Christ the Savior is just the One you need

In 1 Corinthians 14:26 Paul says, "Whenever you come together, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation." Teaching is the word of a teacher, and revelation is the word of a prophet. We may wonder what are psalms. In the early church meetings, psalms were not only sung but also spoken. Ephesians 5:19 says, "Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs." Some psalms include the gospel, prophesying, and teaching. The chorus of Hymns, #1024 says, "You need Jesus! You need Jesus! / Men and women all need Him!" This is purely a word of the gospel. Stanza 1 says, "Christ the Savior is just the One you need,/ He's God incarnate, as a man indeed;/ In His body He suffered every pain/ And died to cleanse your every stain,/ So you need Jesus!" This has the flavor of prophesying. In the Chinese version of this hymn, there is a sixth stanza, which literally says, "People in the world, wise and foolish, men and women, old and young, have all sinned and are all short of the glory of God; there is no way to be saved other than believing in Jesus, because only Jesus can satisfy the needs of God and man." This is good teaching. Therefore, this hymn contains gospel preaching, prophesying, and teaching.

Stanza 6 is added:

6. Every person, regardless of what sort,
Has sinned and of God's glory fallen short.
He can save you; there's no one else who can.
To meet the need of God and man,
Yes, you need Jesus!

In 1940 the Lord led us to begin the practice of the church preaching the gospel. Before this time the most we had baptized after preaching the gospel was forty people. However, when we began to use the Chinese New Year to have the whole church preach the gospel in Chefoo, we began to baptize more than a hundred at a time, and this situation continued for several months. As a result, in the spring of that year several hundred were brought in, and this further brought in the great revival in Chefoo in 1942. However, it was truly difficult for these newly saved ones to sing, appreciate, and understand the hymns concerning the cross and spiritual warfare. Thus, I felt that for the sake of these newly saved ones and some young people, we needed to write some hymns with more common lyrics and simple tunes. Because no one worked on this at the time, I wrote a few short songs myself, such as "You need Jesus! You need Jesus! / Men and women all need Him!" (Hymns, #1024). Later, we published a gospel hymnal in Shanghai.

Stanza 4 of Hymns, #1024 says, "In your living there is a lack you sense, I And thru the years it grows the more intense; / Only Jesus this need can satisfy; I All vanity He will defy, / So you need Jesus!" Jesus is the living God, the living Spirit; once you believe into Him, He will enter into your spirit. As a result, your spirit will have con-tent, and your needs will be satisfied. Before I was saved, I attended school and worked as an accountant. I worked hard for the entire year and received a bonus at the end of the year. Although I was happy at the moment, after I went home and thought about it, I wondered what was the meaning of all this. There was indeed no inward satisfaction. Then one day I heard the gospel, called on the name of the Lord, and believed that the Lord Jesus is the real and living God. Once this living God, the living Spirit, entered into me, I began to have God as my content. As a result, my spirit was satisfied, and my heart was at peace.

I also compiled some gospel songs, including "You Need Jesus!" (Hymns, #1024) and "Vanity! Vanity!" (Hymns, #1080). When I was in Foochow, Brother Nee made changes to these. Afterward, they were published in Shanghai. Because I felt that the content should be expanded and polished further, I spoke with him about gospel songs and asked him to polish them.

God is our spiritual sunlight, food, and drink. When we do not have Him, we have the inner sense of darkness, hunger, thirst, emptiness, and dissatisfaction. God is also life to us; without Him we are dead and depressed. We are neither lively nor fresh and are without vitality.

In summary, without God, man is in darkness and is hungry, thirsty, and disappointed. Without God, man's life will not be proper, families will neither be happy nor on the right track, and society will become chaotic and disorderly. However, those who have God will be in the light and will be proper persons; families that have God will be happy, satisfied, and on the right track; and a society that has God will be peaceful, harmonious, and glorious. Therefore, every person, every family, and every society needs God. Without Jesus, who is God, everything is a chasing after wind. With Jesus, a vain human life will become meaningful, a family will become sweet and perfect, and society will be full of harmony.

Hymns, #1024 says, "You need Jesus! You need Jesus! / Men and women all need Him! / To escape from vanity, / To obtain reality, / To make life significant, / Yes, you need Jesus!" If we have Jesus, our human life will not be empty but full of satisfaction because He is what we need, and He is the One in whom we can trust. With Him we have everything. If we receive Him, our life of vanity will turn into a song.

Hymns are the best weapon in preaching the gospel. A man's mind is harder than his heart, and changing his mind is more difficult than touching his heart. Hymns are the best tool for touching a man's heart. We have many gospel hymns, and we should learn them one by one so that we can sing and declare them all the time. For example, Hymns, #1024 speaks of our need for Jesus, and Hymns, #1080 speaks of the vanity of everything. We should learn these hymns, and we can write them on paper and put them up in the house, or we can make note cards and place them on the dining table. Then when people come to our house, we can sing these hymns with them.

Today we have things that people did not have thirty years ago, such as tape recorders and other audio devices. We can make good use of them to play gospel hymns at home. We can give tapes to those who drive to work, and we can play songs to those who ride with us to work. In the office, if circumstances allow, we can play music for people during our break times. We should make good use of every opportunity. People may oppose us if we preach the gospel, but no one will oppose us if we sing hymns. Singing hymns will sow the seed of the gospel into people, little by little. We should not only use the Bible verses in a flexible way but also use the hymns in a flexible way. The effective preaching of the gospel depends on our flexibility. We need to spread the gospel through big meetings and small groups, through contacting people and making phone calls, and through tracts and tape recorders. After we have done all these things, some results will gradually be manifested.

In relation to preaching the gospel, there are two categories of hymns that we should be familiar with. The first category is gospel hymns, and the second is hymns on the assurance of salvation. We have many gospel hymns. Hymns, #1080 was written using the thought of the book of Ecclesiastes. There is also #1024, which we used in the gospel marches that we had in the early days in Taiwan. When we sing a gospel hymn, we should not be too concerned about the music; otherwise, we will lose the flavor of the hymn. Instead, we should express the feeling of the hymn.

God said to David, "I will raise up your seed after you, which will come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom" (v. 12). Here "your seed" refers to Christ and "his kingdom" refers to Christ's kingdom. In His response to David's desire to build God a house, God in a sense came in to stop David by indicating that before David could do something for God, he needed God to do something for him.

Whenever we would think to do something for God, God within us would tell us that we are short of something. Our shortage is Christ. We all need Christ. At this point I would ask you to consider some lines from a hymn that speaks of how much we need Christ (Hymns, #1024):

You need Jesus! You need Jesus!
Men and women all need Him!
For redemption you need Him,
For salvation you need Him!
And for everlasting life,
Yes, you need Jesus!

We need more and more of Jesus; we can never get enough of Him. We are short of Christ, God's Son. We need God to make His Son our seed; that is, we need Christ as our heritage and our treasure.

The way to worship in the New Testament is for all of us to use our spirit. Before we attend a meeting, we are a worshipper of God already. Every morning we have a revival, and every day, in our daily living, we are constantly renewed and overcoming and are in constant touch and fellowship with the Lord. In addition, our lives are filled with hymns. Hymns, #501 and #1068 or a more simple one such as #1024 are hymns that I like to sing. They are all very good songs. We can learn to sing them often in our daily lives.