Rescue the perishing

The first stanza and chorus of Hymns, #921 say, "Rescue the perishing, / Care for the dying, / Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave; / Weep o'er the erring one, / Lift up the fallen, / Tell them of Jesus the mighty to save. / Rescue the perishing, / Care for the dying; / Jesus is merciful, / Jesus will save." As long as we are willing to open our homes, prepare the best refreshments, and invite our relatives and friends to come, they surely will be saved. This is the best way to preach the gospel. I hope that from now on, every saint would open his home for the preaching of the gospel, and every saint's home would be a gospel station for the preaching of the gospel once a week or at least once every two weeks.

In order to save sinners, we have to visit people where they are (Luke 10:1-6). We have to visit people to disciple them. The Lord told us in Matthew 28:19 to go and disciple the nations, baptizing them into the Triune God. There are many debates among Christians concerning the way to baptize people, but we need to see that when we baptize people, we are baptizing them into the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The name denotes the person, so we are immersing people into the very person of the Triune God.

We may preach the gospel and baptize people according to our natural thought and concept. Hymn #921 in our hymnal says:

Rescue the perishing,
Care for the dying;
Jesus is merciful,
Jesus will save.

"Rescue the perishing, / Care for the dying, / Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave; / Weep o'er the erring one, / Lift up the fallen, / Tell them of Jesus the mighty to save. / Rescue the perishing, / Care for the dying; / Jesus is merciful, / Jesus will save" (Hymns, #921, stanza 1 and chorus). The elders should take the lead to rescue the perishing. From now on, the elders will not sit in the offices in the meeting halls, but they will go door-knocking every day. One experience of door-knocking is different from another; there is little value when a careless person goes door-knocking, but there is much value when a dignified and noble person goes door-knocking. Therefore, it is weightier when the elders go door-knocking. According to what the Bible says, elders should not be "as lording it over your allotments but by becoming patterns of the flock" (1 Pet. 5:3). To this end, the elders should be the first to go door-knocking to be the patterns of the flock.

A blind American sister, Fanny Crosby, wrote the hymn, "Rescue the perishing, care for the dying" (Hymns, #921). That hymn really inspires me. But for you to sing this hymn is only thunder without rain. You only sing; you do not go out to rescue anyone. The Jehovah's Witnesses have the patience to spend over six thousand hours to get one person. We have the pure gospel, the highest gospel, yet we do not have the increase because we do not go out to get it with patience and faith. You must go out. In one week you may gain nothing. In one month you may gain nothing. But by the end of one year, you will gain one, at least one drop of rain. Yet this is not too little. You have to treasure this one. It is good that the Lord has given us a new start. As priests of the gospel, we all have to go out and practice our New Testament priesthood.

In our preaching of the gospel, we must have a revelation of Christ. Without such a revelation, our gospel preaching will persuade people merely to join a religion and believe in some teachings. There is a hymn that says, "Rescue the perishing, / Care for the dying, / Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave; / Weep o'er the erring one, / Lift up the fallen, / Tell them of Jesus the mighty to save" (Hymns, #921). We cannot say that this hymn is wrong, but we need to remember that our gospel preaching is not merely to rescue sinners; rather, it is to dispense the Christ whom we have seen to others. If we do not have a revelation, a vision, of Christ, our preaching will persuade others only to join a religion and believe in some teachings. Without revelation, we cannot cause others to see Christ; without vision, we cannot dispense Christ into others. When we preach the gospel, we must have a revelation; we must be like Paul, who received revelation from God and then announced Christ among the Gentiles.

In this chapter we will consider the matter of being fervent for the gospel by preaching in the homes and by spreading through migration. There are several hymns in our hymnal that stir up and encourage us to preach the gospel. For example, Hymns, #921 is a simple and effective hymn. Stanza 1 and the chorus say, "Rescue the perishing, / Care for the dying, / Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave; / Weep o'er the erring one, / Lift up the fallen, / Tell them of Jesus the mighty to save. / Rescue the perishing, / Care for the dying; / Jesus is merciful, / Jesus will save." This hymn was written by an American sister, Fanny J. Crosby.

We need to learn to be crazy and thick-skinned because we were not born this way. Before we go to a campus, we need to have an adequate time of prayer to pray ourselves into the spirit. After we pray thoroughly, we will be crazy. Our spirit will be burning, and our skin will be thickened. We also need to sing hymns in a released way. We can sing short gospel songs, such as "Rescue the perishing" (Hymns, #921) and then "You've fallen into sins" (Chinese Hymns, #715). "Rescue the perishing" is concerning our need to preach the gospel, and "You've fallen into sins" is about the sinner's need to be saved. Furthermore, we should be expressive when we sing the hymns, especially the gospel hymns. "Rescue the perishing" should be sung with a strong voice. "You've fallen into sins" should be sung softly, but the chorus—"He longs to save you! / He's waiting for you! / Won't you let Him save you / While it's today?"—should be sung with a strong voice.

A sinner's repentance is significant to God. We should not think that it does not matter whether or not we lead a person to salvation. Whenever a person is saved, there is a record before God. If we do not lead anyone to salvation, we will suffer loss instead of receiving a reward. Therefore, we need to rise up and preach the gospel to save people. Hymns, #921 says, "Rescue the perishing, / Care for the dying, / Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave; / Weep o'er the erring one, / Lift up the fallen, / Tell them of Jesus the mighty to save. / Rescue the perishing, / Care for the dying; / Jesus is merciful, / Jesus will save." After singing the hymns in a thorough way, we need to begin to take action and go forth to preach the gospel. The fire of the gospel needs to be kindled, and everyone needs to pick up this burden.

During those years, the fire of the gospel was indeed burning among us. However, we did not reach the stage of going out and compelling people. In Luke 14:23 the Lord Jesus told us that to go out and bring people in, we even need to go to the roads and hedges and compel people. According to the original Greek, to compel people means to force people. The Lord said, "Go out into the roads and hedges and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled." Our burden is to teach you how to compel others. The Lord Jesus spoke of our need to compel others.

In verse 23 the Lord said that we should compel people to come in. Then in verse 26 He said, "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate." These two matters spoken of in Luke 14 are quite harsh. First, we have to go out and compel people to believe in the Lord. Second, after they believe, they have to "hate." Seemingly, this is against what Christianity teaches about being kind, loving, and broad, but this is indeed the Lord's word. Not only do we have to hate our parents and our wife, we also have to hate our self. The teaching of the Lord Jesus' is quite particular. Hymns #664 in Chinese says, "Rise up quickly and preach the gospel!" But the Lord's word goes even further; He wants us to rise up quickly and compel people. The secret to preaching the gospel is to have a zealous heart, to be crazy. A person who is crazy does not care for himself. Forty years ago I was crazy whenever I preached the gospel. However, I was not crazy to the extent of compelling others. For this reason, I feel that I am still indebted to the gospel.

Our main impression concerning the Gospel of Luke is that it is a sweet gospel. It tells us that the Lord Jesus is a good shepherd who is full of compassion. In His tender love He looks for us, He embraces and bears us, and He brings us back to His flock (15:1-7). This Gospel also tells us that the Lord is a good Samaritan. We are wounded and on the verge of death, but He binds our wounds and pours oil and wine on them (10:25-35). However, we never saw the matter that the Lord Jesus wants us to go and compel others, nor did we see that the Lord wants us to hate.

In Adam we were sentenced by God to die, to perish in the lake of fire forever (Heb. 9:27; John 3:16b; Rev. 21:8). This is man's destiny. This is why we need to give up the world and spend our time to preach the gospel to rescue fallen man from the lake of fire. Fanny Crosby, a sister who lived in the last century, wrote many hymns. One of these hymns (Hymns, #921) is concerning rescuing the perishing sinners. The first stanza and chorus of this hymn say:

Rescue the perishing,
Care for the dying,
Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave;
Weep o'er the erring one,
Lift up the fallen,
Tell them of Jesus the mighty to save.
Rescue the perishing,
Care for the dying;
Jesus is merciful,
Jesus will save.

We should be inspired by this matter. All the people on this earth are busy doing many things, but eventually they will perish. We need to have a heart to rescue the perishing, to care for the dying.

Hymns, #921 was written by Fanny Crosby, an American sister who was blind.