5 Soul Winners Reward By Charles Spurgeon
Soul Winners Reward:
On my way to this meeting, I noticed a huge REWARD posted on the police station’s noticeboard for anyone who can find and prosecute the perpetrators of a great crime. Our policymakers know that the promise of a large reward is the only incentive for assassins’ comrades. Even if mounds of riches are provided, few can be persuaded to stand in for the typical informer, since he receives so much disdain and hatred. It is a poor business at best.
#1 More Rewarding To Bring Men To Christ
It is far more pleasant to recall that bringing men to mercy comes with a bigger reward than bringing them to justice; it is also much more practical. We can’t all catch criminals, but we can save the perishing. Thankfully, assassins and burglars are rare, but sinners needing to be sought and saved are everywhere. There is room for everyone, and no one should feel excluded from the gifts that love gives to those who serve her.
Not Mercenary Motive
Some would prick up their ears and whisper “legality” at the idea of REWARD. But the prize we talk of is one of grace, not debt, and it is received with grateful delight rather than proud conceit.
“Is not this a low and mercenary motive?” some will sneer.
We respond it is as mercenary as Moses’ spirit, who “had respect unto the recompense of the reward.” To be allowed to save our fellow men from falling into the pit is a grace from the Lord; and if we fail, then the Lord would say, as He did of David’s, “It was well that it was in thine heart.” Even if the souls we seek continue to reject and insult us, it will be a heavenly work to have at least tried. Even if the cloud does not rain, it has hidden the sun’s rays, so all is not lost. “How often would I have gathered you, but ye would not!” To be permitted to stand on the same platform as Jesus and mourn alongside Him is sublime. We are better for it if no one else is. But, thank God, our efforts are not in vain. I believe that most of you who have truly sought to bring others to Jesus by the Holy Spirit, Scripture, and prayer have been effective.
Find Out The Reasons For Our Failure
If I am speaking to a few who have failed, I would advise them to review their motive, spirit, work, and prayer, and then restart. Perhaps they may get to work more wisely, more believingly, more humbly, and more in the power of the Holy Spirit. They must act as farmers who re-plow after a poor harvest. They ought not to be dispirited, but they ought to be aroused. We should be anxious to find out the reason for failure if there be any, and we should be ready to learn from all our fellow-laborers; but we must steadfastly set our faces, if by any means we may save some, resolving that whatever happens, we will leave no stone unturned to effect the salvation of those around us. How can we stand to leave the world without sheaves to rejoice with? I believe most of us gathered here to pray have succeeded beyond our expectations. God has blessed us beyond our hopes.
Mercy Of God In Our Work
I have often been surprised at the mercy of God to myself. Poor sermons of mine, that I could cry over when I get home, have led scores to the cross; and, more wonderful still, words that I have spoken in ordinary conversation, mere chance sentences, as men call them, have been as winged arrows from God, and have pierced men’s hearts, and laid them wounded at Jesus’ feet.
“How can God bless such a feeble instrumentality?” I’ve frequently wondered. Most addicts to the blessed craft of fishing for men feel this way, and the desire for such success is as pure as the Saviour’s reason when He endured the cross, despising the disgrace. Does Job serve God for naught? If he could have answered the question affirmatively, if it could have been showing that the flawless and honest man found no reward in his holy living, Satan would have chastised God’s justice and advised men to abandon such an unprofitable service.
Righteous Are Rewarded, Pursuit Of Grace Yields Rewards
The righteous are rewarded, and the pursuit of grace yields rewards of incalculable value. When we endeavor to lead men to God, we pursue a business far more profitable than the pearl-diving fisher’s or the diamond-searching. hunter’s No pursuit of mortal men is to be compared with that of soul-winning. I know what I say when I bid you think of it as men think of entering the cabinet of the nation or occupying a throne; it is a royal business, and they are true kings who follow it successfully.
#2 Part Of The Reward Is In The Work
The harvest of godly service is not yet: “we do with patience wait for it;” but we have earnests of our wage, refreshing pledges of that which is laid up in heaven for us. Part of the reward is in the work. Men go hunting and shooting for the sport; surely we may hunt for men’s souls for the enjoyment of our benevolence. To some of us, seeing men go to hell and not trying to save them would be painful. Having a release for our interior fires is a benefit for us. Shutting us out of those sacred acts aimed at plucking fire-brands from the flame is a source of grief and weariness for us. We feel deeply for our brethren, and their sin is our sin, their peril our peril.
“If another loses the way, My feet also go astray; If another goes downward go, In my heart is also woe.”
It is thus a relief to proclaim the gospel, so that we may be saved from that sympathetic agony that echoes the crash of soul-ruin in our hearts.
#3 Significant Benefit To Those Who Consecrates Himself To It
Soul-winning is a service that brings significant benefit to the individual who consecrates himself to it. The man who has watched for a soul, prayed for it, laid his plans for it, spoken with much trembling, and endeavored to make an impression, has been educating himself by the effort. He has called out to God more fervently, has tried again, has sought up the promise to meet the case of the convicted one, has turned to that part of the divine nature that appears most likely to stimulate faltering faith,—he has benefited himself at every step. When he has gone over the old, old story of the cross to the weeping penitent, and has at last gripped the hand of one who could say,—”I believe, I will believe, that Jesus died for me; ” I say he has had a reward in the process through which his own mind has gone.
It has reminded him of his own lost estate; it has shown him the struggles that the Spirit had in bringing him to repentance; it has reminded him of that precious moment when he first looked to Jesus, and it has strengthened him in his firm confidence that Christ will save men. When we see Jesus save another, and see that marvelous transfiguration that passes over the face of the saved one, our own faith is confirmed. Skeptics and modern-thought men have little to do with converts: those who labor for conversions believe in conversions; those who behold the processes of regeneration see a miracle wrought, and are certain that “this is the finger of God.” Spending your time attempting to bring another to the feet of the loving Redeemer is the most delightful workout for a soul, the most heavenly ennobling of the heart. You might thank God that He ever called you to service as comforting, strengthening, uplifting, and confirming as converting others from their sinful ways if it ended there.
#4 Thanks, And Affection Of People You Bring To Christ
The thanks and affection of people you bring to Christ is another priceless reward. The delight of sharing another’s joy, the joy of knowing that you have brought a person to Jesus, is a choice blessing. Measure the sweetness of this reward by comparing it to the bitterness of its direct opposite.
Compare It To The Bitterness Of Its Direct Opposite
Many people have come to faith in Jesus because of men of God, and all has gone well in the church until the good man’s age or changing customs have sent him into the shadows, and the minister’s own spiritual children have been happy to cast him out. The cruelest slash of all came from those who owed him their souls. “I could have borne it, had not the persons that I brought to the Saviour have turned against me.” he groaned, his heart wounded.
I’m familiar with pangs. I’ll never forget a particular household where the Lord gave me the immense satisfaction of bringing four employers and several people who worked for them to the feet of Jesus. Those who had before known nothing of God’s grace were joyous confessors of the faith, snatched from the uttermost carelessness of worldliness. After a while, they picked up on certain opinions that differed from ours, and from then on, some of them just had harsh words for me and my teaching. I had done my best to teach them everything I knew about the truth, and if they had studied more than I had, they might have remembered where they got the fundamentals of the faith. It’s been years, and I’ve spoken nothing like this before, but the wound still hurts. I merely mention these prickly thorns to emphasize how pleasant it is to have those whom you have brought to the Saviour around you.
Spiritual Kinship Is An Even Deeper Love
A mother delights in her children because natural relationships are marked by intense love; but spiritual kinship is marked by an even deeper love, one that lasts throughout life and will continue in eternity, for even in heaven each servant of the Lord will say, “Here am I, and the children whom Thou have given me.” They will neither marry nor be given in marriage in our God’s city, but fatherhood and brothers in Christ will endure. Grace has built lovely and blessed links that last forever, and spiritual relationships are developed rather than dissolved by translation to a better land.
If you want true joy, the kind that you can think about and sleep on, I am convinced that no joy of becoming wealthy, no joy of increasing knowledge, no joy of exercising influence over your fellow creatures, no joy of any kind can ever compare to the rapture of saving a soul from death and helping in the restoration of our lost brethren to our great Father’s house. Talk about a ten-thousand-pound reward! It is nothing; one might easily spend that sum, but one cannot exhaust the indescribable pleasures derived from the gratitude of souls converted from their sins.
#5 Please God And Bring Him Joy
The greatest reward, however, comes from pleasing God and leading the Redeemer to feel the agony of His soul. It is worthy of the Eternal Father that Jesus receives His reward; it is wonderful that we should be used by the Father to purchase Christ’s agonies. This is a wonder of wonders! This is an honor too great for thee, my soul! A joy that defies description!
Please pay attention and respond to me, my friends. What would you sacrifice to make the heart of the Well-beloved swell with joy? Do you not want to make Him happy? Remember the grief you caused Him and the pangs that ran through His body as He prayed for you to be delivered from your sin and its consequences.
You bring Him joy, and it is no small joy when you bring others to His feet.
“There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repents” isn’t it a lovely text? What exactly does that imply? Does this imply that the angels are happy? We read it so, but it is not the intent of the verse. “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God,” it says, implying that there is joy in God’s heart, around whose throne the angels stand. What is this joy that angels enjoy seeing? Is it possible for the blessed God to be more joyful than He already is? This is a wonderful language! If God’s boundless happiness cannot be enhanced, it is more brightly exhibited. Is it possible for us to play a role in this? Is there anything we can do to make the Ever-Blessed glad? Yes, since we are taught that the great Father is overjoyed when His dead prodigal son comes back to life and the lost one is found.
If I could say this as I ought to say it, it would make every Christian cry out, “Then I will labor to bring souls to the Saviour; ” and it would make those of us who have brought many to Jesus instant, in season and out of season, to bring more to Him.
It’s a great pleasure to perform kindness for an earthly friend, but it’s far better to be doing something specifically for Jesus, something that will be the most acceptable of all things in the world to Him! It is a good work to build a meeting-house, and give it outright to the cause of God if it is done with a right motive; but one living stone, built upon the sure foundation by our instrumentality, will give the Master more pleasure than if we erected a vast pile of natural stones, which might only cumber the ground.
Then go my friends, and attempt to bring your children, neighbors, friends, and relatives to the Saviour’s feet, for nothing will bring him more joy than seeing them turn to Him and live. I implore you to become fishermen because of your love for Jesus.
This article is an edited version of the article “The Soul Winner’s Reward” 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.
