Because there's something about God's method that just works, you know what I mean, of just
talking to people, just preaching to them, going out like Jesus did where he just finds
the woman at the well, one blind man, two deaf men, you know, talking to just a couple
people, one person, one on one, you know, that's what seems to get it done, my friend.
House to house, that's what the Bible says, daily in the temple at every house.
And you know, you'll notice that this morning's sermon wasn't exactly a salvation
message, was it? Was this morning's sermon a salvation sermon? I didn't even mention
salvation. But do you notice that when the sermon ends, the people who are saved,
they go to the visitor and give him the gospel. And that's about a hundred
times more effective. Nobody walks out that door without hearing the gospel.
You know, at least they ought not. And if they do, then shame on you, church
member, for not going and trying to give them the gospel. But I'll tell you right now,
that's a lot more effective than trying to get them to walk down an aisle that
they might be embarrassed to do. And it always blew me away watching a pastor
for ten minutes beg someone to come talk to him. The piano's gonna play one
more time, just as I am. One more stanza. You, God speaking to you, come get saved.
Please come. You raised your hand earlier. Come, come, come. Here's an idea.
Why don't you go walk over to them? Wow, that's an ingenious idea, isn't it?
Please come and be saved. Get up. Come down the aisle. Hey,
that aisle goes both ways, buddy. Why don't you get off your little platform,
your little staircase, and go down and give them the gospel and get down
on their level. How hard is it? Well, it's gonna embarrass them. Yeah, but it's not
gonna embarrass them for 15 minutes of just as I am 500 times, begging them to come.
You raised your hand. Come, come, come. The piano plays. Come.
See, in the aisle. Come on, come on. It's bizarre. Look, I went, okay, let me
give you an example. I'm in a preaching service with, who was it, Richie. This
was great. We're at this service with Scott. You were there, right? Scott was
there. Richie was there. You were there, Chris. And who else was there?
Anybody else from our church? There might have been some people. I know that you guys
are, we're at this service, and this preacher gets up to preach, and he said
something in his sermon about, like, you gotta repent of your sins or
whatever. So he gets to the end, and he's doing the invitation at the end,
okay? And he says, he's first gonna ask who's saved. So he says, like, how many
of you would say that you know for sure you're saved, because you had a
specific time that you repented under sin and trusted Christ as Savior. Slip up your
hand. So we all have our eyes closed, our whole church. We all have our eyes closed, but just
all independently of one another, none of us raised our hand. Because we're like, I didn't repent of my sins, I just believed on Christ. So we all have the same thing going through our mind, like, we're not even talking to each other, so none of our
hands goes up. So then he asked the question how many of you would say, I'm not saved, or whatever, you know, you know, pray for me, I'm not saved, or whatever, okay? And I hear him say, God bless you, I see that hand. So I'm thinking,
cuz I didn't raise my hand that I'm not saved. So I just didn't raise my hand at all. I just didn't participate in it. So I hear this old man who was the guest speaker, he's like, God
bless you, I see that hand.
So I'm thinking to myself, oh wow,
somebody in the auditorium raised their hand
that they're now saved.
You know, I didn't think it was somebody
from our group or something, you know.
So you know, we keep our heads bowed, our eyes closed,
and now that that hand has gone up,
you know, now the begging and pleading begins, okay?
Come on down the aisle, you know,
you raise your hand before it's too late.
Come on down, you know, this is, the price is right.
Come on down and get saved, come back.
And you know, they pleaded and pleaded, you know,
just as I am, about 15 times.
And then they closed the service, okay?
And well actually, they didn't close the service.
Then we sang a song, then we were gonna
open the song book and sing a congregational song
after all the just as I am instrumental was through.
So you know, we open our hymnals
and start to sing the song.
And you know, it's a very serious time,
you know, it's imitation time, very serious.
And so Richie just looks over at me
and just like says, yeah, I'm going to raise my hand.
So I'm just trying so hard not to laugh,
you know, because I'm trying to be all serious
because it's all sober and everybody's real sober
and I'm trying to sing the song and I just,
I was like, I just keep starting to laugh.
I couldn't help but laugh.
Because he's like, he's like, I didn't repent of my sins
so I raised my hand on that question.
So you know, I'm just trying so hard not to laugh.
But here's the moral of the story.
We get done, you know, singing through that song.
I'm trying to think, you ever try not to laugh
and think of every like really negative thing?
I was thinking of really bad depressing things
like trying to think of every problem I have in life,
you know, just to stop smiling.
So then we get through that and then get this.
This is the part that's going to blow you away.
Keep in mind, this guy's up there
begging him to come down the aisle.
He thinks that Richie's not safe.
He doesn't know that Richie's being a smart aleck,
you know, so here's what happens.
We all line up to leave and that preacher
is at the back door shaking hands
with everyone as they depart.
And Richie walks up to the guy,
shakes his hand, and the guy says,
hey, thanks for being here, see ya.
And doesn't even give him the gospel.
Now, does that make any sense?
He begs him to come down the aisle
and because he won't get up and
boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop,
come down the aisle, you know?
Then you basically just won't even give him the gospel.
See you later, have a good night.
If that guy really wanted to get him saved,
why not just say, hey, why not just say,
hey buddy, thanks for coming tonight,
can I talk to you about salvation?
Can I, you know, is it all right
if I go over with you real quick?
And see, here's the thing,
I would have just skipped all the hand-raising
and the begging and pleading because guess what?
Just because somebody raised their hand
or doesn't raise their hand
doesn't really make them saved anyway, does it?
So here's what I do.
I just try to give the gospel to every preacher.
And in fact, I got that idea from the Bible.
Okay?
I think it was Mark 16, 15
where it said to preach the gospel to every preacher.
And I thought that was a pretty good idea.
So when I see a preacher, I just give him the gospel.
You know, and I don't sit there
and wait for them to raise their hand
or walk down the aisle.
Okay?
And the thing is, these preachers,
he had a clear conscience in his own mind
thinking to himself,
I've done all I can do for that guy.
Well, was he using God's method?
Did God say to make people jump through a hoop
and then they could be saved?
Then you're worthy of you giving them the gospel?
See, that guy thought in his mind,
well, I gave him a chance to come down the aisle.
And you know what?
Richie was already saved, thank God.
But I wonder how many services that guy has been in
with people who really weren't saved,
who really raised their hand that they weren't saved
and who were embarrassed to get up
and walk down in front of the whole church.
And then he just lets them go.
He just lets them walk away.
He just shakes their hand and says,
hey, see you later.
When he could have saved that whole debacle
and just walked up to people,
and I know it's so complicated,
but just open the Bible
and just ask them if you can show them.
It doesn't make people mad.
So what?
And if people get mad, you know, whatever.
But I mean, what is the point of us all sitting around
for this invitation time
because it came from the Protestants anyway
with their little city-wide revivals
and Billy Graham and all these, Bob Jones
and all these people with their little
dramatic little sawdust trail
and all the crying and weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Why not just open the Bible and give people the gospel?
But they have to get all cute about it.
And look, you think I'm splitting hairs tonight?
I'm not.
I'm not splitting hairs when somebody walks in
and says, I'm not saved.
Will you come down to my feet here at this altar?
Okay, then see ya.
Tell me, justify that to me.
Justify to me somebody saying, I'm not saved,
and the preacher saying, okay,
everyone's gonna close their eyes
and you're gonna stand up and walk down to the front.
That sounds weird.
And if he won't do it,
then we're not gonna give you the gospel.
No gospel for you, buddy.
You didn't come down the aisle.
You know, and I'm sick of this Bob Barker Baptist Church
where it's all about coming down the aisle.
Amen.
Look, it's not biblical, okay?
And look, I'd be okay with it
except it's a substitute for giving the gospel.
If they did both, okay, but guess what?
They don't.
And that's why when I was a guest preacher at this play,
I preached a message that didn't have anything to do
with salvation.
I preached the Bible and guess what I did?
I instructed the people that were there that would say,
hey, let's give the gospel to these unsaved relatives.
Let's give the gospel to these visitors.
And guess what?
They got saved.