I will, dear God, and I can, it's like I'm there just watching the whole thing take place.
And Father, please just speak to our hearts tonight in the message.
Help us to learn this great truth, probably the greatest truth that I could ever preach
behind this pulpit for a safe person to understand this, dear God.
And so please speak to every heart, and in Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
Now in Acts chapter 8, what a great story.
Philip winning this Ethiopian eunuch to the Lord, a man who's seeking God.
I mean, he's reading the Bible, he's studying the Old Testament Scriptures,
he wants to be saved, but unfortunately there's just nobody to tell him how to be saved.
He said, how can I understand what I'm reading except some man should guide me?
And here Philip is brought by the Holy Spirit of God to speak to this man.
Philip opens up the Bible and that the same Scripture begins and preaches to him Jesus.
The man ends up getting saved, he believes on Jesus Christ, he's baptized right then and there,
the Holy Spirit takes Philip away, and he goes his way rejoicing.
What a great story.
Now, one thing that I've become painfully aware of is that the average church in America
has very few people who are a bona fide soul winner.
First of all, there are a lot of churches that are just not soul winning churches, let's face it.
I mean, they may be an independent Baptist church, they may be fundamental,
they may be King James Bible only, glory to God,
but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're a soul winning church.
Some of them are just as dead as a doornail, and they don't win people to Christ,
they don't baptize converts, and that's a tragedy.
But then among those fewer churches in the ranks of independent Baptists that are actually a soul winning church,
well, then there's still only a small percentage of that church that's actually the ones that are involved in winning souls,
that are winning friends and loved ones to the Lord, that are showing up at the soul winning times,
that are knocking doors, or what have you.
But then among those smaller group of the church that's a soul winning church,
which is a smaller group of independent Baptists,
then of those who go out soul winning and win people to Christ,
there's an even smaller group that actually gets people saved
versus just maybe handing out a flyer or just inviting somebody to church,
which is great to go out and invite people to church,
but I'm talking about being a bona fide soul winner.
So what I mean by that is somebody who has the ability to strike up a conversation with somebody,
whether it's at a door, whether it's a friend or relative,
strike up a conversation with somebody, present to them the Gospel, the plan of salvation,
and then lead them to salvation.
Now that's what I mean by being a soul winner.
Now, you'd be surprised how few people there are in America that are a bona fide soul winner.
And it's a tragedy. You ever wonder why the world's not just being one to Christ?
I mean, you think that the Gospel would be just multiplying greatly like it did in the Book of Acts.
It says the number of the disciples in those days multiplied greatly.
Why aren't we seeing that in America?
I'll tell you why.
We're not seeing it because so few people have an understanding
of what it means to win somebody to Christ.
And so tonight I'm going to preach to you a very educational
how-to type of message of how to win a soul to Christ.
Now, this is not something that I read in a book somewhere.
This is something that I've been doing for the last eight years of my life.
I've been a soul winner.
For the last eight years, I've knocked doors, I've talked to friends, loved ones, co-workers,
and I've seen literally hundreds of people saved,
and I've seen literally hundreds of people baptized through my soul-winning efforts.
So this is something, these are tried and proven methods that I've used
and that you could use to win people to the Lord.
Now, this is not the only way to win people to the Lord, of course.
Everybody has different methods and different ways of doing it.
This is the way that I do it.
And this is the way that people that I've taught have done it, and it works.
And so let me go through this with you.
Now, number one, the first thing I want to tell you about this,
you must have the Bible to get people saved, all right?
You have to either have a Bible in your hand
or you have to have the verses memorized.
Now, I shouldn't even have to bring that up.
I mean, that should totally go without saying.
But unfortunately, there's a movement going on in the last few years
of people teaching that you do not need the Bible to get saved
and you do not need the Word of God to be saved.
They say, well, it's just the gospel that saves you.
It's just the truth that saves you.
And the Bible has nothing to do with it.
Now, look, friend, I'm going to tell you right now
that that's a lie out of hell, and I'm not afraid to say so.
Anybody who teaches that you can get saved without the Bible is a liar.
And if they're teaching that you can be saved without the Bible,
then I suppose that if salvation comes without the Word of God,
well, then I guess sanctification can come without the Word of God.
And I guess everything can come without the Word of God
because what do we need the Word of God for?
We don't need it for salvation.
Let me give you just a few scriptures, and this is not exhaustive
because I don't want to spend the whole sermon on this, and I could,
but I'm just going to give you a few scriptures proving to you
that the Word of God is what's necessary for salvation.
How about this one?
Verily, verily, I say unto you, this is John 5.24,
He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me
hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation,
but is passed from death to life.
What's step number one?
Hearing the Word.
You remember the parable of the sower?
Remember the four categories of people?
The one that was in the good ground, the thorns,
the stony places, the ones that fell by the wayside?
What was the common denominator?
He that heareth the Word.
That's what they all start with.
It says the sower showeth the Word.
It says he that fell among thorns is he that heareth the Word,
and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches
chokeeth the Word and he becomeeth unfruitful.
The common denominator in that story
is that everybody heard the Word of God.
That's how they got,
that's how anybody's ever going to get saved.
It's how anybody ever even has a chance to get saved
is when they hear God's Word.
1 Peter 1.23, being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible,
by the Word of God, which liveth and abides forever,
born again by the Word of God.
You see that?
James 1.18, of his own will begat he us
with the Word of truth,
that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
You see, God used the Word of God as the seed
wherewith he begat us as his children.
The seed that he put out there was the Word of God.
And then again in James 1.21,
wherefore lay apart all filthiness
and superfluity of naughtiness,
and receive with meekness the engrafted Word
which is able to save your souls.
You see, the Word of God is able to save your souls
if you're not saved.
And don't tell me that somebody can be saved by Jesus
apart from his Word.
Jesus is the Word, my friend.
And that's what the Bible teaches.
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And you must receive with meekness the engrafted Word
which is able to save your souls.
Think about Romans 10,
one of the most famous passages in the entire Bible.
Romans 10.13,
for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved.
How then shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed?
And how shall they believe in him
of whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher?
And how shall they preach except they be sent?
As it is written,
how beautiful are the feet of them
that preach the gospel of peace,
that bring glad tidings of good things.
But they have not all obeyed the gospel,
for as I have saved the Lord
who hath believed I'll report,
so then faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God.
You see the category, it goes,
the preacher preaches,
and that's not just talking about a pastor.
I mean, that's talking about anybody
who's preaching the gospel.
The preacher preaches.
The Word of God, they hear the Word of God,
they believe on who they just heard the Word of God about,
and then they call on Jesus Christ for salvation.
Now, isn't that simple?
He says you can't call on somebody you don't believe in.
You can't believe in somebody you've never heard of,
and you're not going to hear
except you hear the Word of God,
and that's where the faith comes from
is when you hear the Word of God
and you believe the Word of God.
Now, I'm going to move on from that point
that that's a whole nother sermon
where I could just go through the Bible
and I could show you that there's more times in the Bible
that say that the Word of God saves you
than say that Jesus saves you.
I mean, that actual word,
because you can go all through the Old Testament
showing scriptures that the Word of God saves you.
And so to say that the Word of God
is apart from salvation
is just to basically ignore what the Bible says.
And I know it's very popular
because they want to teach
that people who don't have the Bible,
like people who are using the living Bible
and paraphrased of the Bible,
are winning all these people to Christ
and they're blowing our doors off.
No, my friend, they're not blowing our doors off.
They're taking a bunch of people to hell with them,
teaching them in work, salvation, and everything else.
But let's move on from that.
This is a how-to type of message.
Now, before we go any further,
you might say to me,
well, Pastor Anderson, wait a second.
You keep talking about winning people to Christ.
You keep talking about getting people saved.
Now, I thought, you know,
a lot of people will say,
you shouldn't use that terminology
because Jesus does the saving.
I mean, we're just supposed to sow the seed.
Well, my friend, that's just not true.
Let me read you a few scriptures.
This is what Paul said in Romans 11, 13.
For I speak to you Gentiles
inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles,
I magnify mine office.
If by any means I may provoke to emulation
them which are my flesh and might save some of them.
He said, my goal is to provoke to emulation
some of them that are of my flesh and to save them.
He says, I want to save people.
It says in 1 Corinthians 9, 22,
I am made all things to all men
that I might by all means save some.
See, he uses that terminology.
I want to be anything to anybody that I might save some.
And then in Jude 1, 22, the Bible says,
and if some have compassion making a difference
and others save with fear,
pulling them out of the fire,
hating even the garments spotted by the flesh.
You see, this thing of soul winning
is not something that God does alone.
It's something that God and us,
we partner together with God to win souls.
You see, it's not just why,
just sow the seed and Jesus does the saving.
Look, this is something where God has committed to us
the ministry of reconciliation,
where we work together with God.
Now, is Paul saying that he's the savior?
No.
But when he says, I'm saving you,
what he's saying is, you know,
it's like if I threw the life vest out to somebody, okay?
The life vest is what saved them,
but hey, I'm the one that pointed them,
hey, it's over here, buddy, grab onto it.
And so, look, using the terminology,
I got somebody saved or I won somebody to Christ
is a very biblical terminology.
The Bible says in Proverbs 11, 30,
the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life
and he that win its souls is wise.
So yes, I am a soul winner, I do win souls to Christ.
It's just something that I could not do without God
and it's something that God could not do without me.
Because if God could get people saved without me,
he'd get everybody saved.
But he's committed to us, the ministry of reconciliation,
he's chosen to involve us in the soul winning process.
And so he says, if you'll labor together with me,
if you'll take my yoke upon you,
you and me will be side by side winning people to Christ.
Boy, glory to God.
How could you get any closer to God
than when you're right there with him
winning somebody to the Lord,
when you're in the yoke with him,
pulling with him to get people saved?
And so I just wanted to dispel that
before we go any further.
So number one, in order to win somebody to Christ,
you must have the Bible
or you must have the verses memorized,
some kind of a seed that's got to be there
to get somebody saved, they got to hear the word of God.
But number two, in order for somebody to get saved,
you have to get them to realize that they're lost.
And this is the hardest part about getting people saved
is to get them to realize that they're not saved,
that they're lost.
Now, how are you going to do it?
Well, look if you would at 1 John chapter number one,
this is right toward the end of your Bible,
just a few books before the end.
1 John chapter number one.
And if you look at 1 John chapter number one,
verse number 10, you'll see a very important verse
to realize, it says in 1 John 1 10,
if we say that we have not sinned,
we make him a liar and his word is not in us.
You see that?
It's impossible for somebody to receive God's word
and receive Jesus Christ as Savior
if they're making him a liar by saying,
I have not sinned.
Do you see that?
I mean, do you see that admitting that you're a sinner
is necessary for salvation right there from that verse?
Because it says if we say we've not sinned,
we're making him a liar and his word is not in us.
We're not saved if we say that we've never sinned.
And so that's what God's saying here.
Now, this is the hardest part of soul learning.
Once you can get somebody to admit that they're lost,
usually you can get them saved.
Well, how do we do this?
Well, let me give you a few of my methods that I use,
and then I'll give you the scriptural rationale
behind them.
Method number one, this is what I use.
I use this both with coworkers that I work with.
I was in Chicago earlier this week.
I talked to two people that I worked with.
There were two people that I came into contact with
at my job, coworkers that I drove from place to place with.
I gave the gospel to both of them.
Okay, one of them said he was already saved
and he gave a good testimony of being saved.
The other one did not receive the gospel.
You know, not everybody you talk to is going to get saved.
Let's face it, sometimes you are just sowing the seed.
But I talked to both of them.
And this is the way I brought it up to both of them.
And this is my number one method
for getting into the conversation
and to show somebody their need for salvation,
whether at a door or in my personal life.
And by the way, the way I go soul learning at the door
is very similar to the way I do
with my friends and family.
Same gospel.
And so here's method number one.
I asked him this question.
If you were to die today,
do you know for sure that you'd go to heaven?
Now that's a good question and here's why.
Here's some of the answers that you might get.
You might get an answer like,
well, I hope so, I'm trying.
Now right away you know that that person's not saved
because they think that it's a hope so
and they think it's based on what they're doing.
You know, I'm trying.
Here's another answer you might get
when you ask that question.
Well, nobody can know that.
Now here's an obvious giveaway.
This person's not saved.
And so this is what you're trying to figure out,
whether somebody's saved and you know,
you can't know 100% but you're trying to get an idea
and you're trying to get them to see
that they're not saved.
Here's another answer you might get.
Well, I'm pretty sure I would.
I think I would, you know.
Another indication of this person's probably not saved
is they have a lack of confidence.
And so when they answer that question,
well, let's say they give an answer like,
yeah, I'm pretty sure I would
or well, yeah, I would go, I know I would.
Well then the next thing I ask them,
I say, well, how do you know?
Or I'll ask them this.
I'll say, if you were to stand before God right now
and he were to ask you, you know,
why should I let you in heaven, what would you tell him?
And if I ask that question,
here's some of the answers I might get.
Well, I've lived a pretty good life, you know.
Or I might get an answer like,
well, I've never really done anything that bad, you know.
Hey, come on.
Or I might get an answer like,
well, I go to church, I follow the Bible,
I've been a Sunday school teacher for 40 years
and I follow the commandments.
Now these are all dead giveaways
that somebody's not safe.
But you know what the greatest answer
that you want to get when you ask that question?
This is the best answer that I love to hear.
You know what?
I know I wouldn't go to heaven.
I know I'd go to hell.
Okay, that's the best answer because boom,
they already know their loss.
This is going to be the easiest person to get saved.
But any variety of those answers
is going to tell you that they're not safe.
Now, method number one of just asking that question,
do you know for sure if you died that day?
That's going to work most of the time.
Most of the time you're going to get one of those answers.
Now every once in a while,
somebody will answer you with the right answer
and they'll say, yeah, I know I'm going to heaven.
And they'll say, oh, because of Jesus.
So, you know, it's the right answer.
But sometimes maybe the person just told you
that they went to a Roman Catholic church, you know.
I'm a Roman Catholic.
Or, you know, I'm an Episcopalian.
And then they're like, well,
did they answer the right questions?
Well, I guess they must be safe.
Well, look, dig a little deeper.
Because sometimes you'll talk to somebody
and you can just get a feel this person's not safe.
Either because they go to some kind of a,
they're a Mormon, you know, or a Catholic or something.
Or you just kind of get a feel
that they're probably not safe.
Well, here's what I go to the second method.
I ask them this question.
Number two, I ask them, well, you know,
what if you were to quit church?
What if you were to just start living like the devil?
I mean, what if you just quit going to church,
left your wife, started going to the bar every night?
Are you going to heaven then?
Or I'll ask them, what if you were to commit suicide?
Would you still go to heaven then?
And if they say, well, yes, I would go to heaven
because I'm safe, you know.
Well, then, you know, that's saying
that they're trusting Jesus Christ for salvation.
But, you know, most of the time
when you go to that step,
they're going to say, well, wait a minute, you know.
You can't just live however you want.
I mean, I'd go to hell if I committed suicide.
That's an unpardonable sin.
Yeah, and these are ways to just kind of get people
to expose the fact that they're not trusting
Jesus Christ for salvation.
Sometimes, here's my third method.
My first one is I say, do you know for sure
if you die today, you go to heaven?
Second method, can you lose it?
Yeah, and I'll give some scenarios.
And then my third method is I just start
giving them my testimony.
And I tell them, you know what, I was six years old.
I got on my knees by my bedside.
You know, I'll go through the whole story
about how my mom wanted me to Christ
and how I just believed I was a sinner.
I knew I was on my way to hell
and I just asked Jesus Christ to save me,
put all my faith in him.
And I just tell him, according to the Bible,
God saved me, gave me eternal life.
And no matter what I do, I couldn't go to hell
if I wanted to, because I'm saved with a D on the end.
Past tense, tis done, the great transaction's done.
I am my Lord, and he is mine.
And so I'm saved, born again.
Nothing can change that.
And then this goes, well, wait a minute.
So just because when you were six years old, you prayed,
that means that you're saved forever?
That doesn't make sense.
What if you go out and do this?
And you can't just live however you want.
And all three of these methods
are to get people to admit one thing,
that they believe that works
is something that you have to do for salvation.
They believe that it's something
that you have to live right,
or you either have to live right to get it,
or you got to live right to keep it,
or you got to live right, fill in the blank.
Because that's what separates people that aren't saved.
I mean, people are trusting in work salvation.
If they're saying, I know I'm going to heaven
because I live right, or whatever.
And so that's those three methods.
Now, what's the rationale behind these methods?
Look at 1 John chapter five.
You're already in 1 John chapter one.
Just flip a few pages over to 1 John five.
You say, Pastor Anderson, why is it
that if people tell you they're trusting Jesus Christ,
why is it that you ask them
about losing your salvation?
Why is it that you ask them about
if they were to commit suicide,
or what a crazy question.
We'll look at 1 John five, 10.
The Bible says, he that believeth on the Son of God
hath the witness in himself.
Now, the witness, if you go back a little bit,
you'll see that's the Holy Ghost
mentioned in verse number, let's see,
I think it's in verse number eight.
Talks about there are three that bear witness in the earth,
the spirit and the water and the blood.
And it's talking about the Holy Spirit is the witness.
And so in verse number 10, it says,
he that believeth on the Son of God
hath the witness in himself.
He that believeth not God hath made him a liar
because he believeth not the record
that God gave of his Son.
So right away, we see that there are two kinds
of people in this world.
There are those that call God a liar,
they make him a liar,
and there are those who say,
I believe the record that God gave of his Son.
What's the record?
Look at the next verse.
And this is the record.
This is what people believe if they're saved,
is what he's saying.
That God has given to us eternal life
and this life is in his Son.
He that hath the Son hath life
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
These things have I written unto you
that believe on the name of the Son of God
that you may know that you have eternal life
and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God.
He says, look, there's two people in this world,
the one that makes God a liar
and the one that believes the record
that God gave of his Son.
And this is the record that God hath given.
See, he gave it to us for free, it's a gift,
that God hath given to us eternal life.
That means you get it once,
you're saved eternally,
and this life is in his Son.
It's through Jesus Christ.
That's the three things that people believe that are saved.
They believe that God gave it to us.
It's not of works,
that's any man supposed to give to God.
They believe that it's eternal life
and they believe that it's through Jesus Christ.
And see, if they don't believe that,
then they're making God a liar
because they don't believe the record
that God gave to his Son.
And everybody who doesn't believe in eternal security
is trusting works, my friend,
because they're saying,
I have to maintain my salvation.
And they'll try to disguise it
and don't let them deceive you.
Let me tell you something.
The Nazarenes are not saved.
I don't care whether you like that or not.
That's the truth.
I could lie to you
and tell you that they're saved if you want me to,
but I'm going to tell you the truth
and the Nazarenes are not saved.
They say you can lose your salvation.
They try to doctor it up and hide it
and say, well, you lose it by willfully walking out of it.
But if you go on their statement of faith,
it says that if you just live a life of sin,
well, then you're basically telling God
that you're walking out of it.
Now, let me tell you something.
There are a lot of people that are saved and born again
that live a life of sin and they're still saved
because you can't lose your salvation.
And they're saying that if you don't live right,
you will lose it eventually if you live in sin.
And they're not saved.
And if you don't believe that, that's fine,
but that's the truth because they don't believe
the record that God gave of his son
because they don't believe in eternal life.
They believe in now I'm saved, now I'm not,
now I'm saved, now I'm not.
Hey, I'm not saved and not saved, saved, not saved.
I've been passed from death to life
and shall never come into condemnation, John 5.24,
the verse that was shown to me in 1987
when I was on my knees and trusting Christ as Savior.
I saw John 5.24.
It said I'll never come into condemnation.
That's the gospel, my friend.
The Nazarenes are preaching a false gospel tonight.
They're going to hell.
We need to get them saved.
Let's stop pretending that they're saved
and let's go get them saved.
You think we're doing them a favor by lying to them
and telling them they're saved?
We're not.
We need to tell them that they need to trust
Jesus Christ for eternal life, my friend.
But anyway, that was for free.
Romans 8.16, here's another verse.
And the Bible says in 1 John 5.13,
hey, you can know for sure you're going to heaven
if you believe the name of Jesus Christ,
it's said in 1 John 5.13.
But Romans 8.16, here's another verse
that kind of explains why asking people
if they know for sure they can go to heaven
is a pretty good way to get a feel
for whether they're saved.
Look at Romans 8.16.
I love this verse.
It says the Spirit itself,
talking about the Holy Spirit of God,
capital letter there,
the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit
that we're the children of God.
You know, the Bible's saying here is that
people that are saved,
they have an assurance that they're saved
because the Holy Spirit bears witness
with their spirit that they're saved.
Now, is that to say that no one who's saved
can ever doubt their salvation?
Of course not, you know.
People that are saved doubt their salvation
in order to get away from the Lord
and they doubt whether they're really saved.
But that's maybe because they've quenched
the Holy Spirit in their life a little bit.
But most people that are saved
are confident that they're saved
because they have the Holy Spirit bearing witness
with their spirit that they're the children of God.
And so it's not to say that these methods,
these three methods are foolproof methods.
This is just a starting point that I use
to try to illustrate to somebody
you're not trusting Jesus Christ,
you're trusting in yourself to get you to heaven.
And that's really how you can divide
everybody in this world right here.
100% faith in Jesus Christ,
faith in anything else.
Yourself, your religion, your church,
part Jesus, part church, whatever.
And then there's if thou believeth with all thine heart
thou mayest, as we saw in Act 837,
where you take all your faith,
whatever little it may be,
and just say, I'm putting it on Jesus.
That's salvation.
Clear and simple, the gospel.
If thou believeth with all thine heart.
That's the gospel.
So number one, we saw, you gotta have the Bible.
You gotta have the, or memorize the verses.
And that way you can win people the Lord any time.
Or at least memorize one verse.
You know, memorize John 3.16,
use that to get people saved.
It's not like you have to have the whole Bible
to get somebody saved.
But the more verses, obviously,
it's going to be a lot easier to win,
excuse me, to win people to Christ.
Number two, you gotta get people to realize
that they're lost before you can get them saved.
Okay, number three, now here's the first step
in getting people saved.
Show them that they're a sinner
and that they're condemned to hell.
So after you go through this with them
and they say, well, I hope so, I'm trying.
You say, well, listen, let me tell you right now
how you could know so.
You know, if I could take the Bible
and show you how you could know so,
could I do that?
And a lot of times they'll say, sure.
Sometimes they'll say, no, I don't care.
And then you move on to the next person.
But if they say, sure.
I say, look, it'll only take a few minutes.
Could I just show you how you could know so
instead of hope so?
And they say, sure.
Then I open the Bible
and I take them to Romans chapter three
and I show them these two verses.
The first thing I show them is Romans 3.10.
The Bible says, as it is written,
there is none righteous, no, not one.
And I tell them, you know what righteous means?
It means you do right all the time.
There's nobody like that.
There's none righteous.
And then I take them down to verse 23.
For all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God.
I say, look, everybody's a sinner.
All of a sudden, I sin every day.
You sin, we've all sinned.
And not only that,
but we've come short of the glory of God.
That means that we don't measure up to what God expects
and we don't measure up good enough
to go to heaven for sure.
We come short of that.
And then there are other verses that you could use
if you want to jot these down.
You could use Romans 5.12
or you could use, you know, other verses like that.
And then the next step is I show them
the punishment for sin.
That's in Romans 6.23.
The Bible says in Romans 6.23,
for the wages of sin is death.
And I show them that because of our sin,
every human being will die someday
because of their sin.
And then I take them to the book of Revelation
in chapter number 20.
And I'm going through this kind of quickly,
but it's because I want to get to
some of the meat of the sermon here,
but I want to give you the message here
for winning people of the Lord.
You know, show them they're a sinner,
show them the punishment for sin,
the wages of sin is death.
And then I take them to Revelation 20.14,
where the Bible reads,
and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.
This is the second death.
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life
was cast into the lake of fire.
You see, there's a first death,
and following the first death is the second death,
where not only do you die physically,
but next you're cast into the lake of fire,
and to hell, that's the second death
that you're going to face for your sins.
Then I take them right across the page
to Revelation 21.8, and I read this list,
but the fearful and unbelieving,
and the abominable and murderers
and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters.
And I say, now you're none of those things, are you?
You're not a sorcerer, idolater, whoremonger, are you?
And they usually are thinking,
no, hey, I'm not those things.
But then it gets all of us and says,
and all liars shall have their part
in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone.
And I say, have you ever told a lie before?
And they inevitably say, yes, I've told a lie.
I say, well, I've lied to you, I've lied many times.
And I say, where does that say that all liars go?
And they say, well, it says that all liars go to hell.
I mean, if they're being honest.
It says that all liars go to hell,
and I say, that's right.
I said, so, because the Bible has condemned us
as all being sinners, none of us is righteous,
we all deserve to go to hell
because we've all broken God's laws
and we're all liars, and God said
even just a lie is enough to send you to hell.
I said, now God loves us though, right?
And they say, where?
And I say, well, if God loves us,
does God want us to go to hell?
No.
So this is what God has a problem here
because God loves us
and he wants us to be in heaven with him.
He wants us to live forever with him.
But we have a punishment that's condemning us.
His word that he's spoken out is not.
God said, I will not alter the thing
that's gone out of my lips.
And so God has said, all liars shall have their part
and the lake was burnt with fire and brimstone.
He's put a punishment on sin.
How is God going to balance this out?
And I say, well, this is what he did.
And I take him to Romans 5.8.
And I show him in Romans 5.8.
And this is the method that I go through
when I win people to the Lord.
This is exactly the method I use.
Take him to Romans 5.8 and I say,
but God commended his love toward us
and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
And I tell him, you know, Christ died for us.
You know what that means?
That means that Jesus Christ died instead of us.
We deserve that punishment to die and go to hell.
Jesus Christ did that for us.
Now at this point, I go into the gospel with him.
Now what's the gospel?
Of course, we know from 1 Corinthians 15, one through four,
the gospel is the death, burial,
and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And so what's the most powerful part of this whole story?
Is it the fact that they're a sinner?
No.
Is it the fact that there's a hell?
No.
Is it the fact that there's a heaven?
No.
The most powerful part of soul winning, my friend,
is the gospel.
The Bible says, for I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ,
for it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth,
to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
And so this is where I want to spend
my most passion and my most time,
is where I get to this point in the story
and I tell them this is what happened.
God himself became a human being.
God himself was born as a little child.
And if they look at me funny,
sometimes I'll show them where the Bible says
his name shall be called Immanuel,
what's being interpreted as God with us.
Matthew chapter one, verse 23.
And I show them that and I tell them,
God came to this earth as a human being.
He lived a perfect life, never sinned one time.
And he allowed them to take him
and of course they spit on him,
they beat him,
they whipped him with a whip 39 times,
they beat him so bad the Bible says
that Visage was more marred than any man.
I mean his face was mutilated beyond recognition.
They nailed him to a cross.
And I said with all that physical pain
of being nailed to a wooden cross
and hung out in public by the nails in his hands
where the weight is resting on his body.
And here he is hanging on a cross
with a crown of thorns in his head.
And the Bible says that he bare in his own body
our sins on the tree.
And I explained to them that this man, Jesus Christ,
was not only beaten and mocked and spit upon,
but the Bible says that every sin
that you've ever done, my friend,
every sin that I've ever done,
when Jesus was on that cross,
it was as if he had done it.
I mean the lie that you told,
it was like he was the liar.
And I told people far worse than you or me.
I say, you know, Adolf Hitler, Jeffrey Dahmer,
the Bible says he died for the sins of the whole world.
And I say, all the sins of mankind
that ever have been done or ever will be done,
every wicked, ungodly, vile sin,
murder, rape, anything.
And it was put on Jesus Christ,
it was as if he had done all that wicked sin.
And I tell them that God the Father,
because I explained to Trinity,
I just say there's God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, three in one.
And God the Father poured out his wrath
and damnation on his own son.
And the Bible says that he bruised his own side.
It pleased the Lord to bruise him, the Bible says.
Then God punished Jesus Christ for our sins.
And he died on the cross,
his body was buried in a tomb,
and his soul went down to hell
for three days and three nights.
And in three days and three nights,
I can't explain it,
but according to Jonah chapter two,
where I've studied, reading in Jonah chapter two,
it's like he suffered an eternity of hell.
Because Jonah said,
the earth which are bars was about me forever.
Referring to Jesus Christ being
in the heart of the earth, in hell.
And so Jesus Christ suffered for all those sins,
and he paid the awful price of sin,
damnation for all of mankind.
And then three days later,
up from the grave he arose.
He said, I have the power to lay down my life,
and I have the power to take it up again.
No man taking my life from me.
And so Jesus Christ rose again from the dead.
And I say to them, I say,
now look, did Jesus die for you before you were born,
or after you were born?
And they say, well, it's way before I was born.
You know, it was like 2,000 years before I was born.
I say, okay, well that means that Jesus Christ
died for your sins before you even done them.
And that means that Jesus Christ died for sins
that you haven't even done yet.
I mean, wrong things that you're going to do next week,
it's been paid for.
Jesus already paid it all.
And I say, now here's the only thing
you have to do to be saved.
And I take him to Acts 16.
And I show him Acts 16, 31.
And I say, this is all in the world
that you have to do to get saved, according to the Bible.
I said, Jesus has already paid it all.
He's already died for your sins.
He was buried.
He rose again, according to the scriptures.
And I say, Acts 16, 31, the latter part of verse 30,
it says, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
And at this point, here's what I do.
I emphasize what they don't have to do.
I say, does that say, go to church and you'll be saved?
And then no.
Does that say, live a good life and you'll be saved?
No.
Does that say, all the 10 commandments
and you'll be saved?
No.
Does that say, be willing to turn from your sins
and turn away from your wicked life and you'll be saved?
No.
Does it say that you have to be sorry for your sins?
No.
Does it say that you have to turn your whole life around
and start living for God?
No.
Does it say that you have to be baptized?
No.
Does it say that you have to come to church
and join the church and put money in the opposite place?
No.
And I say, what does it say you have to do?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then I say, OK, let me show you the most famous verse
in the whole Bible, John 3.16.
And I take him to John 3.16 and I say,
for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son
that whosoever believeth, anybody, whoever,
whosoever believeth in him should not perish
but have everlasting life.
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world through him might be saved.
He that believeth on him is not condemned,
but he that believeth not is condemned already
because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten
Son of God.
I say, look, there's a reason why people go to hell
and it's because they've not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son of God.
And there's a reason why people that are saved that are not
condemned, it's because he that believeth is not condemned.
He that believeth on him is not condemned.
And I show him, what is the deciding factor
whether you're going to be saved or not?
Believe.
Do you believe on Jesus Christ?
As it says in John 8.20, dost thou believe on the Son of God
is what Jesus asked the man.
That was the question that mattered.
He didn't ask him about his life.
He didn't ask him, are you willing to give up
your girlfriend that you're living with?
He said, dost thou believe on the Son of God?
And he said, Lord, who is it I'll believe on?
He says, it's Jesus talking to you.
And he says, I believe, as that man was saved.
And so once I can get them to see that,
that Jesus has paid it all, and that all they have to do
is believe on Jesus Christ, then I say, OK,
let me show you one last verse.
And I say, this verse ties it all together.
I take him to Romans 6.23, and I say,
this is the last verse I'm going to show you.
Take him to Romans 6.23, I show him,
for the wages of sin is death.
But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.
And I explain to him now, a gift, do you pay for it,
or is it free?
And they say, well, it's free.
And I say, well, somebody has to pay for it, right?
Who pays for it, the giver or the receiver?
And they say, well, the giver pays for it.
I say, OK, who's given us the gift of eternal life?
God.
So who's got to pay for it?
And they say, God.
How much do we have to pay?
Nothing.
And sometimes if they're having trouble getting it
at this point, I say to them, hey,
let me give you this Bible for a gift.
Can you give me $5?
And then they're, OK, it's not a gift.
Or I'll use other illustrations like that.
Hey, I'll give you this Bible.
Can you wash my car?
And they'll say, that's not a gift.
And I'll say, exactly.
And if God says that you have to do anything to work for it,
it's not a gift.
But if he pays for it and gives it to you as a gift,
I say, if I were going to give you this Bible,
what would you have to do for it to be yours if I said,
here, here's this Bible?
Just take it.
That's all.
And once you take it, I say, look, whose is it?
Is it mine or yours?
And they say, well, if you give it to me, then it's mine.
And I say, well, OK, well, if it's yours,
can I come back and take it whenever I want?
Say, well, no, you'd be a thief.
And I say, well, look, if it's eternal what I just
gave you, if God gives you eternal life,
that means it lasts forever.
Then how many times do you have to get that gift
if it's going to last you forever?
And they say, well, one time.
And I say, OK.
And so let me do a quick review up to this point,
what we've done so far.
I walked up to somebody.
Maybe it was a friend.
Maybe I'm driving in the work truck.
Maybe I'm out somewhere and just talking to somebody,
an in and out burger, like happened a couple weeks ago.
Or let's say I'm at the door, knocking doors.
Let's say I'm with my brother.
I mean, my brother's saved, but if I
had an unsaved brother or sister,
it'd be the same thing.
And I say, hey, look, let me ask you.
Let me ask them, if you were to die today,
do you know for sure you'd go to heaven?
And they say, well, no.
And I say, well, let me show you.
Let me show you.
Could I show you real quick?
Sure.
I show them, number one, you're a sinner.
All sinners deserve to go to hell, because God's a holy God.
And we sin every day, let's face it.
We're all ungothic.
And then I show them, number two, because of our sin,
and we deserve to go to hell.
That's everybody.
Actually, that's number one.
Anyway, number two, I say, Jesus Christ died for our sins
so that we wouldn't have to pay that price.
He paid it for us.
I show them Romans 5-8.
I explain them the gospel story.
I try to paint a picture of it so that they can be
moved by the power of the gospel.
And I show them a few other scriptures about the gospel.
Then I say, this is what you have to do to be saved.
I show them Acts 16-31.
I show them John 3-16.
I emphasize to them that believing on the Lord Jesus
Christ has saved you.
Then I take them to Romans 6-23,
where I kind of put the whole picture together and say,
we're sinners.
We don't deserve it.
We're on our way to hell.
Jesus paid it all.
He's got it wrapped up in a gift for you, eternal life.
He wants to give it to you.
All you have to do is receive it.
So in order to receive it, you receive it by faith,
because you can't see Jesus handing it to you.
You just have to believe it.
And if you believe on Jesus Christ,
not just believe in Jesus, like, yeah, I believe in Jesus,
but I'm going to heaven because I'm a good person.
But believe on Jesus, like, that's
why I'm going to heaven is only because of what he did,
nothing that I've done.
So I've explained in the whole gospel.
I mean, I've gone through it.
They know they're a sinner.
They know the whole story.
Now, here's the mistake that a lot of people make.
At this point in the story, this
is the most important part.
A lot of people go through this whole thing.
And this is the way I was when I didn't really
know how to win people to the Lord.
I'd go through all this and explain it all to people.
They'd be like, yeah, and I'd just be like,
so you need to get saved, right?
I'm like, yeah.
All right, you know what I mean?
I just didn't really know what to do from there.
Because do you know what I'm talking about?
I mean, if you've tried to win people to the Lord,
you know what I'm talking about.
So you need to get saved, right?
And you don't know what to do.
And a lot of people don't know, well, here's what I do.
And people do different things.
But this is what I do.
I say, OK, let me ask you a few questions now.
Now that you've seen it all, you've understood it all,
I ask you.
And I'm telling you, I think this
is one of the most important parts.
Obviously, you've got to be thorough this whole way
through.
Don't be one of these one, two, three, repeat after me
people.
That makes me sick.
I've seen people go up to people, all right,
you've got to know you're a sinner, right?
You're a sinner?
OK, right.
You know, they're not even quoting the verses by you.
And Jesus died for you, but God commanded his love toward us
while we were in sin.
Jesus died for us.
You believe that Jesus died and rose again?
Uh-huh.
OK.
And do you believe if you ask Jesus to save you,
you'll be saved, right?
OK, well, pray with me right now.
OK, let's bow our heads and pray.
Now, I've seen people go so many that way,
and that's disgusting.
That's not what God says to do.
That's not the right way of doing things.
People don't even understand.
You're getting somebody to pray a prayer.
Where does the Bible say, pray a prayer,
and you'll be saved?
They've got to believe with all their heart to be saved.
They've got to believe on Jesus Christ.
You must explain to them so they
can comprehend that it's not at work,
lest any man suppose.
You've got to explain to them the gospel, good night.
Don't be some one, two, three, repeat after me.
I've got 20 people saved in the last 20 minutes.
I mean, that's ridiculous.
And so do a thorough job, but this
is the most important part.
You've done a thorough job.
You presented the gospel.
This takes me about 15 minutes, maybe 20 minutes.
Probably about 15 to 20 minutes it takes me.
Sometimes it could take longer if somebody's not getting it.
But sometimes it could take maybe as short
as like maybe 10 or 15 minutes at the shortest.
It's going to take a little time to explain this thoroughly.
But I'd say on average 15 minutes, 20 minutes
to go through this.
And I talk kind of fast.
But I go through this.
Now, here's the critical part.
I say, let me ask you a few questions.
Here's the first question I ask them.
Do you believe that you've sinned?
Let's pretend like it's Dave that we're talking about.
Can you go up here and just move the chair up here real quick?
And I just say, Dave, do you believe that you've sinned?
And do you believe that Jesus died
on the cross for your sins?
And do you believe that if you ask Jesus to save you
right now, would he do it?
Are you sure?
He'd do it, right?
Because that's what the Bible says.
And if you were to ask Jesus to save you right now, Dave,
how long would you be saved for?
No matter what, you did.
Let me see those four questions.
Go ahead and have a seat.
But those are the four questions I ask.
I say, have you sinned?
I say, yeah.
Did Jesus die on the cross for your sins
and raised from the dead?
Yes.
If you were to ask Jesus to save you right now,
would he do it?
And if they say, well, I think so.
I say, well, wait a minute.
Didn't the Bible say whosoever believeth?
I mean, is that true or not?
And if they still have doubts of it, maybe they're not getting it,
might have to go back through something.
But if they answer these four questions and say,
yeah, I know I'm a sinner.
Yes, Jesus died on the cross for my sins, I believe that.
Yes, he rose again from the dead.
Yeah, if I asked Jesus to save me right now,
yeah, I would be saved.
And how long would you be saved forever?
No matter what, would you kill somebody?
Yep, I'd still be saved.
It's eternal.
Well, if they answer all four of those,
then they understood everything that I told them.
Now, then here's what I say.
If I get a positive answer on all four of those,
which if you've done a good job,
you'll get a positive answer,
unless they're rejecting the gospel, which happens.
But if you've done a quality job of showing them the gospel,
they're going to answer yes to all four questions.
Yes, affirmatively.
Then here's what I say.
I say, well, let's pray right now.
And I'm going to help you pray and ask Jesus to save you right now.
Let's bow our heads and pray.
Now you say, well, shouldn't you ask them if they want to pray?
Well, here's why I don't.
Because if you say, do you want to pray and ask Jesus to save you?
People are like, they think that you're going to say, OK, pray.
And they're going to have to come up with some prayer.
When sometimes they think of praying as a fancy,
our Father, which art in heaven,
they think that you're going to expect them to pray.
And maybe they're nervous about this.
And so what I say is, could I help you pray right now
and ask Jesus to save you and tell them that you believe?
That he's the only Savior?
Now usually, if a person understands that they're going to hell
and that Jesus finally calls for saving,
that their eternity is hanging in the balance here,
usually when I say, hey, let me help you do that right now,
they're relieved.
Like, yeah, OK, good.
Yeah, let's take care of this.
I mean, that's the reaction that I've had for most people.
If they understand, they're going to be like, it's great.
And you'll almost see sometimes a little bit of a relief come over them.
Because they're concerned.
The Holy Spirit's convicted them by now.
Good night.
I'm not as good as I thought I was.
Boy, the Bible says I'm on my way to hell.
And when you say, hey, let's pray right now.
And I'll help you get saved right now.
They're usually great.
And then you say, OK, let's bow our heads.
And I say, look, you could repeat this after me.
But you know, you've got to mean this from your heart.
Tell God that you believe this.
And they say, OK.
And I bow my head, and I repeat with them.
This is the prayer that I usually repeat.
Now, it changes because it's not some chant.
Pray this prayer, and you'll be saved.
Say these magic words.
But this is a rough idea of what I pray with them.
I say something like this.
Dear Jesus, I know I'm a sinner.
And I know that I deserve to go to hell.
And they say, and I know I deserve to go to hell.
But I believe that you died on the cross for me and rose again.
Please save me right now and give me eternal life.
I'm only trusting you, Jesus.
Amen.
Something like that.
I don't get too complicated.
And I know that you created the earth in Genesis 1-1.
And I know that Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary.
And I mean, hey, look, we believe all that.
And they should know that.
But hey, in the prayer, look at what
people prayed in the Bible.
God be merciful to me at center.
Be saved.
Remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom.
Saved.
So I just go through it just basic just to make sure.
Because rarely, I've had somebody say,
I know I'm a sinner.
I know I deserve to go to hell.
And they say, well, I don't know about that.
And I'm like, well, then I guess
you're not ready to get saved then if you don't believe that.
You see what I'm saying?
And so that's why I review a little bit in the prayer
just to make sure they understand what they're doing.
It's all.
Because they could just bow their head and just pray,
Jesus, save me now.
Amen.
I mean, you don't think they'd be saved
if they believe on the gospel?
You're crazy, because they would.
Because it's not the word that you say.
It's the belief in your heart and confesses your mouth.
But that's the prayer that I lead them in.
That's what I do.
I know I'm a sinner.
I know I deserve to go to hell.
I believe that you love me and died on the cross for me
and rose again.
Please save me right now.
Give me eternal life.
Take me to heaven.
Amen.
And then when we're done, OK, we just prayed the prayer.
Amen.
This is what I ask them.
How do you feel?
No, I don't ask that.
That's a stupid thing to ask.
And I've seen people ask people that.
How do you feel?
Oh, I feel tingly all over.
What kind of question is that?
How do you feel has nothing to do with whether you
got saved or not?
Is getting saved a feeling?
I speak in tongues.
I've been sanctified.
We're talking about real salvation.
It's not a feeling.
And so, well, I can get used to preaching like that.
You've got to be born again.
So anyway, it's not a feeling.
So you don't ask, how do you feel?
This is what I ask.
I just look up and I say, now, you meant that, didn't you?
Now, do you say, did you mean that?
The reason I don't say, did you mean that,
is you're automatically like putting doubt.
No, I didn't, you know?
Like, did you mean that?
You lying to me?
So I just say, like, you meant that, right?
And they say, well, yeah, of course I did.
And I say, well, look, according to the Bible,
if you were to die right now, where would you go?
Heaven.
If you were to die 20 years from now, where would you go?
Heaven.
Why?
Because you're such a wonderful person?
No, because I believe.
That's what they'll say.
And so they're born again, they're saved.
You say, well, wait a minute, if they don't come to church
and get baptized, they must not have been saved.
Well, you know what, then go join the Church of Christ
across the street, because that's what they believe.
Tell me that.
Anybody who believes, he that believeth on the son
is true, hath everlasting life.
That's why we sing that song.
That's why we don't ask contemporary praise
or worship service, because if you sing that song,
you might keep your doctrine right.
Because that song will tell you what it takes to get saved.
He that believeth on the son,
tis true, hath everlasting life.
Though all unworthy, yet I will not doubt,
for him that cometh, he will not cast out.
He that believeth, though the good news shall.
See, hey, that's a great song.
Eternal security, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
now shall be saved.
That's the kind of doctrinal songs
that used to be sung in churches.
Maybe that's why people don't understand
or win people to Christ,
because they don't sing that song anymore.
Because they're singing,
Our God is an awesome God,
He reigns from heaven above.
Hey, where's the doctrine in that song?
It's not there.
You say, are you against that song?
Yes, I am.
Because it's shallow, meaningless chanting.
And if the song has about 15 words,
you repeat 100 times.
And no, that's not the right kind of music.
Show me the song in the book of Psalms,
150 songs in there.
Show me the one that repeats the same thing
over and over.
There's one, and it has a whole lot of content
in between the repetition.
And I believe it's Psalm 118,
where there's a lot of repetition,
where it says, for His mercy endureth forever.
It repeats that phrase over and over.
You know, these aren't chanting songs.
These are doctrinal songs.
There's 150 of them.
That's the kind of music that God likes.
That's why He wrote a book about it
called the book of Psalms.
So now that somebody's saved,
I have to throw in a little preaching.
You know, this is teaching,
but I have to throw in a little preaching, you know,
so it'll be like a Sunday night service.
But now that I've gotten them saved,
they're born again, they're going to heaven.
Well, what's the next step?
Well, the next step, according to the Bible, is baptism.
Okay, so here's what I want to do.
I want to talk to them about getting baptized.
Now, here's the illustration that I get.
I say to them, okay, now you're saved.
It's my wife now is the person.
She just got saved.
And I say, now you're saved.
You got two choices in life.
You can live however you want to live.
You can live like the world.
You can live a sinful life.
And where are you going to go if you live like that?
They say, well, I still go to heaven.
And I say, okay, but you know what?
If you go that way,
you're going to end up with a miserable life.
You could get diseases, you could get in jail,
you could, you're going to have a broken home
and no money and living off the government.
And but, you know, I just say,
is that where you want to go in life?
You want to live like hell?
You want to live like the world?
Or you got the other choice.
You still go to heaven,
but you're going to get no rewards
and you're going to live a dumb life.
And I say, or you can go this way
and you can live for God and you can obey the Bible
and you can go to church and do that.
And I said, then you could end up with,
you know, God blessing you
and you could get all kinds of rewards in heaven.
Your life has meaning and purpose.
And I say, now which way do you want to go?
And they say, well, you know, I want to go God's way.
I want to go the devil's way.
And I say, okay, you want to go God's way?
I say, well, listen, do you think that tomorrow
you're just going to be the perfect Christian overnight?
Like you're just going to roll out of bed tomorrow.
You're going to just be wearing,
you're going to like be wearing a suit and tie
and straight out of the bed.
And you're going to have a King James Bible in your hand.
You're going to go out preaching
and soul winning tomorrow.
And obviously now I said,
isn't this going to take a little time, like growth?
And they say, you know,
I say it's going to be like a step by step process.
I say, well, the first step that you need to take
going down this way of obedience is baptism.
I say, now look, God is putting a test out there for you.
He says, right after you get saved,
I want you to get baptized.
And he's saying, I'm giving you a test
to see which way you're going.
Are you going this way or are you going this way?
And I said to them, now listen,
if you don't take the first step going this way,
do you think, which way do you think you're going?
And they say, well, I'm probably going this way,
you know, disobeying God.
And I say, well, exactly.
And I said, so, you know,
you've got to start out on the right foot.
And I say, look, you may not think
you can be the perfect Christian
or whatever and none of us is,
but at least take the first step
and then God will help you to take the second step.
And I tell them, this is what baptism is.
I show them the ring on my finger and I say,
you know, baptism is just a picture.
I say, what's this mean?
And they say, well, it means you're married.
I say, well, if I take it off my finger,
am I still married?
And they say, well, yeah, of course.
And I say, if I put it on your finger,
does that make you married?
No.
And so I said, look, this is just a symbol.
I said, baptism's a symbol, it's the same thing.
I said, did I put this ring on before I got married?
And they said, no.
I said, when did I put it on?
They're like, right after you got married, you know.
You may kiss the bride, bam, put the ring on.
And I said, is this to show me that I'm married
or is it to show other people that I'm married?
It's not like I'm out working and I look at it,
good night, I'm married?
I got to get home to my family.
What am I doing?
Man, I'm out having a good time
and I just realized I'm married.
What am I going to say?
What am I going to tell her?
So, no, it's not to tell me that I'm married.
It's so that other people can see, you know,
all the girls, I'm going to beat them off with a stick.
I can see that I'm married.
And so that's why I wear this wedding ring.
Just kidding.
Well, kind of.
And so this is to show other people that I'm married.
I said, baptism's the same way.
You know you're saved, God knows you're saved,
but baptism is a way where you tell other people
that you're saved.
And I said, this is what it is.
You stand up in the water,
it's a picture of Jesus on the cross.
You go under the water,
it's a picture of when he was buried.
You come up out of the water,
it's a picture of when he rose again.
I said, now, and I show him, you know,
where God tells him to do that.
Maybe in like Acts chapter two, where it says,
the many that gladly received his word were baptized.
And I say, are you glad you got saved?
Because here in the book of Acts,
it says to the people that were glad, they got baptized.
And so I say, well, look, here's what you do.
Come to church on Sunday,
come to church Wednesday night,
whatever the case may be.
And I said, you know, we got the water,
we got the clothes, we got the towels,
we got the baptism robe, you know.
And I just say, you know,
if you want to get baptized, we'll baptize you.
And so you could start off on the right foot
and I invite them to church.
I say, do you know where it is?
You know, this is the times.
I'll see you there.
Not like, well, I hope you come.
I just say, I'll see you on Sunday.
And hopefully they're going to come or not.
Now you say, wait a minute, Pastor Anderson.
You can't do that.
You can't just baptize people because they got saved.
I mean, good night.
You got to, they got to go through classes.
They got to learn about what Baptists believe.
They got to learn Baptist history.
They got to, they have to understand
the doctrine of baptism.
They must know what it means.
They must go back to the Red Sea
and understand that the Red Sea crossing was a picture.
They were baptized in the Moses
and the cloud and in the sea.
They've got to understand the doctrine of baptisms
discussed in Hebrew 6-1,
the doctrine of baptisms and of laying on a hand
in the resurrection of the dead of eternal judgment.
You can't just baptize people
right after they get saved.
Look, that is so unscriptural, it's not even funny
because the story we just read
was a guy driving down the road in a chariot.
He said, see, here's water.
What's a tender meal to baptize?
Now look, what a perfect place for God
to give us the prerequisite for baptism.
There is a prerequisite for baptism.
We don't baptize babies, do we?
There's a prerequisite for baptism.
Here's what it is.
If thou believeth with all thine heart, thou mayest.
Oh, wait a minute, Pastor Anderson.
If they have long hair,
don't they have to get a haircut first
with a man with long hair?
If thou believeth with all thine heart, thou mayest.
What if he's living with his girlfriend?
He can't baptize him, right?
If thou believeth with all thine heart, thou mayest.
Now you show me in the Bible
the other criteria for getting baptized,
and show me, because it's not fair.
Because it's thou believeth with all thine heart,
thou mayest.
And so that's the criteria,
that's the prerequisite for getting baptized.
Now, and you say, wait a minute, Pastor Anderson.
If you tell people, like,
come to church and I'll baptize you,
it's like you're forcing them to be baptized.
You know, you should ask them, like,
do you want to be baptized?
Now, and I've seen people do this.
They'll get somebody saved, right?
And they'll win them to the Lord,
and they'll say, now you know, now that you're saved,
God wants you to be baptized.
Now you don't have to, okay?
Now, God wants you to be baptized,
but if you don't want to do it, I mean, that's fine.
I mean, if you don't want to do it, that's fine.
But, you know, if you want to, we can baptize you.
Now look, that's silly.
Let me show you a verse in the Bible,
and I'm going to close with this, it's getting late.
There's so much that I wanted to teach in this sermon,
but I hope you have a basic knowledge
where you could go out of here
and maybe you've never won somebody to the Lord.
Go out of here and win somebody to Christ
with this information.
And with the prayer and fasting and begging God,
and you could get the power of God.
Man, you could win people to the Lord with this stuff.
But look at Acts chapter 10.
I'm going to close with this.
I'm going to show you one last point here.
And it's been a little more of a teaching-type sermon,
a little more of an instructional-type sermon.
It's so important.
I mean, if you'd learned this, it'd change your life.
You'd be one of the few, the proud,
the bona fide, legitimate, real soul winner
who gets people saved.
You could have somebody next to you
that's your convert that's going to get baptized.
Hey, that's what it's all about, my friend.
If you're following Jesus, he said,
I will make you a fisher of men.
And if you're not a fisher of men,
then you're not following Jesus.
Because if you follow me, I will make you fishers of men.
He said, that's a pretty positive statement.
But look, if you would, at Acts chapter 10.
Look at verse 48.
And he commanded them, this is Peter,
that's the subject here, he.
And he commanded them to be baptized
in the name of the Lord.
Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.
Now, did he ask them if they wanted to be baptized?
No, he commanded them to be baptized.
You say, wait a minute, you're not giving them the choice?
Of course I'm giving them the choice.
If I tell somebody to do something,
then they have the option to either do it or not do it.
I mean, it's like God saying, thou shalt not steal.
Now, if you want to steal, I mean, you can steal.
It's up to you.
But I'm telling you not to steal.
But if you don't want to steal, if you want to steal,
you know, is that silly?
I mean, think about it.
If I went somebody to the Lord,
I'd tell him, look, you need to be baptized.
God tells you to be baptized.
Get baptized, you know?
And if they say, well, I don't want to be baptized,
then I say, okay, fine.
Because that's their choice, to say,
I don't want to be baptized.
But I'm not going to say, like, do you want to steal?
Do you want to kill?
Would you like to kill somebody?
I mean, it doesn't make any sense to ask somebody
whether you want to obey God or not.
You're starting them off with an attitude,
oh, I get to decide whether I obey God or not.
Hey, look, I don't feel like I have the right
to decide whether I obey God or not.
But when God tells me to do something,
I feel like I better do it.
Because we're talking about God Almighty,
the creator of the universe, has commanded me,
thou shalt not kill, I better not kill.
If he says, be baptized, then I better be baptized.
And so I'm not doing somebody a favor
by making baptism seem optional.
Like, well, if you want to, you can get baptized.
I tell them, look, God commands you to get baptized.
And I've had people just say, you know,
they got saved and they just said,
no, I don't want to be baptized.
And this is what I tell them.
I say, well, you know what, you're just obeying God,
and God's not going to bless you.
And I say, you know what,
I've been soul winning for a long time,
I've won people to the Lord, hundreds of people to the Lord
in the last eight years, and I tell them this,
I say, you know what, I've never seen anybody
live for God that didn't get baptized.
I mean, I've seen them come for a while,
but everybody got baptized that ever did anything
for God that lived for God.
I mean, that's just the truth, it doesn't matter.
Because if they're not willing to get baptized,
they're going this way, friend, that's it, that's it.
And so baptism is an important first step
to get you on the right track.
Now, some people have not been baptized
because maybe the opportunity was never put forth to them.
Maybe they went to some church
where you had to go to some, you know,
nine month class on baptism
and they baptized people once a year
whether they needed or not.
You know, they have some baptism day once a year.
But look, my friend, at this church,
we baptize people Sunday morning and Sunday night
and Wednesday night
whenever somebody needs to be baptized.
And we baptize a lot of, you know,
we baptize several people.
I want to baptize more in the future
because why, could you like dunking people in the water?
Yeah, no, but no,
not because I like dunking people in the water
because I like to see people not just get saved,
which is a blessing, which is exciting.
Praise God when somebody gets saved,
even if they never come to church, hallelujah!
Glory to God, they're going to heaven!
But you know what, even better,
when somebody says, hey, I'm going to live for Jesus Christ.
I'm going to start by getting baptized.
Whoa, that's even better.
Because that's somebody that I can train
to be a soul winner just like me
and the cycle can continue
and we can get multitudes saved.
One person saved, great.
One person saved who gets baptized
and decides to follow Jesus Christ,
they're going to be a fisher of men,
we'll get hundreds saved.
That's where the church is going to grow.
That's where the multiplication
that happened in the book of Acts is going to take place.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
God, I thank you so much for the Bible
and I thank you so much for giving me
the opportunity to be a soul winner.
And Father, I apologize that I know
that there are so many, maybe, faults in my presentation
or, you know, hey, I'm not perfect,
but God, praise the Lord for all the people
that I've won to the Lord
through the power of the Holy Spirit
that you've allowed me to win to the Lord.
And God, I just pray that you would help these people
to grab hold of what I'm talking about tonight.
Maybe they're already a soul winner.
I know that there are people in this room
that I'm sure have never bowed their head
and prayed and led somebody to Christ.
Father, please, by the grace of God,
allow them the privilege and the thrill
of being able to lead somebody
to Jesus Christ in their lifetime, their God.
And Father, please, just help them
to take this information and put it into practice
and use it to see multitudes saved.
And God, help us to train as many people as we can
to be soul winners so that we can make our life matter
by bringing more people into the family of God,
by winning people to Christ,
by getting sons and daughters into your family, dear God.
Father, please just help us to understand
that soul winning is the whole reason that we're here.
It's the whole reason this church is here.
And if this church isn't a soul winning church,
then we might as well just pack it up right now
and close the doors because we're wasting our time.
And so with every head bowed and every eyes closed,
I don't often do this.