We also need to know that preaching the gospel to save sinners is the way to bear fruit. The Lord’s word in John 15 concerning the vine shows that every believer is a branch in the Lord, who is the vine. If we do not bear fruit, we are in danger of being taken away (v. 2). When I was young, I thought that to be taken away meant to go to hell. Later I understood that it means to lose the position to enjoy the riches of the Lord. We are branches, and when we abide and remain in the vine, we are positioned to enjoy the riches of the vine. Once we are taken away, we lose the position to enjoy the riches of the vine. Therefore, if we do not bear fruit or bring sinners to salvation after our own salvation, we are in danger of losing the position to enjoy the riches of the Lord.
This portion of the Bible speaks of another danger. Verse 6 says, “If one does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is dried up; and they gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.” Being cast into the fire and burned does not refer to going to hell. People usually read the Bible with the understanding of either going to heaven or going to hell. However, this thought does not exist in John 15. Rather, this chapter says that if we do not bear fruit, we will encounter the danger of losing our position to enjoy the riches of the Lord and of being cast into the fire. I have seen many believers who had been saved for a long time but did not bear fruit. These believers gradually lost their enjoyment of the Lord, were captured by Satan, and suffered damage.
Romans 11 says that as the Gentiles we were originally branches of a wild olive tree. However, when we were saved, we were grafted into the Lord, the cultivated olive tree, to enjoy His fatness (vv. 17, 24). If we do not bear fruit, we can lose the enjoyment of Christ and be captured by Satan and suffer damage. This is a word of warning.
In order to preach the gospel we need to be equipped. Just as it is difficult to work without tools, we need gospel tools in order to preach the gospel. We will fellowship concerning four gospel tools. We first need to be equipped with gospel verses. This requires that we be familiar with the Bible. We cannot reap a harvest and bring in the sheaves if we are empty-handed. We need a sickle. The Bible is our sickle. We need to be equipped with some basic gospel truths and know how to use the relevant Bible verses. We should know verses such as John 3:16, which says, “God so loved the world”; 1 Peter 2:24, which says, “Who Himself bore up our sins in His body on the tree”; and 1 Timothy 1:15, which says, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” I also recommend the book Gospel Outlines. This book contains two hundred and sixty-four gospel topics as well as Scripture references for every topic. This can help us learn important gospel verses.
The hymns are another tool for preaching the gospel. We can preach the gospel to others by singing hymns, such as Hymns, #1058. I translated this hymn into Chinese, and Brother Nee polished it and made some improvements, including my translation of the line “Be of sin the double cure.” The first cure for sin deals with the record of our sins before God, for which we should receive eternal punishment. The second cure for sin deals with the law of sin within us, which brings us under the ruling of the power of sin. This hymn also speaks of “the water and the blood” that flowed from the Lord’s side. The blood deals with the record of our sins before God, and the water denotes the law of the Spirit of life. This law enables us to overcome the law of sin and of death (Rom. 8:2). I mention this because I hope that some young people may be raised up to learn to write hymns.