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Scripture Reading: Rom. 12:1; 1:14; 1 Cor. 9:16-17; Luke 14:21-23
In this chapter I will fellowship first concerning the present situation among the churches in the Lord’s recovery and then present some definite steps that are needed for practicing the New Testament priesthood of the gospel.
To build up any nation, there is the need of people. With only a handful of people, a nation cannot be built up. God wants to gain a large number of people for His kingdom. Some may disagree, saying that in Luke 12 the Lord referred to His disciples as a “little flock” (v. 32), but that was when the Lord Jesus was on this earth before His death and resurrection. He had not yet gone to the cross to die, to accomplish redemption, and He had not yet been resurrected. At that time He had only a handful of people with Him, mainly only twelve, so it was right for Him to call them a “little flock.” But after His death and resurrection He spoke to them differently. He said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and disciple all the nations” (Matt. 28:18-19). To disciple all the nations is to gain them to establish a kingdom. For this kingdom there is the need for a large number of people. Therefore, on the day of Pentecost about three thousand were added to the church (Acts 2:41). Shortly after Pentecost “the number of men came to about five thousand” (4:4). Then in Acts 6 it says that “the number of the disciples in Jerusalem multiplied greatly” (v. 7). We must consider how our own situation compares with that revealed in the Bible.
We are here as a testimony of the Lord’s move on the earth in His recovery. Today in the United States there are more than two hundred churches. This number is quite high, but very few local churches in the United States have over two hundred members. In Southern California alone there are twenty-five churches, but each church has only a small number of saints. We have had such a small number for nearly twenty years. During this time, the lack of increase in our numbers has been quite bothersome. This lack of increase has been not only with the churches in the Lord’s recovery but also with all of Christianity. When I came to this country in 1958, I was told that half of all Americans were Christians. Today, after thirty-one years, it has increased just a little. The leading ones of the big denominations are bothered by their lack of increase. In Great Britain nearly all the big denominations have been decreasing over the past fifteen years.
Within the last few years in the United States, the Southern Baptists have begun to take the way of door-knocking in their preaching of the gospel. They have done this because they realize that the way they have been preaching the gospel has not been working so well.
One of the brothers recently showed me a newspaper article which said that twenty years ago in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a church was raised up with seventeen people. But now they have ten thousand members. In twenty years they increased from seventeen to ten thousand members. The article indicates that they did this by door-knocking, by visiting people in their homes.
In doing anything, if there is no profit or improvement, the way must be wrong. None of us should be self-content with the present numbers in the churches. Fifteen years ago the number of saints in Southern California was bigger than it is today. This lack of increase troubled me to such an extent that I turned my whole attention to this matter in October 1984. At that time I purposely went to Taiwan to study this matter. Gradually, I found out that our way is wrong. Christianity’s way is wrong, and our way is also wrong because it has somewhat come out of their way. Although some improvements have been made, our way has been and still is in the same category as that of Christianity’s. In the matter of the gospel preaching, there is not much difference between our way and theirs.
I am sharing this because I am burdened that we all would wake up and no longer be contented with the present situation in the churches. We should be tired of coming together and seeing the same faces in meeting after meeting. We need some new members. If there were a lot of new ones in this meeting, everyone would be excited. The reason so few are saved and baptized among us and the reason that most of the baptized ones do not remain in the church life is that our way is wrong.
What has been the result from our old way? We all have to admit the fact that we have not had the proper increase in the churches. Some local churches were much larger in the mid-1970s than they are today. This is a shame to the Lord, and we should feel shameful. We should not be contented, and we should not deceive ourselves. It is a shame for us to remain in the recovery, day after day and year after year, with little or no increase. My burden is that we would all wake up and rise up to practice the New Testament priesthood of the gospel to gain people for God’s kingdom.
The Lord showed me the new way, and I presented it to the saints, beginning in Taiwan. Since that time the new way has been opposed, despised, belittled, mocked, and even slandered. Some of us even today would not use the term the new way. It seems that to mention the new way is a shame. This is wrong.
Although some have said that the new way, the God-ordained way, is wrong, no one has dared to condemn any of the four major steps of the God-ordained way. No one can condemn the preaching of the gospel by the New Testament priests of the gospel going to visit people in their homes. They may say, “What is new about preaching the gospel? We did that a lot.” But that was in the way that is really old, and this is in the way that is revealed in the Scriptures as God has ordained. This is new. Even the term the New Testament priests of the gospel is new to us, although it is clearly mentioned in Romans 15:16.
To serve sinners by visiting them where they are is the God-ordained way to preach the gospel. By the time of Acts 8 there were thousands of believers in Jerusalem, but the Lord allowed a great persecution to come upon them so that they were scattered abroad to preach the gospel. They did not hold big meetings. They simply went to visit people and announced to them the word as the gospel (vv. 1, 4).
The second step of the God-ordained way is the feeding of the lambs, the care for the new babes. We must feed them properly day by day so that they may live and grow. Certainly no one can say that this is wrong. The third step is the perfecting of the saints according to Ephesians 4:12. We do not practice this, but it is in the Word.
The last step of the God-ordained way is to prophesy for the building up of the church as revealed in 1 Corinthians 14. This is altogether not practiced today. Many still consider that to prophesy is merely to predict, but 1 Corinthians 14 does not refer to this kind of prophesying. To prophesy in 1 Corinthians 14 is to speak for the Lord, to speak forth the Lord, and to minister Christ into others that they may grow up in Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ. Who can oppose such a marvelous practice? These are the four major steps that I have condensed from my study over the past four and a half years. These four steps are what we call the new way. It is new to us because we have not practiced it. This new way is the way that God has ordained for us to serve Him.
Although you may not oppose the new way, you may not practice it persistently. You cannot go out to visit people just for a period of time and expect to gain quite a number for the Lord. In a hot and dry place like Southern California, you cannot water your flowers or your lawn only once or twice within one or two months. That does not work.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses put out some statistics for the twelve countries in which they gained the most people in 1987 and 1988. In Japan they spent more than six thousand hours to get one person. If they worked ten hours a day for one year, that would be only three thousand six hundred fifty hours. They spent over two years, working daily for hours, to gain one person. Their persistence has produced results. We all love the Lord, and we love to see people saved. We are for the preaching of the gospel. In one year, in three hundred sixty-five days, can we not bring one person to the Lord? This is both logical and fair. Many of us, however, have been in the church for years, yet no one has been saved through us. This is because our way of gospel preaching has been wrong.
If we went out to visit people for the gospel twice a week for two or three hours each time, we may get fifteen or so baptized after two months. But suppose not one was brought into the church life. Would we stop going out? To stop going to visit people with the gospel means that we do not have the persistence, patience, or faith needed to be a New Testament priest of the gospel. In one year we may be able to bring only one into the church life out of many baptized ones. That may seem too poor, but if every member in a church brings one new one into the church life in a year, the church is doubled.
We all must exercise our persistence, patience, and faith to visit and preach the gospel to people. In Luke 14 the Lord told us that when there were still vacancies in His salvation, He sent out His slaves to get people to fill His house. He first sent them “into the streets and lanes of the city,” and then He sent them “into the roads and hedges,” not just to invite them, but to “compel them to come in” (vv. 21-23). We need to compel people to believe in the Lord Jesus.
If we baptize a number and still do not bring one into the church life, we must exercise the Lord’s persistence, patience, and faith. We should say, “If I cannot gain one this year, I will gain one next year. If I do not gain one next year, then I will gain one the following year.” Eventually, we will gain someone for the Lord’s testimony. If each saint gains one new one every three years, the church will have a thirty-three percent increase yearly. According to my study, no church on the earth has ever increased consistently by thirty-three percent for many years. The way of persistently preaching the gospel by visiting people is not only profitable but also prevailing. We must all go out to exercise and practice this God-ordained way to preach the gospel. Whether we are meeting together with twenty, one hundred, or one thousand, we all must practice our New Testament priesthood of the gospel by going out to visit people with persistence, patience, and faith. Then we will surely bring some into the church life, and many others will also believe and be baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.
We need to see the definite steps needed for practicing the New Testament priesthood of the gospel. We may agree with the new way, but this does not mean much. We must also exercise and practice it.
The first definite step needed for practicing the New Testament priesthood of the gospel depends on the eldership. The elders in every local church should exercise their leadership in preaching the gospel. As the New Testament priests of the gospel, they have to preach the gospel, and they have to stir up a gospel-preaching atmosphere in their local church. The elders must take the lead to create such an atmosphere so that their church can be a gospel-preaching church according to God’s ordained way. All the elders need to forget about the old way and pick up the new way. They should go out by themselves to practice the New Testament priesthood of the gospel.
The saints need to make a determination and consecration. We must all make a strong determination that we will practice our God-given New Testament priesthood. Because of our determination, we have to consecrate ourselves, to present our bodies as living sacrifices to God (Rom. 12:1). The best way to exercise and to practice is to preach the gospel to our close relatives — to our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. By doing this we will learn.
Then we have to pray desperately. In our prayer the Lord will shine over us. We will be exposed under His shining, and we will see all our failures, defects, and imperfections. We can then make a thorough confession and be revived by the Lord. We should not remain in our present passive situation. We must be aggressive and take the initiative in the spiritual life.
After being revived through our prayer, we must go to visit sinners on definite days to redeem our time. We must set aside a certain day and time each week and use it only for our priesthood of the gospel. We should not say that we have no time. As long as we have time to do other things, we surely have time to visit sinners.
Then we must exercise persistence, patience, and faith. If we do not gain anyone in one year, we must thank the Lord that He has given us another year. We must be persistent. We still have to preach the gospel. If we speak Christ to others week after week, we will surely gain someone. Eventually, we will reach the goal. We all must exercise in the gospel with persistence, patience, and faith.
To practice the New Testament priesthood of the gospel requires the churches’ participation and prayer. The churches should participate in the saints’ labor of visiting sinners with the gospel. The churches should also have prayer meetings to pray desperately for this. It is a great matter for the church to participate in and pray for the saving of sinners.
