[Chapter 15] Let Us Spread the Gospel Throughout the Entire World
“We
then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and
not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his
good, leading to edification” (Romans 15:1-2).
Those
who believe in God’s righteousness must not seek their own
righteousness, since Jesus Christ did not seek His either. The righteous
live for the Kingdom of God and spread the gospel for the good of
others. Paul said that the strong ought to bear the infirmities of the
weak instead of pleasing themselves.
Believers
of God’s righteousness must preach the gospel so that they can cleanse
the sins of others with the baptism and blood of Jesus Christ. This is
the reason why God hates those who are lazy and do not spread the gospel
to save sinners. We must therefore not seek our own righteousness but
spread God’s righteousness to others. We must deliver the gospel of the
water and the Spirit so that sinners can be saved through faith. We must
also edify each other.
Do not build the house of faith on another man’s foundation
Verse
20 states, “And so I have made it my aim to preach the gospel, not
where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man’s
foundation.”
There
was something peculiar in the gospel that Paul preached. It is that he
strived to spread only the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Believers
of God’s righteousness must strive to spread the gospel of the water
and the Spirit, just as Paul did. In order to make this happen, we must
seek the good of others, instead of our own. People who seek the good of
others do so because they have been crucified with Christ and
resurrected with Him. Those who believe in Christ are not dead, but
alive.
“For
this reason I also have been much hindered from coming to you. But now
no longer having a place in these parts, and having a great desire these
many years to come to you, whenever I journey to Spain, I shall come to
you. For I hope to see you on my journey, and to be helped on my way
there by you, if first I may enjoy your company for a while. But now I
am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints. For it pleased those
from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor
among the saints in Jerusalem. It pleased them indeed, and they are
their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their
spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material
things. Therefore, when I have performed this and have sealed to them
this fruit, I shall go by way of you to Spain. But I know that when I
come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel
of Christ” (Romans 15:22-29).
Paul was an itinerant preacher and overseer of God’s church
While
Paul was on his way to the Jerusalem Church to serve its Christians, he
delivered the contributions from Macedonia and Achaia to them. Paul
added that if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual
things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things. The
saints in the Jerusalem Church were in the midst of persecution at that
time and could not free themselves from their material deficiencies. The
Jerusalem Church, which was suffering great persecution for believing
in Jesus Christ, was greatly consoled by the Gentile brothers and
sisters.
In
the present as in the past, it has become a tradition for God’s
churches to share their wealth with the needy instead of enjoying it by
themselves. The Spirit-filled believers especially cannot live for
themselves alone. Why? Because the Holy Spirit dwells in them! They are
the born-again who are led by the Holy Spirit who resides in them.
It
is wonderful that the Gentile churches supported and funded the
Jerusalem Church. This was the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
supported the Jerusalem Church for the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, not for any individuals, and granted it material relief as well.
At that time in Israel, many were beaten, thrown in jail, even killed
for their faith in Christ as their Savior.
On
TV documentaries, we can often see the remains of the Catacomb martyrs
and their hideouts in mountain caves. This was what the Jerusalem Church
had to go through at that time. We, too, must give a helping hand to
God’s churches when they are facing difficulties.
We
may brush off the importance of the mutual help that the Early Churches
extended to each other, but this was a time when the believers had to
live in hiding to flee from persecution. Only the Holy Spirit could make
the sharing possible in these circumstances. Because the Jerusalem
Church was under persecution, it was natural for other churches to help
it. Because this was the work of the Holy Spirit, it was fitting and
beautiful.
You,
a believer of God’s righteousness, should take part in such works as
well. The member churches of The New Life Mission raise fund and invest
it in spreading the gospel to the entire world. All of them have some
type of financial difficulty to cope with, but they are still eager to
spread the gospel to save souls.
Paul
worked as a tent-maker to preach the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. When there was someone who could care for the church that he
founded, he entrusted the church to him, and went on his way to another
region to preach the gospel—all the while earning his living through
tent-making.
Just
as you do not live for yourself alone, our ministers do not live for
themselves. Those who have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them devote
themselves to God’s works—that is, to saving the lost from all their
sins. Both the ministers and the lay members of our mission serve the
gospel through “tent-making ministry,” where they hold their own jobs to
support themselves and at the same time contribute to the spreading of
the gospel, both financially and by volunteering.
Like
this, we can find many similarities between Paul’s ministry and that of
God’s church today. We have the same frame of minds, and live lives
that please the Holy Spirit. What is on our minds when it is bitterly
cold? We surely think of our fellow Christians and servants of God and
wonder if they are suffering from the cold. We, the born-again
Christians, care and watch out for one another. All the righteous in the
Bible needed one another and served God’s righteousness together. This
life of faith is the real lives of the righteous.
We
have lived with such mind-sets. When we first started to preach the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, we had to begin from scratch, as we
had nothing. We were so financially strapped that we often had a hard
time trying to come up with a few hundred dollars to pay the rent and
the bills for the church building. But we still devoted ourselves to our
literature ministry throughout this country.
When
we were faced with financial difficulties, it was God who solved them
for us allowed us to see the fruits of our ministry. Because the Holy
Spirit abides in our hearts, our desire to spread the gospel is burning
in our hearts, no matter what difficulties are ahead of us. We want to
share God’s love with all the lost souls by preaching the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, just as God’s churches and the righteous written
in the Bible did.
We
can find that the born-again Christians of the Early Church looked
after one another and that we, too, do so. This is not possible without
the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has been spreading the
righteousness of God throughout the earth through the devotions of the
born again and will continue to do the same.
Even if we are faced with the end of days!
People say that we are now living in the last age, when all the difficulties prophesied in the Bible will come to be fulfilled.
Catastrophe
and disaster will engulf the whole world in the last days. As
believers, we must stand more firmly in our faith in the righteousness
of God and preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit even more
diligently. Those who believe in God’s righteousness must have the heart
to look after and love one another in this last age. Our own hearts may
be hardened as the hearts of the world harden, but we can overcome this
world in the end, because we have the Holy Spirit in us. No matter what
the circumstances, we need to look after God’s churches and souls. We
must look after those who require our assistance, love them, think of
our fellow brothers and sisters, and spread the gospel till the end.
We
must devote ourselves to the salvation of others rather than seeking
our own righteousness. There are still so many souls, out there all over
the world, who have not heard the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
People in many countries have never heard the gospel of the water and
the Spirit, nor had a chance to know God’s righteousness. We must set
our minds like the soldiers who are fighting to win the lost souls and
nations with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. This mission comes
not from coercion, as if we are compelled by force, but it naturally
arises in the hearts of those of us in whom the Holy Spirit dwells.
The
Great Commission to spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit to
the ends of the earth is active in our hearts today. What I want to tell
you is that the more difficult this world becomes, the more
sufficiently God pours His Holy Spirit on us. We are spreading the
gospel through our printed and electronic books offered to those who
thirst for the truth, free of charge. We will constantly carry on our
ministry worldwide through the Internet.
Although
we are not any wealthier than the Americans or the Europeans, we can
still give them the gospel that contains the righteousness of God. We
have the same mind-set as Peter who said, “Silver and gold I do not
have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, rise up and walk” (Acts 3:6).
We
can freely give them the gospel that has fulfilled the righteousness of
God, which they had not known. Even though we are no better off than
anyone else when measured by the worldly scales, we are the servants of
God who can give the gospel that contains the righteousness of God.
Those who, having come across this gospel through our ministry, come to
know and believe in this gospel will be greatly blessed.
This
is the Internet era, and with it God has provided us a way to open the
whole world. We have seen how grateful and joyful people were when we
gave them the gospel that has fulfilled God’s righteousness. The
gloomier the world becomes, the more thankful and powerful we will
become while preaching the gospel of God’s righteousness to the lost.
Would the world end like this, or would God give us more chances to
spread His gospel? This is what we should think and pray about.
Everything will be perfectly fulfilled by the Holy Spirit.
I
also used to be selfish, and only cared about my flesh before I was
born again. Not only I, but we all were like this. Those who live only
for the pleasures of the flesh may claim that they have love, but in
truth they cannot actually love others. This is the difference between
those who have the Holy Spirit and those who do not. Sinners can only
live for themselves, but those with the Holy Spirit has the power to
live for someone else, and do actually live for others. The Triune God
gives His believers the power to live for other souls. Because God
dwells in their hearts and leads them on, they can do His righteous
works.
No
matter how many churches there are in this world, almost all of them
have now become merely secular enterprises. They spare no money to build
their extravagant churches and they have huge budgets that are in the
millions of dollars, and yet only a tiny fraction of their wealth, if at
all, is given for charitable works. They have gone mad to gain more
wealth from this earth, discarding their real mission of saving souls
from sin as secondary and unimportant. They cannot be a part of the
church of God, for His church does not pursue its own interests over
those of God.
The
true church of God uses its resources to save the lost souls in
transparency and honesty. As the Bible says, “Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall obtain mercy" (Matthew 5:7), God has given us the heart
to look after the souls of this world and lead them to redemption, and
He has made all these things possible. The gospel of the water and the
Spirit has now been put together into publications that have been
translated into almost 40 languages and over 60 titles, each of them
testifying God’s righteousness to those who are facing their spiritual
death.
How
pleased would God be if we prayed more earnestly and spread the gospel
of the water and the Spirit to more sinners to save them, before this
world is engulfed in the Great Tribulation and comes to its end? Let us
not be discouraged but be faithful until the very end.
In
the past, the poor could survive by helping each other. But we have now
entered an era of limitless competition in which only the strong can
survive. Whenever we look at this generation, we are convinced of our
duty that we must spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit to those
who still have not heard it. We all have the heart to deliver the
gospel that will bring peace to those who are tired and weary from their
unending struggles in this harsh world. Let us deliver the spiritual
blessing of the gospel of the water and the Spirit to them. We can live
for Christ with our faiths in God’s righteousness, for He has taken away
all our sins.
The
gospel that contains God’s righteousness will spread tenfold, a
hundredfold, a thousand-fold, and a million-fold more swiftly now. We
will have so much work to do, so let us be faithful. Those who are
talented should give their talents to the Lord and spread the gospel to
each and every soul. We must all work to spread the gospel according to
our God-given talents. We have no power of our own, but I believe that
if we pray to God according to the Holy Spirit that stirs in us, God
will grant all our wishes.
Christ
has given us His true love that loves the sinners. We have been saved
from the sins of this world by our faith in the righteousness of God.
This is why we must work harder to spread the gospel, even as it become
more difficult to live in this world. We have the duty to give the
gospel to those who have not heard it yet.
God
said, “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed
the knee to Baal” (Romans 11:4). There are still so many in this world
who need to receive the gospel of the water and the Spirit. So many
souls, whether pastors’, theologians’, or the laymen’s, are rising up.
That
we are able to work for the gospel is because of the love of Christ. We
still have so much work to do, and at times we feel overwhelmed by
them. But we should be more faithful and spread the gospel even more
diligently as we face more difficulties. This is the heart of Christ. I
pray that you, a righteous, do not think of only yourself. If you think
of only yourself, there is no need for faith or prayers because you are
just trying to live for yourself and have nothing to do with the lost
souls. But if you have to earn your wages to support yourself and other
souls as well, what would happen? You would pray to God for help because
you are weak.
This is how our faith and prayers grow. This is why God says,
“There is one who scatters, yet increases more;
And there is one who withholds more than is right,
But it leads to poverty” (Proverbs 11:24).
Sharing
the gospel of the water and the Spirit with others is the most
righteous life of Christians. A spiritual life is one that spreads the
true gospel that leads people to Christ. Let us look after our neighbors
and their souls and spread the gospel throughout the entire world. May
the blessing of God’s righteousness always be with you.
Hallelujah!
Let us praise our Lord! I thank Him for allowing us to do His righteous
and good works, and for delivering us from the power of the darkness
and leading us into the Kingdom of the Son.
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