“By All Means”

The principle of bringing the gospel to people is in I Corinthians 9, and I want to drum this home. If I may put it rather crudely, it really knocks sense into a lot of cockeyed spiritual ideas. I Corinthians 9:22–23: “To the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak: I am become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some. And I do all things for the gospel’s sake, that I may be a joint partaker thereof.”

Here is the principle of bringing the lost into touch with God: “by all means.” Let us underline this: by all means. This does not say by some means; it does not even say by the majority of means; it says by all means. It does not mean by any means that shuts out those three constituents. However, it does mean that given those three constituents, any means by which we can reach men and women is legitimate. I think we could underline it more and more: we must never limit the Lord to any one way or few ways of reaching men and women. This is the curse of the church.

Every time the Holy Spirit leads believers to discover a new spontaneous way of reaching men and women, within half a century they have traditionalised it until it is dead. Then you cannot get the same people to budge because dad did it this way, and old pastor so and so did it this way, and when we were children, we did it this way, and so it goes on. This is the curse of the church. It must be “by all means.”

Fishing for Men

Here we also see the importance of what we call “fishing.” Of course, I am not just thinking of going out into the streets only, but I am thinking of all forms of going out and reaching people whether it is in the pubs, whether it is out fishing people into gatherings, whether it is visiting people at the door, whether it is through the Christian newspaper work in hospitals; everywhere that we can go out and contact people as people.

Now, here there is the danger in personal soul winning of becoming tract machines, Christian newspaper machines. Little things into which you put a coin and they run out a few texts. People are very quick to know whether they are talking with flesh and blood or talking with a machine. Some Christians get very quickly into an automatic habit of having a few catch phrases and a few organised, spontaneous reactions, which means: whatever happens, you have the right answer for everyone. This just will not work because evangelism is the heart of God reaching the hearts of people, and God’s heart reaches lost hearts through saved hearts. It is only when flesh and blood touches flesh and blood that people really get saved.

You will find this in every case where people have been really saved as a result of fishing or talking. It has been personal contact, personal living conversation, and not just ramming something down a person’s throat or discussing theories about what we should eat or what kind of bodies we shall have in the hereafter. I must say that fishing is a very important thing if it means we are bringing people into touch with God, either by going to them or bringing them into a gathering where the gospel is being preached. It is vital.

I also would like to say how important it is to really seek to get neighbours and friends and work colleagues under the sound of the gospel. This, again, is of tremendous importance, and every one of us should have it on the heart, even though at times it isn’t easy. People do not come as easily as that. Nevertheless, as long as there is a concern, God can work.