Latest / Reformed Thinking / How to Win Souls for Christ | Charles Spurgeon

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How to Win Souls for Christ | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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Usually when you look at a medical issue, you expect a very
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high degree of precision. Right.
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It's highly mechanical. Yeah, it's.
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Mechanical. I mean, if you break your arm,
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the doctor takes an X-ray, they pull up that film, they point
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right at the jagged white line in the bone, and they say, well,
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there's the problem. The diagnosis is completely
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binary. The bone is broken or it isn't.
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And the treatment plan is just a straight line.
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We apply a cast, we wait six weeks and the bone knits itself
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back together. It's visible.
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Right. It's visible, it's categorized
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and it's fixable, and we find an immense amount of comfort in
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that. Oh absolutely, for we like
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problems we can fix with the right tools and a bit of time.
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But when you step into the realm of spiritual reality, that
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entire X-ray machine just becomes useless.
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We are looking at a diagnostic landscape that is completely
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alien to our natural way of thinking.
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Yeah, you're no longer looking at a broken bone that needs a
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splint. You are looking at a flat line.
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And treating a flat line requires a totally different
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approach than setting a fracture.
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Welcome to Reformed Thinking. I'm glad you're joining us.
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Today we are taking a deep dive into some truly arresting source
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material. We really are.
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We're looking at an excerpt from a text by the 19th century
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British preacher Charles Spurgeon, specifically a piece
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called The Soul Winner. And to set the context for
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Spurgeon originally delivered these words as an address to a
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group of preachers. Right, he was speaking to men
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who stood in pulpits every Sunday trying to reach their
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congregations. But the principles he lays out
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apply to any believer who has ever felt the desire to share
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their faith with someone else. So our objective for this deep
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dive is to investigate the actual mechanics of conversion,
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according to Spurgeon. We want to understand how divine
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sovereignty interacts with human responsibility when it comes to
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saving souls. Yeah, we are going to examine
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the theology behind his approach.
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You know the internal attitude required of the individual
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sharing their faith. And the highly practical field
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tactics he advocates for actually reaching people.
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But before we get into the details, I really want you to
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pause and consider your own approach to sharing your
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beliefs. It's a good diagnostic question.
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It is when you talk to someone about your faith, what is your
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actual expectation? Do you rely on your own clever
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arguments to win them over? Right.
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Are you trying to debate them into intellectual agreement,
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hoping that if you just present the right logical syllogism they
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will concede? Or do you actually expect a
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divine miracle to take place right there in that
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conversation? That is the tension we are going
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to unpack today, so let's start by looking at this core idea
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Spurgeon presents right at the beginning.
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He defines what it means to actually win a soul, and he
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starts by clarifying what it is not.
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Yeah, and what stands out here is how directly he confronts the
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cultural assumptions of his own era.
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The Victorian period was an era of immense societal reform.
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Very much so. Many people believed that
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humanity was on an upward trajectory of moral improvement.
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They assumed that if you just provided the right education,
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the right environment, and while the right moral instruction, you
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could coax out the inherent goodness in people.
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But Spurgeon attacks that premise head on.
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He states that winning a soul is not about evolving the good that
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is already inside a person. He.
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Uses a very specific, very earthy 19th century phrase.
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He says human manhood is as full of sin as an egg is full of
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meat. That phrase just stopped me in
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my tracks. An egg full of meat.
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I mean, when you crack an egg, there is no empty space inside
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the shell. Right, the albumin and the yoke
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take up every single millimeter of the interior.
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The egg is entirely filled with its contents.
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So Spurgeon is saying human nature is entirely filled with
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sin. There is no pristine, untouched
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core of goodness hiding in the center, waiting to be
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discovered. He says the old creature is dead
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and corrupt and it must be buried.
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The sooner the better. Which completely undercuts the
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idea of spiritual evolution. You can't evolve something that
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is dead. No, you can't.
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If you attempt the process of evolving the natural human
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state, Spurgeon warns that you will only develop devils.
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The result of evolving sin is just everlasting mischief.
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Therefore, the goal isn't rehabilitation.
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You aren't running a rehab Center for people who have made
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a few bad choices. The goal is resurrection.
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But I have to push back on this though just slightly.
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Go ahead. I think many people listening
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might have the exact same reaction I did when reading this
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section. OK, what's that?
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Well, Spurgeon talks specifically about the
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temperance movement of his day. Right.
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The temperance movement was a massive social push to eliminate
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alcohol abuse. Because it was causing horrific
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poverty, domestic violence and societal decay in 19th century
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London. Yes, it was a massive issue.
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So Spurgeon says that if a preacher somehow managed to turn
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an entire city into total abstainers, meaning people who
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completely gave up alcohol and lived highly moral lives but
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left them as unbelievers, the preacher should consider his
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work a failure, right? Wait a minute, If you make a
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city full of temperate, law abiding moral people, if crime
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drops to 0, if domestic violence disappears, isn't that a massive
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victory for society? You would think.
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So why in the world would you consider that a failure?
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Don't we care about human flourishing?
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That is the natural reaction, and it makes perfect sense from
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a sociological perspective. Yeah, from a pure numbers game,
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it looks like a win. But if we connect this to the
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bigger picture of Spurgeon's theology, the answer becomes
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really clear. He absolutely acknowledges that
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moral improvement is a good thing for society.
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Right. He isn't saying he wants people
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to stay in poverty or addiction. He explicitly states it's good
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that a city is cleansed of its vices.
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But he draws a sharp, impenetrable line between
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societal benefit and spiritual reality.
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He uses a chilling metaphor to explain this distinction.
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He says it's good that even a corpse should be clean.
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The clean corpse is still a corpse.
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That is a heavy image. It is heavy, but it clarifies
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the entire diagnostic landscape we talked about earlier.
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A highly moral, temperate, polite unbeliever is, in a
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spiritual sense, a clean corpse. They aren't causing trouble in
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the city, they aren't committing crimes, they aren't wreaking in
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the nostrils of society, but they are still completely dead
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in sin. They have a no spiritual life.
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So the objective of the gospel is not a moral patchwork, it is
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a radical cure. The dead in sin must be
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quickened to life. And that requires a totally new
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nature imparted by God, not an amendment or a polishing of the
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old nature. If you spend your whole life
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just cleaning up corpses, you might have a very tidy
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graveyard, but you still have a grieve.
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You haven't actually solved the core issue.
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Spot on. And that's why Spurgeon calls it
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a failure for a minister. If a minister's singular calling
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is to be an instrument of resurrection, but they settle
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for being an instrument of behavior modification, they have
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failed their primary mandate. So if the goal is raising the
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dead rather than simply coaching the living to be better
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citizens, then the method used to achieve this has to match the
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immense scale of the task. Yeah, if you are dealing with a
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flat line patient, you do not bring in a life coach to give
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them a pep talk about adopting better habits.
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You bring out the defibrillator. Which brings us directly to the
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core methods Spurgeon insists upon.
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It is what he calls the miraculous method.
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He points straight to the historical account in the Gospel
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of John where Jesus raises Lazarus from the tomb.
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Lazarus had been dead for days. The biblical text notes that his
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body was already decaying and smelling.
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And Jesus stood outside that grave and commanded Lazarus come
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forth. Spurgeon says ministers are sent
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to do the exact same thing. They are sent to command blind
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eyes to see, deaf ears to hear, and dead hearts to live.
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Let's linger on this Lazarus analogy, because the
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implications are staggering. Put yourself in that position.
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It sounds like standing in the middle of a literal cemetery,
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facing a row of granite tombstones and commanding the
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stones to start singing. It completely defies all.
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From a rational standpoint, why would anyone tell people to
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repent and believe if those people lack the natural capacity
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to do so? If they are dead, their ears
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don't work, they can't hear you. This raises A vital theological
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question, and Spurgeon tackles it without flinching.
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He admits that some of his own peers felt they should lower
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their expectations to match the spiritual capacity of the
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listener. They thought it was absurd to
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command a person to do something they naturally could not do.
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They wanted to soften the message, to ask people to just
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take a small step, to just try a little harder.
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But Spurgeon says his reply to that logic is a confession.
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He commands men to repent and believe, knowing full well they
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can do nothing of the kind apart from divine grace.
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Why? Because he isn't sent to work
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according to his own private reasoning.
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He is operating according to the orders of his master.
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He is just the messenger delivering the summons.
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It isn't his job to figure out how the dead man is going to
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hear the summons. The command itself carries the
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divine energy required to fulfill it.
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That is the crucial mechanism. When Christ said Lazarus come
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forth, the words themselves carried the life giving force
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that allowed the dead man to obey.
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The method relies entirely on the Holy Ghost acting through
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the spoken word. The person speaking is just an
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earthen vessel. It isn't about the speaker's
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innate capability, it's about proving what the Almighty Lord
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can accomplish through a fragile, ordinary instrument.
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The miracle happens in the hearing.
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Here is where it gets incredibly practical.
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If the results depend entirely on a divine miracle rather than
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human capability, it completely changes the way you speak.
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Spurgeon gives a stark warning against relying on flowery,
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oratory or pretty poetical paragraphs.
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He says that if you think you are going to win souls by being
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eloquent, you're totally mistaken.
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He points back to the Apostle Paul to illustrate this.
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Paul was a highly educated man. He was fully capable of matching
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the rhetoric of the Greek philosophers in Athens or
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Corinth. He knew how to craft an argument
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that would impress the intellectuals of his day.
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But he intentionally laid that skill aside.
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He refused to use the wisdom of words.
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Why? Because he feared that relying
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on rhetorical brilliance would make the cross of Christ of none
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effect. Spurgeon argues that relying on
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mere oratory will only create sham and shame in the long run.
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Let's impact that phrase. Sham and shame.
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What actually happens psychologically when someone is
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emotionally manipulated by a beautiful speech?
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In the Victorian era, going to hear a great orator was a form
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of entertainment. A skilled speaker could play a
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crowd like a piano. They could tell a sad story,
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lower their voice, use the right pacing, and have everyone in the
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room weeping. And people might make a decision
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based on that atmosphere or the speaker's charisma.
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But if there is no actual miracle, if there's no new
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nature imparted by the Holy Spirit, it's a sham conversion.
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The person just had an emotional reaction to a performance.
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And the shame comes later, when that emotional high wears off.
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And the person realizes their core nature hasn't changed at
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all. They go right back to their old
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life, but now they're inoculated against the truth because they
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think they already tried it and it didn't stick.
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Spurgeon says the gospel itself does the work in the hands of
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the Holy Spirit. You have to present the truth so
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clearly and so plainly that the listeners only notice the
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intrinsic value of the truth, rather than noticing how
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beautifully you delivered it. If they walk away saying what a
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brilliant speaker, you failed. If they walk away saying what a
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terrifying and beautiful truth, you succeeded.
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That leads directly into the next phase of his argument.
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Because the results depend totally on divine action working
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through a person rather than the person's own rhetorical skills,
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the internal state of that person, the vessel itself,
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becomes the critical factor. You can't manufacture the
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miracle. You can't force a resurrection.
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But you can ensure you are the kind of instrument the master
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actually uses. He brings up the story of Samson
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from the Old Testament to drive this home.
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Samson was a man of immense physical might, capable of
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tearing a lion apart with his bare hands.
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But when his hair was cut, which represented his consecration and
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his vow to God, he was entirely useless.
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The Philistines just laughed at him, gouged out his eyes, and
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put him to work grinding grain. Spurgeon says a vessel must be
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clean and dwelling in clear light to be filled with heavenly
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treasure. You have to look carefully to
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your own condition before God. You can't expect to be used for
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a miracle if your walk is not close with the eternal.
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To clarify what this clean vessel looks like in the real
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world, Spurgeon divides the role of the soul winner into three
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specific categories. The witness, the pleader, and
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the example. Let's look at the first one, the
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witness. Spurgeon uses a courtroom
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analogy here, which I found brilliant because it simplifies
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the task so much. He says we are called to stand
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up and testify for the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Now Spurgeon admits he never had the privilege of being cross
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examined by a hostile lawyer in a real court.
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He imagined that if he were put in the witness box, his strategy
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would be incredibly simple. He would not try to display his
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win or outsmart the devil's barristers.
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This is a massive relief for anyone who feels intimidated by
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the prospect of sharing their faith.
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When a person is trying to talk to an unbeliever, they often
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feel they need to have an airtight philosophical answer
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for every single objection. They get worried about being
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bamboozled by aggressive arguments or stumbling over a
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complex question about ancient history or the problem of evil.
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What is the best defense against that kind of intellectual
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bullying? Spurgeon says the absolute best
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defense is straightforward honesty based entirely on your
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own personal knowledge. He says a witty answer might
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make you look smart for a second, but a gracious answer is
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far superior. If an interrupter tries to drag
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you into a debate about a theological nuance you don't
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understand, you simply decline the invitation.
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You say I am only here to testify to what I have seen and
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heard. You don't have to defend the
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entire encyclopedia of theology, you just have to testify to your
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own reality. He emphasizes that the witness
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must actually possess the salvation they're talking about.
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You can't testify to a traffic accident you didn't see.
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You can't testify to a spiritual reality you haven't experienced.
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He makes a striking statement. He says I have no private
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lifeboat. The arc to which I invite others
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holds myself. I really want to hold on to that
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image. It's a great one.
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It strips away all the arrogance that sometimes infects religious
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conversations. You aren't standing on a
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pristine dry dock yelling instructions at drowning people,
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telling them to swim better, or criticizing their stroke
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technique. You are a person who is
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drowning. You are pulled into a lifeboat
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by someone else. And now you are simply leaning
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over the edge, holding out a hand and saying, this boat holds
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me and it will hold you too. You are risking your own life on
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the exact same truth you're offering them.
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It is a posture of profound humility.
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Now if we move from the witness to the second category, the
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pleader, we see a shift in tone. The witness deals primarily with
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facts. The pleader deals with the
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heart. Spurgeon insists on a massive
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emotional investment. He notes that a block of ice
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cannot plead a case for a man on trial for his life.
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Think about that. If your lawyer is standing in
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front of the jury, reading from a script in a monotone voice,
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showing absolutely zero emotion while the judge is about to
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sentence you to the gallows, you would be furious.
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You would want a lawyer who is desperate, who is sweating, who
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is pleading for your life as if it were their own.
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If the stakes are life and death, the tone of the speaker
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has to match the gravity of the situation.
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Spurgeon says if a speaker is not in downright earnest, they
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might as well go to bed. To achieve that level of
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earnestness, Spurgeon identifies 2 required motivations.
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Love and fear. First, you must possess genuine
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love for the listener. You have to consider yourself
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one of. Them, if they are lost sinners,
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you must bring to mind that you were exactly the same.
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You aren't a superior species. Grace alone makes the
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difference. And the second motivation is
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fear. This is something modern culture
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pushes back again entirely. We do not like talking about
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fear. Spurgeon references the biblical
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figure Noah. The text says Noah built the ark
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because he was moved with fear. Spurgeon argues that possessing
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A genuine fear for the eternal state of others is what creates
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true prevailing persuasion. He says the preacher must have a
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vision of the world on fire. Knowing the terror of the Lord
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is what teaches a person to persuade rather than to speak
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harshly. We need to unpack that
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distinction carefully. Some people use the terrors of
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judgment to threaten and abuse their audience.
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They stand on street corners with megaphones yelling at
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people, trying to scare them into submission.
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That is not what Spurgeon is advocating.
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He says the terror should drive you to weep over them, to beg
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them to escape to the mountain. A shadow of the final judgment
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must fall upon your own spirit so that your message carries the
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unmistakable accent of conviction.
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You must be appalled by the sight of a crowd feeling the
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massive weight of responsibility for their souls.
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It's a fear that produces compassion, not abuse.
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Which flows seamlessly into the third category, the example.
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It isn't enough to witness to the facts.
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Yeah, it isn't enough to plead with genuine emotional
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earnestness. Your actual life has to back up
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every word you say. Spurgeon introduces this
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fascinating concept of the decoy duck.
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It's an old trapping method used by hunters.
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They use a trained duck, the decoy that voluntarily enters
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the net. The wild ducks fly overhead.
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They look down and they see the decoy go in safely.
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They assume the area is secure, so they follow the decoy right
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into the trap. Spurgeon says Christians need to
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use the holy art of the decoy Our.
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Example of living a godly life. Our quiet submission during a
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time of intense personal trouble.
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Our steady joy when circumstances are bleak.
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These things draw people toward the truth far more effectively
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than words alone ever could. The wild ducks are watching us.
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He shares a story to illustrate what happens when the decoy is
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broken, and it's both humorous and completely sobering.
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He talks about an open air St. preacher named Jack.
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Jack is out there on the pavement preaching his heart
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out, telling everyone to repent and live peacefully.
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And suddenly a guy in the crowd yells out, Jack, you dare not
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preach like that at your own door.
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As it turned out, Jack had offered to get into a physical
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fist fight with his neighbor just a few days prior.
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That completely shatters the credibility of the message.
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The entire crowd instantly knows the man is a hypocrite.
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Spurgeon notes that if a person's home life is unworthy,
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they should travel several miles away before they start
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preaching, and even then, they should probably just stay
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silent. The crowd knows far more about
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our private lives than we imagine.
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Our neighbors see how we treat our spouses, how we handle our
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finances, how we react when someone cuts us off in traffic.
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Our lips and our life must agree.
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Consistency is the most potent aspect of any ministry.
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So we have this picture of the clean vessel, an honest witness
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testifying to what they know, an earnest pleader weeping over the
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reality of eternity, and a consistent example whose life
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acts as a holy decoy. But Spurgeon doesn't stop there.
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He makes it very clear that this clean vessel is never meant to
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operate in isolation. This brings us to the hidden
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Army collaboration and intercession.
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Spoden offers strong, pointed advice against operating in
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solitude. He warns those who try to be
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lone wolves in their faith. The lone wolf mentality is
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highly romanticized in our culture.
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The single hero standing against the tide.
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But Spurgeon says an open air preacher who goes out quite
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alone is in a very unfortunate position.
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They need a living church behind them, or at the very least a
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band of half a dozen friends to back them up, stand with them
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and pray for them while they speak.
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He gives a few incredible anecdotes to show what this
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backing actually looks like in practice.
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He talks about a Deacon in his own church named William Only.
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Only once stood in front of the congregation during a difficult
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period and said. If our pastor brings us up to a
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ditch which looks as if it could not be passed, let us fill it up
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with our bodies and carry him across.
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Imagine having that kind of support.
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A community so dedicated to the mission that they're willing to
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lay down their own lives, their energy, and their reputations to
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ensure the message gets across the obstacle.
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That is the kind of camaraderie that double SA person's
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strength. The speaker knows they aren't
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dangling on a wire alone. They have an entire network
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holding the net below them. And it isn't always that
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dramatic or life threatening. Sometimes the support is quiet,
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highly practical and requires a lot of humility.
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I laughed out loud at the story Spurgeon tells about the wife
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who corrected her husband's grammar.
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This man genuinely wanted to preach.
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He had the zeal, but he had a habit of saying things like we
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was and us did it. His wife had a better education,
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and she gently hinted that people might laugh at him if he
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didn't fix his language. She knew that bad grammar would
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become a stumbling block for the listeners, distracting them from
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the actual gospel. Spurgeon says she became as
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informal professor of the English language, and she was
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worth her weight in gold. It shows the immense value of
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having someone close to you who loves you enough to tell you the
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truth, even when it is slightly embarrassing.
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And it shows the humility required by the speaker to
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accept that correction instead of getting defensive.
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I completely I agree, but the most striking example Spurgeon
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gives about this hidden army is the monkish story.
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I was completely floored by the story of the deaf old man.
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Explain the mechanics of what happens in that narrative.
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It's a beautiful piece of extrapolation regarding the
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invisible economy of the Church. Spurgeon recounts an old legend
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about a highly successful preacher who had won many souls.
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This preacher was reflecting on his career, essentially
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congratulating himself on his massive success and his
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rhetorical brilliance. But one night he had a dream
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where an Angel revealed that on the final judgement day, the
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preacher would receive none of the credit for those
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conversions. The preacher was shocked and
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asked the Angel who would get the credit.
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The Angel pointed to a deaf old man who always sat on the pulpit
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stairs. Because the man was deaf, he
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couldn't hear a single word of the sermon, so he just sat there
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and prayed silently the entire time the preacher was speaking.
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The Angel said the conversions were actually the result of the
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deaf man's intercession, not the preacher's eloquence.
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It's a stunning reversal of how we typically assign credit.
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We are so visual. The guy with the microphone
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standing under the stage lights gets all the applause.
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We assume he is the one doing the work.
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But the spiritual reality is completely different.
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The actual engine driving the miracle is the unseen
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intercession happening in the background.
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Spurgeon connects this to the biblical story of Lot to show
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how much weight prayer carries. Abraham prayed massive, weighty,
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beautifully articulated prayers for the city of Sodom, but it
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was still destroyed. Yet his nephew Lot, who's
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Spurgeon humorously says had barely 1/2 ounce of prayer in
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him, managed to pray and save the tiny city of Zohar.
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It shows how even the tiniest fragments of intercession from
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believers can tip the scales of eternity.
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The Spirit of God will bless too, when he might not bless one
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acting alone. With that foundation laid, we
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can move into the final phase of Spurgeon's instruction.
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If you have the correct theological goal in mind.
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If you are relying on the miraculous method of the word
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rather than your own persuasion, if you are maintaining a clean
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life as a vessel, and if you are backed by a praying community,
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you are finally ready to deploy specific field tactics.
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This is where the rubber meets the road.
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Spurgeon lists the relentless work ethic required for this
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task. He tells the preachers to
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preach, preach. He uses the old phrase cobbler
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stick to your last. Meaning, do what you are called
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to do and don't get distracted. Don't.
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Sideline the gospel for fine music, elaborate church
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decorations, or entertaining religious exhibitions.
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Keep the main thing the main thing.
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But there is a fascinating dynamic here.
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Spurgeon heavily advocates for mass preaching.
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He himself preached to thousands of people at the Metropolitan
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Tabernacle every week. But he doesn't believe mass
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preaching is sufficient on its own.
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Wait, let's pause right there. If preaching the gospel to the
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masses is the miraculous method, why do we need anything else?
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If the spoken word is what raises the dead, why not just
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build a bigger stage, install a louder sound system, broadcast
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it on television and leave it at that?
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Why bother with anything smaller?
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Spurgeon uses a brilliant military analogy to answer that
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exact question. He says the pulpit is like
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firing great guns or heavy artillery.
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It makes a loud noise, it covers a wide area, and it certainly
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does execution. But a lot of the targets are
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missed because the fire is broad.
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In general, it's indiscriminate. To win the battle, the army
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needs sharp shooters. These are the individuals doing
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personal one-on-one follow up. They take the general truth and
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apply it directly to the specific individual.
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He shares a story about a man in his own congregation that
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illustrates this sharpshooter concept perfectly.
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This guy is standing in the aisle talking to Spurgeon on a
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Monday night, right in the middle of a sentence.
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And suddenly the guy just vanishes.
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He walks away without a word. Spartan is left standing there,
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confused. He looks around the massive
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auditorium and eventually spots the man up in the gallery,
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sitting next to a woman he doesn't even know.
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The man had noticed a gleam of sunlight hit her face, and in
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that brief flash of light, he saw that she looked incredibly
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sad. He immediately abandoned his
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conversation with the famous pastor to go sit with a stranger
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who looked heavy hearted. He spoke with her privately, she
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received the truth, and then he immediately noticed a young man
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nearby with an eager face, and he went after him too.
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He prayed with both of them, right there in the gallery.
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That is being on the alert, that is sharpshooting.
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Taking the general truth that was fired from the pulpit and
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bringing it down to the singular individual level.
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The man wasn't concerned with social etiquette, he was
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concerned with her soul. As Burgeon says, we need to
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learn how to carry the weight of these individual souls.
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He shares a profoundly physical anecdote to explain this
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invisible spiritual concept. He talks about a pastor who is
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visiting a hospital late at night.
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Suddenly a young boy ran in saying there had been a terrible
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railway accident nearby and they needed a stretcher immediately.
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The doctor asked the pastor to take one end of the stretcher
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and they ran out into the night down to the station and
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physically carried a broken, bleeding man back to the
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hospital. Just imagine the physical
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sensation of that, the dead weight of an unconscious human
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body. The strain on your shoulders,
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your hands slipping, feeling every of the path as you try to
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keep the man steady. The pastor said he continued to
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visit that man for weeks afterward specifically because
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he had felt the physical weight of him on that stretcher.
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He felt personally invested in the man's survival.
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Spurgeon maps that perfectly onto the emotional strain of
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carrying a soul. When you sit down and talk to
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someone privately, when you truly listen to their fears,
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their doubts, and their sins, you begin to feel the weight of
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their soul on your own heart. Their name becomes engraved on
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your spirit. You can't just casually walk
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away from someone once you have carried their stretcher.
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You are tied to them. To aid in this highly personal
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work, Spurgeon suggests a few very practical tools.
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He mentions using good striking tracks, though he humorously
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notes that some tracks are so boring and poorly written they
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would not convert a beetle. You can't just hand out dry
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theological textbooks. You have to use material that
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actually engages the mind and the imagination.
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He also strongly advocates for visiting people in their homes,
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meeting them where they live. And letter writing.
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I found this fascinating. He says some people have a
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superstitious reverence for a letter.
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In a world where everything is spoken and forgotten, a
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handwritten note arriving in the mail might hit the exact mark
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that a public sermon missed. A person can read a letter in
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private without the pressure of an audience.
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They can read it multiple times. It's also a way for people who
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might be naturally timid or anxious in face to face
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conversation to speak very plainly and boldly with their
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pens. He undergirds all these tactics,
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the preaching, the sharpshooting, the tracks, the
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letters, with a massive, unyielding sense of urgency.
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He shares a tragic story of a young man who was on his
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deathbed. The dying man looked up at his
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brother, who was a Christian, and asked how he could have been
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so indifferent to his soul all these years.
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The brother protested, getting defensive, saying he had
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frequently spoken to him about his beliefs in the gospel.
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But the dying man replied. Yes, you spoke.
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But somehow I think if you would remember that I was going down
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to hell, you would have been more earnest with me.
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You would have wept over me. And you would have wept over me.
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That is a devastating critique of casual Christianity.
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It exposes the absolute worst kind of hypocrisy.
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We can offer all the correct theological facts, We can have
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perfect doctrine. We can win the debate.
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But if we delivered those facts with the emotional intensity of
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reading a grocery list, the listener subconsciously assumes
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we don't actually believe what we are saying.
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If you tell someone their house is on fire while yawning and
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checking your watch, they are not going to run for the exit.
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So if we pull all the way back and look at the whole picture
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we've examined today, Spurgeon's thesis is completely unified.
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The task of sharing your faith is not an exercise in moral
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improvement. It isn't an intellectual debate
29:26
aimed at winning an argument. It is participation in a
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miraculous resurrection. It requires recognizing that
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humanity is dead and sin and needs a completely new nature
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imparted by the Holy Spirit. To participate in that miracle,
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the worker must be a clean vessel.
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You have to be a first hand witness, speaking honest truth
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about what you have experienced. You must be a pleader, operating
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with white heat, earnestness fueled by genuine love for the
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person and a healthy, terrifying fear of eternity.
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And you must be a consistent example whose private life
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matches their public lips. You can't do it alone, you must
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be backed by a praying community that intercedes for the work in
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the background. And finally, you have to employ
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both the broad declaration of the truth and the sharpshooting
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tactics of private individual conversation, willing to carry
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the heavy emotional weight of people's souls on your heart.
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As we wrap up this deep dive, there is one final provocative
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thought Spurgeon leaves us with. He talks about the historical
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figure Hannibal, the ancient Carthaginian general who
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famously crossed the Alps with his army, including war
30:31
elephant, to attack Rome. Legend says that as Hannibal was
30:34
crossing the mountains, he encountered massive impassable
30:38
boulders blocking his path. So what did he do?
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He built massive fires to heat the rocks to blistering
30:44
temperatures and then poured harsh vinegar over.
30:47
Them the extreme temperature shift and the chemical reaction
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caused the solid stones to shatter, clearing the path so
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his army could pass. Spurgeon uses this historical
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legend to make a striking point about zeal.
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He says that true burning zeal will always invent its his own
31:01
methods. He notes that people in polite
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society might look at a highly earnest person and criticize
31:07
them. They might call their methods
31:09
pranks and performances, or dismiss them as oddities.
31:12
But Spurgeon says you have to let a great storm rage in its
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own way. Real white heat earnestness is
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what the world actually needs, and it will find a way to
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dissolve the rocky hearts of men, even if the method looks
31:24
strange, foolish, or undignified to the bystanders standing on
31:28
the sidelines. So here's the question I want to
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leave you with looking at our highly polished, reputation
31:34
obsessed modern society. Are we too afraid of looking
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foolish or odd to be genuinely useful instruments?
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We spend so much time curating our image, trying to look
31:44
respectable, trying to ensure no one thinks we are weird.
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Does our fear of being judged by the crowd outweigh our fear for
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the crowd's eternal state? If we're truly relying on a
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miracle, we have to be willing to look like fools standing in a
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graveyard speaking to the stones.
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We aren't pointing at an X-ray trying to set up a broken bone.
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We are standing over a flat line waiting on the Almighty Lord to
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provide a radical cure. Carry that tension with you into
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your daily interactions. Thanks for joining us on
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Reformed Thinking. We will catch you on the next
32:12
deep dive.