I'm Curtis Hudson, editor of the Sword of the Lord, a bi-weekly Christian paper started
in 1934 by Dr. John R. Rice. In 1961, I was a mail carrier and pastor of a small church
just outside Atlanta, Georgia. One day, while delivering the mail, I saw a copy of the Sword
of the Lord and decided I'd read some of the articles during my lunch hour, and at particular
paper, there was an advertisement for a Sword of the Lord conference on revival and soul
winning. These were conferences that had been started by Dr. John R. Rice to promote revival
and soul winning. At that conference, I heard a step-by-step lecture explaining in detail
how to lead a person to Christ. I was so convinced that it would work that I went out on Saturday
after hearing the lecture on Thursday and led my first three souls to Christ. A man,
his wife, and teenage son. The next day, which was Sunday, they all three joined my
church. And I got to thinking, I should be doing this all the time. So a few weeks later,
I resigned my job at the post office and decided to give all my energy, time, and effort to
winning souls and building a church. We saw that tiny congregation of about 40 members
grow to over 8,000 in membership and become the largest church in the state of Georgia.
And it all began at that Sword of the Lord conference on revival and soul winning. The
great commission is given five times in the Bible. Namely this. Mark 16, 15. Go into all
the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And yet, while I'm speaking to you right now,
so far as I know, no generation has ever evangelized the world. And today, we're no closer to it
than we were a few generations ago. Now, I'm not sure you can trust all the statistics
you read, but I have read that if we could line all the unsaved people up in a single
file, they'd circle the globe 30 times and the line grows 20 miles every day you live.
I've also read if we could freeze the population of the world like it is so no one else was
born and no one else died and we won souls at the same rate we won them last year, it
would take 4,000 years to win the world of Christ and 320 years to win the United States
of America to Christ. Now, why are we so far behind? Why have we never evangelized the
world? Well, I think we're going at it wrong. We're trying to evangelize the world from
the pulpits of the churches or maybe in big city wide campaigns or maybe by sending missionaries
around the world. Now, for all of this, it is very important, but God's plan for world
evangelization is that every individual Christian be a soul winner. In John 15 verse 16, Jesus
said, you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and
bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain. Now, you must remember that the food
of a Christian is not love, joy, peace, and long-suffering and so on. That is the fruit
of the Spirit whenever the Christian is Spirit-controlled or Spirit-filled. The fruit of a Christian
is other Christians. Proverbs 11 30 says, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life
and he that win its souls is wise. Paul said in Romans chapter 1, I will not have you to
be ignorant, that oft times I purpose to come unto you, that I might have some fruit among
you, even as among other Gentiles. Paul is simply saying, I want to win some of you people
to Christ. Now, it is my job as a Christian to win souls. My job as a preacher really
is not to win souls. Now, that may shock you, but Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11 and 12 says
he gave some apostles and some prophets and some pastors and teachers and so on. And then
verse 12 says, for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry. My job
as an evangelist or as a Bible teacher is not to win souls to Christ, but to perfect
the saints for the work of the ministry, which is leading people to Christ. Because the work
of the ministry results in the edifying or building of the body of Christ. And the body
of Christ is built as people are saved. Every time a man trusts Christ as Savior, an individual
trusts Christ as Savior. They are placed by the Holy Spirit into the body according
to 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 13. Here the Bible says, for by one spirit are we all
baptized into one body. Now, here it is. I lead a man to Christ. He is placed into the
body by the Holy Spirit. The body gains another member until the body is complete and Christ
comes for it. Now, my job as a pastor is to perfect the saints for the work of the ministry.
So the work of the ministry has to be leading people to Christ. Yet, there are many Christians
who have never led one soul to Christ. I heard Dr. Lee Roberson say, by the way, Dr. Roberson
for 40 years was pastor of Highland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In those
40 years he baptized over 60,000 converts, which means they average 1,500 baptisms every
year for 40 years. Dr. Roberson said, I doubt that if 5% of the members of Highland Park
Baptist Church have ever led a soul to Christ. Now, I don't think that's unusual. I mean
by that it's not unlike many other churches. I don't know of any church that probably has
a higher percentage of soul winners than that. Our church in Atlanta with 8,000 members probably
only had a handful of people who led souls to Christ every week and brought them to church
and down the aisle to join that local assembly. Now, why are no more people involved in winning
souls than what they are? Yet, all of us are supposed to be doing it. But I think the reason
we do not win souls is we don't see the importance of it. We always find time to do the things
we really believe are important. I remember the night my wife complained with a stomach
ache. And I asked if she thought I should get some medicine of some kind. She said,
no, I think I'll be all right. A while later she complained again. I said, are you sure
you're okay? She said, I'm fine. Later she complained a third time and I said, don't
you think maybe I should take you to the doctor? She said, well, I don't think so. But a little
while later she awoke me and said, I must go to the doctor. My stomach is hurting too
bad. It must be something more than what I'm thinking. And I rushed to the doctor in the
middle of the night and the doctor performed an appendectomy on my wife. And here's the
point I'm making. Here it was in the middle of the night. I had to get someone to come
in and stay with the children. I had to get up and get dressed. Keeping in mind I had
to go to work the next morning. But the thought of my inconvenience or the thought of the
expense or inconvenience of my neighbors never came into the question. The only thing important
to me was my wife was sick and I wanted her to live. I found time to do that because that
was important. We find time to do things that are really important to us. If we could get
every Christian to see the importance of winning people to Christ, I'm convinced that we could
get more people leading souls to Christ. Let me take just a few minutes and see if I can
emphasize the importance of soul winning. I don't think I can succeed but I'll try.
Soul winning is important because of the price of a soul. How much is one's soul worth? Well
a French doctor has declared that he's determined the weight of a human soul. He said he did
it by placing the bodies of terminally ill patients on very sensitive scales. And he
noticed that when they died that the needle dropped 21 grams. So his conclusion was that
a soul weighs 21 grams. Now I don't know how much a soul weighs but I have some idea of
how much one is worth. Jesus said in Mark 8 verse 36 and 37, for what shall it profit
a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what would a man give
in exchange for his soul? Now if I understand these verses, one soul, one soul is worth
the entire world. The soul of the little boy who lives next door. The soul of your best
friend that you play golf with or go on outings with. The soul of your mother. The soul of
the little child that God's given you to raise. One soul is worth the whole world. The soul
of one little boy you meet on the street. The soul of the postman or the druggist. And
how much is a soul worth? The world. When you think about the world it's more than the
material universe. The Bible says in 1 John 2.15, love not the world. Neither the things
that are in the world for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust
of the eye and the pride of life is not of the father but is of the world. Now the world
consists of three things. First, the lust of the flesh. The lust of the flesh is a consuming
desire to do. Now try to imagine that from the day you were born until right now that
every time your flesh ever desired anything you fulfill that desire. And imagine that
I could promise you that if you lived to be 100 years old that any time your flesh desired
anything you could fulfill that desire. Well you would have gained one third of the world
but you wouldn't have the entire world for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh
and the lust of the eye and the pride of life is not of the father but is of the world.
The lust of the eye is a compelling urge to have. The eye sees something and it wants
it. Now imagine that everything your eye ever saw and wanted you had it. It was yours. You
had the title deed in your hands. And imagine I could guarantee you that if you lived to
be 100 years old that every time your eye saw something and mourned it you could have
it. Then you would have gained the second third of the world but you wouldn't have the
whole world for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye
and the pride of life is not of the father but is of the world. The pride of life is
a constant thrust to be its ambition. I want to be first trained quarterback. I want to
be senator. I want to be governor. The pride of life is a constant thrust to be. Now imagine
that you could fulfill every ambition of life and realize everything you ever wanted to
be in your life as long as you lived then you had the third third of the world. Now
watch it. I call the lust of the flesh the ultimate in fun from a human standpoint from
a carnal fleshly standpoint. I call the pride or the lust of the eye the ultimate in fortune
owning all that one could own and nothing else to own. And I call the pride of life
the ultimate in fame. Now imagine having all the fun one could have, owning all that one
could own and being all that one could be. Put that on one side and bring on this side
the soul of one individual whether he educated or uneducated and bring Jesus into the room
and ask him, Jesus, which of these are the most valuable? And I believe with all of my
heart that Jesus would answer with a tear in his eye, what shall it profit a man if
he gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what will man give in exchange for his
soul? Don't you see, sowing is important because of the value of a soul. You'd be better off
to win one soul to Christ in your life and of course you could win many more but you'd
be better off to win one soul to Christ than to spend your life and earn two or three billion
dollars and die leaving a fortune behind unless that fortune was used to win souls to Christ
of course. Second, sowing is important because of the payment Jesus made for souls. I wish
I could explain the sufferings of Christ on the cross but I don't think I can. The songwriter
tried but he said none of the ransom ever knew. How deep was the valley crossed or how
dark was the night that the Lord passed through ere he found his sheep that was lost. Jesus
suffered on the cross everything I would have to suffer if I were to die without Christ,
go into hell and stay there forever and ever and never get out. I have a sermon I sometimes
preach entitled Calvary, the Sinner's Hell in Review. In that sermon I read the story
of the crucifixion and I read the story of the rich man in hell. I go from one to the
other showing that the rich man in hell suffered thirst. Then I go back to the cross and show
that Jesus Christ suffered thirst on the cross, the very thirst of hell. He cried out I thirst
that was the fifth cross utterance. The rich man said send Lazarus let him dip his finger
in water and cool my tongue for I'm tormenting this flame. The rich man suffered separation
and on the cross Jesus cried out my God, my God why has thou forsaken me? He suffered
separation. I did not labor the point but what I'm trying to say is that Jesus suffered
all on the cross that I would suffer if I were to die and go into hell and stay there
forever and ever and never get out. That's the price Jesus Christ paid for souls. By
the way he would have suffered if he only had one soul to die for. He loves us that
much. Now if Jesus suffered that much for souls don't you think that that makes soul
winning important? Soul winning is important because of the price of souls, because of
the payment Jesus made for souls. But let me suggest one other thing before I get into
this lecture. Soul winning is important too because of the peril of souls. Men are lost.
They're not going to be lost someday. They're lost now. John 3 18 plainly says he that believeth
on the son is not condemned. He's not under the sentence. The sentence has been lifted.
He's justified. But he goes on to say he that believeth not the son is condemned already
because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God. Now there it
is very plainly. Men are condemned or lost for one reason. Because they have not believed
or trusted Jesus Christ as personal savior. Now consider that. Every person you see is
either condemned or not condemned. If they're trusting Christ they're not condemned. If
they're not trusting Christ they're condemned already because they have not believed in
the name of the only begotten son of God. Try to visualize your neighbors as though
they may be good moral people. But try to visualize them if they've never trusted Christ
as people that are already condemned. If they die they're not going to some judgment and
there have God determined whether or not they're going to heaven or hell. That is already determined
at the present moment by whether or not they're trusting Jesus Christ as savior. Don't you
see the importance of soul winning? I wish Jesus Christ himself were here. And I wish
we could ask him, Jesus why did you come to the earth? What's the Bible all about?
Why are all these church buildings throughout the country? What's that all about? And Jesus
would answer in Luke 19 10, for the son of man has come to seek and to save that which
was lost. That's as plain as he could make it. Jesus came for one reason, to seek and
to save those who were lost. The Apostle Paul, one of the greatest Christians that ever lived,
who wrote half the New Testament if you give him Hebrews, and we believe he did write Hebrews.
That means he wrote 14 of 27 New Testament books if Paul were here. And we could ask
Paul, Paul what's it all about? Why did Jesus come? To build churches or schools or to build
religions, why did Jesus come? And Paul would answer, this is a faithful saying and worthy
of all expectation that Jesus Christ came to save sinners of whom I'm chief. Soul winning
is the most important thing in the world. It's the only thing that causes rejoicing
in heaven. When we get big offerings, heaven doesn't rejoice. When we have large crowds,
heaven doesn't rejoice. When we build new buildings or buy new transportation, heaven
doesn't rejoice. But the scripture plainly says in Luke 15, 10, there's more rejoicing
in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repenteth than 99 just persons
who need no repentance. Nothing else causes heaven to rejoice except the salvation of
sinners. We could evangelize the world, in my opinion, in a few short months we could
get every Christian involved in leading others to Christ. And that's what it's all about.
When Jesus gave the great commission in Matthew 28, he said you're to go, you're to teach
them, you're to baptize them. And then he said one more thing, you're to teach them
to observe whatsoever I've commanded you. Now let me stop there a minute. That verse,
in our opinion, does not mean teach them the Bible, though I'm for teaching them the Bible.
Of course, you can't teach too much Bible and you can't learn too much Bible. But the
verse says to teach them to do whatsoever I commanded you. Now why did he command them?
They were commanded to go and teach or give the gospel. Mark says preach the gospel. Then
they were commanded to baptize the converts. And once they were baptized, then they were
to teach the converts to do what they were told to do. Now watch this. They were told
to get somebody saved and get them baptized. Then take that individual and teach him to
do what they were told to do, which is get someone saved and get them baptized. With
that method you start a chain reaction. And through the principle of multiplication we
can evangelize the world. So suppose I lead one man to Christ and teach him how to lead
one to Christ. And he teaches somebody else and teaches him. And suppose this chain reaction
goes on and on. Eventually, through the principle of multiplication, we could reach everybody
in our town. Now not all of them will be saved, but we could get to them with the gospel and
give them a clear presentation of the gospel and show them how to be saved.