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The Apostle Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:21, “ If a man therefore purge himself from these” (the context explains what the “ these” are) “ he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.” When? When he puts away sin. It has often been said, and it is perfectly true, that God does not demand a beautiful vessel, but God does demand a clean vessel. In our Bible Institute we had at one time a very brilliant fellow, I think the brightest man in the Institute at that time. He was working, and working, and working, but nothing came o f his work. We held a day of fasting and prayer, as we often did, and this young man, touched by the Spirit of God, got up and said: “ Friends, there has been something wrong in my life. I give it up. I want you to pray for me that I may have com plete victory over it.” And he did; and that man’s work was completely trans formed. He didn’t know any more than he had known before; he didn’t have any more knowledge. But he had power—the power that comes from a pure heart and a clean life. Are you holding on to sin? Is there anything wrong any where in your life? Perhaps you say, “ Oh, it is such a little sin.” There are no little sins. Give up sin, and then you will be in a place to lead others to Christ. Surrender The second thing that is involved in thorough conversion is absolute surrender to God. It is coming to God, and saying, “ Heavenly Father, here I am. Send me where Thou wilt; use me as Thou wilt; do with me what Thou wilt.” Friends, that’s the great secret of blessedness and power—absolute surrender to God. I think about the best hymn, from the experimental side, is: “ I Surrender All.” I f we do that, all the rest is certain; and if we don’t do that, the rest is certain, too: that one won’t be blessed and he won’t be used. Confidence The third thing that is involved in thorough conversion is rest in the finished work of Christ. A thoroughly converted man doesn’t look at anything in himself as the ground of his acceptance before God. He looks at the cross of Calvary, and says, “ All my sins were settled there.” (Continued on Page 16)
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I AM taking it for granted that every Christian wants to have success as a soul-winner. I am not going to give you my opinions about how to be a successful soul-winner; I am going to give you God’s plain statement. God tells us in His Word just how to have success in winning others to Christ. I turn first of all to Luke 22:32: “ When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.” Our Lord told Peter that he was to have a very great fall; that he was to deny his Lord three times. Peter could not be lieve it. Jesus said, “ It is so, but I have prayed for you, and you will come out of it all right; you will be converted. And when you are, Peter, you will be able to go out and convert others.” Conversion That is the first condition of success in soul-winning. In order to convert somebody else, you must first be thoroughly converted yourself. I believe that one great reason today why so many people who are very active in trying to convert others are having no success is because they are not thorough ly converted themselves. You can’t lift anybody out of a pit unless you yourself are out o f it, and you can’t expect to have success in converting anybody else unless you are thor oughly converted yourself. And may I put the question to you right now, Are you converted? Are you thoroughly converted? “ Oh,” you say, “ I am a church member—I am a Sunday school teacher.” Well, that doesn’t prove anything. There are lots of people bustling around in the activities of the church nowadays who have never been thoroughly converted them selves. What does thorough conversion involve? Four things. First, a renunciation of all sin. If you haven’t turned your back on all sin, you are not thoroughly converted; if there is any sin you are holding on to consciously, anything in your life that you know is displeasing to God, which you won’t give up, you are not thoroughly converted. That is the first thing in thorough conversion—renunciation of all sin—and that is one of the first conditions o f success in soul-winning.
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