Why Is It Wise To Win Souls By Charles Spurgeon
Why Is It Wise To Win Souls
Spurgeon lists five reasons why a person is wise if he chooses to be our Lord’s instrument for soul winning.
#1 Wise In Ordinary Aspect
“He that wins souls is wise,” as seen clearly. He must be a wise man in even ordinary respects who can, by grace, achieve so divine a marvel. Great soul-winners never have been fools.
A man who has been qualified by God to gain souls could probably achieve anything else that providence may assign to him.
Consider Martin Luther. He could have controlled a nation or commanded an army! Think of Whitefield’s booming eloquence, and recall that he was a master-orator, and if he had been a merchant or a politician, he would have commanded the listening ear among admiring senates.
A man who wins souls could have done anything else if God had called him to it. If you say David slew Goliath with a sling, I say it was the best weapon in the universe to reach such a tall monster, and the fittest weapon David could have used because he had been proficient in it from his boyhood. Although the glory and excellence in them belong to God, there is a fit and preparedness that God sees, even if we do not.
Soul-winners are unquestionably not idiots or simpletons, but those whom God makes wise for Himself, even if vain-glorious wise-acres may call them fools.
#2 He Choses Well
“He that wins souls is wise,” because he chose well.
I believe Michael Angelo made amazing snow statues. They vanished; the cold compressed and melted the material. He was far wiser when he sculpted the eternal marble and created things that will endure. But even marble gets devoured by time’s tooth, thus it is good to use everlasting souls as raw material.
If God blesses us to win souls, our labor will endure long after the earth’s art and science have rotted away to dust. The soul-winner, blessed by God, will have his work immortalized in the heavenly galleries.
Choosing a wise goal, what could be wiser than glorifying God and blessing our fellow men; rescuing an immortal from the thralldom of Satan and bringing him into the liberty of Christ? What’s better?
I believe that such an ambition would appeal to all right-thinking people and that angels themselves could envy us poor sons of men for being allowed to make it our life’s goal to win souls for Jesus Christ. Wisdom herself acknowledges the design’s excellence.
#3 Demand Infinite Wisdom
To win a soul demands infinite wisdom. Since the eternal plan of redemption was dictated by an infallible judgment, every line shows infinite wisdom. Christ, God’s great Soul-Winner, is “God’s wisdom and power.” The new creature has as much wisdom as the old. Seeing God in a redeemed sinner is like seeing God in a newly formed world; so we who are to join God in the tremendous effort of soul-winning must be wise as well. It is a work that moved the Eternal Jehovah’s mind and filled the Saviour’s heart. It is not a game to be played while half asleep, nor should it be undertaken without careful preparation, nor should it be carried out without the gracious help of the one wise God, our Saviour. It is a wise pursuit.
#4 Thrill Of Heavenly Joy
Mark well, my brethren, that whoever is successful in soul-winning will be judged wise in the eyes of those who see both the beginning and the end. Even if I were completely selfish and only cared about my happiness, I would choose to be a soul-winner if I had the chance, because I had never known perfect, overflowing, unutterable happiness of the purest and most ennobling order until I first heard of someone who had sought and found a Saviour through my means.
I recollect the thrill of joy that went through me! No young mother or warrior has ever been happier than a first-born kid or a hard-won triumph. Oh, the delight of knowing that a sinner formerly estranged from God has been reconciled by the Holy Spirit via our feeble lips.
Since then, with God’s mercy, I’ve seen and heard of hundreds, if not thousands, of sinners changed from their ways by my testimony. No matter how many hardships and trials God sends our way, this delight will always outweigh all others: the joy that as we preach the Word, hearts are opened, bosoms heave with new life, eyes weep for sin, and their tears are wiped away as they behold the great Substitute for sin, and live.
#5 Eternal Joy Beyond Human Existence
Beyond all debate, winning souls is a delight worth worlds, and, thank God, it is a joy that lasts beyond this human existence. It must be a great joy to hear the wings of others fluttering at one’s side towards the same glory, and turning around and questioning them, to hear them say, “We are entering with you through the gates of pearl, you brought us to the Saviour,” and to be welcomed to the skies by those who call us father in God,—father in better bonds than those who call us father in the flesh.
Meeting in yon eternal seats with those begotten of us in Christ Jesus, for whom we toiled in birth until Christ was formed in them, the hope of glory, will be bliss beyond comparison; this is to have many heavens,—heaven in every one won for Christ, according to the Master’s promise, “they that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever.”
Be A Soul Winner!
I hope I have made some of you want to be soul-winners, but before I go on to my text, let me remind you that the honor does not belong only to ministers; they may take their full share, but it belongs to all of you who have committed yourselves to Christ: it belongs to all the saints. Every man, woman, and child here who has a pure heart may be a soul-winner.
God’s providence places no man where he cannot do good. There is no laboring man, suffering woman, servant girl, chimney sweeper, or crossing sweeper who does not have some opportunity to serve God; and everything I have said about soul-winners belongs not only to the learned doctor of divinity, or the eloquent preacher but to you all who are in Christ Jesus. If grace allows, every one of you can be wise and win the joy of bringing others to Christ through the Holy Spirit.
“I shall, first, make that fact stand out a little clearer by explaining the metaphor used in the text—winning souls; and then, second, by giving you some lessons in the matter of soul-winning, through which I trust the conviction will be forced upon each believing mind that the work requires the highest wisdom.”
This article is an edited version of the article “Soul-Winning Explained” 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.
