Christ is the seed of woman bruising the serpent’s head. He is also the seed of Abraham accomplishing God’s redemption and bestowing the blessing of God’s redemption, the all-inclusive Spirit of the Triune God, to everyone who believes and is saved (Gal. 3:14). Furthermore, this Spirit, which is the all-inclusive Spirit, is the unique blessing in God’s redemption. It is typified by the land of Canaan. In this Spirit we enjoy Christ as everything and receive this blessing.
Praise the Lord that Christ has come and has accomplished everything. God desires not only that we the saved ones enjoy Him. He is also sending us out to save the sinners that they would believe into Christ and would be baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In this way, they will also be able to enjoy this blessing. We the saved ones are no longer in Adam nor in ourselves. Rather, we are in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is our status.
We also have to see that we are destined by the Lord of all to be priests. We should preach the gospel to sinners, saving them into Christ and baptizing them into the Triune God. Whenever we baptize a person, we are offering up a treasure on the altar. One sinner is one treasure offered up. Ten sinners are ten treasures offered up. All the Christians know that the greatest joy is to preach the gospel and to save sinners. For a church to be living, enlivened, and revived, there is no other way except for it to be a gospel-preaching church.
If a church has been here for eight years and has not saved one person, but instead everyone sees the same old faces over and over again, surely there will be no joy. But if a church has a few new faces and especially if the new ones would stand up and say a few words, though the speaking may not be that good, everyone will feel very happy. Therefore, if we do not save sinners, it is difficult for us to have joy. Likewise, if a church does not preach the gospel to save sinners, it is difficult for her to have joy.
When we save the sinners and baptize them, humanly speaking, we are putting them into the water. But according to God’s view, we are priests “priesting” these offerings to God. All who have done this know what joy it is when a person comes out of the water. Our joy is ecstatic. We feel as if we are being raptured. In reality, this is because God is rejoicing there. In Luke chapter fifteen, the Lord speaks to us in a parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep and having lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?” (v. 4). When the sheep is found, the angels in heaven rejoice over it (v. 7). This is what is described in Hymns, #1068: “While angels in His presence sang until the courts of heaven rang” (stanza 1). If a sinner is not a treasure, why do the angels rejoice when he is saved? The writer of this hymn knew the heart of God and wrote accurately.
We must see that this is a joyful and exuberant matter and a most glorious charge. We all have to go forth to bring the sinners to salvation that they would become offerings in Christ to be offered up to God.
We have to realize that today’s Christianity is degraded. It has fallen away from God’s ordained way. For example, the gospel campaign meetings where one speaks and all listen have killed the gospel-preaching function in all the saints. Although the saints are still willing to participate in the gospel work, they cannot preach nor do they have the opportunity to preach. Instead, they can only participate in some Levitical services, such as moving the chairs, cleaning the windows, vacuuming the carpets, and inviting people to come to love feasts. Eventually, no one can preach the gospel. Everything depends on one speaker. The rest just listen. This is indeed wrong.
The more the one speaker speaks, the less the saints are able to speak. After ten years, everyone becomes a dumb person. If a person covers his eyes for five years, he will become a blind man. After a child is born, if he does not speak for ten years, his parents will consider him a dumb child. If we have been preaching in a place for ten years and have saved one or two hundred people but have not been able to perfect anyone to become priests of the gospel, we have killed the saints’ organic function.
God’s ordained way today matches the universal priesthood of the New Testament. If the former does not match the latter, the universal priesthood will never be realized; we will not have everyone preaching the gospel, and God’s New Testament economy will not be fulfilled. Christianity does worship the true God, but it has killed the worshipper. Although it is doing a right thing, it is doing it with a wrong method. This is the case with one man preaching the gospel while all listen. Many of the activities in Christianity can be summarized with the phrase, “right in goal, but wrong in means.” In the end, a serious mistake is committed; all the organic functions of the saints are killed. Hence, we must desperately take this new way and recover everyone to preach the gospel and be priests of the gospel.