Man, the part of the chapter that I'd like to focus on is there in verse number 10 where
the Bible reads,
If the iron be blunt, and he do not wet the edge, then must he put two more strength,
but wisdom is profitable to direct.
And the title of my sermon tonight is Improving Your Soul Winning.
Improving your soul winning.
This is a great verse here in verse 10, and I'm going to show you how it ties in with
soul winning a little bit.
It says if the iron be blunt, and he do not wet the edge, now what does it mean to wet
the edge?
Well have you heard of a wet stone?
A wet stone is what you would use to sharpen knives.
And it says here if he do not wet the edge, then must he put two more strength, but wisdom
is profitable to direct.
What he's saying here is that a woodsman never loses any time by stopping to sharpen his
axe.
So if you sharpen your axe, you are going to be able to cut a lot more wood, a lot more
efficiently.
And the time that you spend sharpening your axe is never a waste of time.
Because if you have a blunt axe, meaning that it's not sharp, and you don't wet the edge
and sharpen it, then you have to put two more strength.
You're working a lot harder to accomplish less.
And so we don't want to necessarily just push ourselves to work harder.
A lot of times we need to work smarter.
And there are a lot of people who work really hard in the Christian life, and they work
really hard to evangelize, but because they don't know what they're doing, or because
they don't have good skills, because they don't wet the edge, they end up accomplishing
a lot less than the person who sharpens up their soul-winning skills.
What am I saying?
I'm saying that it's good to take the time to get better at soul-winning, to sharpen
up your abilities.
Now while you're there in Ecclesiastes 10, don't turn from there, because I want you
to keep verse 10 in front of you.
Let me remind you of a couple of other verses.
The Bible says, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that winneth souls
is wise.
So the characteristic of the one who wins souls is that he's wise.
Well, when it says he that winneth souls is wise, it doesn't say he who attempts to win
souls is wise.
It says he who wins souls is wise.
Right?
So wisdom is going to help us win souls.
And what does it say in verse 10 here?
That we've got to sharpen the ax, and then it says wisdom, at the end of verse 10, wisdom
is profitable to direct.
So what is it that sharpens up the ax in our life?
It's having wisdom.
If we have wisdom, then we can be more effective to do the work of the Lord.
That's how we sharpen our ax, by gaining wisdom.
Here's another verse to consider.
Proverbs 27, 17 says, iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his
friend.
So another way that we sharpen our ax is from our friends.
And the Bible says, just as iron sharpens iron, so does the man sharpen the countenance
of his friend.
So the best way to learn soul winning, the best way to get better at soul winning, the
best way to get wisdom on how to be an effective soul winner is to go out soul winning with
someone who's good at it, and let them sharpen you up.
It's like iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.
Now in this sermon tonight, I want to sharpen you up a little bit on your soul winning,
just give you a few tips to help you improve your soul winning.
Of course, the best way to learn how to go soul winning, as I said, is to go out soul
winning with other people and learn from them.
But in addition to that, it's good to listen to some sermons that give you some tips and
some training as well.
Now tonight's sermon is not going to be kind of a one stop shop on how to win souls.
I'm not up here tonight preaching how to go soul winning or giving you the step by step
process or anything like that.
Tonight's sermon is just to give you a few tips to improve your soul winning.
Now if you need a sermon to walk you through how to go soul winning and to give you the
techniques, I've preached those sermons many times and you can get them off the church
website if you want to go back and listen to those, if you just want to get more training.
And you know what?
I encourage you to listen to some of those sermons to sharpen your acts, to sharpen up
your soul winning.
Now I just went to our church website, faithforwardbaptist.org, and I went to the preaching page and there's
a search bar.
I just typed in the word soul.
And here are sermons that came up on this exact subject that you could listen to.
Soul winning do's and don'ts.
Getting started, soul winning.
Soul winning instruction one and two.
Soul winning advice, soul winning.
Soul winning training, soul winning in your personal life, proper soul winning.
Methods of soul winning, soul winning tips, soul winning helps, part one and two.
Soul winning techniques, how to win souls.
So there's no shortage of preaching on the website on this subject.
There's a lot of sermons that are how to sermons.
But tonight I just want to give, and again, you learn by getting out in the field and
doing it.
But the sermons can help as well for you to pick things up, do both.
But when you go out soul winning with people, let me say this.
Just because you go soul winning with someone from our church and they do something, that
doesn't mean that it's the right way.
Now there are lots of great soul winners in our church and you don't have to go soul winning
with me personally to learn how to go soul winning because there are hundreds of people
in our church and most of them, the vast majority are excellent soul winners.
But every once in a while, there are going to be people even from our church who use
some poor methods or make some poor judgments or do things that don't make sense out soul
winning.
So don't just take everything that you see out soul winning as gospel.
Don't always go soul winning with the same person.
Go soul winning with a variety of people and observe a whole bunch of different soul
winning styles and a whole bunch of different examples and then get the big picture and
realize that some people are better at soul winning than others.
And I'm not trying to be down on anybody's soul winning night because if you get out
there and your heart's in the right place and you're preaching the true gospel, even
if you're doing a poor job, you're still doing great as far as I'm concerned.
Because it's better to get out there and fumble and mix up the order of things and drop your
Bible and preach the gospel than to stay home.
Because you know what, even with poor methods, as long as you're saved and you got the right
gospel and you got a King James Bible in your hand, even with poor methods, you'll get people
saved sometimes.
Even with a dull axe, you can chop some wood.
You can chop wood with a sledgehammer, right?
But it's not necessarily going to be as effective.
So we want to sharpen our axe and use the best methods.
Even though it's not about just having the perfect methods, none of us have perfect methods.
All of us are going to do things wrong and make mistakes.
We want to just get out there and do our best, but we want to go with as many different people
as possible so we can learn and get better and improve our soul winning.
Okay, but as I go soul winning with various people in our church throughout the years,
I see some of the same mistakes come up over and over again.
And I see patterns of the same things that I believe should be corrected.
So tonight I want to sharpen up on things, especially that I've seen, that could be improved
on our soul winning so that we can sharpen our axe and do a better job and chop more
wood for the Lord.
Number one tip that I think would help the most people to improve their soul winning,
and this is the biggest problem that I see when I go soul winning with people.
Tip number one is be friendly and nice to people when you go soul winning.
That's probably the biggest deficiency that I see when I'm out soul winning with people
is that people need to learn to be friendly and nice to people.
Now turn to 2 Timothy chapter number two.
Be friendly, smile, be nice.
And I think one of the biggest things that we need to understand when we're out soul
winning that would help us to be friendly and nice is that the person that we're out
there talking to is on our team.
We're not there us against them.
We're not there to do battle with them.
We're not there to argue with them, to fight them, to debate them.
We both hopefully want the same thing.
They want to go to heaven and we want them to go to heaven so we're both on the same
team.
We both have the same goal.
We're there to help them.
We're there to assist them.
We're there to guide them to the truth that they should want hopefully, not us against
them, but we're working with them, okay?
We love them.
We want them to get saved.
Look what the Bible says in 2 Timothy chapter number two.
Look what the Bible says in 2 Timothy chapter two verse 23.
But foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender strifes.
What are strifes?
Basically arguments.
He's saying stay away from dumb questions, unlearned questions.
Why?
Because they just lead to getting in a weird debate or an argument about something that
doesn't matter.
And the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach,
patient in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will
give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and that they may recover themselves
out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will.
So these unsaved people out there behind the door, in most cases, they are ensnared by
the devil.
And we want to help get them out of that snare.
We want them to acknowledge the truth.
And so the Bible says that we should instruct them with meekness.
Meekness.
What does that mean?
Being gentle.
Being nice.
That's what the Bible is saying when it says gentle and meek.
Be nice to them, okay?
And he says don't get in an argument with them.
If it's you against them, it's time to move on to the next door.
A man that is in heretic after the first and second admonition, reject.
Knowing that he that is such a subverted and sent being condemned of himself.
You don't want to get in an argument and waste your time debating with someone when there's
somebody else down the street who wants to get saved, who wants to hear the Gospel.
Now sometimes in our flesh we can get sucked into these kind of arguments and debates because
of the fact that we know that we can win.
We know that we're going to win this argument.
We're going to chew them up and spit them out.
But you know what?
Winning an argument is not the goal.
Getting them in a debate is not the goal.
The goal is to get people saved.
And if somebody wants to argue with you and debate with you, you're just wasting your
time, shake the dust off your feet and move on and go to the next door because there are
other people out there who want to get saved.
And look, we all make this mistake from time to time.
I've been guilty of it where I get sucked in and burn up 45 minutes, 60 minutes with
some hardcore Jehovah's Witness or whatever.
Because you know it's so easy to disprove.
But if you show them a few scriptures and they're still not getting it, you know what
that means?
They don't want to see the truth.
Leave on a friendly note.
Smile and see you later and move on.
We need to be nice.
We want to be gentle.
We want to be meek.
These people are not the enemy.
The devil is the enemy.
The devil has got them ensnared.
We want to get them out of the devil's snare.
Now they might not know that they're ensnared.
They might not know that we're their friend.
They might not know that we're looking out for them.
But that's the truth, isn't it?
We're actually trying to help them.
Now I think that the key, and if you would turn to the book of Jude, I think that the
key to being nice and friendly out soul winning is loving people.
You have to love people.
Now here's the type of things that I see when I'm out soul winning is just walking up to
the door being very business-like and gruff.
From the beginning, just go to church anywhere, just real serious, business-like, gruff.
And when they ask questions about whether the person goes to church or if they know
for sure they died they're going to heaven or how do they know they're going to heaven,
because they're being so gruff and rude that it almost comes off like a challenge or an
interrogation instead of just a friendly, so, you know, do you go to church anywhere?
It comes off as, do you go to church, you know, and it's just a little bit abrasive.
Be friendly.
And I'll tell you the number one thing that blows my mind when I'm out there soul winning
is when somebody says that they're saved and gives all the right answers and then the soul
winner is just like, okay, well, good.
I mean, the right response, I mean, if you talk to somebody and they're saved, the right
response is, man, that's so great that you're saved, great to run into somebody who's saved,
praise the Lord.
You know, be friendly.
There should be a camaraderie there to find out, hey, this person is my brother in Christ,
this is my sister in Christ.
There should be an instant camaraderie of great and try to, you know, encourage that
person, edify that person, either invite them to church or maybe, you know, ask them
to pray for you as you go out to win souls.
You know, be nice.
It's even when the people are saved they're not nice sometimes, let alone when they're
not saved.
Just be nice.
Be gentle, be friendly, be meek as the Bible says.
But this comes from loving people.
This is what will translate on the outside to being nice, being friendly, being meek,
being gentle is loving people on the inside.
Now, you're there, Jude, but let me just read for you a whole bunch of scriptures on this
because Jesus constantly, the Bible says that he looked at people and he loved them.
Like for example, in Mark 10 21, then Jesus beholding him loved him and said unto him,
one thing thou lackest, go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the poor
and thou should have treasure in heaven and come take up the cross and follow me.
In this story, the guy that he's talking to is a complete idiot.
The guy's not listening to anything Jesus says.
Everything Jesus says to him goes in one ear and out the other.
He's already shown himself to be a fool at this point.
I mean, Jesus flat out tells him right away because the guy says, good master, what good
thing may I do that I might inherit eternal life?
The first thing Jesus tells him is, why callest thou me good?
There's none good but one and that's God.
Of course, Jesus was good because Jesus was God in the flesh, but he just told this guy
there's none good but one and that's God.
And then out of the next breath, the guy tells him, oh, I've kept all the commandments.
All these things have I kept from my youth.
Now, is the guy listening to what Jesus is saying?
He runs to Jesus, drops on his knees, and boy, he just wants to learn from Jesus.
But isn't it funny how everything Jesus says, he's not listening.
He doesn't grasp.
He's not paying attention.
The guy's an idiot.
The guy's in a false religion.
The guy believes in works-based salvation.
When he arrived, he believes it was works.
When he left, he still thinks it's works.
He still thinks he's good.
He still thinks he keeps all the commandments.
He still believes himself to be totally without sin.
Okay.
But yet, in spite of all that, even after the guy gave Jesus a dumb answer, Jesus beholding
him loved him.
So just because somebody's in a false religion doesn't mean that you can't love that person.
Even after the guy gave the wrong answer, even after the guy's not listening, Jesus
beholding him loved him.
So therefore, you've got to be like Christ where you behold people and you love them.
Now you say, well, I just met this person.
How can I love the person that I just met?
Well, I don't know, but that's what Jesus did and that's what we should do.
We go out soul winning and we should give people the benefit of the doubt.
And when they open the door and they're a complete stranger unto us and we lay eyes
on that person, we need to beholding them, love them.
We should just immediately, and I'm not saying to fake this because you know what?
It can't be faked.
It should be real, right?
When they open the door, look at that person and truly, sincerely, from the bottom of your
heart, desire that that person gets saved.
And not just so you can get somebody saved, but so that that person cannot go to hell.
You know, care about that person.
When they open the door, look at them and love them and decide, you know what?
I love this person, I care about this person, I want this person to be saved.
And I'm not saying go through the motions, I'm saying actually feel that way.
You know, you say, well, that's not me.
Well, then it's time for you to change.
Time for you to change.
It's called repentance, is when you change, okay?
You know, maybe you need to read some scriptures on the love of God.
Maybe you need to read the Bible, pray, or why don't you pray and ask God to help you
love people because the fruit of the spirit is love.
So you should be able to go out soul winning and knock on somebody's door and when they
come to the door, it doesn't matter if they come to the door and they're Muslim, if they
come to the door and they're Buddhist, if they come to the door and they're Catholic,
if they come to the door and they're an atheist, if they come to the door and they've got a
nose ring, if they come to the door and they are old, young, thin, fat, it doesn't matter,
right?
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
So learn to love people and when you go out soul winning and knocking doors, you know,
and look, are there some people out there that are horrible reprobates?
Yeah, but here's the thing.
The vast majority of people aren't, 99% aren't.
And give people the benefit of the doubt that they're not.
Let people be innocent until proven guilty, knock that door and beholding that person,
love them.
Well, they said something stupid, love them anyway, they look stupid, love them.
Okay, what else?
All throughout the Bible, it talks about Christ having compassion on people, right?
Looking at them and having compassion.
Matthew 9, 36, but when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them.
Matthew 14, 4, Jesus went forth and saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion
toward them and he healed their sick.
Matthew 15, 32, then Jesus called his disciples unto him and said, I have compassion on the
multitude.
Now, did he know each and every person personally in that multitude?
No, just in general, he loved people.
He had compassion on the multitude.
Matthew 20, verse 34, Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes and immediately
their eyes received sight and they followed him.
Mark 1, 41, Jesus moved with compassion, put forth his hand and touched him and said unto
him, I will be thou clean.
Mark 5, 19, howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, go home to thy friends
and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee and hath had compassion on thee.
Mark 6, 34, and Jesus, when he came out, saw much people and was moved with compassion
toward them.
Mark 8, 2, I have compassion on the multitude.
Luke 7, 13, when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said unto her, weep
not.
This is mentioned a lot in the Bible.
Jesus looking at people and having compassion on them, that's how we need to be when we're
out soul winning.
What does the Bible say in Jude right there in verse 22?
And of some have compassion, making a difference, and others save with fear, pulling them out
of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
What's it saying?
Have compassion on the lost.
Love the lost.
This makes a difference when you knock on that door and you truly love that person,
that will come across in the way that you talk to them, in the look on your face, and
people can even just through a sixth sense just feel the compassion and the love.
Or they can feel the aggression, the hostility, the negativity, the us against them mentality,
if that's what you have.
You know, this is just important principle in our lives.
We must have love in our hearts in order to do the work of God.
You know, it's funny, somebody asked me a few weeks ago this question and it kind of
took me aback because I didn't really have an answer.
But then later I thought of the answer.
But someone asked me, they said, Pastor Anderson, I've observed you with your children.
And I can tell that your children really, they love you and they want to be around you.
They desire to spend time with you.
It's clear that your children love you.
And they said, what is that?
How do I, you know, do my parenting in such a way where my children will love me and want
to spend time with me and want to be with me?
And you know, when he asked that, I just, I didn't really have an answer up to my time.
And I was just like, I don't know, you know.
I was thinking, yeah, my kids do like to be with me and go places with me and do stuff
with me and I get along great with all my kids and, you know, and he asked me this question
and I didn't really have an answer off the tip of my tongue.
So I, you know, I kind of just threw some basic parenting advice at the guy, you know,
just quoted him a few Bible verses, you know, threw him some tips or whatever.
But then I got to thinking about it and I was wondering, like, why is that?
And you know what, you want to know what the real answer is?
The real answer is that I truly love all of my children from the bottom of my heart.
And they all know that.
They all know that.
And that can't be faked.
That cannot be just, you know, you go through the motions and just maybe buy something or
do something or say something or act a certain way.
My children all know that I love them.
And because it's real, that's why.
And I'm telling you, your wife knows whether you love her.
Your husband knows whether you love him.
Your kids know whether you love them.
And even when you knock on that door, people know whether you love them or not.
And so, you know, it's important.
This is just a critical principle in our lives and it carries over into soul winning.
If you're a cold hearted soul winner, you're not going to be effective.
And there are a lot of cold soul winners out there.
And look, if you're one of the cold soul winners, I want you to keep soul winning.
I'm not telling you to stop soul winning.
I'm not trying to discourage you.
I'm not trying to tell you that you're a bad person because, you know what, some people
struggle with this.
Or maybe they just need to grow into this.
But if you're a cold soul winner, you need to wet the edge.
You need to sharpen that axe.
You will become, the best way that you can improve your soul winning is by actually caring
about the people that you're talking to and loving them from the bottom of your heart.
It's an important component that people can sense if it's there or not.
So that's number one, is be friendly and nice to people.
And how do we get there?
Work on having love and compassion in your heart for the people you're talking to.
That's going to come across in the way that you present the gospel.
But number two, do not use trick questions or ridiculous illustrations.
And this is something that I see a lot of out there too.
Do not use trick questions or ridiculous illustrations.
Now again, I would tie this into point one that often this is coming from an adversarial
attitude.
The desire to trip people up instead of the desire to communicate the gospel to them and
get them saved.
To lovingly preach to them and get them saved.
Do not use trick questions or ridiculous illustrations.
I don't think this is always done out of a lack of love or compassion or out of an adversarial
abrasive attitude.
I think sometimes it's just a misguided thing where they saw someone else do it and then
they pick up on this and then they start doing these methods as well.
And that's why I'm saying every method that you see out there, soul winning, isn't necessarily
to be emulated.
Do not use trick questions or ridiculous illustrations.
What am I talking about?
Trick questions.
I'm talking about when you are giving the gospel to somebody, asking some questions
as you go can be a good way to gauge whether people are understanding you or not.
And I'm all for that.
You know as you give the gospel to somebody, you ask questions.
Now I do think that asking too many questions can begin to feel like you're badgering them
or an interrogation.
But it's good at certain points to ask people questions and gauge their understanding.
But you know what I never do?
I don't ask trick questions.
Now I'm not saying that I just give them the answer, but I don't ask a trick.
I don't give them hints.
I ask them a question and see whether they know the answer, but I don't ask a trick question.
You say, what's a trick question?
You know these kind of tricky questions like, so let's say somebody believes in Christ,
but then after a few years, they kind of get out of church and go back to the world and
start living a simple life.
That person wouldn't be saved, would they?
All right, oh no, ah, yes they would, ah, gotcha, gotcha, because you can't lose your
salvation.
You know, that's the kind of, that's what I mean by a trick, that's dumb.
That's stupid.
You're just confusing people.
That's ridiculous.
That's a joke, okay?
These kind of tricky questions.
And then look, I'm going to bring up another one and you know, this is something that I
just can't, I just see this all the time and I don't understand why this is just always
going on and people are always saying this.
This is a trick question, oh, okay, well what if a person stops believing?
Good night, I'm so sick of that question.
I'm sorry, do I, as the pastor, do I have the right to just get up and say I'm sick
of that stupid question, now it's all winning?
I never taught that.
Who's teaching that?
It's stupid.
Now this is why it's stupid, because I don't even believe it's possible for somebody to
stop believing once they get saved, because once you get saved, the Holy Spirit lives
inside you, your eyes are open, you're enlightened, and there's two kinds of people according
to John 3.18.
The Bible says, he that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is
condemned already because he hath not believed, in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
The guy who doesn't believe on Christ, he hath not believed in Christ.
He didn't believe in Christ in the past, he doesn't believe in him now.
Once you believe on Jesus Christ and you get saved, the Holy Spirit lives inside you and
the Spirit itself, bear with witness with our spirit that we're the children of God.
I do not believe that it's even possible for a person to believe on Christ and be truly
saved and then to turn around a year later and say, I don't even believe in Christ, I'm
an atheist now.
I would say that person was never even saved in the first place.
An illustration that I use on this sometimes is Santa Claus.
Some people grow up thinking that Santa Claus is real.
I was not raised that way.
My parents told me, why would we teach you about Santa Claus when we're the ones who
paid for those gifts, we want to get credit for giving them to you.
It doesn't make any sense, but a lot of people grow up thinking Santa Claus is real, but
then they come to a point in their life where they're enlightened and they see, okay, Santa
Claus doesn't exist.
You know, we went ice skating in downtown Phoenix the other day and there were two Santa
Clauses there.
That was a tip that one of them at least has got to be a fraud.
One of the Santas was smoking a cigarette and playing mariachi guitar.
The other Santa had long white hair halfway down his back.
So I think Santa needs to get a haircut for Christmas.
And then the other Santa needs a pack of nicotine gum or something.
But anyway, the point is, look, once people get to a certain age, they realize that Santa
Claus isn't real.
Right?
Everybody understand that?
Their eyes are open to that.
Now, does that person later ever go back to believing in Santa?
I mean, how many adults do you think say, you know, I believed in Santa as a kid.
Then I realized Santa wasn't real, but now I'm starting to believe in Santa again.
That's as ridiculous as somebody who gets saved, right?
Somebody who gets saved and understands the gospel and they realize that Catholicism's
false or Islam is false or Hinduism is false or Buddhism is false.
It'd be just ridiculous for that person to later go back and say, well, you know, actually,
I do believe in Islam.
Actually, I do believe in the Book of Mormon.
Actually, I do believe in it.
Or actually, I believe there is no God.
I'm an atheist now.
Wrong.
That person wasn't even saved in the first place.
Why?
Because when you get, look, I remember when my wife got saved, she just, from one day
to the next, understood the Bible, understood the gospel.
Now, that doesn't mean that she knew everything about the Bible or understood everything about
the Bible.
And it doesn't mean that her lifestyle necessarily would have dramatically changed if it weren't
for the fact that she was in church and being discipled and growing.
A lot of people don't have a radical change of life right away.
Sometimes that comes later.
Sometimes it never comes, unfortunately.
Sometimes people will get saved and it's a few years before they even get in church and
start growing.
But the point is that when a person gets saved, a light bulb comes on in their head and that
light bulb will never turn off again.
Because God calls being saved being enlightened.
And the Holy Spirit lives inside you and his ministry is to guide us into all truth.
So, yeah, you might go to stupid places, do stupid things, and you might even get sucked
into some dumb false doctrines here and there and get confused on this or confused on that.
But nobody, after they get saved, is going to full-blown, I don't believe in Christ anymore.
Now I believe in a total work salvation.
I'm joining the Mormon Church, I'm joining the Orthodox Church, I'm joining the Catholic
Church.
I just say that person's not even saved.
Why?
Because Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me.
A stranger will they not follow.
A stranger will they flee from for they know not the voice of strangers.
The sheep know the voice of the shepherd because the Holy Spirit is there to tell them what
is right and what is wrong.
Now they can quench the Spirit and grieve the Spirit, but I personally do not believe
that it is even humanly possible for a person who's saved to stop believing Christ.
I do believe you can have doubts.
I've doubted.
Everybody has doubted, I think.
John the Baptist doubted.
All throughout the Bible.
Look, the Spirit is willing, the flesh is weak, doubts enter in, but the person who
is saved will never stop believing in Christ.
That's what I believe.
That's what I've always preached and taught.
Now I have said that, hey, theoretically, theoretically if a person stopped believing
they would still be saved because of the fact that we know that you can't lose your salvation
for any reason.
Just like no one could remove the DNA from my children and they would stop being my children,
no one can remove that spiritual DNA.
Once you're saved, once you're regenerated, you're sealed until the day of redemption.
Theoretically, if you were to stop believing, you'd still be saved and some eyes will point
to if we believe not, yet he abideth faithful.
He cannot deny himself.
But why would we bring up this bizarre hypothetical which does nothing but confuse people?
That's all it does.
Why would you bring it up?
Now if they bring it up, then they're the ones bringing in the confusion and then you
got to cut through the confusion and turn them to John 3.18 or turn them to 2 Timothy
2 or whatever.
But why in the world would you bring that up?
Why do you want to confuse it?
You just spent 10 minutes telling the person, you got to believe, you got to believe.
If you believe, you're saved.
If you don't believe, you're not saved.
If you have faith, you're saved.
He that believeth not is condemned.
And then you come at them with this tricky, well, what if you stop believing?
And you go, well, I just wanted to drive in eternal security.
You're not driving in eternal security.
You're just confusing people.
You're just making the whole thing sound silly as far as I'm concerned.
It's a bad sowing method.
I don't like it.
I don't think it's effective and it doesn't make any sense if you actually believe that
once you're saved, you have the Holy Spirit inside you and you're enlightened and you're
going to continue to believe, then why bring up this bizarre hypothetical?
I don't think it makes any sense to bring it up.
It's a trick question.
What do I mean by ridiculous illustrations?
When you're teaching the doctrine of eternal security, you really want to make sure that
they get it because people have been so brainwashed that you can lose your salvation.
This is often the key to them getting saved is understanding this.
This is often the part of the Gospel that they choke on.
This is often the part of the Gospel that has them the most mixed up, so therefore,
we want to make sure and get across the concept that once you believe on Jesus Christ, you're
saved forever because otherwise, if they think you can lose it, a lot of times in their heart,
they're still going to be trusting in works because they think, oh, well, if I don't live
a good life, I'll lose it or if I sin, I'll lose it.
Well, then they don't have all their faith in Christ.
They don't get it yet.
It's just a free gift.
It's by grace through faith.
They're still thinking it's something that they have to do something for or to earn or
to maintain.
It makes sense to use illustration, so I'll often give an illustration like this.
I'll give somebody the Gospel.
I'll show them all the verses on how we're sinners, we deserve to go to hell, Christ
died for us.
He's buried.
He rose again and how it's believe, believe, believe, believe.
What do we have to do to be saved?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
And then I show them it's eternal life.
It's everlasting life.
He'll never leave us or forsake us.
I'll usually give them an illustration like this just to drive in the point and make sure
they got it because I think it's important to drive in that point.
I'll say something like this.
Well, what if after I'm saved, I commit a really bad sin, okay?
And then I'll say, you know, for example, and then I'll give an example of a really
bad sin.
Let's say, for example, after I'm saved, you know, and sometimes I'll even say let's just
use a really extreme example and say that I actually were to kill someone after I'm
saved.
Okay.
Now, if I were to kill someone after I'm saved, God's gonna punish me for that on this earth.
I'm gonna go to prison or worse.
I mean, God's gonna make sure that I get a serious punishment for committing such a huge
sin.
But I would still be saved because once you have eternal life, he's your father, you're
his son, there's nothing we could ever do to lose our salvation.
Now, if we commit big sins, we're gonna get big punishments.
If we commit a little sin, we're gonna get a little punishment.
But when it comes to heaven and hell, it's based on whether or not we believe on Christ.
It's not based on how good we are.
And I often say something along the lines of, hey, Jesus died on the cross for all of
our sins, which would even include big sins like adultery, murder, robbery.
Or sometimes I might use the illustration of robbing a bank or, you know, killing someone
or just, you know, committing adultery.
Just I'll use like a huge sin like that.
But I'm always careful to explain to the person that you're gonna get punished for that on
this earth.
Now, why do I do that?
Why do I make sure to explain that they're gonna get punished on this earth?
And that, you know, we're talking about salvation separate from that.
The reason why is because I don't want it to sound ridiculous.
That's why.
Because what's my goal outsole-ening?
My goal outsole-ening is to get that person to believe the gospel.
So why would I make it sound as wild and unbelievable as possible if I want somebody to believe
it?
If the goal is to get them to believe on Christ, why would I make it just, yeah, I mean, you
go out and you kill a hundred people and you're still going to heaven.
It's stupid.
Why are you trying to make it sound crazy?
Why are you trying to make it sound unbelievable?
Now look, if you were truly saved and you went out and killed a hundred people, would
you still go to heaven?
Yeah.
But is that the best illustration of that?
What if I were to kill you and kill your whole family?
Would I still be saved?
That's nonsense.
That's confusion.
Don't use tricky questions and don't use ridiculous illustration.
Keep the illustration within reason.
Keep it realistic, friend.
When I give the illustration, I make it realistic sometimes.
Like for example, I was just outsole-ing the last few weeks and the guy that I was with,
he used an illustration of, hey, let's say 10 years after you got saved, you got in with
the wrong crowd and you got in a gang and next thing you know, you're dealing drugs
and you end up shooting somebody as a result of that.
That's actually a scenario that could happen.
Or let's say you get into drugs and you don't have any money, so you go and rob a store,
you end up shooting a security guard, he dies or something.
Those are things that actually happen in real life.
And look, if you did that, that's a major wicked sin.
That's what you want to express to the person.
That would be a major wicked sin and you would get severely punished for that on this earth,
but you'd still be saved.
And that's just kind of using an extreme example just to show them, hey, there's nothing you
can do to lose your salvation.
But come on, folks, keep it within reason and don't make it sound all wild and crazy.
I mean, look, I'm saved and sometimes I'm standing there thinking it's a little crazy.
And I believe in it, let alone to an unsafe person.
Why don't you make it reasonable and then it makes sense?
So don't get all wild and crazy with these ridiculous illustrations and don't ask these
tricky questions and try to confuse the person, okay?
It's good to ask a few questions, but you know, why don't you give people some answers
too?
So, okay, well, what about this?
Well, what about this?
Like you're just quizzing and badgering them.
It just becomes adversarial and it becomes counterproductive.
Asking a minimum of questions is good just to make sure that they get it.
And I'm all for being thorough and making sure that they get it, but I think that people
are being counterproductive when they ask these radical, super difficult questions,
super advanced, hard questions, tricky, you know, ridiculous questions and wild illustrations.
It's too much.
You know, the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 3, 12, seeing them that we have such hope,
we use great plainness of speech.
When we preach the gospel, we want to make it plain, make it clear.
Paul said that he should make the gospel manifest, meaning it can just be openly seen to be the
truth, right?
So we want to make it clear.
We want to walk away knowing that the person understood everything that we preached.
Well, using trick questions, wild illustrations, and bizarre hypotheticals isn't going to help
that person understand.
It's just going to confuse them more.
And so it really makes no sense to muddy the waters with strange questions and illustrations.
And thirdly this, be thorough.
Go to Romans Chapter 10.
Be thorough in your presentation and then lead them in prayer.
Okay.
So what was point number one?
Point number one is be friendly and nice to people.
This comes from having actual love and compassion in your heart which cannot be simulated.
Number two, do not use trick questions or ridiculous illustrations.
And then number three, be thorough in your presentation and then lead them in prayer.
Now, this gets a bad name in a lot of circles because they say, oh, you're one of these
one, two, three, repeat after me people when you lead them in prayer.
So then leading people in prayer gets a bad rap.
Leading people in prayer is good.
The part that's the problem is when people do a sloppy quick presentation, all right,
let's pray this prayer.
Now there are bozos who do that, not in our church.
I've never seen that in our church.
But in other independent Baptist churches, sometimes there's this thing where they do
a really quick, short, two minute, three minute, sloppy presentation and then it's just a one,
two, three, repeat after me.
They show them three Bible verses and then it's like, all right, let's pray.
And then they count it as a salvation, you know.
The problem with that is not the praying.
Okay.
The problem with that is the bad presentation.
So we need to be thorough in our presentation and then lead them in prayer.
So praying with people gets a bad rap from the quick, slipshod, one, two, three, repeat
after me types.
And then praying with people also gets a bad rap from Calvinists who have this weird doctrine
of praying to ask Jesus to save you is working for your salvation.
And these are the same people who tell you that believing is also working.
Even though the Bible says we're saved by faith, not works, they claim like, well, believing
is a work and asking Christ to save you is a work, right?
And then also it will come under attack even from people that are not Calvinists, but just
babes in Christ who are navel gazing types, obsessive compulsive types, types who get
hung up and strain at a gnat and swallow a camel and don't understand that calling upon
the name of the Lord is not works.
Okay.
Now, this is one of the dumbest doctrines that I've ever heard of, but yet it constantly
rears up its ugly head in our church even.
And in other independent Baptist churches that are like-minded, this thing constantly
pops up of, well, you know, you don't have to call upon the name of the Lord to be saved
because if it's just all by faith, then why are we even praying with the people, right?
And this is a dumb doctrine and it's always popping up and so I constantly have to keep
pinning this thing down, okay?
Our soul winning method is and always has been to preach the gospel to people and then
lead them to call upon the Lord by faith.
That's what the Bible teaches, okay?
The Bible talks about calling upon the name of the Lord all the way back in Genesis 4.
And from Genesis 4 all the way through the Old Testament and New Testament, calling upon
the name of the Lord is salvation.
Now, are there a ton of verses that say we're saved by faith?
Absolutely.
But guess what?
The faith and the calling upon the name of the Lord go hand in hand.
Now, let me, and I'm going to show you that in Romans 10, but let me just start out by
showing how ridiculous this doctrine is, okay?
Let's say somebody went down to the welfare department and walked in and said, give me
my welfare check.
Did anybody say that person earned it?
Oh yeah, they earned it.
They worked for it.
That's works-based.
What if somebody walked in and said, may I please have my EBT card?
Is that what it's called?
Somebody help me out.
Is that correct?
Would somebody give me my EBT card pretty please with sugar on top?
Well, you asked for it, so that's a works-based card.
Would anyone in their right mind think that that person actually worked for or earned
that welfare check or that EBT card because they filled out a form or asked them to give
it to them?
No one in their right mind would say that.
So where do we get this stupidity of saying, oh, well, you said it's faith and not works,
so why do they have to ask for it?
It's just as ridiculous.
What if I woke up on Christmas morning and I said, mom, may I have my Christmas gift
now?
And she said, yes, son, here it is.
Oh, you earned it.
Not a gift anymore.
You worked for it.
It's ridiculous.
It makes no sense.
And look, I'm not going to go through all the scriptures debunking that.
That's a whole sermon.
I just preached a sermon on that back in January called The Sinner's Prayer.
I've done sermons on calling upon the name of the Lord many times.
But let's just look at this one passage, Romans chapter 10, verse 8.
But what sayeth it?
The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart.
That is the word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved.
And verse 10 is the key.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation.
Now stop right there.
What does that sentence say?
Confession is made unto salvation.
You know what that means?
Confession is made unto salvation?
It means confession gets you saved.
That's what that means, right?
Unto is a destination.
What's the destination?
Salvation.
How do we get there?
Confession.
Now what's the confession that it says right there?
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine
heart that God hath raised him from the dead.
That's what you confess, right?
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine
heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.
Now what is righteousness?
That is also referring to our salvation.
Because we have to be declared righteous in the sight of God in order to get into heaven.
And it's not our righteousness, it's Christ's righteousness on our account.
His righteousness is imputed unto us.
So the Bible says with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.
So what's the destination?
Righteousness.
Salvation.
How do we get there?
By believing.
What's the destination in the next phrase?
Salvation.
How do we get there?
Confession.
Now it's pretty easy to tell that we both confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus and
believe in our heart that God has raised him from the dead.
And that we get saved by doing both things.
Both things go together, why?
Because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.
How do you measure faith?
Is it measured in degrees Fahrenheit?
Is it measured in inches or pounds or ounces?
How do you measure faith?
You measure faith by the words that come from the heart.
That is how our faith is manifest.
That's how our faith is measured.
That is the result of faith.
We believe in our heart and we call upon the name of the Lord.
The Bible says with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation.
For the scripture saith whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek.
Now that verse is often misunderstood.
That does not mean ashamed as in embarrassed.
It means ashamed as in let down.
If you study the Old Testament you'll find the word ashamed often means God letting you
down would be you being ashamed.
It's saying whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed because there's no difference
between the Jew and the Greek.
Because whoever calls on him is going to be saved.
So nobody's going to be let down or ashamed.
So if anybody calls on the name of the Lord they shall be saved.
Isn't that what it says?
For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek.
For the same Lord overall is rich unto all that call upon him for whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
But then here's the caveat.
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?
So the Bible is clear that if you just pray a prayer but you don't believe you're not
saved.
Right?
How do you call on him in whom you have not believed?
So if you pray the prayer without the faith you're not saved.
If you pray the prayer with the faith you're saved.
Now what is so hard to understand about this?
You pray the prayer by faith and you say well you're saying the prayer saves you.
You got it right.
Yes, the prayer saves you if you believe the prayer.
Hello, is anybody home?
If you believe that Christ can save you then asking him to save you saves you because you
ask and you receive eternal life right there.
I mean it's really simple.
How could this be taught as works based or earning it is beyond me.
The Bible says if thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that said unto thee give
me to drink thou wouldest have asked of him and he would have given thee living water.
So he said you ask and you get the gift.
The Bible says if ye then be evil know how to give good gifts unto your children how
much shall your father was in heaven give good things to them that ask him.
So over and over again asking it's still a gift.
If you know the gift, if you know who Christ is, if you know that he's offering the living
water you would have asked him.
So then comes the inevitable question, the navel gazing question that says well what
if, and this is right up there with you know a lot of other weird what if questions.
Well what if, what if somebody believes but they don't ask are they saved?
Now this is a foolish question and let me explain to you why this is a foolish question.
Well what if a person believes in Christ but they don't ask.
The reason why it's a foolish question is because no person would believe in the Lord,
believe in Christ, believe that he's the Savior and not even say a word to him.
The reason why no one would just not even say a word to him and even confess Christ
to him is if they don't believe he's there.
What kind of a crazy person would believe the gospel, believe that Christ died on the
cross for them, rose again, was buried, you know what kind of a person would believe that
the Lord created them and they're on their way to hell but if they believe in Christ
they're going to be saved.
What kind of a crazy person wouldn't then speak to the Father and in some way, in some
words, in some fashion whether it's in their head or out loud, whether it's with the soul
winner, whether it's in their bedroom, would in some way acknowledge the Lord and call
upon his name.
I believed in Christ years ago and I've never called upon the name of the Lord.
You know what?
You're an idiot.
That makes no sense.
I mean that in the 1800s definition of the word idiot, like a mentally ill person.
Let me give you some illustrations to help you out on this.
What if I'd spent my whole life looking for my real dad or something?
I'm an orphan, right?
And I spent my whole life looking for my real dad.
And someone finally comes to me and says, hey, I've located your dad.
And they provide evidence that this really is my dad and they show me the evidence.
I look at him and he looks like me and resembles me and I come to a point where I believe
this guy is my dad, right?
And then I just turn around and walk away or am I going to say, hi, dad.
Good to see you, dad, finally meet you, dad.
I mean, no, just, okay, he's my dad.
It's stupid.
It doesn't make any sense.
Or what if I'm a patient?
These are all illustrations that actually mirror what is being saved.
You're finding what?
The father.
You're finding salvation in the Lord.
What if I have a disease that's killing me and I know that I have stage four whatever
and someone comes to me and brings me the good news that there's a doctor that has the
therapy that can cure me and, in fact, it's totally free.
It's not going to cost me anything.
All I have to do is just believe in the treatment and I just have to be willing to stop seeing
any other doctor, right?
I have to discontinue whatever meds I'm on.
That's all the works and the false religion I'm into.
I have to discontinue whatever other medications.
That's the only condition.
I just have to believe in the treatment, right?
And let's say the doctor is standing five feet from me, right?
He's standing right there and this other guy is telling me, okay, this is the treatment.
Wouldn't I say to the doctor, all right, doctor, I'm in?
Or would I just ignore him and pretend he's not even there?
Do you see what I'm saying?
And guess what?
God's there.
I mean, soul winning is not a transaction between the soul winner and the unsaved person.
It's a transaction between the soul winner and the unsaved person and God.
So this thing of not calling upon the name of the Lord, it's like you're just completely
removing God from the equation.
Like he's not even there.
Like we're just going to ignore him like he's not even there.
It makes no sense.
I don't believe in it for one second.
I don't believe that people receive the gospel of Jesus Christ and believe on the word of
God and don't even say, thank you Lord for saving me.
Or don't even say like, God, I believe.
You know, Lord, save me.
Right?
Lord, I'm putting my faith in you.
All my faith's in you, Lord.
They would call out to him in some way, shape, or form.
Even atheists, when they get in a jam, call out to the Lord.
You're going to tell me that a person who actually believes in the Lord is not even
going to say a word to him to call upon his name?
It makes no sense to me.
I frankly don't believe in it.
And this chapter seems to very strongly link calling upon the name of the Lord and believing
that the things happen simultaneously, that with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness
and with the mouth, confession's made unto salvation.
So that supports what I'm teaching right now, that basically the one who believes will.
So here's the bottom line.
Let me just boil it all down for you.
If a person truly believes in Christ, they will call upon the name of the Lord.
So there's no such thing as a person who believes but never calls on the name of the Lord.
If somebody came to me and said, well, I believe and I didn't call on them, I'd say there's
something wrong with you.
You need to do it right now.
Do it right now.
But sometimes people come at you with like a weird challenge.
Oh, yeah?
Well, I'm saved and I never called upon the name of the Lord.
I'm just saying, you know, woe unto you.
There's something wrong with you to come challenge us with that.
It's weird.
Doesn't make any sense.
Why are you glorying in not doing what the Bible has associated with salvation from Genesis
to Revelation?
And see, Romans 10 is such a beautiful chapter because what does it do?
It ties the whole Bible together.
Like the whole Bible just all ties together right there in Romans 10.
He brings out the law of Moses.
He brings out calling upon the name of the Lord.
It's like he just ties it all in.
It's just so perfect.
So why do people want to rest the scripture here?
And you know what?
Chapter 10, verse 10 is conclusive.
Chapter 10, verse 10 is a case closed.
And all the verses around it just support it and strengthen it.
So that's the end of discussion right there, Romans 10, 10.
And there's tons of other scripture on calling on the name of the Lord and tons of scripture
on faith.
I don't know what else to say.
I mean, that's it.
But there are other illustrations that you could use.
We could go on and on about how ridiculous it would be that if you believed in someone
to completely ignore their presence and never say a word to them, that makes no sense.
And I don't believe it.
Now, it's not the exact words that you say.
I mean, there are some dumb things that people said in the Bible.
Like, you know, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
I mean, that's not the best salvation prayer ever.
I mean, if Jesus were to take him literally, then it would basically mean like, all right,
Jesus, I'm going to go to hell now.
And thousands of years from now, when you are in your millennial reign, just think about
me.
Remember me.
Right.
Well, you know, it doesn't mean he didn't know the doctrine.
He didn't know exactly what to say.
It would have made more sense to look at Christ and say, Lord, I'm a sinner.
I deserve to go to hell.
Please save me, Lord.
I'm only trusting you, Jesus.
Please save me.
That would have been a better prayer.
Amen.
That would have made more sense.
But he just look, he just said it in whatever words he had.
Just that's what came to his mind.
Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
That was just his way of saying, I believe in you, Jesus.
That's what he's saying.
You know what?
I believe in you.
Because if he didn't believe in him, he wouldn't believe he was ever going to come into a kingdom.
So that's just his way of saying, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
He didn't know the doctrine, but he knew that Jesus was the savior.
He knew Jesus was dying for him.
He knew that he needed to be saved.
He knew he needed help.
And what did he do?
He called out and he got saved.
So it's not the words that are the thing.
You say, well, it's not the words that save you.
Actually, it is the words that save you, if you believe.
If you believe, the confession is made unto salvation.
But it's not the exact words that save you, right?
It's not a magic words, repeat this.
So yeah, a lot of people could pray a sinner's prayer and go straight to hell because they
didn't believe.
But there is not one person on this planet who will believe and go to hell, period.
Because whosoever believeth in him is not going to perish.
They're going to have eternal life.
But that's what the straw man is, that people walk away.
Well, Pastor Anderson says that even if you believe in Christ, that's not enough if you
don't call on him also.
Did I say that?
No, I said that that's a dumb argument because nobody who believes in Christ isn't going
to call on him.
Everybody who believes will call, period.
Now other preachers may have explained this in a sloppy way at some point, but not me.
Other preachers may have said something along those lines of somebody believing but they're
not saved.
Even though they believe in Christ, they truly believe in him.
No, no, no, because if you believe you're saved, period, that's what I've always taught
and that's where I always stand because there's just too much scripture that says that.
So again, I hope that this helps you out tonight.
And by the way, just by the way, this whole not praying thing, that has not been creeping
into our church lately that I know of.
I haven't seen a problem in that in years.
That's just a preventative maintenance tonight, okay, on point three.
But point one, being friendly and being nice, I think a lot of people could work on that,
number one.
And number two, not using tricky questions or ridiculous illustrations.
There's some of that that happens from time to time.
And then number three, we always want to make sure we're thorough, that we be thorough in
our presentation and then we lead them in prayer.
And to me, that's part of being thorough.
To me, if you don't lead them in prayer, you're not being thorough.
I mean, that's part of thoroughness, to do the best you can to get them saved.
And you know, when it comes to counting the salvations, when in doubt, don't count.
You know, if I talk to somebody and I walk away kind of thinking, I don't think that
person got it or I don't know if they really got it, I don't count that person.
Now, is our number exactly accurate?
No, it's not, because it'll be impossible to have an exact number of how many people
got saved.
We'll know that when we get to heaven, but I want to keep the number as accurate as possible
by being thorough and only counting people that were reasonably sure of that they actually
got saved.
Okay.
And so, you know, the number is encouraging and I believe that that number is accurate.
I believe that our church got more people than that saved simply because we don't count
people that are doubtful, number one.
And number two, we also preached to giant crowds in Guyana and Botswana and Malawi that
we didn't count because we preached to giant crowds and we had people raise their hand.
We never count those.
We only count the people that we dealt with one-on-one.
We preached to 4,500 high school students in Guyana and most of them claimed to receive
Christ as Savior.
We counted zero.
Why?
Because we didn't talk to them one-on-one.
We only counted people that we talked to one-on-one and confirmed that they believed, not to mention
that there are a ton of people getting saved every week through the internet, ministry
and so forth.
So don't be discouraged and think, oh, this number is not, oh, it's real.
Numbers are real, friend, but let's do a good job and be thorough and let's sharpen up our
ax and chop some serious wood in the coming year.
Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for the gospel and for saving us, Lord, and you love us and
died for us, Lord.
Help us to show that love to other people, Lord.
Help us to truly love people, not to just say that we do or to go through the motions,
but help us when we knock on that door to behold people and love them the way that you
love them, Lord.
Help us to do our best to get them saved using the best methods possible, Lord, and at the
end of the day, help us to rely on you to provide the increase and for you to give the
harvest through the power of your Holy Spirit.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.