First Peter 2:9 says, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people acquired for a possession, so that you may tell out the virtues of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” To tell out is to preach, to proclaim, and the virtues of God are the contents of the gospel.
This kind of telling out, or proclamation, of God’s virtues is a corporate matter.
We are to proclaim abroad as the gospel the virtues (mercy, compassion, lovingkindness, love, grace, redemption, forgiveness, justification, regeneration, salvation, etc.) of God, who has called the believers out of darkness into His marvelous light for the testimony that the believers as God’s chosen race who are under God’s bright governmental dealing in His house (1 Pet. 4:17) do not live and walk in darkness but in the marvelous light of God (2:11-12). When we go to people, we should say something to them about all the virtues of God which we have experienced. This is to tell out the virtues of God, to preach the divine attributes to people. We tell people the virtues of God, testifying that we are not living and walking in darkness. We are a people living in the marvelous light of God as a testimony. Regretfully, it seems that today there is not a group of Christians like this. This is why the Lord needs a recovery.
The Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God; the bride is the aggregate of all the believers, the church (Rev. 22:17). These two, the Triune God and the believers, become one entity, a couple.
This couple, at the end of the Bible, cries to the thirsty ones.
Whosoever is thirsty is called to come and take the water of life freely for their enjoyment of the riches of the Triune God flowing out of the throne of God and of the Lamb as a river of water of life to be the rich supply with Christ as the tree of life to the New Jerusalem as the Triune God’s glorious enlargement and expression for eternity (Rev. 21:1—22:5).
In this message we have seen seven aspects concerning going out to preach the gospel to people. We preach the gospel for seven reasons:
1) To put people into God for the kingdom of the heavens.
2) For the old creation to become the new creation.
3) For the lost man to be redeemed back to God’s original blessing.
4) To bear fruit for the increase of Christ to complete Christ’s Body, consummating in the New Jerusalem.
5) To announce the gospel of the kingdom of God.
6) To go out to tell people God’s virtues, testifying that we as His people do not live in darkness but in the marvelous light. We are people of light.
7) To call the thirsty ones to come and drink the living water to enjoy the Triune God, who is the very river flowing out of His throne to supply all the redeemed with Christ as the tree of life that they all may be the New Jerusalem as God’s enlargement and expression for eternity.
These are the seven aspects of the goal of our preaching the gospel. We also need to keep in mind who the Commissioner of this gospel is. He is the King-Savior, the Slave-Savior, the Man-Savior, and the God-Savior. We have a strong base with a high goal to go out to preach the gospel. This gospel is simple but all-inclusive.