The Soul Winner (Updated, Annotated): How to Lead Sinners to the Saviour

by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Instead, soul winning means bringing souls to Christ rather than making converts to our assembly.

Sheep-stealers beyond the walls of the church are not acting in a brotherly fashion. Concerning these, I will say nothing except that they are not brethren, and they must stand or fall before their own Master. However, we think it reveals an absolute lack of excellence of any kind to build up our own house with the ruins of our neighbors’ mansions. Instead, we prefer to quarry for ourselves.

The increase of God’s kingdom should be desired more than the growth of a sect.

We long to bring men to Christ and not to our own peculiar views of Christianity. Our first concern must be that the sheep are gathered to the great Shepherd. Afterwards, we will have enough time to secure them for our various folds.

The church is the body of Christ and introducing unconverted persons into the church weakens and degrades it.

If there is a clear decrease among a growing population, you may suppose that the prayers of the people and the preaching of the minister are not of the most powerful kind.

So, when the Spirit of God moves and men’s minds are stirred, there will be certain visible signs of the movement. However, these signs must never be confused with the movement itself.

And as the Lord’s instruments, it is our responsibility to bring men the truth. So they may know it, believe it, and feel its power. We are not to try and save men by our own efforts. In the power of the Holy Spirit, we are to seek to turn them from darkness to light.

Secondly, to win a soul it is necessary, not only to instruct our hearer and make him know the truth, but to impress him so that he may feel it.

We have seen such a ministry limp along with a long doctrinal leg but a very short emotional leg.

And a wise minister only excites painful emotions in men’s minds with the distinct object of blessing their souls. You and I must continue to drive at men’s hearts till they are broken. Then we must keep on preaching Christ crucified till their hearts are committed. When this is accomplished, we must continue to proclaim the gospel till their whole nature is brought into subjection to the gospel of Christ.

One of the first effects of the new life as it enters the heart is intense inward pain in regards to sin. However, nowadays, we hear of people being healed before they have been wounded, and being brought into a certainty of justification without ever having lamented their condemnation.

God never clothes men until He has first stripped them, nor does He make them alive

through the gospel until they first are slain by the law.

When you meet with people in whom there is no trace of conviction of sin, you may be quite sure they haven’t been gui...

On the other hand, do not condemn those in whom it is less intense, for so long as sin is mourned over, confessed, forsaken, and abhorred, you have evidence of the fruit of the Spirit.

A faulty presentation of Christ brings about a faulty faith.

True conversion is joined by a sense of sin in all men, which we talked about under the topic of conviction.

No sinner looks to the Savior with a dry eye or a hard heart.

Another proof of winning a soul for Christ is in a real change of life. If a man doesn’t live differently than how he did before, both at home and beyond the walls of his house, his repentance needs to be repented of, because his conversion is a fabrication.

The whole man must be renewed, or conversion will be questionable.

True regeneration implants a hatred of all evil. Where even a single sin is delighted in, the witness of the evidence is fatal to hope founded in truth. A man doesn’t need to take a dozen poisons to destroy his life, one is quite sufficient. Harmony must exist between the life and the profession.

In converts, we must also see true prayer, which is the vital breath of godliness. If there is no prayer, you may be quite sure the soul is dead.

How can a man be a disciple of Christ when he openly lives in disobedience to Him?

If the professed convert distinctly and deliberately declares that he knows his Lord’s will but doesn’t intend to heed His will, you are not to pamper his impertinence. Instead, it’s your responsibility to assure him that he is not saved.

A soul winner can do nothing without God. He must throw himself on the Invisible or be a laughing-stock to the devil.

Don’t be in a hurry to count these supposed converts. Don’t take them into the church too soon and don’t be too proud of their enthusiasm, if it isn’t accompanied with some degree of softening and tenderness to show that the Holy Spirit has really been at work within them.

Don’t be in a hurry to take such people into the church. They haven’t known humiliation on account of sin, haven’t experienced brokenness of heart, nor do they have a sense of divine grace. They shout, “All is perfect and bright!” and away they go. You’ll find that they never repay you for your labor and trouble.

Don’t number your fish before they are broiled, nor count your converts before you have tested and tried them.

I am sure you would say, first of all, a man who is to be a soul winner must have holiness of character. How few who attempt to preach think enough about this. If they did, it would strike them at once that the Eternal would never use dirty tools, that the very-holy Jehovah would only select holy instruments to accomplish His work. No wise man pours his wine into dirty bottles. No kind and good parent allows his children to go to see an immoral play or movie. In the same way, God will not work with instruments who compromise His own character.

An unholy ministry would be a dishonor to God, Purify yourselves, You who carry the vessels of the LORD (Isaiah 52:11), and laughed at in contempt by the world.

“That man not only preaches what he believes but also what he lives.”

The greatest strength of the sermon lies in what has gone before the sermon. You must get ready for the whole service through private fellowship with God and real holiness of character.

Our work here on Earth, under God, is to impart life to others.

God will not use dead tools to work living miracles.

What seemed an angel in the pulpit now delivered worms.

But whenever He finds the lowly in heart, He takes pleasure in exalting them, because He delights in humility among His ministers. To see a proud minister is an awful sight, because few things can give the Devil more joy than this. When he walks about in the world, the Devil says, “Here is something that delights me. All the preparations are in place. Before long, a great fall shall take place.”

Some ministers even show their pride by their style in the pulpit. You can never forget the way they present their text: “It is I: be not afraid (John 6:20).” Others manifest it in their attire, in the impractical vanity of their dress, or in their lewd talk. In such ways, they continually magnify the faults of others and amplify their own extra-ordinary superiorities.

I’ve known wonderfully humble people who always liked to pick an easy position for themselves. By this, I mean they were too humble to do anything that would bring any blame upon themselves and called it humility.

True humility leads you to think rightly and truthfully about yourselves.

In the matter of soul winning, humility makes you feel that you ar...

Humility is one of the chief qualifications for usefulness.

You must believe without question that you are really chosen of God to be a minister of the gospel of Christ.

You will go to work because you have a right to do it. However, if you have an idea that you are possibly nothing but an interloper, you will accomplish nothing of any account. You will only be a poor, limping, hesitant, half-apologetic preacher, and no one will care for your message.

Believe what you say you believe, or you will never persuade anybody else to believe it.

Nobody prays much about the matter, no meetings are called for crying to God for a blessing, and the minister never encourages the people to come and tell him about the work of grace in their souls.

It comes down to the fact that they lack focus and a true zeal in God’s service.

Put your whole soul into the work or else give it up.

By simplicity of heart, I mean that a man clearly goes into the ministry for the glory of God, the winning of souls, and nothing else. Some men would like to win souls and glorify God if it could be done with suitable regard to their own interests.

All he cared about was bringing us to repentance and faith in Christ.” That is the kind of man whom the Lord delights to bless.