Providence Baptist Church
1599 E. Township Line Road
Plainfield, IN 46168
Pastor: Wayne Walker
What is the real winning of a soul for God?
From THE SOUL WINNER by C.H. Spurgeon
What is the real winning of a soul for
God? So far as this is done by instrumentality, what are the processes by which
a soul is led to God and to salvation? I take it that one of its main operations
consists in instructing a man that he may know the truth of God.
Instruction by the gospel is the commencement of all real work upon men's minds.
"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all
things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto
the end of the world." Teaching begins the work, and crowns it, too.
The gospel,
according to Isaiah, is, "Incline your ear, and come unto Me: hear, and your
soul shall live." It is ours, then, to give men something worth their hearing;
in fact, to instruct them. We are sent to evangelize, or to preach the gospel to
every creature; and that is not done unless we teach them the great truths of
revelation. The gospel is good news. To listen to some preachers, you would
imagine that the gospel was a pinch of sacred snuff to make them wake up, or a
bottle of ardent spirits to excite their brains. It is nothing of the kind; it
is news, there is information in it, there is instruction in it concerning
matters which men need to know, and statements in it calculated to bless those
who hear it. It is not a magical incantation, or a charm, whose force consists
in a collection of sounds; it is a revelation of facts and truths which require
knowledge and belief. The gospel is a reasonable system, and it appeals to men's
understanding; it is a matter for thought and consideration, and it appeals to
the conscience and the reflecting powers. Hence, if we do not teach men
something, we may shout, "Believe! Believe! Believe!" but what are they
to believe? Each exhortation requires a corresponding instruction, or it will
mean nothing. "Escape!" From what? This requires for its answer the
doctrine of the punishment of sin. "Fly!" But whither? Then must you
preach Christ, and His wounds; yea, and the clear doctrine of atonement by
sacrifice. "Repent!" Of what? Here you must answer such questions as,
What is sin? What is the evil of sin? What are the consequences of sin ? "Be
converted!" But what is it to be converted? By what power can we be
converted? What from? What to? The field of instruction is wide if men are to be
made to know the truth which saves. "That the soul be without knowledge, it is
not good," and it is ours as the Lord's instruments to make men so to know the
truth that they may believe it, and feel its power. We are not to try and save
men in the dark, but in the power of the Holy Ghost we are to seek to turn them
from darkness to light.
And, do not
believe, dear friends, that when you go into revival meetings, or special
evangelistic services, you are to leave out the doctrines of the gospel; for you
ought then to proclaim the doctrines of grace rather more than less. Teach
gospel doctrines clearly, affectionately, simply, and plainly, and especially
those truths which have a present and practical bearing upon man's condition and
God's grace. Some enthusiasts would seem to have imbibed the notion that, as
soon as a minister addresses the unconverted, he should deliberately contradict
his usual doctrinal discourses, because it is supposed that there will be no
conversions if he preaches the whole counsel of God. It just comes to this,
brethren, it is supposed that we are to conceal truth, and utter a
half-falsehood, in order to save souls. We are to speak the truth to God's
people because they will not hear anything else; but we are to wheedle sinners
into faith by exaggerating one part of truth, and hiding the rest until a more
convenient season. This is a strange theory, and yet many endorse it. According
to them, we may preach the redemption of a chosen number to God's people, but
universal redemption must be our doctrine when we speak with the outside world;
we are to tell believers that salvation is all of grace, but sinners are to be
spoken with as if they were to save themselves; we are to inform Christians that
God the Holy Spirit alone can convert, but when we talk with the unsaved, the
Holy Ghost is scarcely to be named. We have not so learned Christ. Thus others
have done; let them be our beacons, and not our examples. He who sent us to win
souls neither permits us to invent false-hoods, nor to suppress truth. His work
can be done without such suspicious methods.
Perhaps some
of you will reply, "But, still, God has blessed half-statements and wild
assertions." Be not quite so sure. I venture to assert that God does not bless
falsehood; He may bless the truth which is mixed up with error; but much more of
blessing would have come if the preaching had been more in accordance with His
own Word. I cannot admit that the Lord blesses evangelistic Jesuitism, and the
suppression of truth is not too harshly named when I so describe it. The
withholding of the doctrine of the total depravity of man has wrought serious
mischief to many who have listened to a certain kind of preaching. These people
do not get a true healing because they do not know the disease under which they
are suffering; they are never truly clothed because nothing is done towards
stripping them. In many ministries, there is not enough of probing the heart and
arousing the conscience by the revelation of man's alienation from God, and by
the declaration of the selfishness and the wickedness of such a state. Men need
to be told that, except divine grace shall bring them out of their enmity to
God, they must eternally perish; and they must be reminded of the sovereignty of
God, that He is not obliged to bring them out of this state, that He would be
right and just if He left them in such a condition, that they have no merit to
plead before Him, and no claims upon Him, but that if they are to be saved, it
must be by grace, and by grace alone. The preacher's work is to throw sinners
down in utter helplessness, that they may be compelled to look up to Him who
alone can help them.
To try to
win a soul for Christ by keeping that soul in ignorance of any truth, is
contrary to the mind of the Spirit; and to endeavour to save men by mere
claptrap, or excitement, or oratorical display, is as foolish as to hope to hold
an angel with bird-lime, or lure a star with music. The best attraction is the
gospel in its purity. The weapon with which the Lord conquers men is the truth
as it is in Jesus. The gospel will be found equal to every emergency; an arrow
which can pierce the hardest heart, a balm which will heal the deadliest wound.
Preach it, and preach nothing else. Rely implicitly upon the old, old gospel.
You need no other nets when you fish for men; those your Master has given you
are strong enough for the great fishes, and have meshes fine enough to hold the
little ones. Spread these nets and no others, and you need not fear the
fulfilment of His Word, "I will make you fishers of men."