Date: August 26, 1948Place: Kuling
We have covered the things that happen to a sinner when he receives salvation. A man is saved by reaching out his heart to touch the Lord. He is not saved through the knowledge of salvation or through understanding the doctrine of the gospel. When he exercises a sincere heart to touch the Lord, he is saved. As those who are learning to preach the gospel, we should study the way God works on man at the time of his salvation. The more we acquire a subjective understanding of the experience of those who are saved, the easier it is for us to lead men to Christ.
We have said that a man is saved when his heart reaches out to touch the Lord, but what is the heart? The word heart is a very particular word in the Bible. Man's physical body has a heart — a physical heart. His soul also has a heart — a psychological heart. In addition, there is a part in his spirit which relates to the heart — the conscience. Hence, we can say that the heart is the confluence of the whole person. A man's thoughts issue from his heart (Gen. 6:5; Matt. 15:19). His deliberations — a function of the will — also issue from his heart (Acts 11:23). His joy — a function of the emotion — also issues from the heart (John 16:22). Hebrews 10:22 says that the conscience is in the heart. Ephesians 3 says that Christ makes His home in our hearts through faith (v. 17). Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Matt. 12:34b). The center of man is his heart. Both his soul and spirit are tied to his heart. We can say that the heart is the confluence of the total man, the convergent point of man's entire life. The heart represents his true self. Everything related to his life issues from the heart. This is the reason Proverbs 4:23 speaks of keeping the heart with all vigilance, because out of it come the issues of life. The heart is man's true self, the spot where his spirit, soul, and body converge.
Man's heart is deceitful above all things and it is incurable. Who can know it? (Jer. 17:9). It is full of darkness, and no one can see it. An unsaved person is hardened inwardly because of the darkness of his heart. The spirit of a fallen man is dead, his body can do nothing about his salvation, and his soul is not motivated to seek after God. Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually (Gen. 6:5; Matt. 15:19). A man who is darkened in mind and void of feelings has no intention to choose God; he has no desire for salvation. How can such a person receive salvation? Man's spirit is not the understanding organ, and in fact, it is dead before regeneration. Man's body is useless in this endeavor as well. His mind is darkened, his emotion is indifferent, and his will is uncertain. What should we do about such a man? We can give him good food or fresh air for his body, but these cannot influence his salvation. A man's body has no influence over his salvation. The Lord does not work through man's body because the body has been sold under sin (Rom. 7:14). After man fell and became fleshly, God no longer strove with his flesh (Gen. 6:3). If we try to communicate spiritual things to a fallen man, he will not receive it because his spirit is altogether dead. One whose spirit has not yet come alive will not understand the things related to the kingdom of God. Since the biological side and the spiritual side of a man are helpless in bringing him to salvation, God has to deal with the seat of his consciousness, that is, He has to deal with the mind, emotion, and will. The mind, emotion, and will together make up the conscious part of a man. How does a man with such consciousness interact with God, and how does he react to salvation?
Romans 1:21 says that the mind of an unbeliever is darkened and vain in reasonings. He is an ignorant and foolish man as far as salvation is concerned. Since this is the condition of the sinners we are dealing with in our preaching, how can we turn their ignorance into enlightenment and their darkened thoughts into light? There is no way to do this. Just as it is impossible to tell a darkened room to transform itself into light, there is no way for us to make a darkened mind bright and shining again. We should not presume that we can enlighten a man's mind by simply relating the truth to him in a clear way. Many times when we argue with sinners we turn them away. Many times we defeat the excuses of the sinners, yet their mind remains dark. We win the argument, yet lose the soul. First Corinthians 1:21 says that the world through its wisdom did not know God because its thoughts were darkened. First Corinthians 2:9 also says that God's salvation is something that has not come up in man's heart. Hence, man's mind is fully darkened with respect to salvation.
What about the desires in man's emotion? Romans 3:11 says, "There is none who understands, there is none who seeks out God." There is none who understands — this refers to the mind, and there is none who seeks out God — this refers to the emotion. In John 5:40 the Lord Jesus said to the Pharisees, "You are not willing to come to Me that you may have life." They were not willing to come to the Lord because they had no desire or hunger to do so. In Matthew 13:15 the Lord said, "For the heart of this people has become fat, and with their ears they have heard heavily, and their eyes they have closed, lest they perceive with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart, and they turn around, and I will heal them." The Jews were not able to understand because they rejected in their heart. They did not have the desire in their hearts to be saved. They could not understand salvation because they did not want it. If their eyes could see and their ears could hear, their minds would understand. Hence, in order for a sinner to be saved, the first gate he has to pass through is the understanding. The second gate is his willingness and desire to be saved. Yet before a man can will and desire, he must first want to be saved, like to be saved, and hope to be saved. Otherwise, he will only run away from salvation. John 15:23-25 says that man's emotion has no desire for the Lord; on the contrary, it hates Him without a cause. It mocks believers without reason and considers it a shame to be called a Christian. The unbelievers behave this way because they are ignorant. They do not seek after God and have no desire for the Lord. Instead they hate Him.
Next we come to the will. The will is the organ of deliberation. An unbeliever decides within himself to reject the Lord. In Matthew 23:37 the Lord said, "How often I desired...and you would not!" The Lord was determined to give, but the Jews were determined to reject. They were determined to reject the Lord. From this point forward they were fully rejected in return. Read Romans 6:17 again: "But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you have obeyed from the heart the form of teaching into which you were delivered." The Jews were rejected by the Lord through their own rejection of Him. Those who have believed have obeyed from their heart. They have decided that they want Him. God commands man to repent. A man only has to be willing to believe. The Holy Spirit will come to those who obey.
The Bible says that a man must believe before he can be saved. Faith is a thing of the heart. This is the reason the book of Hebrews associates unbelief with an "evil heart" (3:12). Romans 10:9-10 says that a man has to believe in his heart. In order for a sinner to believe, he must understand with his mind, desire with his emotion, and deliberately decide with his will. His mind, emotion, and will have to turn. A good gospel preacher knows how to turn a sinner's mind, stir up his desire, and pin down his will. If he does this, his preaching will prevail.
Today a preacher of the gospel faces a fundamental temptation, or, we may say, a fundamental error. He only pays attention to turning man's mind. He wants to impart nice doctrines into man's mind and to clarify his mental faculty concerning the subject of salvation. Such a person does not know the constitution of a sinner. He thinks that a man must understand the gospel before he can be saved. He does not realize that a sinner's thoughts are very shallow indeed. He may understand what he hears, but he will still reject it. What will the preacher do then? We have to understand that man's mind cannot entirely represent his heart. It is wrong for a gospel preacher to pay attention only to the mind. The mind is the most superficial and outward part of man's heart. Even if a preacher can convince others with doctrines, they will still not believe. The quickest way to touch man's heart is through the mind. However, it is also the most unreliable and ineffective way because the mind is the shallowest part of man's heart.
We must realize that man's entire heart is darkened with respect to salvation. His heart is hardened, wicked, satanic, fleshly, and worldly. It is impossible for such a heart to believe in the Lord. Before the Holy Spirit operates on our gospel friends, it is impossible for them to believe in the Lord. Therefore, we must trust in the Holy Spirit for our preaching. We have to use God's word to open the sinner's heart and to create something in it that was not there before. The goal of the gospel is to gain a beachhead in man's heart and to expand such a beachhead. This is the key to preaching. There is no desire for God within the heart of a fallen man. It is filled with evil. In order for a sinner to receive salvation, the first thing we have to do is to create a place for God within his heart with the words of the gospel. Only then will a person accept the gospel. When our words go out, they first lodge in the mind of the listener. Then the mind becomes the gateway for salvation. Next God gains the desire of the heart, and finally He gains the will of the man. Hence, it is not enough to merely gain the mind. When God's word enters a sinner, the first thing that happens to him is the forming of some new thoughts. These new thoughts create a new desire for salvation in him. Next he resolves within himself to be saved. Once he makes this resolution, the gospel breaks through in him.
Hence, the goal of the gospel is to create a desire in man. There are three objectives in the process of preaching: 1) The initial objective is to put certain ideas in man about salvation so that he begins to understand a little about God and salvation. 2) The chief objective of preaching is to make men seek after God, to create a desire for Him and an inclination for salvation. 3) The ultimate goal of preaching is to cause men to choose God. The gospel does not conquer man through his understanding but through his desire. Creating such a desire within man is the main goal of preaching. In preaching the gospel, the first thing we have to do is to undergird man's thoughts with God's word. The final step, however, is always to lead him to a decision. First, we have to lodge God's word, the sure word, into man's mind. Then we follow this first word with a second word to pry him open, to create in him a desire. Finally, we should lead him to a decision. The first word is a "straight hook," while the second word is a "curved hook." The first word provides a support in the thoughts. The second word is a tool to pry open the emotion. The result is a deliberate decision in the will to receive salvation.
All good gospel preachers first deposit a few words in the sinners' mind and then pry open and stir up their desire with more words. Lastly, they invite and urge the sinners to believe. This is how they turn the sinners around. Matthew 13:15 contains three words: lest, understand, and turn. The word understand relates to the mind. The word lest implies a possibility of stirring up of one's desire. The word turn relates to one's decision. A man does not understand because he does not have the desire to understand, and he does not see light because his heart has no desire for such light. Most of the time the problem is not with man's mind or thoughts. The problem is with the motivation. In order for a man's mind to understand, we must make him willing to understand; he must want to understand. This is a matter of motive and motivation. If a man is not saved, it is because he has no motivation to be saved. If a man hears and understands the gospel but has no motivation to receive it, it will be useless even if he is forced to make a decision. The greatest problem facing a gospel preacher is the desire in man's heart. Once a man's heart is inclined toward the Lord, the major part of the job of preaching is done.
Proverbs 21:1 says, "The king's heart is like streams of water in the hand of Jehovah;/He turns it wherever He wishes." The most important point in preaching the gospel is to gain man's heart. Once a gospel preacher gains a man's heart, the rest is easy. We have to spend time to study and learn. We must also look to the Holy Spirit to provide us with the suitable words, that is, words with "hooks" in them. Our words have to be like hooks that draw out man's desire and gain his heart. If we can do this, our gospel preaching will be a success.
