9 Hindrance To Soul Winning By Charles Spurgeon
Hindrance to soul winning:
Spurgeon discusses 9 of them in this articles
#1 Sinners’ indifference and lethargy
There are many, and I cannot list them all. The first, and maybe the most difficult, is sinners’ indifference and lethargy.
There are some people who seem to have a religious instinct, which affects them positively, long before they have any genuine passion for spiritual matters.
But indifference prevails in certain areas, notably rural areas, and in London.
It’s not infidelity; the folks don’t even care about religion.
They don’t care what you preach or where you preach because they have no interest in it.
They have no regard for God, His worship, or His name.
I’ve observed that places with minimal commercial activity are bad for religious effort.
When the blacks of Jamaica were unemployed, the churches were poor. I could point to areas nearby where business is slow and little good is being done. There are locations all along the Thames Valley where a man might preach his heart out and kill himself; yet, there is little or no good done in such areas, just as there is no active business activity.
Be Doubly Earnest
So, my dear brother, what do you do when you encounter indifference among your own people, and even among your own deacons?
The only way to overcome that is to be doubly earnest. Keep your own zeal alive, fervent, flaming, and all-consuming. Stir up the people, and if all else fails, flame and burn, and if that doesn’t work, go where the Lord leads you.
This indifference or lethargy that some men possess is prone to corrupt our preaching, but we must fight against it, and endeavor to awaken both ourselves and our hearers.
I prefer a man who is adamantly opposed to the gospel to one who is apathetic.
You can’t accomplish anything with a man who won’t talk about religion or come hear you speak about God. You may as well call him a devout infidel, a blasphemous leviathan squirming out from your grasp.
#2 Unbelief
Unbelief is another major roadblock.
You know that the Lord Jesus did not do many tremendous deeds in His own country because of their unbelief. It occurs in all unregenerate souls, although it is more prominent in some persons. They consider religion but do not believe in the God we preach to them. Their opinion is to them more weighty, more worthy of belief, than God’s inspired declarations; they will accept nothing that is revealed in the Scriptures. People like these are hard to persuade, but don’t battle them with their own weapons. I don’t think arguments ever win over unbelievers, or if they do, it’s rare.
Be Holy and Sincere
Men are persuaded of the existence of religion by the holiness and sincerity of Christ’s disciples. They usually wall their minds against rationality, thus debating with them frequently causes more harm than good. Most likely, while attempting to help them, we will teach infidelity to others who are unaware of such things, and their first exposure to some heresies will be through our lips. Our attempt to refute the mistake may have tainted many young minds with doubt. I think that your faith, and your actions based on that belief, will do more good than any argument, no matter how persuasive.
Every Sabbath, a friend sits to hear me.
“What do you think?” he said one day, “you are my only link with better things; but you are an awful man in my estimation, for you have not the slightest sympathy with me.”
“No, I have not; or, rather, I have not the least sympathy with your unbelief,” I answered.
“That makes me cling to you, for I fear I shall always remain as I am; but when I see your calm faith, and perceive how God blesses you in exercising it, and know what you accomplish through the power of that faith, I say to myself, ‘Jack, you are a fool.’”
“You are quite right in that verdict; and the sooner you come to my way of thinking, the better, for nobody can be a bigger fool than the man who does not believe in God.”
I expect him to be converted one day; we are often at odds, but I never respond to his arguments. He was once told by me, “If you believe I am a liar, you are free to think so if you like; but I testify what I know, and state what I have seen, and tasted, and handled, and felt, and you ought to believe my testimony, for I have no object to serve in deceiving you.”
That man would have defeated me if I had used rational paper pellets. So, combat disbelief with belief, deception with truth, and never trim and pare down the gospel to meet man’s follies and whims.
#3 Fatal Delay
A third obstacle in the way of winning souls is that fatal delay that men so often make. I’m not sure whether this evil isn’t more widespread and destructive than the indifference, lethargy, and unbelief about which I’ve spoken.
“Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee,” Felix said to Paul. Such a person enters the border territory, appears to be within a few steps of Emmanuel’s land, and yet he diverts our home-thrusts by saying, “Yes, I will think the matter over, it shall not be long before I decide.”
There’s nothing like pressing men to make a quick decision and answer this critical question. It doesn’t matter whether people criticize your teaching; preaching God’s word is always correct.
#4 Canal Security
This brings me to another impediment to soul-winning, namely carnal security.
Many folks believe they are safe. They have not checked the foundation on which they are built, but they believe all is fine. If they are not good Christians, they may at least argue that they are better than some Christians or others who claim to be Christians. If there is anything wanting in them, they can add the final touch at any moment and make themselves fit for God’s presence. So they have no fear; or, if they have, they do not live in continual fear of eternal destruction from the presence of the Lord and His glory unless they repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We should thunder all day and night against these individuals. Let us make it clear to them that the unbelieving sinner is already “condemned already” and that if he does not trust in Christ, he will perish eternally.
We must teach such that every sinner trembles in his seat, and if he does not come to Christ, he must suffer while he is away from Him.
I’m concerned we preach too softly, too soothingly, and don’t warn men of their real danger. If we fail to declare all of God’s counsel, we bear at least some of the blame for their death.
#5 Despair
Despair is another roadblock.
The pendulum swings back and forth, and the man who had no fear yesterday now has no hope. Thousands have heard the gospel, but doubt its force will ever be exerted on them. Maybe they were raised believing that salvation was all God’s work, and thus they believe they will be saved.
You realize this teaching includes a tremendous truth, but it is a dreadful untruth if it is left alone, without qualification.
It is fatalism, not predestination, that makes men talk as if there is nothing whatever for them to do, or that there is nothing they can do.
Nobody will be saved while he says, “If salvation is for me, it will come to me in due time.”
When you have spoken everything you can, they will stay as though cased in steel, with no sense of responsibility, since their spirit is not aroused.
Thank you for your kind words. Preach full and free salvation to everyone who trusts in Jesus so we can reach them. So that some who are silently despairing may pluck up heart and hope, and risk to come to Christ.
#6 Love of Sin
A significant obstacle to soul-winning is the love of sin.
“Sin lieth at the door.” Many men are never saved because of secret lust. Maybe they are living in fornication?
I recall a man who I felt would surely come to Christ. However, I discovered he had been entangled with a lady who was not his wife and was still living in sin while pretending to seek the Saviour. So, whatever warmth of heart he may have had, there was always this woman holding him in the bondage of sin.
Some men engage in dishonest commercial practices; you will not see them saved. They can’t be saved if they keep cheating. Others drink excessively.
However, as long as a man clings to “the cup of devils”, he will not be likely to come to Christ. Others struggle with a hidden sin or lust. Others claim they can’t stop becoming drunk, while others lament their inability to find peace. The crux of the problem is a harlot who stands in their way. In all instances, we need simply proclaim the truth, and God will help us aim the arrow at the sinner’s harness joint.
#7 Self-Righteousness
Men’s self-righteousness is another hindrance. They haven’t sinned, they’ve observed all the rules since they were little.
A full heart has no place for Christ, and a man dressed in his own righteousness has no need of Christ’s righteousness; at least, he is unaware of it, and if the gospel does not persuade him, Moses must come with the law and reveal to him his true situation. Because he is unaware that he is a fallen creature, he does not sense the need for divine mercy or forgiveness, and so does not seek it.
#8 Worldliness
Again, some people are so worldly that nothing we say has any influence on them.
This worldliness manifests itself in two ways in the poor: it is the consequence of crushing poverty, and it is the effect of grinding poverty in the rich. When a man is hungry, has no clothing, and is at home listening to his children cry and seeing his overworked wife, we must preach beautifully to catch his attention and make him think about the future. “What shall we eat? What shall we drink? And wherewithal shall we be clothed?” are questions that press heavily upon the poor. To a hungry man, Christ is attractive with a loaf of bread. When our Lord broke the bread and fish for the multitude, He did so because He did not shun feeding the hungry; and when we may ease the needs of the poor, we may do a necessary thing for them, and placing them in a position where they might hear the gospel of Christ with profit.
The other sort of worldliness results from having too much of this world or at least making too much of it. The gentleman must be stylish, his girls must be well-dressed, and his sons must learn to dance. Our Nonconformist churches have suffered much from this kind of worldliness.
Then there’s the man who works away at the shop from morning to night; his whole profession appears to be putting up and taking down shutters; he’ll get up early, stay up late, and eat the bread of caution in order to make money. What can we do for these covetous people? How can we possibly expect to get out to the folks whose sole goal is to become wealthy, the people who scrape by on halfpennies and farthings?
Economy is fine, but certain economies become frugal, and these frugal people grow used to it. Some will even go to the chapel to attract clients and to be seen as respectable. Even in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, Judas remained unconverted, and there are still some whose ears are so filled with silver that they cannot hear the gospel.
#9 Men’s Habits, Resorts, And Company
I’d like to add one more obstacle to soul-winning: certain men’s habits, resorts, and company. How can we expect a worker to come home and spend the evening in the only place he has to live in? There may be two or three screaming children, drying laundry, and other sources of pain. What would you do if you were in his shoes? Wouldn’t you go some places if you weren’t Christian? You can’t wander the streets, but you know there’s a warm pub room with a gaslight, or a gin palace around the corner, with lots of jolly companions.
Now, you can’t expect to save men when they’re in such settings, with such people.
All the good that they receive from the hymns they heard on the Sabbath has driven away as they listen to the comic songs in the drink shop, and all remembrance of the services of the sanctuary is obliterated by the very questionable tales that are told in the bar-parlor. As a result, having a location where working-men may come and sit in safety, or having a Blue Ribbon meeting, a gathering where there may not be all-singing, preaching, or prayer, but there are these things, is wonderful mercy. He has two rooms, or perhaps a little cottage so that his wife can dry the linen in the backyard, and now he finds the baby does not cry as much as he used to, perhaps because his mother has more to give him, and everything gets better and nicer.
I think a Christian minister is quite justified in using all right and lawful means to wean the people from their evil associations, and it may be well sometimes to do that which seems to be extraordinary if we can by any means win men to the Lord Jesus Christ.
That must be our one aim in all that we do; and whatever obstacles may be in our pathway, we must seek the aid of the Holy Spirit that they may be removed, and that thus souls may be saved, and God may be glorified.
This article is an edited version of the article “Obstacles To Soul Winning” from Charles Spurgeon’s book “The Soul Winner”. Check out our related posts for more information on this topic, or get a copy of the book from Amazon.
