The Urgency of the Gospel

On Sunday night October 8, 1871, D. L. Moody was preaching at his church in Chicago on the topic, “What Shall I Do with Jesus?” At the conclusion of the sermon, he told the large crowd to take the text home and think it over. He said that the next week he would preach on the cross and ask them to answer the question they had been thinking on all week. But that Sunday night, the great Chicago fire swept across the city, destroying thousands of buildings, including Moody’s church, and leaving some three hundred people dead.

“I have never since dared,” Moody later said, “to give an audience a week to think of their salvation. If they were lost they might rise up, in judgment against me. I have never seen that congregation since. But I want to tell you of one lesson that I learned that night which I have never forgotten, and that is, when I preach, to press Christ upon the people then and there and try to bring them to a decision on the spot. I would rather have that right hand cut off than to give an audience a week now to decide what to do with Jesus.”

Salvation is literally a matter of life and death—eternal life and eternal death—and our presentation of the gospel to others should reflect that. It should be a matter of greatest urgency.

Today’s Gospel Declaration Principle:

If we realize the certainty of Heaven and Hell, there is no room for casual witnessing to the lost.