LESSON SEVEN – LIVING UNIQUELY FOR THE GOSPEL

Acts 8:4-5 — Those therefore who were scattered went throughout the land announcing the word as the gospel. And Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed the Christ to them.

1 Tim. 2:4 — Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth.

THE DEFINITION OF THE GOSPEL

The gospel is Christ, who is the very embodiment of the processed Triune God, reaching us as the consummated Spirit, who is the consummation of the Triune God for our enjoyment. According to the truth, the gospel is the entire New Testament. Christians are used to saying that there are four Gospels, but Paul tells us that the entire book of Romans is the gospel of God (1:1, 15). It includes the preaching of God, the condemnation of God upon fallen man, and the Body life, including the local churches in chapter 16. Have you ever received such a broad view of the definition of the gospel? Personally, the gospel is a wonderful person, and according to the truth, the gospel is the entire divine revelation of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament. God’s New Testament economy is the gospel. We have to believe in such a gospel, preach such a gospel, and live uniquely for such a gospel. The consummated Spirit, who is God Himself reaching us, eventually has become the seven Spirits in Revelation (1:4; 4:5; 5:6). The seven Spirits are also a part of the gospel.

LIVING UNIQUELY FOR THE GOSPEL

My intention is to impress you that in the universe and today on the earth there is something called the gospel, which we are reminded and commanded to live for. The Lord commanded us to live for this gospel uniquely. What are we living on this earth for? Do we live for our profession or for our job to make a lot of money? What is man living for? Poor human society has so much activity but no goal. Do we have a goal? Our goal is the gospel, and our gospel is the Triune God processed to be the very Spirit within us as our salvation, as our life, as our life supply, and as our all-inclusive enjoyment.

What a wonder and what a glory to live uniquely for such a gospel! I have been living uniquely for this gospel for over fifty years. Hallelujah for this! It is worth it. When I was called by the Lord, my thinking was that God had called me to go to preach and teach in all the villages of my county, not even to my entire province. If I had done that all my life, I would have been more than happy. I never thought that I would be speaking in the United States and in other parts of the world to an international audience. By the Lord’s mercy, I am living uniquely for the gospel.

GOING WITH THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST

At the end of the Gospel of Matthew, the Lord came as the very embodiment of the processed Triune God in resurrection and told us that all authority had been given to Him in heaven and on earth (28:18). The president of the United States sends ambassadors to many countries representing him with full authority, but why do we need this kind of authority, all authority in heaven and on earth? We need this authority to disciple the nations. All of us have to ask ourselves how many we have discipled. Have you believed in Him? Have you received Him? Do you have Him living in you? Are you one spirit with Him? Are you abiding in Him? Is He now abiding in you? Are you and He one? If you say yes to these questions, you have the authority in heaven and on earth to go. The worth and importance of the word go cannot be measured. Go, go, go! Go to Jerusalem first, then Judea, then Samaria, then to the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8). Go to all the homes in all the countries. Go to your cousins’ homes, go to your in-laws’ homes. Go to the homes to disciple the nations.

THE SERIOUSNESS OF NOT BEARING FRUIT

Are you happy to remain in a barren situation for years? Second Peter indicates that it is possible for us to be idle and unfruitful, barren (1:8). Suppose tomorrow morning the Lord comes back. Then according to His word in Matthew 25, you will have to give Him an account of what you have been doing. What will you tell Him? Will you tell Him that you have had a good church life in your locality, that whatever He has given you is still here? Will you tell Him that  He is a hard man, reaping where He did not sow and gathering where He did not winnow? What would the Lord say? Would the Lord say, “Well done, good and faithful slave.…Enter into the joy of your master” (vv. 21, 23)? Or would He call you an evil and slothful slave (v. 26)? According to Matthew 25, where will He put you? Do not forget that the one who is cast out into outer darkness is the one who has received the real gift, one talent. This one is not only saved but also gifted. The Lord is real, He will really come back, and His word spoken in Matthew 25 will be fulfilled. This is a serious and solemn matter.

THE LORD SETTING US TO GO FORTH AND BEAR FRUIT

John 15:16 says, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and I set you that you should go forth and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain.” In this verse there are some words that are quite crucial. The first word is set. We did not choose ourselves, but He chose us. We have no choice in the matter of being a branch of Christ, the vine, because He caught us. He chose us and set us, appointed us, to bear fruit. To bear fruit is the Lord’s setting, His assignment. He did not assign us to do anything else. He set us to bear fruit. The Lord charged us to go forth and bear fruit. Can a branch go? The branches of a physical tree do not go. But we are not only living branches but also movable branches. We have to go. This indicates that we have to reach people. (CWWL, 1987, vol. 1, “Being Desperate and Living Uniquely for the Gospel,” pp. 47-49, 51, 58)

BEING DEBTORS TO ALL MEN

Paul says that he was a debtor to all men (Rom. 1:14). I hope that we will have the same spirit to see that we are those who owe the debt of the gospel. Paul also says that it would be woe to him if he did not preach the gospel, but if he preached the gospel, he would be rewarded (1 Cor. 9:16-17).

I hope that we will all rise up to be the Lord’s witnesses so that we may be rewarded for the gospel. (CWWL, 1984, vol. 4, “Rising Up to Preach the Gospel,” p. 362)

References: CWWL, 1987, vol. 1, “Being Desperate and Living Uniquely for the Gospel,” ch. 3; CWWL, 1984, vol. 4, “Rising Up to Preach the Gospel,” chs. 1—5

OUTREACH OF THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL

Preaching of the Gospel— By the Flow of Life – 925

• Outreach of the glorious gospel
  Is the flow of life within;
  It is by our testimony
  That lost sinners we may win.

Grant us, Lord, the living outflow,
May Thy life through us be seen;
Through us as Thy living vessels
Quicken people from within.

• It is by the life convincing
  That the people may believe;
  It is by the life imparting
  That the souls may life receive.

• Always in the Lord abiding,
  As the branches fruit to bear;
  By the inner life out-flowing
  Christ with others we may share.

• May our living be the preaching,
  Making Christ to others known;
  Not the word of doctrine-preaching,
  But the seed of life be sown.