"We didn’t wish to drive them away by preaching the truth. But since they went of their own accord, we certainly don’t want them back as members." - Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Soul Winner: How to Lead Sinners to the Saviour
We don't preach the Word in order to scatter, but in attempting to gather God's elect. The inevitable result, however, is that those offended by God's Word will scatter. "The same sun that melts the ice hardens the clay" and the only way to keep some from hardening would be to reduce the heat enough to keep them soft. But at that temperature, the ice wouldn't melt either and everyone's hearts would either remain soft by hiding from the Word or hard by keeping away from it.
"Hard preaching produces soft hearts and soft preaching produces hard hearts."
- Jim Wilson
If you bend over backwards to get disobedient people back into your flock, you will find that you do not have a flock, but an infestation.You should welcome them back to hear the truth if they are so inclined, but you should not chase them down with lies in order to win them back to the truth; unless your aim is to increase the number of those killed by your tower's inevitable collapse.
We want people to feel welcome to stay and hear the Word, but that presupposes the Word will be present... even if it means their absence. The Word will be present even if it means they won't be accounted for. by refusing to show up and be counted The One to whom we must all given an account must be as present now in Word and power as He will be one day in person.
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