TRAVAILING FOR SOULS – Charles Spurgeon
TRAVAILING FOR SOULS
Introduction: Travail Before Birth
“As soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.” – Isaiah 66:8. Israel had fallen into the lowest condition, but in the midst of God’s people, an inward yearning of heart was felt for the return of the Divine blessing. No sooner had this anxious desire become intense than God heard the voice of its cry, and the blessing came. It was the same at the time of the restoration of the captives from Babylon, and most evidently so in the days of our Lord. A faithful company of believers had continued to expect the coming of the Lord’s anointed Messenger. They waited for His sudden arrival in His Temple, and when their prayers reached the fullness of vehemence, and their anxiety worked in them the deepest agony of spirit, then the Messiah came—the Light of the Gentiles and the Glory of Israel.
This marked the beginning of an age of blessedness in which even the barren woman kept house and became the joyful mother of children. The Holy Spirit was given, and multitudes were born to the Church of God. Yes, we may say that a nation was born in a day. The wilderness and solitary places were glad for them, and the desert rejoiced and blossomed as the rose. However, we are not concerned with the specific application of this text as Isaiah originally uttered it. The great declarations of Revelation apply to all cases, and once true, they stand fast forever and ever.
With a deep desire for a large spiritual blessing to come upon His Church this morning, I ask you to note that in order to obtain an increase in the Church, there must first be travail. Secondly, this travail is frequently followed by surprising results. I will then explain why both the travail and the results are desirable, and pronounce woe upon those who hinder it, and a blessing upon those moved by God’s Spirit to travail for souls.
I. The Necessity of Travail for Spiritual Birth
It is clear from the text, “As soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children,” that there must be travail before spiritual birth will occur. Let me first establish this fact from history. Before any great benediction has fallen upon God’s people, it has been preceded by great searching of hearts.
Israel was so oppressed in Egypt that it would have been very easy, even natural, for the people to become utterly crushed in spirit, submitting to be hereditary bond slaves and making the best of their miserable lot. But God would not have it so. He meant to bring them out “with a high hand and an outstretched arm.” However, before He began to work, He made them begin to cry. Their sighs and cries came up into the ears of God, and He stretched out His hand to deliver them. Doubtless, many heart-rending appeals were made to Heaven by mothers when their babies were torn from their breasts to be cast into the river. With what bitterness did they ask God to look on His poor people Israel and avenge them of their oppressors. The young men bowed under the cruel yoke and groaned, while hoary sires, smarting under ignominious lashes from the taskmaster, sighed and wept before the God of Israel. The whole nation cried, “O God, visit us! God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, remember Your Covenant and deliver us.”
This travail brought its result. The Lord smote the field of Zoan with mighty plagues, and from under the bondage of the sons of Mizraim, the children of Israel marched forth with joy.
Historical Examples of Travail
Let us take another historical example. During the reign of David, the era of the son of Jesse was a time of spiritual revival. God was honored, and His service maintained in Judea’s land. But it is clear to readers of the Scriptures that David was subject to spiritual throes and pants of the most intense kind. His bosom throbbed, and he heaved with longing, as a man made fit to be the leader of a great revival! What yearnings he had! He thirsted after God, after the living God! What petitions he poured forth that God would visit Zion and make the vine which He had planted to flourish once again. Even when his own sins pressed heavily upon him, he could not end his personal confession without entreating the Lord to build the walls of Jerusalem and do good in His good pleasure to Zion.
David was but the mouthpiece of hundreds of others who, with equal fervency, cried to God for His blessing upon His people. There was much soul travail in Israel and Judah, and the result was that the Lord was glorified, and true religion flourished.
Remember also the days of King Josiah. You know how the Book of the Law was found neglected in the Temple. When it was brought before the king, he tore his clothes, realizing that the nation had revolted, and wrath would come upon it to the uttermost. The young king’s heart, which was tender and feared God, was ready to break with anguish at the thought of the misery that would befall his people due to their sins. Then came a glorious reformation, which purged the land of idols and caused the Passover to be observed as never before! Travail of heart among the godly produced this delightful change.
It was the same with the work of Nehemiah. His book begins with a description of the travail of his heart. He was a patriot, a nervous man, of excitable temperament, and keen sensibility for God’s honor. When his soul had felt great bitterness and longing, then he arose to build, and a blessing rested on his efforts.
The Travail Before Pentecost
In the early dawn of Christian history, there was a preparation of the Church before it received an increase. Look at the obedient disciples sitting in the upper room, waiting with anxious hope. Every heart there had been plowed with anguish by the death of the Lord. Each one was intent on receiving the promised benefit of the Spirit. There, with one heart and one mind, they tarried, but not without wrestling prayer. And so, the Comforter was given, and 3,000 souls were added to the Church!
The Travail in the Reformation
The living zeal and vehement desire have always been perceptible in the Church of God before any season of refreshing. Think not that Luther was the only man who worked the Reformation. There were hundreds who sighed and cried in secret places—in cottages, in homes, on the hills, and in the palaces of Europe. Women, as they hid their Bibles, cried out in spirit, “O God, how long?” There were pains as of a woman in travail, and the result was a grand convulsion which made the Vatican rock and reel from its foundation!
There has always been travail before results in the history of the Church, and this is true on both large and small scales. A person with no sensibility or compassion for other men’s souls may accidentally be the means of a conversion, but as a rule, those who bring souls to Christ are those who, first of all, have felt an agony of desire that souls should be saved.
II. The Travail and Its Results
This travail is desirable for several reasons. It is the order of Nature. The child is not born into the world without the sorrows of the mother, nor is the bread that sustains life procured from the earth without toil. “In the sweat of your face shall you eat bread,” was part of the primeval curse. Now, as it is in the natural, so it is in the spiritual. There shall not come the blessing we seek without first of all the earnest yearning for it!
God has ordained it for our good. If souls were given to us without effort, anxiety, or prayer, it would be our loss. The anxieties which throb within a compassionate spirit exercise our graces. They produce grateful love to God, try our faith in God’s power to save others, drive us to the mercy seat, and strengthen our patience and perseverance. Every grace within a person is cultivated and increased by the travail for souls.
As labor is now a blessing, so also is soul-travail. Men are fashioned more fully into the likeness of Christ, and the whole Church is quickened into energy. The fire of our own spiritual life is fanned by the breath that our prayers invite to breathe upon the slain.
III. The Power of Emotion in Soul-Winning
The zeal that God excites within us is often the means of fulfilling the purpose we desire. After all, God does not give conversions to eloquence but to heart! The power in the hand of God’s Spirit for conversions is heart coming into contact with heart. Truth from the heart goes to the heart. This is God’s battle-ax and weapons of war in His Crusade. He is pleased to use the yearnings, longings, and sympathies of Christians as the means of compelling the careless to think, forcing the hardened to feel, and driving the unbelieving to consider.
I have little confidence in elaborate speech or polished sentences as the means of reaching men’s hearts, but I have great faith in that simple-minded Christian woman who must have souls converted or she will weep her eyes out over them, and in that humble Christian who prays day and night in secret, and avails himself of every opportunity to address a loving word to sinners.
IV. Qualifying for the Care of New Believers
The travail also qualifies us to properly take care of the offspring. God does not commit His newborn children to people who do not care to see conversions. If He ever allows them to fall into such hands, they suffer very serious loss. Who is so fit to encourage a new believer as the person who first anguished before the Lord for their conversion? Those you have wept over and prayed for will be sure to encourage and assist you!
A Church that never travailed, should God send her a hundred converts, would be unfit to train them. She would not know what to do with little children and would leave them to much suffering. Let us thank God, Brothers and Sisters, if He has given us any degree of earnest anxiety and sympathy which mark soul-winning men and women. Let us ask to have more—for in proportion as we have it, we shall be qualified to be the instruments in the hand of the Spirit, to nurse and cherish God’s sons and daughters.
V. The Glory Belongs to God
Lastly, the reason why travail is necessary is that it secures all the glory to God. If you want to be lowered in your own esteem, try to convert a child. I would like those who believe in free will and the natural goodness of the human heart to try to bring a child to salvation and see whether they can break their heart and make them love the Savior! You will find that it is not your own strength, but God’s power that saves.
When one has tried to reach a sinner’s heart, you realize just how weak you are. This longing and vehemence will secure to God all the glory of His own work. And this is what the Lord is aiming at, for His glory, He will not give to another, nor His praise to an arm of flesh.
VI. The Beginning of Travail
When God intends greatly to bless a Church, it often begins with two or three persons who are distressed at the low state of affairs and become troubled even to anguish. They pray with burning desire and untiring importunity, and their passion to see the Church revived consumes them. This one thing eats them up. They suffer great heaviness and continual sorrow in their hearts for perishing sinners. They travail in birth for souls.
I have seen examples of this burden, and I feel hopeful because of these tokens of good. When the sun rises, the mountaintops first catch the light. Those who live near to God will feel the influence of the coming refreshing first. The work will go on with those who fervently seek God’s presence, and nothing will be impossible for their faith. The Lord, by His grace, will move the Church with fervency and passion to reach the lost. Let us pray for more such souls in the Church, for in their travail, we shall see a great harvest.
Conclusion
The travail of the soul brings forth spiritual fruit. Through the agonizing prayer and deep longing for souls, God brings about a great blessing in His Church. Let us be moved by His Spirit to travail for souls, and by His grace, we will witness the transformation of lives and the growth of the Church.
If you see a snowflake in your garden next February, you will likely feel persuaded that spring is on the way. The artificial flower-maker could put as many snowflakes there as you please, but that would be no indication of spring’s arrival. Similarly, one may try to appear zealous for Christ without the true evidence of God’s blessing. But when fervor comes naturally, without human direction or control, it is a sign from the Lord. When men’s hearts heave and break like the soil of the garden, stirred by the reviving life buried beneath, then a blessing is truly on the way. Travail is not a mockery—it is a genuine agony of the whole nature. May such travail be seen in our Church, and throughout the whole Israel of God!
II. The Surprising Results of Travail
The result of travail is often very surprising. It is frequently surprising in its rapidity. “As soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.” God’s works are not tied by time. The more spiritual a force is, the less it is bound by the constraints of time. The electric current, which is closer to the spiritual than material forms of energy, is inconceivably rapid for this reason, almost rendering time insignificant. The influence of God’s Spirit is a force most spiritual, and quicker than anything in the natural world.
As soon as we agonize in soul, the Holy Spirit, if He pleases, can convert the person for whom we have pleaded. While we are yet speaking, He hears; before we even call, He answers! Some try to calculate the expected progress of a church by arithmetic, but spiritual forces are not calculable by arithmetic. A truth of God that strikes one heart today can, by God’s power, affect a million hearts tomorrow. The preaching which moves one person needs no alteration to reach ten thousand. With God’s Spirit, our current efforts will suffice to win the world to Jesus; without Him, no amount of effort will result in lasting change. The spread of the truth is not limited by time. In the ten years that ended in 1870, remarkable changes were made across the globe that no prophet would have believed if foretold. Reforms in England, the U.S., Germany, Spain, and Italy, which according to ordinary reasoning would have taken 100 years, were accomplished in a short time. Matters of the mind cannot be governed by the same rules as steamboats or railways. In such matters, God’s messengers are flames of fire! The Spirit of God can operate instantaneously upon the minds of men. Why should prayer not be mighty enough to bring about change on a grand scale, even today?
III. Why Travail and Its Result Are Desirable
Travail and its result are abundantly desirable, particularly at this hour. The world is perishing for lack of knowledge. Have any of us laid China on our hearts? Imagine the vast population of that mighty empire, all living without God and Christ, strangers to the commonwealth of Israel. Yet, it is not only China. There are other great nations living in darkness, enslaved by the great serpent, and who will set the world free from him? Consider the condition of this one city with its three million inhabitants—what sin the moon sees, what sin the Sunday sees! Alas for the transgressions of this wicked city! Babylon of old could not have been worse than London is, nor as guilty, for she had not the Light of God that London has received.
Brothers and Sisters, there is no hope for China, no hope for the world, and no hope for our own city while the Church is sluggish and lethargic. The Church is the vessel through which the blessing is poured out. Christ multiplies the bread and gives it to the disciples, who then distribute it to the multitudes. It is time for the Churches to awaken and seek the salvation of dying myriads!
Moreover, the powers of evil are always active. We may sleep, but Satan never sleeps. The Church’s plow lies rusting in the furrow, while Satan’s plow works deep and wide. The Church must not be complacent. It must either bring forth children unto God, or die of consumption. A Church that does not bear fruit is a rotting Church, and there is nothing more offensive than a rotting Church.
IV. The Woe for Those Who Hinder Travail
Now, I must address the woe that will surely come to those who hinder the travail of the Church and prevent her from bringing forth her children. An earnest spirit cannot speak of zeal without condemning indifference. The heroine of old, who went forth against the enemies of Israel, cursed those who did not come to the help of the Lord. Curse you, Meroz,” said the angel of the Lord, “curse you bitterly the inhabitants thereof, because they came not to the help of the Lord, against the mighty.
In a similar way, every professing Christian who is backward in helping the Church during its time of travail will bring a curse upon themselves. And who are they who hinder the Church? Every worldly Christian hinders the progress of the Gospel. Every member of the Church who is living in secret sin, who tolerates anything wrong in their heart, and who does not seek their own personal sanctification is, to that extent, hindering the work of the Spirit of God. If we maintain known unholiness, we restrain the Spirit; He cannot work through us as long as any conscious sin is tolerated.
This also applies to worldliness—caring for carnal things while neglecting spiritual matters. A person may have just enough grace to make them hope they are Christians, but not enough to prove they are. This partial barrenness, although not enough to condemn, is still sufficient to restrain the blessing and hinder the Church’s progress. Let us repent and return to our first works, that we might be used mightily in God’s work.
V. The Blessing for Those Who Engage in Travail
Now, I close not with a note of woe, but with a word of blessing. Those who feel the soul-travail that brings souls to God will be abundantly blessed. Your own heart will be watered. Consider the old illustration of the two travelers who passed a man frozen in the snow. One traveler said, “I have enough to do to keep myself alive, I will hasten on.” But the other said, “I cannot pass a fellow creature while there is the least breath in him.” He knelt down, rubbed the frozen man with great vigor, and eventually the man came back to life. What did they find as they walked together? It was the traveler who had helped the frozen man who remained alive! The friction he had given to the other man kept his own blood flowing, preserving his vigor.
So it is with soul-winning: you will bless yourselves when you bless others. There is no greater joy, except the joy of our communion with Christ, than that of bringing others to trust the Savior. Seek this joy, and what if you should see your own children converted? You have long hoped for it, but your hopes have been disappointed. God will give you that blessing when you live more closely to Him. Yes, wife, the husband’s heart will be won when your heart is perfectly consecrated! Yes, mother, your daughter shall love the Savior when you love Him better! Yes, teacher, God intends to bless your class, but not until He has made you fit to receive that blessing.
Closing Prayer and Call to Action
I ask the prayers of the Church for a time of revival. While I do not complain about my work, I do believe the time for revival is now. We cannot afford to remain stagnant. Let us pray earnestly for the salvation of souls, both near and far. We must not turn back—we dare not turn back. We have put our hand to the plow, and the curse will be upon us if we turn back! Let us press forward, trusting in the power of God’s Spirit, and let the blood of the Lamb carry us onward to victory. In Jesus’ name, we ask it. Amen.
Portion of Scripture Read Before Sermon – Isaiah 66