say a group of people, and has made it the very means whereby He saves the world. Our sole purpose of living on this earth is for the gospel. We do not save a few souls here and there when we feel like it. God joins all the believers together into a harmonious whole, like a body, and uses it to preach the gospel and to save others.
The church has only one commission on this earth — to live for the gospel. Please do not take this word in a light way. The church does not exist on this earth for any other purpose. It does not exist for jobs, education, or its own future. The church exists for the gospel of God, but how many brothers and sisters remember that they do not live for their business, family, living, and future, but for the gospel? When we were saved, God gave us not only a new life but also a new profession, which is the preaching of His gospel. On the day we were saved, not only did our old life die, but our old profession died as well. The basic problem with many brothers and sisters is that though their life has changed, their professions have not changed; they are still pursuing their former resolves. They want to be ahead of others, earning fame and riches. Some young people have not yet entered a profession, yet they are already dreaming of the day when they will be a great doctor or a famous engineer. If a Christian does not experience a change in his profession, he cannot become God's means. This is the reason we want the brothers and sisters to hand themselves over. We can call this a handing over, or we can call this consecration. We are for the fact, not the terminology. The Bible says that every saved person is changed in his life as well as his profession; he has become a preacher of the gospel.
Many of the co-workers have the wrong concept that some people are specially called by God to be workers. Some of us think that we change our profession because we have acquired some kind of gift, but this is wrong. The Bible does talk about different gifts, but the Bible does not say that Christians have different professions. We have the same life, and we have the same profession. I have searched through the whole Bible. I cannot find one case where a person has a new life but does not change his profession. We may think that it is enough for our life to change, but this is wrong. Our profession must change as well. When I was saved, I became God's goal. When I changed my profession, I became God's means. I, my very person, became His way. The profession that God assigns for a Christian is dedicated entirely to the gospel. God has not only given us a new life; He wants to use us as His means to save others. The Bible shows us that God did not give this new profession — the proclamation of the gospel — to individuals only. The spreading of the gospel cannot be achieved by one man alone. God's commandment concerning the spreading of the gospel is for the whole church. Please remember that in sending out the disciples for the gospel work, the Lord did not say "go," singular, but "go," plural (Matt. 28:19). In the Gospels the Lord sent the disciples out two by two (Mark 6:7; Luke 10:1). When there were more people, He sent out groups of more than two. For example, in Acts we see Peter and John and we also see Paul and Barnabas. In Samaria we see Peter and John (8:14), but in the visit to the house of Cornelius in Caesarea, we see Peter with six other disciples (10:23-24; 11:12). More than two joined him. In Antioch the first apostles who went out were Paul and Barnabas (13:2-3). Later many others joined them (15:39-40). The church exists on this earth for the gospel.
I would like to consider one question with the brothers and sisters today: What is the church? What should the church be likened to? The church is the means of God; it is God's means to reach the world with the gospel. Protestantism has given us good as well as bad examples during the past one hundred and forty or fifty years. It drew men's attention to the revivalists or evangelists. It sent many people to foreign lands, but these efforts can be likened to the garment hawkers on the streets of Chungking or Shanghai during the war: Everyone was selling his own wares. The result was isolated cases of revival. The Bible, however, does not show us a scattered preaching of the gospel. The Bible says that the whole church gives itself to the Lord for the gospel. The church is God's means; individuals here and there are not God's means. The church spreads the gospel, not one or two individuals doing isolated evangelistic work. What is the place of the church in God's plan? In God's plan, the entire church on earth is God's way, His means. The church exists on earth for the gospel. The church has only one profession — the spreading of the gospel. Every Christian receives a new profession after he is regenerated — preaching the gospel. It is not a matter of individuals preaching the gospel in an isolated fashion, but the church preaching the gospel in coordination.
We do not need to talk about this matter to those who are not saved. Once we are saved, we have to see clearly that God has changed our profession. We are not to serve individually. We all have only one profession now, which is to preach the gospel. In the past, Protestantism only encouraged men toward a kind of individual and isolated evangelism. It was good, but not good enough. Today God's way is for the whole Body to rise up in one accord to preach the gospel. For this, the church must coordinate together before it can preach the gospel. Without coordination, it cannot preach the gospel.
In Luke 18 the Lord told the young ruler that he had to sell his all to follow Him before he could inherit eternal life. The young man thought the requirement was too high, and he left in sorrow. After this the Lord told the disciples that it is difficult for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom (vv. 18-25). Let me explain this a little more in detail. Not only is a camel too big; even a mouse is too big to go through. The real issue here is that entrance into the kingdom is hard not only for a rich man but for any man who depends on himself. Only God can do this work. During the past two thousand years, thank God, many camels have passed through the needle's eye. The mistake of the young ruler was in trying to do it by himself. His mistake was not in loving his riches but in his thought that God could not do it because he himself could not do it. We all love money; none of us can give up everything. If God becomes the source of our faith, however, even a camel can go through the needle's eye. This is the gospel. We think that it is impossible with man, but we have forgotten that it is possible with God. No man can go through the eye of a needle; no man can hand himself over, but God does not say that we have to do it by ourselves. He says that we can do it by Him. If we call on Him for help, even a camel can go through the needle's eye. We know that we cannot do it, but it is wrong to think that God cannot do it.
It is true that everyone loves money and that no one is willing to forsake everything. However, what is impossible with man is possible with God. This is the reason we find Zaccheus in Luke 19. We know that it is easy for a young man to become excited. When he is burning, he can throw away his money easily, but an old man has handled money for many years; he knows what money can bring him. It is hard to change an old man. Mammon is like opium; if we only take a little of it, we can drop it easily, but if we take a great deal of it, it will be hard to shake the addiction. The more we take, the harder it is to be free from it. The Lord said to Zaccheus that He would go into his house that very day. Most people would object to such a move and think, "Lord, You are an outsider from another town. You do not know Zaccheus. You have been fooled by him." But the Lord ignored such thoughts (vv. 1-7). To everyone's surprise, Zaccheus stood up and said, "Behold, the half of my possessions, Lord, I give to the poor, and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore four times as much" (v. 8). Zaccheus only caught a glimpse of the Lord's glory, and everything he had was gone. He saw one glimpse of Christ, and he forsook everything to follow Him that same day. This is surely a camel going through the eye of a needle. When the Lord saw what Zaccheus had done, He said, "Today salvation has come to this house" (v. 9). If Zaccheus had tried to do it by himself, he would not have succeeded, but salvation came to his house, and he did it. In comparing verse 5 with verse 9, we can see that salvation refers to the Lord Jesus. The young man in chapter eighteen had his eyes set on man. This was the reason he could not go through the eye of the needle. The old man in chapter nineteen set his eyes on the salvation of the Lord Jesus. This is the reason he was able to go through the eye of the needle. It is impossible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, but during the past two thousand years, countless numbers of people have done this, emerging from the other side to serve the Lord. If a man truly wants to follow the Lord and truly trusts in the Lord, the Lord will enable him go through the eye of the needle.
Zaccheus's story is in the first half of Luke 19. In the second half, we see God's kingdom being likened to a man of noble birth who charged his ten slaves to do business. In the first half of Luke 19, we find the money being stripped away. In the second half of the chapter we find the Lord putting the money back in our hand and charging us to do business. He did not give to one or two slaves, but to ten. Ten signifies perfection; it refers to all the slaves. In other words, the entire church is involved in the business of the Lord's gospel. The Lord used the parable of a man doing business to show us the kind of work the church is doing on earth today. The church is in the gospel enterprise business. We have only one kind of merchandise in this business — the gospel. The gospel is our goods. All ten slaves should be involved in this enterprise, and they should work in one accord. Some brothers may be in the fabric business. Others may be in the soap manufacturing business. In reality, however, everyone is in the same gospel business. God does not call ten unrelated merchants to do different "retail" gospel enterprises; He wants the whole church to be involved in one gospel enterprise. His heart is not for many retail businesses.
The Lord wants the whole church to be in His gospel business. Whoever does not join this work will be disciplined. As long as one among the ten has a different opinion or adopts a different way, he will receive the Lord's rebuke (Luke 19:20-26). There was something basically wrong with our work in the past. We claimed that we were serving as the Body, but in reality each one was taking his own way. Each person was doing what was right in his own eyes. We preached the gospel a little when we had the time. When our conscience bothered us, we preached a little to ease our conscience. We can no longer go on in this way. The whole Body has to give itself to the gospel enterprise.
In order to be involved in this gospel enterprise, on the negative side, we have to be free from our own little centers. In the past we were concerned only with our own job and our own living. Now we have to be delivered from this realm. Moreover, we have to hand over everything that we have because where our treasure is, there is our heart as well. If we say that our heart is in heaven but our treasure remains on earth, then we should say to the Lord, "Your Word is not trustworthy!" Is our heart or the Lord's Word more trustworthy? Our treasure must first go to heaven before our heart can be there. The Lord said that no man can serve two masters. The Lord wants us to be free from our material possessions because He wants our hearts to be truly in heaven on the one hand, and He wants us to invest the treasure that we have offered up in the gospel enterprise on the other hand. If we do not put in our share of the investment, the gospel enterprise cannot take off. If we are only concerned about our own investment, our own mammon, while allowing the gospel enterprise to go unattended, the gospel will never spread out over the earth. For every business there must first be the investment. From the first day that we are saved, we have to flee from money and forsake everything for the gospel. On the positive side, we have to offer up our very person. The forsaking of everything is not a deep lesson; it is a make-up lesson. As soon as a man is saved, he should offer up himself (Rom. 6:6, 12-14). In the past we did not have a good consecration. This is the reason we have to make up now. Handing over oneself is offering up one's very person, to be followed by his job and all his possessions. Whether we are a student or an office worker, we have to offer up our occupation and put it at the gospel's disposal. Some brothers and sisters have to change their occupation. In the past they were for their own living. Now they have to be for the gospel. Their occupation is no longer their top priority. The gospel should not rank behind other occupations in importance. Rather, secular occupations should be behind the gospel in importance. Perhaps some brothers and sisters should change their occupation.
In the coming days all the brothers and sisters have to lay their future aside. They should coordinate together. Even where we live should be decided by the gospel; we should not choose a city simply because we want to escape from war. Some moved to Hong Kong for the sake of escape, but we are here for the gospel. In Acts 8 the disciples preached the gospel while they were running away from the persecution. Escape was the secondary issue. We have over two hundred brothers and sisters who have migrated to Yi-Yang. Outwardly, they can give many reasons for going. Actually, everything they do is secondary. These brothers and sisters banded themselves together into one community only for the purpose of spreading the gospel.
One must be this kind of Christian before he can live a happy life. The most unhappy person is one who is neither hot nor cold. He cannot love the world, but he finds it difficult to give up the world. He knows he should not remain a weak Christian, and he feels condemned when he takes a step toward the world. The Lord calls such a Christian salt that has lost its taste (Matt. 5:13). Today we can say that we are starting a shareholding company or a cooperative. Everyone has handed over his money to the company, and everyone is engaged in the production of the company. From now on, we will no longer seek the world, fame, or our own profession. We are here only for the gospel enterprise. Ten or twenty years from now, when worldly goods become worthless, our business will be booming. When the entire church rises up to preach the gospel, the Lord's coming will be near; He will be at the door. If we cannot do this, we will delay the Lord's coming for a long time. Hence, when we hand ourselves over, we are not handing over just our money, but our occupation, our dwelling, our time, and our future. We will do everything that is beneficial to the gospel.
Today the Lord's way is for the whole church to coordinate together to preach the gospel. God does not want to take the way of individuals; He wants the corporate service of the whole church. When I was young I had many dreams and ambitions. I wanted to be a famous person of some sort. After I was saved, I saw that Paul was ambitious to please the Lord (2 Cor. 5:9). I also wanted to please the Lord by becoming an evangelist or a revivalist. Eventually, I saw that the Lord's desire in this end time is that we be coordinated together. His desire is for the whole church to rise up to preach the gospel together. In the past perhaps we had the ambition to be an evangelist, but the Lord's intention is not for us to be zealous for the gospel by ourselves; His intention is for the whole church to rise up to preach the gospel together. Today the Lord wants the church to preach the gospel. If the church preaches the gospel, the gospel will spread throughout Hong Kong. If we offer up everything, it will not be hard to save everyone. Therefore, we have to hand over our all and put everything under His direction through the church. Whatever our position may be, our goal is for the "enterprise" to prosper, not for us to become rich individually. This is the responsibility of everyone. The whole Body has to rise up to bear the testimony of the gospel, to do the work of preaching. It is most unfortunate today that some people want to be independent servants; they want to take the individual way. Let me repeat that the service the Lord wants is church service. The evangelism the Lord wants is church evangelism. This is the reason we have to work in coordination and in one accord. Hong Kong is a highly developed commercial city. It is hard to spread the gospel in such a place, but if we offer up ourselves to the Lord together, it will be easy to spread the gospel throughout this city. I admit that Hong Kong is a loose place, a difficult place, but when the church rises up to preach the gospel, anyone can be saved easily. Who can withstand the preaching of the whole church? It is hard for individuals to preach the gospel alone. It is much easier for the whole church to rise up to preach. I hope that no one will misunderstand this, and I hope that no one will take his own way.
We expect that everyone will hand himself over. We hope that not only our money, our occupation, and our future but our very person will be consecrated. Our primary occupation is the gospel; everything else is secondary. For two thousand years, the Lord has never changed His standard concerning His followers. He has never broadened the way of the gospel; He has never allowed anyone to have his own freedom to come and go. It is fallen Christian preachers who have changed the standard of the Lord. The Lord never said that a man can spend six days to love mammon and make money and then come to a worship service on Sunday. Today the church has to be recovered to its first state. We must not only offer up our money in a passive way; we must live for the gospel and the Lord in an active way. The requirement of the gospel is high. The Lord has given us everything, and today His demand is for our everything. He has shed His blood and given His life for the gospel. If we only take the passive way, it will be hard for us to follow His footsteps. We have to break through in the positive direction. This is the way to go on. If we have any reservation or passivity in us, we will not be able to go on. May the Lord be merciful to us.
Brother Weigh: Lord, we confess that we have been loose in Your service for many years. We have not been absolute. May Your great love grant us mercy and grace. Lord, You have sacrificed Your life and blood to accomplish salvation. Today we cannot be so light and easy with the gospel. May You gain our very person and possessions. Do not let any one of us go. May none of us be a spectator, a bystander, or an observer. May all of us here bear the responsibility of not allowing ourselves to be loose. May we all follow Your footsteps in an aggressive way. Gain us completely and have a free way among us. Amen.
