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Date:November 21, 1949Place:Brother Cheng's house, Hong Kong
The church accomplishes much more and produces more results during times of trial than during times of peace. The darker the environment, the brighter the church shines, and the more thriving it becomes. This is because the church receives from the very transcendent life of the resurrected Lord. The more this life is placed in a difficult and trying situation, the more resilient it becomes. The persecution of the church in Smyrna represents the persecution of the church under the Roman Empire. History tells us that the result of that persecution was a proliferation of Christians. God never contradicts His own will. Similarly, His life never contradicts its own law; it never yields to persecution. God has no intention to spare His church from persecution. He only has promised that the church would be built on the rock — Jesus Christ, and that the gates of Hades would not prevail against it (Matt. 16:18). The gospel is powerful because the Lord Jesus has resurrected from the dead, bringing life and incorruption to light through the gospel (2 Tim. 1:10).
As a consequence, the Lord challenges men to leave their possessions and relatives "for My sake and for the gospel's sake" (Mark 10:29). He did not say "for My sake" only, but "for My sake and for the gospel's sake." Without the Lord's life, the gospel is empty. The gospel is the proclamation of the victorious and resurrected life of the Lord Jesus. If a man believes in the gospel, that is, if he believes in the risen Christ, he has life in him. The Lord spoke this word after He met the rich young ruler who went away in sorrow (vv. 17-22). He thought that the Lord Jesus' demand was too high and that no man could fulfill it. This was not only the thought of the rich young ruler; it was also the thought of the disciples. They asked, "Then who can be saved?" The Lord answered, "With men it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God" (vv. 23-27). This passage clearly shows us that we cannot give ourselves to the gospel unless we give ourselves to the Lord. In order to be for the Lord and for His gospel, however, we have to forsake everything. This is impossible with men. After receiving the resurrection life of the Lord through faith, however, we can and will do it happily.
The Lord Himself forsook everything. In the parable of the treasure and the pearl in Matthew 13, the Lord Jesus told the disciples that He was the One who sold everything to buy the treasure (the kingdom) and the pearl (the church) (vv. 44-46). The apostle Paul also said that the Lord Jesus was rich but was made poor for our sake so that we could become rich through His poverty (2 Cor. 8:9). This is the Lord's life. This is the gospel which He has given us. Today, when we preach the gospel, we have to be like the Lord who forsook everything in order that others would share the blessing of the gospel.
Today the gospel has lost the impact it had at the beginning. This is because no one is forsaking everything. Many people say that their time, money, and all are for the Lord, but it is hard to find one or two in a hundred who really mean what they say. The rest only say this with their mouth. In reality, everything is still theirs. The gospel has lost its initial impact because of this. Being a Christian is a secondary profession to many people; their primary profession is not being a Christian. The order of things has been reversed. Paul clearly said, "For the love of Christ constrains us because we have judged this, that One died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all that those who live may no longer live to themselves but to Him who died for them and has been raised" (2 Cor. 5:14-15). Christ died and resurrected for us so that we may no longer live to ourselves but to Him. But how many people are living to the Lord today? Many people are Christians in name, but they really live in the same way as the world. The world seeks fame, fortune, position, and education. These Christians seek the same. They glorify their pursuit by saying that they are pursuing these things for the Lord's sake. Actually, their Christian confession is a secondary profession. The gospel has lost its power because Christians today are short of a full consecration and do not practice their Christian confession as their primary profession.
In the beginning of the church age, everyone was fully consecrated. They were in one accord, and the gospel was powerful. Although there were false consecrations like those of Ananias and Sapphira, the church was still victorious in God's eyes. There was falsehood, but there was also judgment. The Holy Spirit was still able to take control in the church life. This is the reason the gospel was able to spread and multiply. The disciples in the church in Jerusalem were dispersed through persecution (Acts 8:1), but thirty years later, when Paul went up to Jerusalem, thousands of new believers had been added (21:20). Since the Ming Dynasty, the Catholic Church has been working over three hundred years in China. Its number is about three million. Protestantism began in China with Robert Morrison, and it has been here for over a hundred years. Yet it has only four hundred eighty thousand believers. Compared with the beginning, the church today has failed miserably in the eyes of God. The basic reason the gospel has lost its impact is because men no longer forsake their all like the first believers. The church should have taken over the responsibility of the Jews. It should be the overcomers among God's people. The Jewish nation has been destroyed for 2,565 years, but the church has not overcome yet. This is because it has lost the early practice of total consecration.
At the time of the Lord Jesus' ministry on earth, those who believed in Him were called disciples. They were not called doctors, merchants, laborers, or teachers. After the church came into being, there were only Christians in the church, not doctors, merchants, laborers, or teachers. Perhaps you will say that Luke was a doctor. Indeed he was, but he was a doctor on the side. When we read the Gospel of Luke and Acts, we have the impression that Luke was Paul's co-worker. We do not have the impression that he was a doctor. Paul said that he was an ambassador for Christ (2 Cor. 5:20). Since he was an ambassador, he did not have a second occupation. Paul called Luke a doctor because Luke took care of him (Col. 4:14). This did not refer to his profession but to his work of caring for Paul. In reading Acts, we only find Luke as a co-worker of Paul; no attention is paid to the fact that he was a doctor. He did not have the air of a doctor with him. Similarly, in reading the New Testament, we do not have an impression that Paul was a tentmaker. He was an apostle appointed by God. He was a worker of God. Today many Christians have lost their flavor as disciples. Their mind is full of commercial thoughts. All the time they think about making more money. They make the money but lose both their testimony and the power of the gospel.
If we want to be for the Lord's gospel, we have to cast aside our own occupation. This does not mean that we no longer have a job. Many people still need a job on the side, but these jobs must be compatible with our testimony. They must make us love the Lord's church more, and they must supply our needs and the needs of others. Nothing discredits God's glory more than depending on others' love more than depending on one's own faith in God. Paul made tents so that he could be an apostle more effectively and thus maintain his apostleship. One should take up a job not for the purpose of making money but for maintaining his Christian status. If a Christian takes a job purely for the sake of making money, God's house will become a market for oxen and sheep and doves. It will no longer be a house of prayer for the nations. We must beware of making too much money.
The cork in a bottle must be unplugged before its precious content can be released. The more we hold on to material goods, the more the gospel will be bound. The more we love ourselves, the less His life will flow out. In order for the gospel to have the impact, we must remove the "cork."
A normal Christian should be one who is totally consecrated. Our Christian confession is our primary profession; this is not something that we do on the side. What does it mean to have our Christian confession as our primary profession? First, we have to be absolute for the Lord and His gospel. "Christians" in Greek is Christianos, which means those who attach themselves to Christ, who follow Christ wholeheartedly. I hope that all of us will be men who give themselves wholeheartedly to the gospel. If we all have the same interest, every problem will be easily solved.
In order to take the Christian confession as our primary profession, we need a practical consecration. Consecration cannot be words in our mouth only; we must take some practical steps. At Pentecost there was the fact of consecration without any preaching of a message on consecration. The apostles only preached Jesus Christ as Lord; they did not speak about consecration. Yet, as a result, the believers shared everything in common. They sold their lands and distributed to everyone according to his need because they had a pattern of the gospel to follow (Acts 2:44-45). The apostles were men who had given up everything. The ones they brought to the Lord also became men of consecration, even though they did not hear messages on consecration. We all aspire to have the power of the gospel like the apostles, but we neglect the fact that they were men who had forsaken all.
There is also the need of one accord. If everyone is fully for the Lord and the gospel, can anything break the one accord? If two persons are not in one accord, they cannot walk together (Amos 3:3). However, it is not a simple thing to be in one accord. We know that the church in Philippi comforted and encouraged Paul because it strove together with one soul in the faith of the gospel (Phil. 1:27). Yet even among those believers, there were problems. Paul had to exhort two leading sisters to be of one mind (4:2). This shows that they were not in one accord very much. In the beginning of Acts we see a hundred and twenty people praying in one accord for ten days. We should not think that this was a simple thing. It was a very difficult task. This is the reason the Lord Jesus asked the Father before He departed from the world to make us one (John 17:21). The apostles also charged us to be diligent to keep the oneness (Eph. 4:3-6). The principle of the gospel is for five to chase a hundred and for a hundred to chase ten thousand (Lev. 26:8). The one accord will bring in the impact of the gospel. Actually, only those who are truly consecrated can be in one accord. Consecration is to pour out one's very heart. Where our treasure is, there our heart is as well (Matt. 6:21). If a man pours himself out, will he still insist on any opinion of his own? Those who are truly consecrated will be in one accord, and their gospel will spontaneously be powerful.
Today there are two kinds of systems in the world. One is capitalism, and the other is communism. Capitalism protects private ownership; everyone can accumulate wealth for himself. Communism practices the sharing of all things in common. No one has any private possessions, and everyone gives up everything for the good of the state. The communist way appears to be similar to the Christian way, but it does not have the life of God, and it is not easy to carry out this practice. D. M. Panton wrote about democracy and socialism in one of his expositional writings. In the image in Daniel, the ten toes are made of iron and clay. Panton interpreted the iron as referring to dictatorship which will "stiffen up" to become fascism. The clay refers to democracy which will degenerate into communism. Therefore, clay refers to the communist party today. Since the time of Martin Luther, the Brethren have been the champions of orthodox interpretations of the image in Daniel, telling us that iron refers to dictatorship while clay refers to democracy. Prior to the Brethren, interpretations on the iron and clay focused on the incompatibility of the mixture. Other teachers emphasized their interrelatedness. For example, G. H. Lang said that dictatorship brings in democracy, while democracy in turn creates dictatorship. The clay of democracy is too weak to meet the challenges of crises, and so power goes to the hand of a few or even one person. The result is a fascist dictatorship or communist autocracy. An example of the former is Napoleon during the French Revolution, and an example of the latter is the Soviet Union which evolved into communism from the instability of democracy. Mr. Panton is the first person to interpret clay to mean communism. Communism extols sharing all things in common. Karl Marx borrowed this concept from Acts. It would be a shame to Christians if one day the communists would turn around to teach Christians about sharing all things in common, selling everything and distributing to everyone according to his need. A proper Christian does not accumulate riches for himself; rather, he forsakes everything to take the Christian confession as his primary profession.
In Acts, first we have the twelve apostles and then one hundred twenty people. Later three thousand and then five thousand people were saved. The ones who were saved followed the example of the twelve apostles. Spontaneously they forsook everything. When a new one is saved and comes to the church, he sees that everyone around him has forsaken everything to follow the Lord. If he does not follow, he will feel uneasy; he may even feel that he is a dropout. Therefore, in order for our next generation to forsake everything, we must take the lead to sell our all. Otherwise, our gospel will only be a pat on others' shoulders; it will amount to nothing but a few nice words.
The Epistles show us that the principle of offering is, "He who gathered much had no excess, and he who gathered little had no lack" (2 Cor. 8:15). Of course, God allows some to have lack so that the ones who have excess can be tested in their heart to see if they love the Lord and the brothers more than mammon. God's test shows man what he is like. Such a test does not show God anything; otherwise, He would be lowered to the same level as man. God wants us, the person, not our things. Consecration is not mainly offering our possessions to God, but offering ourselves and our heart to God. This kind of consecration is acceptable and blessed by God.
A foolish man thinks he earns all of his money by his own effort. Little does he realize that he will earn nothing but trouble unless he operates according to God's principle. As believers we should live on earth by looking to God for everything. Without God's mercy, we cannot pass our days. The apostle told us not to trust in the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who affords us all things richly for our enjoyment (1 Tim. 6:17). Riches are uncertain. Only God who sits on the throne is eternally secure. It is true that we have problems, but we have the Lord, and He can take care of all our needs.
The Lord Jesus told us that since God can feed all the birds in the air, He can surely feed us. In His eyes we are more precious than the birds (Matt. 6:26). Except the Father wills it, a sparrow will not fall to the ground. We are more valuable than sparrows. Every hair of our head is numbered. God has marked each one by number. Not one will fall without His permission (10:29-31). We should do our best to offer up everything, and should not accumulate any excess.
In the Old Testament God told the Israelites, "Bring the whole tithe to the storehouse that there may be food in My house; and prove Me, if you will, by this, says Jehovah of hosts, whether I will open to you the windows of heaven and pour out blessing for you until there is no room for it" (Mal. 3:10). If we withhold what we should offer to God, God's church will be poor. If we hold fast to what we have, how can we expect God to answer our prayer? Today there are two million people in Hong Kong. If one tenth of the population were Christians, we would have two hundred thousand believers. The church cannot receive the blessing of the power of God's gospel because we have held back the tithe which we owe. Throughout history, every time the church experienced a revival, there were men in the spirit of Pentecost who sold their all and forsook everything to follow the Lord. J. N. Darby, Miss Groves, John Wesley, Count Zinzendorf, and many others took this way. They chose the way of voluntary poverty and forsook everything to follow the Lord. The result was great revivals in the church.
In Revelation 6 a white horse came forth when the Lord Jesus opened up the first of the seven seals. The one who sat on the horse had a bow in his hand (vv. 1-2). Verse 2 only speaks of a bow, but not an arrow. The arrow has been shot. This is the reason it says that he went forth conquering and to conquer. The white horse and its rider refer to the Lord's gospel. When the Lord ascended in victory, the arrow was shot. The result was much conquering and much more to conquer. Today we have the arrow in our hand. If we do not shoot it, the gospel will not continue in its victory.
Among the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, only one church received praise from God — the church in Philadelphia. Philadelphia is a recovery that comes after Sardis. In name Sardis is living, but in reality it is dead; it has no power at all. Philadelphia, however, has the power. Therefore, it is a recovery. Where does its power come from? Church history tells us that every time there is a revival, it is brought in through consecration. Every time the power goes away and the church becomes Sardis, it is because money has crept into the church. Before he died, John Wesley said, "I am concerned for the Methodists. They are honest and frugal. In the future they will become the richest people on earth." Today his word has become a reality. Methodists everywhere are the richest people. Yet their testimony is finished. This is true not only among the Methodists but also among the Moravians raised up at the time of Zinzendorf and the Brethren raised up at the time of J. N. Darby. A Christian must be fully rescued from money. He must fully consecrate himself before he will know the meaning of Philadelphia. He must also continue in his consecration if he wants to stay away from Sardis. Do we want to be Philadelphia completely?
It is simple to be a man living in the world; he only has one god — mammon. However, it is very troublesome to be a Christian. It is possible for him to have two gods — mammon and God. If a man wants to be a real Christian, a real consecrated one, he must be delivered from mammon (Matt. 6:24).
Brother Hwang said that it is easy to earn back the two mites that the widow dropped into the treasury, but I would say that at least that woman had the faith at the time to drop them. It was not easy for her to offer even that little. Unless our faith in God is strong, we will not dare to drop our coins into the treasury; they will remain hot in our hands for a long time.
In summary, God's requirement today is to forsake everything for the gospel. May we match God's present demand. May we not lower His demand, and may we give up everything for His sake and His gospel's sake.
