Boy, this is a powerful chapter, dear God. It's a chapter that exalts Jesus Christ.
It's a great chapter, Father. I just pray that you would help me as I preach tonight.
Please just fill me with your Holy Spirit, dear God, and help me to say what you would have me to say.
And please just help something that's said in the message tonight to help each and every one that's here,
and to stir them, and also just to educate them, dear God, in this important matter that we're going to be discussing tonight.
And in Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
Now, I love this chapter. I mean, you must know why I love it if you were here in the room reading it just now.
It's such a great chapter. I can't help but just point out a few things before I get into the message.
Look, if you would, at verse number 15.
Who is the image of the invisible God? This is Jesus Christ, the firstborn of every creature.
For by Him were all things created. So who created all things? Jesus Christ.
By Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.
All things were created by Him and for Him.
And He is before all things. Boy, are you getting this? Jesus Christ is before all things.
And by Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence.
And of course in the next chapter the Bible says that,
In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
Boy, Jesus is God. It's so clear from the Bible.
I love these chapters that just lift up and exalt Jesus Christ.
But I want to draw attention to a few things later in the chapter.
Look at what it is, three verses. Look at verse 23 first of all.
The Bible reads, If you continue in the faith, grounded and settled,
and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard,
and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven.
You see that? So the gospel has been preached, according to the Bible, to every creature under heaven.
And the Bible says, Whereof I, Paul, am made a minister, skip down to verse 28 for the sake of time,
whom we preach, warning every man.
You see that? Whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom,
that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.
Whereunto I also labor, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.
And then don't turn there, but I'm going to read for you another verse, Mark 16, 15.
The Bible reads, And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
You hear that? There's a ministry of reconciliation that's talked about here in Colossians chapter 1.
The Bible says that this great God, Jesus Christ, reconciled all things to himself
when he shed his blood on the cross for us.
And he says he's committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation, and he's given us the gospel.
He's preached it to every man, but he says, I want you to preach the gospel and warn every man.
And he says, I want you to, after you warn him, he says, I want you to teach every man
so that you can present every man to Jesus Christ some day.
Well, can you imagine what it's going to be like some day?
To stand before Jesus Christ at the judgment seat of Christ
and to present somebody that you want to the Lord to Jesus Christ.
Can you imagine that? I mean, can you imagine?
You know, we're talking about Jerry. Okay. I want his brother, Bobby, the Lord.
One day I'm going to walk up to Jesus Christ. I believe this.
One day I'm going to walk up to Jesus Christ and say, Jesus, here is Robert Stocks.
This is who I want to the Lord, and I'm going to present him.
And the Bible says that when I present him, he's going to be perfect and faultless.
Because the Bible says, when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
And one day at that first resurrection, when the flesh body dies,
or if we die before that, when our bodies changed or when the rapture occurs, whatever the case may be,
when that flesh is gone and our spirit rises with that brand new flesh, that brand new body that's created,
then we're going to be without sin, without fault, spotless, blameless, without spot or wrinkle.
And I'm going to present some day every soul that I've won to Christ.
I'm going to stand before Jesus Christ and present them to Jesus Christ and say,
this is my convert, and it's just going to be just exciting, it's going to be rejoicing, it's going to be shouting.
And I can't wait for that great day.
And he says, we need to warn every man.
We've got to warn everybody.
And then we've got to teach everybody, and then we'll be able to present each and every person that we can.
But the Bible also said in Mark 16, 15, he said, preach the gospel to every creature.
Warn every man.
Now the gospel is a warning.
Just as much as there's joy in presenting someone to Jesus Christ,
I think there's going to be some sorrow when you see those that did not receive Christ,
perhaps because we didn't warn them.
People that we knew cast into the lake of fire.
And maybe the thought crosses our mind, maybe they won't even have to say, why didn't you warn me?
So we all know, and everybody in this room, I'm sure, wants to win people to Christ.
We want to preach the gospel.
We want to see people saved.
But how can we be an effective soul winner?
How can we be an effective preacher of the gospel?
Now, I get up and preach, and I like to preach.
I have animated preaching.
I like to preach animated sermons.
But there are some things that I just need to teach that are so vital, so important.
And I want to teach you tonight some soul-winning techniques from the Bible.
And I want to show you, these are things that I've learned over the years of winning people to Christ,
things that work, and also things that I've seen in the Bible from the ultimate soul winner, Jesus Christ,
while he was on this earth.
And so I'm going to show you several points tonight, how to be an effective soul.
I mean, you want to do it, hopefully you're trying to do it,
but how can you be more effectively used by God by using biblical principles
and employing those to win people to Christ?
Well, number one, the best way to learn how to be an effective soul winner,
number one, and this is kind of an introductory point,
but participate in the door-to-door soul-winning efforts of the local church.
That's the best way you're going to learn.
Look, if you would, at Proverbs chapter number 13.
Flip back in your Bible toward the middle of your Bible right after the book of Psalms.
Proverbs 13, 20.
This is going to be the best way to learn how to be an effective soul winner,
is to participate in the door-to-door soul-winning efforts of the local church.
Look, if you would, at Proverbs 13, 20.
The Bible says in Proverbs 13, 20, it says,
He that walketh with wise men shall be wise.
But the companion of fools shall be destroyed.
Then look just over the page at Proverbs 11, 30.
And the Bible says, The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life,
and he that winneth souls is wise.
So God says that the soul winner is the righteous person who brings forth fruit,
and his fruit, the fruit of the righteous, is a tree of life.
That means it's a tree that can produce even more fruit.
You know, the soul winner reproduces himself in another Christian
who he then trains to be a soul winner, and the cycle is complete.
That's the wise man, the soul-winning, righteous, fruit-bearing Christian.
He says, Do you want to be a soul winner?
Do you want to win people to Christ?
Do you want to have fruit?
And not only fruit, but would you like some of your fruit to become a tree
and bear even more fruit?
How are you going to do it?
He says, Walk with wise men, you'll be wise.
Walk with wise men and you'll be a soul winner.
Walk with a soul winner and you'll be a soul winner.
So the greatest way to learn how to be a soul winner,
before I give you the message,
is to participate in the door-to-door soul-winning of this church,
or another church that has door-to-door soul-winning.
Look, the biggest reason that I started going soul-winning
is because I had friends and loved ones that I tried to win to the Lord.
As just a teenager, I failed to do so.
I would try. I would try to talk to them.
I didn't know what I was doing.
I stumbled over the words. I didn't know how to, just the techniques.
I didn't know the Bible.
And the best thing that ever happened to me was when I just started knocking doors.
And when I started to knock doors,
I just began to learn great soul-winning techniques
from other accomplished soul winners.
So come out soul-winning with us.
You can learn how to win people to the Lord.
That's the best thing about it.
Another reason why we don't just go out and invite people to church.
We preach the Gospel because we're trying to train you
how to be a soul winner in your life,
and we're trying to get a warning to everybody.
But number two, become an expert in bringing up the subject of salvation.
Because once we've learned out door to door,
and if you, you know, door to door soul-winning,
you'll learn that just by going with us.
But most of the sermon tonight is how to transfer this into your personal life.
You know, how to win somebody to the Lord that you know.
Look at John chapter three,
and we're going to be in the book of John pretty much the whole sermon.
And we're going to see Jesus Christ in action in the book of John.
But you need to become an expert at bringing up the subject.
You know, breaking the ice about the subject of getting on the Gospel.
Now here's the rule of thumb.
If you're alone with somebody,
if you're alone with somebody, talk to them about salvation.
Now you could, I'm not saying that you can't talk to somebody
when you're not alone with them.
But if you're alone with somebody, dead sure, that's a great time.
That's your opportunity.
You say, I'm waiting for an opportunity.
Have you ever been alone with that person?
That's the opportunity to start talking to them about the Gospel,
to start preaching the Gospel to them.
Boy, driving in the work truck, just you and them.
Perfect opportunity.
I've won people the Lord while driving.
They were in the passenger seat.
I was driving.
I said, bow your head.
You know, after I went through the whole thing,
a long drive from Stockton, I remember one particular time,
from Stockton to Citrus Heights.
We're driving.
I said, bow your head right there and just close your eyes
and just pray this prayer with me and I'll walk you through this
and you can be saved right now.
I remember it vividly.
But look if you would at John chapter three.
The Bible says in John chapter three, verse number one,
there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus,
a ruler of the Jews.
The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him,
Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God,
for no man can do these miracles that thou doest,
except God be with him.
Now they're alone.
Here they are.
They're out at night.
He comes and talks to them and he just pays them a compliment
and he says, no man can do these miracles that thou doest,
except God be with him.
Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto thee,
except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
See how he diverts the subject?
This man brings up something different about the miracles
and boy, I just can't believe some of the things you're doing, Jesus,
and he says, you know what, that's all great,
the works of God and the miracles of God,
but he says, you know, did you know that if a man's not born again,
he's not even going to see the kingdom of God?
And boy, he just gets right on that subject of salvation.
Flip over, if you would, to John 4.
We're going to look at these two stories in depth, John 3 and John 4.
Flip over to John 4 and look at verse number 7.
And watch how Jesus, again, one on one, just by himself with another person,
gets on the subject of the Gospel with somebody.
Look at John chapter 4, verse number 7.
And the Bible reads in John 4, 7,
There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water.
And I'm sorry, in verse number 6, he's sitting on the well,
just relaxing after a long trip.
There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water.
Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
For his disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat.
Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him,
How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me,
which am a woman of Samaria?
For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
Jesus answered and said unto her,
If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee,
give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him,
and he would have given thee living water.
You see how she comes up to him and he asks her for water.
I don't think he was really interested in getting that drink of water.
But he's just trying to use whatever he can to get her on the subject.
He says, Give me something to drink.
And she says, Well, I can't believe you're asking me that
because we're two different races that don't necessarily get along
and a little bit segregated here.
And I don't know why you're asking me that.
And he said, If you knew who you're talking to,
you'd be asking me for water.
And he's using an illustration here of something that they see right in front of them.
He's using an illustration of water and saying,
Salvation is like you taking a drink of water and you're never thirsty again.
I want to say to everybody who doesn't believe in eternal security,
people who believe that you can lose your salvation,
Hey, if you drink of the water that Jesus gives you, you'll never thirst again.
Never again will you thirst for salvation
when you bow your head and trust Christ as Savior
and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved, you're eternally saved,
and so you'll never be thirsty again.
And he uses this illustration.
But what's the point of all this?
Jesus Christ is always, no matter what anybody came to him to talk about,
you notice how he just kind of diverts the subject and just gets it on salvation,
gets it on the gospel.
Well, become an expert at this.
When you're at work and you're by yourself, you're alone,
find a way to bring it up.
Here's some ways that I bring it up.
Oh, by the way, I pastor a church.
It's a lot easier for me.
I say, yeah, by the way, I'm also a pastor of a Baptist church.
I work a full-time job in the fire alarm business.
Then I'll be talking to people and I'll be saying,
you know, yeah, they say, what do you do?
I say, well, I install fire alarms and I also pastor a Baptist church.
And they say, oh, really?
And then I say something like, well, do you go to church anywhere?
And then maybe they do, maybe they don't.
But then I say, well, hey, a lot more important than going to church,
if you were to die today, do you know for sure you'd go to heaven?
Isn't that easy to get somebody on the subject?
I mean, how hard is that?
Hi, I'm Pastor Steve, you know, I'm a pastor of a Baptist church,
just somebody that I'm working with.
On the side, I do this, I pastor and I'm starting this church.
And do you go to church?
No.
Let's say they just say, no, I don't go to church.
I'm not interested in church.
Well, more important than church, you know, what if you died today?
Do you know for sure you're going to heaven?
How hard is that?
What about you?
You could say, bring it up in anything that reminds you.
Let's say somebody's in Tempe, somebody mentions Tempe.
Oh, I go to church over in Tempe.
Do you go to church anywhere?
See how easy that is to bring that up?
Or just say to them, you know, sometimes I'll see something out and about.
And one time I was in Chicago recently driving down the road with a new coworker
and we saw a filthy billboard.
Okay, what else is new?
So we're driving down the road in Chicago to see a filthy billboard.
I said, can you believe the filth?
You know, I didn't even know this guy.
I mean, I'd met this guy 10 minutes before, we hadn't talked about anything.
We're just sitting in the car, I just said, can you believe the filth
that's allowed on these billboards?
I said, I can't even believe that this kind of filthy stuff is allowed.
It's unbelievable how there's just no respect for God.
I mean, just no morals.
And then I'll just get to talking to him and I'll just say, yeah, you know,
I'm actually a Baptist.
And I'll say, you know, do you happen to go to church anywhere?
And then whatever the answer is, what's the next question?
Well, more important than going to church, are you sure you go to heaven if you die?
It turned out he was a Lutheran and, you know, I went through with him.
But it's not that hard to bring it up if you try and think about it
and become an expert at it.
Something's going to come up in the course of a conversation
where you can just easily get on this subject.
Because the hardest part, this is the most important part of the message,
because once you get on the subject, you probably know what to do.
But you've got to find a way to get on the subject.
Like Jesus just said, I'm going to find a way,
whether it's about this drinking water
or even if somebody asks me about something totally different,
if it has anything to do with God, if it has anything to do with the Bible,
if it has anything to do with church, if it has anything to do with Tempe,
if it has anything to do with the state of Arizona,
just say, well, you know what?
Because, I mean, it almost seems like he's not even answering him.
Did you notice that?
He says to him, Rabbi, I know that thou art a teacher come from God.
He just says, hey, did you know that you have to be born again
to even see the kingdom of God?
See how he just gets right into it?
Did you know that if you knew who I was, you'd be asking me for living water?
And all I'm saying is, however you have to do it,
just find a way, just become an expert at bringing up the subject.
And it's not that hard.
All you have to do is mention where you go to church.
You drive by Old Grove.
Hey, I go to church over here in Old Grove.
Do you go to church?
And then, boom, you ask them a question, and the rest is there.
So number one is be a door-to-door soul winner.
That'll help you learn the most.
Number two, become an expert at bringing up the subject of salvation.
Flip over to John 6.
John 6, verse 5.
I'll just quickly go through this.
In John 6, 5, the Bible says here,
When Jesus then lifted up his eyes and saw a great company come unto him,
he saith unto Philip, When shall we buy bread that these may eat?
And this he said to prove them, for he himself knew what he would do.
So he already knew that there's plenty of food.
He knows that he's going to be able to provide the need.
But he asks this question.
He almost seemingly creates a problem.
He invites all these people out there and then says,
Oh, man, what are we going to do?
How are we going to feed these people?
Even though he knows what he's going to do, right?
Well, if you go down in the chapter later on,
he's going to use this great illustration.
Look at verse number 27.
In verse 27 of John chapter 6, he says,
Labor not for the meat that endureth.
This is after he's fed the 5,000.
He's just fed them.
Now he's explaining to them about the miracle.
He says, Labor not for the meat which perisheth,
but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life,
which the Son of Man shall give unto you,
for him hath God the Father sealed.
Then said they unto him.
He's talking to a smaller group of people at this time
about what he just did.
Then said they unto him,
What shall we do that we might work the works of God?
Jesus answered and said unto them,
This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he hath sent.
Saying, Believe on Jesus Christ.
That's salvation.
They said therefore unto him,
What sign showest thou then that we may see and believe thee?
What dost thou work?
Good night.
They're looking for more signs. Isn't that amazing?
And it says here,
Our fathers did eat manna in the desert.
As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat.
Then Jesus said unto them,
Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Moses gave you not that bread from heaven,
but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven
and giveth life unto the world.
Then said they unto him,
Lord evermore give us this bread.
And Jesus said unto them,
I am the bread of life.
He that cometh to me shall never hunger,
and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
You see how he used this whole feeding of the 5,000.
The purpose was so that he could use it
as an illustration to these people
of him giving his own body to be the bread of life.
He said, I'm giving my flesh and my blood.
He said, Whosoever eateth the flesh of the Son of Man
and drinketh his blood hath everlasting life.
And he goes on in John chapter 6 and explains this,
and then he goes on to say he's going to give his life
for the world and that if they'll believe on him,
you know, we just read the word believe like five times
in the chapter where he just says they'll believe,
you'll be saved, it's like eating bread,
it's like drinking water, it's so simple,
you just have to receive Jesus Christ.
And so we see here that the purpose
of the feeding of the 5,000,
the reason that he created this problem,
brought up the problem, solved the problem,
was just so that he could get on the subject
so that he could preach the gospel to these people.
So number one, really, is to say,
you know, get on the subject
and be an expert at getting on the subject.
Number two, become an expert at getting people
to realize that they're lost.
So first of all, you get on the subject.
Your next job is to get them to realize
that they're not saved, get them to realize they're lost.
This is the hardest part of soul winning.
If you can get somebody to admit, I'm not saved.
I'm not going to heaven.
If I died right now, I'd go to hell.
Good night. They're right there.
They're ready to be saved.
The hardest part is getting them to realize that they're lost.
Look at the next verse where we just start
and see how Jesus does this.
He preaches the gospel to them.
He tells them it's by believing.
They say, we want to do works.
You know, what's the works?
He said, no, believe on him whom he sent.
And then he says here in verse number 36,
But I said unto you that ye also have seen me and believe not.
See how he's calling them on it.
He's pointing out to them.
He's saying, no, you're not saved.
You don't believe and that's why you're not saved.
Do you notice how he's just right away,
he gives them the gospel and then he says,
look, I need to show you that you're lost.
You've got to become an expert at showing people that they're lost.
Look at Matthew chapter 19.
Matthew chapter number 19.
Look back a few books in your Bible there.
Matthew chapter 19, a familiar story.
Matthew 19, verse number 16.
The Bible reads in Matthew 19, 16.
And behold, Matthew 19, 16,
Behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master,
what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?
Now here's a man that believes like most people that works salvation.
He thinks he has to do something to go to heaven.
He thinks he has to work his way to heaven.
What good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?
And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good?
There is none good but one.
That is God.
But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
Of course, I was telling, I don't know if I was telling you this,
but I was working on a fire alarm system in UC Davis
for a new building that they were building there,
and I was working with a Jehovah's Witness guy.
And I was talking to him, and he would not believe that Jesus was God,
and I was trying to win him to Christ,
and he just would not believe that Jesus is God.
And I said, I'll prove to you that Jesus is God.
I said, this is what the Bible says,
that there is a rich, young ruler.
He came to Jesus, and he said to him, Good Master,
what good thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?
And Jesus said to him, Why callest thou me good?
There is none good but one.
That is God.
And he's like, Yeah, exactly.
Jesus is not God.
He was all excited.
Exactly.
Because that's the verse, and I knew this when I brought it up.
I knew that that's a verse that they're trained to use,
because I've had many Jehovah's Witnesses bring up that very verse to me.
You probably had them bring it up to you.
And so I've had them bring up that exact verse,
and so I always like to take their verses and turn it around a little.
And I said, Okay, are you telling me that Jesus isn't good?
Well, yeah, of course Jesus is good.
Well, there's none good but God.
There's only one that's good.
It's God.
And he's just like, Man, I never thought of that before.
He had no answer.
He said, I never thought of that before.
He said, I never thought of it that way.
I said, Look, he's saying there is only one that's good.
Why are you calling me good?
Are you saying that I'm God?
Because there's only one good, and that's God, and Jesus is God.
And he's just trying to illustrate this, man.
I'm not a good master.
I'm God.
I'm the almighty God that we read about in Colossians chapter 1.
I'm the creator.
I have the preeminence.
I'm the beginning.
I'm the first that there ever was.
I'm Jesus Christ.
I'm God manifest in the flesh.
And so I showed him this, and he went away scratching his head.
And he didn't get saved that day, but I planted a seed in his mind.
And I went through and showed him a lot of other things about eternal life that he didn't believe.
But he said, I've got to go home and talk to my pastor.
And I said, You know what?
Don't confer with flesh and blood.
I said, The Gospel comes from God.
It comes from the Bible.
It comes from Jesus Christ.
It doesn't come from a man.
You don't need to confer with flesh and blood.
I just showed you what the Bible said.
But he had to talk it over with his leader, with his pope.
And so it's a shame, and I pray to God that someday this man will get saved.
But I'll tell you, I just wanted to point that out.
It really has nothing to do with what I was reading about this, but I had to point that out.
It says in verse 17, he said, But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
He saith unto him, Which?
Which ones do I have to do?
He said, Thou shalt do no murder.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness.
Honor thy father and thy mother, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up.
What lack I yet?
Now, do you believe that?
Do you believe that he kept all those things from his youth up?
Do you believe that he never stole, never disobeyed mom and dad,
always loved his neighbor just like he loved himself, never coveted his neighbor's property?
Do you really believe that?
Do you believe he never looked on a woman to lust after her in his life?
No, I don't believe it for a second.
And Jesus is trying to show this man who thinks that he's so good,
who thinks that he's going to work his way to heaven, and that he's so wonderful,
he says, Okay, which commandments?
I'll just give you, here, here's the six of them.
Or however many he lists, I believe the six commands.
Yeah, here's six of them, you know.
And he says, I've done all those.
And then Jesus answers them in verse 21.
Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, there's the key word,
if thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor,
and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me.
But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
Now, here's the thing.
This man believed in work salvation.
He believed that he was working his way to heaven.
He thought he was good enough to go to heaven.
And he says, Well, what do I have to do to go to heaven?
He says, Well, if you do all the commandments of God perfectly, you'll go to heaven.
And that's true, by the way.
If you do every commandment in this book perfectly, you'll go to heaven.
But the problem is, all of sin comes short of the glory of God.
And there's nobody, there's none righteous, no, not one.
There's none that doeth good, no, not one.
They're all turned out of the way.
They're all gone aside and become filthy.
There's none that doeth good, no, not one.
And so, Jesus is trying to show this man, see, he's trying to get him lost.
He's saying, There's no way I can get this guy saved until I can get him to realize that he's lost,
that he's not on his way to heaven.
And he says, Well, you know, okay, yeah, do the commandments.
How about just these six? Did you do these?
He said, I did all those perfect.
Then he says, Well, if you want to be perfect, then go sell everything you have and give it to the poor.
And why aren't you following me? You're going to be perfect.
And he says, I'm not willing to do either of those things.
And he went away sorrowful. Why?
Because he walked up to Jesus thinking that works were the way to heaven.
And he walked away thinking that works were the way to heaven.
And he went away sorrowful. He was missing it.
He didn't get it that Jesus Christ was trying to show him, You come short.
And if I can't get you to see that you come short, you're not going to be able to be saved.
And that's why the first step in winning somebody to Christ is to show them that they're a sinner
and to get them to realize that they're lost.
The first verse I show someone when I'm going through the plan of salvation,
some of this is review, but it's good to get this repetitiously.
Romans 3.23, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Everyone has sinned. I've sinned. You've sinned.
And not only that, but we all come short of the glory of God.
We don't meet his expectations.
And the glory of God is here, and we're down here.
And we come short. And we are not good enough to go to heaven.
So become an expert at getting people to realize that they're lost.
The only thing I was illustrating there is that Jesus had a methodology in his soul winning
of getting people to realize that they're lost.
Here's one of the greatest ways to get people to realize that they're lost.
Talk to them about eternal security.
Look at 1 John 5. Let me give you an illustration from this week.
This was on Wednesday afternoon.
Wednesday afternoon, Brother Jason Hemstad and I were out soul winning.
And we knocked on the door, and a lady came to the door.
And she came out and stepped onto the porch.
And I asked her, I said, if you were to die today, do you know for sure you'd go to heaven?
Remember, that's the question. That's our icebreaker question to get on the subject.
If you were to die today, do you know for sure you'd go to heaven?
And she said, yes I do.
And I said, great, well how do you know that?
And she said, well, I'm saved. I'm born again.
And I said, what church do you go to?
She said, I go to Victory Outreach.
You can just tell by the name, it's just some charismatic, non-enominational thing.
And she said, Victory Outreach.
So in my mind, and go ahead and fault me for this, but this is what works and this is what's right.
When I hear Victory Outreach, I'm thinking, not saved.
New international version, rock music, lose your salvation.
Not preaching the gospel. Okay, can we just be real and realistic?
So I'm not saying that nobody who goes there is saved, but I'm saying that chances are they're probably not saved.
But she said, well I'm going to heaven because of Jesus. Jesus Christ, I'm saved.
I said, really? I said, when did you get saved?
She said, I got saved at such and such a time and I'm saved.
And I started, now 99% of people at this point would probably say, well she's saved.
But see, I've been doing this a while and I've learned a great truth.
My dad taught me this, so I went a little bit further.
And I said, well, let me tell you how I got saved.
I said, when I was six years old, you know, I bowed on my knees and I prayed and I just told God,
you know, I'd heard the gospel and heard all the Bible about it and everything.
I said, Dear God, I know I'm a sinner, I know I deserve to go to hell,
but I just believe that you died on the cross for me and paid my sins and rose again from the dead
and I just want you to save me. I'm just trusting you alone to save me.
Please be my savior. That's similar to what I prayed when I was six years old.
And I told her, I said, you know what? I said, nothing can change the fact that I'm saved.
I said, I have eternal life, everlasting life, and there's no way I could ever perish
because I've been passed from death to life. I said, I'm going to heaven?
I said, because we believe in once saved, always saved.
Because that's their buzzword. If you go to a charismatic church, they'll preach against this.
They'll call it once saved, always saved. They'll use those four words.
And so I like to use that just to see what they say, to see if that's what they've been taught.
And I said, yep, once saved, always saved. I mean, once you're in the family,
once you're a child of God, once you're born again, you are in the family.
You are saved, sealed, eternally secure.
And then she said, whoa, wait a minute. She didn't believe that.
And she said, well, that's not true at all. Because if I were to get out of church,
and if you don't live right, you still have to live right.
See how she begins to expose what she's really trusting?
Now, a lot of people would walk away and just say, well, she says she's trusting Jesus Christ alone.
But when you start to talk to people about eternal security,
that is really what separates the sheep from the goats, my friend.
Because when you start to talk about eternal security, you can find out
whether somebody really believes that it's all through Jesus Christ
or whether they have to do something to make sure that they're going to make it into heaven.
And so they'll begin to tell you, at first she was given all the right answers.
As soon as I started talking to her about eternal security, then she started telling me,
well, you can't just live however you want.
That's not the Bible, my friend. The Bible says, but to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
And so it's not of works, lest any man should boast.
And the Bible talks about many people who lived unholy lives, Samson and on and on,
that lived very unholy lives, Samson who committed suicide and yet went to heaven
because they were saved and eternally secure in Jesus Christ.
And when I began to bring up that subject, it's amazing how people will tell you what they really believe.
See, they've been programmed, unfortunately, with a terminology that's the right terminology,
but they don't believe right because they've been taught it's all through Jesus,
but that doesn't mean the same thing as it means to us.
When we say it's all through Jesus, that means Jesus paid it all.
We just received the gift of eternal life.
When they say it's all through Jesus, they say, well, it's all through Jesus
because he's the one who gives me the ability to live right and I have to live right.
And they have ways of spinning things and twisting things.
And so then I was able to expose the fact that she was not saved
and she told us that she's trusting, not only in her faith, but she also has to live the life.
She also has to ask forgiveness for all her sins and so forth, which, good night.
That's all I'd be doing all day.
I mean, how are you even going to remember all your sins?
How are you going to know what they are?
And so we went through it with her. We gave her the Gospel.
She was this close to getting saved, but she was not willing to accept Christ.
This is what she said, the same thing that they all say.
And this is a tragedy when they say this.
I just have to think about it. I just have to study this.
I have to go talk to my pastor.
But that's where the Holy Spirit was dealing with them.
And then, who knows what's going to happen down the road.
It's a tragedy that she didn't get saved right there at the door.
But at least I was able to get her the Gospel because I was able to expose the fact that she was not saved.
And like Jesus did in this verse, I was able to tell her, you believe not.
And this is what you need to do to be saved.
And I said, this is the choice you have?
Would you be willing to be saved right now?
And she said, I'm not sure.
She said, I'm going to have to check this out further.
And again, she brought up a verse to me.
She brought up the people in Matthew 7 who said,
Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works?
And she said, see, these people were casting out devils.
And they weren't saved because they got away from God or whatever.
And she said, and I told her, I said, you know what the next verse says?
Depart from me, I never knew you.
Not I used to know you.
Not I knew you, but then you got out of church.
I knew you, but then you didn't live right.
I knew you, but you committed some grievous sin.
I knew you, but then you committed suicide.
Now I don't know you anymore.
He says, if you go to hell, it's because I never knew you.
And everyone who goes to hell, it's because Jesus never knew them.
And so I turned that one around on her, and that's when I thought I was getting somewhere.
But she had to go think about it.
She had to go talk to somebody about it.
And so look, if you would, at the page that I had to turn to in 1 John 5.
And there's so much in this sermon, I'm trying to blow through it.
There's so much information.
There's so much that I want to teach about soul winning, it's so vital.
1 John 5, look at verse number 10, the Bible says,
He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself.
Now if you know the chapter, you'll know that there are three that bear record in heaven,
the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one.
And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood.
So the witness here is the Holy Spirit of God, is what's being referred to.
The Bible says in 1 John 5, 10,
He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself,
which we know from verse 9 is the Holy Spirit.
Verse 7, 8, and 9 talks about this.
Then it says, He that believeth not God hath made him a liar,
because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.
So we have two different kinds of people.
Those who believe on the Son of God, they have the witness in themselves.
They know that this is true.
Then there's He that believeth not God hath made him a liar,
because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.
What is it that a person doesn't believe that makes them an unbeliever?
What is it that someone doesn't believe that makes them calling God a liar?
Look at the next verse.
This is the record. This is what they don't believe.
And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
He that hath the Son hath life, he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
And so here we have it.
The record is, and you can sum up the whole Gospel in this verse.
Verse 5-11, he says, and this is the record that God hath given to us.
See how it's a gift?
You have to pay for it.
Half-given, past tense, already gave it to us.
It's already, God hath given to us, what kind of life?
Eternal life.
And this life is in his Son, Jesus.
It's a gift.
You've already got it if you're saved.
You already have it right now.
It's through Jesus, and it's eternal.
Do you believe that?
Then you're going to heaven.
You don't believe that?
You're not going to heaven, you're going to hell when you die.
See, you say, why?
Because you're making God a liar.
I explained this to the young man that we were talking to today.
We were out so early this afternoon after the morning service,
and I said to this young man, he said, well,
he said, I think I just need to read the whole Bible.
Okay, I gave him the Gospel, and I went through it.
He's very receptive.
I went through the whole Gospel with him.
Took maybe 15 minutes and just went through it point by point.
And I said, get saved right now.
I said, I'm going to help you right now.
I just want to help you pray.
I said, but first let me ask you a couple questions.
I said, you know, do you believe you're a sinner?
Yeah.
He said, do you believe that Jesus died on the cross for his sins and rose again?
He said, you know, I'm not 100% sure about that.
And he said, I think I just need to read the whole Bible, and then I'll decide.
And I told him, I said, well, I said, here's the problem with that.
You don't understand the Bible,
and you will not understand the Bible until the Holy Spirit lives inside of you.
I explained to him that it's a spiritual book
and that it's spiritually discerned and that an unsaved person picks it up.
And like the Ethiopian eunuch, understandest thou what thou readest?
How can I?
Except some man should guide me.
He can't understand the Bible because he's not saved.
And so I told him, I said, you won't understand it at all.
You can't understand it.
And I said, you just have to by faith just accept it.
And I told him, I said, when you believe,
because he said, I just, I don't know for sure.
I said, I just have a little bit of doubt in my mind.
I mean, what you're saying to me makes sense because he's never heard it,
you know, the way I put it, obviously, the clear presentation of God.
He said, I've never really heard it, and it makes great sense.
And I believe it, but I just have a little bit of doubt.
I'm not really sure.
So I think maybe I just need to really look at it and study it.
I said, look, this is what it is.
When you believe I'm the Son of God, I said,
you're going to have the witness in yourself.
I said, but if you don't believe God, you're making God a liar.
I told him, I said, if I told you that I have three kids,
I said, I have three kids, you believe me?
He said, sure, I believe you.
I said, you haven't seen my kids?
I said, what if I told you, sir, I have three kids,
and you told me, hey, you don't have three kids.
I said, what are you making me?
He said, well, I'm making you a liar.
And I said, exactly.
And I said, if God tells you, I said, this is the record that God gave of his son.
I said, if you don't believe this, you're making God a liar.
I said, there's no middle ground.
You believe him, or you make him a liar.
I said, you're not going to know for sure if you died today that you'd go to heaven
until you take the step of faith to get saved.
And then once you get saved, the Bible says the spirit itself
bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
I know I'm going to heaven tonight. Why?
Because the spirit of God bears witness with my spirit saying,
you are a child of God.
Steven Anderson, you are saved.
Because I have the witness in myself, because I'm a believer.
I said, you're not going to have that until you're a believer.
You're not going to have that kind of assurance until you're saved.
And we talked to him, I showed him a bunch more scriptures,
and you know what, he said, you know what, I will.
I told him, I said, it's a choice that you have to make.
You just have to decide to take your faith from wherever it is and put it on Jesus.
Who has more faith? Me, you, Dave? Doesn't matter.
I said, whatever faith you have, just say, I'm going to put it on Jesus.
I'm going to put all my trust in him.
And he said, you know what, I'm willing to do that.
And he prayed with him and he prayed and trusted Christ as his Savior this afternoon.
And so you have to understand that there's two people in this world, there's only two kinds.
Those who believe on the Son of God, they have to witness in themselves.
And those who are making God a liar because they don't believe 1 John 5-11.
That's the record, my friend, that God has given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son.
They believe in temporary life.
They believe in conditional life based on your works.
They don't believe that it's eternal and therefore they're not saved.
I've had people attack me for saying that.
I've had people yell at me.
I had a man get up and start screaming at me in Red Lobster one time
because I told him that people who don't believe in eternal security aren't saved.
He flipped out at me.
I'll stand by that statement until I die.
You are not saved unless you believe that God has given to us eternal life.
Because everybody I've ever talked to who doesn't believe in eternal security
comes down to one thing, works, one way or another.
It's just another way of packaging it and doctoring it up.
But I must hurry. I want to blow through these points.
Number one was bring it up. Figure out a way to bring it up.
You've got to bring it up.
If you're alone with somebody, just remember that I said that.
When you're alone with somebody, shame on you if you don't find a way to bring it up.
Do you know what I mean?
If you're alone with somebody, great opportunity.
Now I understand sometimes when you're in a group, sometimes a group setting is more difficult.
I understand that and God understands that and sometimes it will work great.
But sometimes it's tough in a group to get people's attention and to really do it.
But when you're alone with somebody, let the Holy Spirit convict you about that warning every man.
Preach to every man.
And then number two, after you bring it up, be an expert at getting people to realize they're lost.
Number three, don't be diverted from the Gospel to other Biblical subjects.
And let me put point three in another way, control the conversation.
Control the conversation.
Who knows the truth? You are the person you're talking to. You know the truth.
Don't let them control the conversation.
You must control the conversation.
Now I'm tactful and sometimes people at the door will start talking to me and start telling me what they believe.
And I'll let them talk a little bit to an extent.
But I always keep the conversation controlled the way that I want it to go because I know where I'm going.
I'm the one that's got the witness in me.
I'm the one that's got the Word of God.
I'm the one trying to win them to Christ.
I control the conversation.
Why? Because if you let them control the conversation, they'll take it somewhere else.
They'll get you off course.
You're trying to give them a simple, clear plan of salvation, trying to make it simple.
They're going to get you off course.
Look if you would at John chapter four where we were.
John chapter four, we see Jesus with the woman at the well.
We were there a little bit earlier.
Jesus used the water as an illustration.
He's just finding a way to bring up the Gospel.
Look at verse number 19 of John chapter four.
Jesus is preaching the Gospel to her.
And in verse number 19, the woman saith unto him,
Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
Our fathers worshipped in this mountain,
and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
Now you notice how she's just completely changing the subject?
He's telling her about everlasting life, the living water.
He's illustrating to her that she's a sinner.
He's trying to go through his normal modus operandi for getting somebody saved.
And what happens?
She says, wait a minute.
You say, you're a Jew, and you say that we have to worship in Jerusalem.
I say we worship in this mountain because I'm a Samaritan.
Where are we supposed to worship God?
In this mountain or Jerusalem?
What does that have to do with what they're talking about?
Nothing.
And so this is very common when you're out soul-winning.
People, oh, I have a question.
What do you think about aliens?
I have a question.
What about these Dead Sea Scrolls and blah, blah, blah?
And if you've ever been out soul-winning, you know that's true.
They'll try to tell you all this stuff.
Oh, what about the Da Vinci Code?
Have you seen this?
Or blah, blah, blah.
And then they'll just try to bring,
let me tell you about the scene and the Passion of the Christ.
And they'll try to bring up every other stupid thing.
Look what Jesus does, though.
He says in verse 21, Jesus saith unto her, woman, believe me.
The hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet a Jerusalem worship the Father.
He says, who cares?
It doesn't matter.
And then he says in the next verse, you worship, you know not what.
He says, what does it matter where you're worshiping?
You don't even know what you're worshiping, he tells her.
You worship, you know not what.
We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
He's telling her that her Samaritan religion is wrong.
He says, you don't even know what you're worshiping.
The Jews' religion is the right religion.
The Old Testament of the Bible.
And then he says, but the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
For the Father seeketh such to worship Him.
God is a spirit.
And they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.
See, you've got to be born of the Spirit.
You know, the unsaved person, their spirit is dead in trespasses and sins.
He's saying, you know, you must worship the Father in spirit.
God's a spirit.
You're a carnal, unsaved person.
You must believe me, was the first thing he said.
He said, woman, believe me.
And he's saying to her, you must be spiritual to understand these things.
You must be saved to understand these things.
And so here's what you do when you're out soul winning and somebody wants to talk to you about who was it really that, you know, that assassinated John F. Kennedy.
You know, or who, you know, what does God think about this?
Or what does God think about, is this really a sin?
I heard somebody say, is this a sin?
And I just wanted to ask you, you're a preacher and people ask me this stuff all the time.
And I just tell them, I say, look, that doesn't really matter right now.
Or this is what I'll say.
This is exactly what I say.
If they bring up something else, I say, you know what?
I said, I'm trying to just show you something and it's only going to take a minute and I don't want to lose my train of thought.
You know what I mean?
That's what I tell them.
I just want to stay on this or I'll just say, wait, let me finish this real quick and then I'll answer you.
Let me finish what I'm showing you right here.
And then usually they don't even care by the time you're done giving them the gospel.
Either they've received Christ or they haven't.
But don't ever let people divert you.
This is the mistake that I was making.
Remember how I told you before I went out knocking doors, I tried to win people to the Lord and I was very unsuccessful?
I would get in four hour conversations with relatives, with friends trying to win them to the Lord.
Because I'd start to talk to them and then they'd say, boy, well what about this?
This is my hang up.
And then I'd just go down that rabbit trail and we'd be going from Genesis to Revelation.
I mean just showing everything in the Bible just on and on and on.
And now I don't do that anymore because I say, let me show you the plan of salvation and then I'll get to that later.
And what I do is I try to see if they're going to receive Jesus Christ or not.
And if they receive Jesus Christ as their Savior, usually they don't even care about the other thing.
And if they don't receive Jesus Christ as their Savior, that other thing is not going to help them anyway.
They're not going to understand it even if I show them.
I mean, what about tongue speaking?
Look, if I show a Pentecostal about tongue speaking, they don't understand.
Have you ever tried to show a Pentecostal and said, look, there's 17 foreign languages mentioned by name in Acts chapter 2.
What don't you understand about that? They don't get it.
Why? Because they don't believe in eternal security.
Because they believe in work salvation.
And if you get them saved and then show them about tongue speaking, they'll say, well, duh, there's 17 languages mentioned by name.
But don't get in an argument with a Pentecostal about tongue speaking.
Show them the Gospel.
Don't get in an argument with some seven-day Adventist about whether you should be in church on Saturday or Sunday.
What in the world does that matter if they're going to hell?
And what in the world does it matter to show them verses that they're not going to understand?
You can prove to them that Sunday is the day to be in church.
They're not going to understand it.
They won't see it.
They are blindfolded.
The God of this world has blinded them.
Get them saved.
And so don't ever let people divert you from what you're trying to show them.
Just get it right back on track.
Control the conversation.
Don't get in a four-hour conversation with somebody who's not saved.
It doesn't take four hours to get them to a point where they have to decide whether they're going to receive the truth
or whether they're going to resist the truth.
And so get them on track.
Keep it on track.
When I talk to a seven-day Adventist, I talk to them about eternal life.
And it's by faith because they don't believe that.
They don't believe in eternal security.
They don't believe in hell.
So just in the course of my Gospel presentation, I'm going to deal with hell.
And I'm going to deal with believing on Jesus Christ as the only prerequisite for salvation.
And I'm going to deal with that it's everlasting life.
I don't need to deal with the Sabbath.
That's not important.
What's important is to get them saved.
Then it is important after that.
And so I'll move on from that point.
Number five.
Explain eternal security to someone before you lead them in prayer.
Why? Why do I do this?
Why is it that every single person that I've ever won to the Lord in the last probably seven years,
I explained eternal security to them before I lead them in prayer?
Now I was taught that you win somebody to the Lord, you go through, you show them the Roman's road,
and then you pray with them.
They receive Christ as Savior.
And then you say to them, now let me explain to you that you're saved eternally.
Let me give you the assurance of your salvation.
Well, here's what I don't like about that.
That could work.
But here's the problem.
Most people, when you show them the Gospel, in the back of their mind, you know what they're thinking?
You go through and show them, yep, you've just got to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved.
Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish bad every last night,
that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,
and believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
What are they thinking in the back of their mind?
They're still thinking that if they don't live right, they might lose it.
Well, if you commit suicide, surely you can't go to heaven.
People just have a hard time understanding sometimes the freeness of salvation.
And they have a hard time understanding the fact that it's all by grace through faith, without works.
And so it's a way to really ensure that they understand the Gospel,
is when you talk to them about internal security.
Because if you can get them to realize that however they live from here on out, they're still saved.
If they're a believer, then they know that it's all by faith, and that it's not of works.
And so I like to explain that beforehand, just to make sure,
because I don't want to do a sloppy job and go through the Gospel.
They don't really understand. I lead them in a prayer.
Praying a prayer doesn't save you. Believing in your heart is what saves you.
And so I don't want to give somebody a false assurance. I want to make sure I'm thorough.
You say, well, where's your Bible to prove that?
Well, how about the fact that just about every salvation verse mentions the word eternal, everlasting?
I mean, think about it. John 3.15,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
And so right in two verses in a row, he reiterates the same thing.
Whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life.
That's the whole verse, John 3.15, very similar.
It's just believe, eternal life. He explains it very simply.
If you believe, that's the only elements there.
If you believe, you have eternal life.
And then in the next verse, he gives an expanded version where he says,
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
He's explaining to them in two different ways.
This is eternal. This is everlasting. This lasts forever.
And then he explains it to them even more thoroughly.
He that believeth is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already.
Why? Because he wasn't willing to give up his sin.
No? Why? Because he didn't join the right church.
Why? No. He says, because he had not believed in the name of the only God, Son of God.
I mean, see how clear he's making it?
And see how simple he's making it?
And always, think about other verses you use out, soul winning.
How about verses like this?
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.
See, that just comes up over and over again.
And you'll see this as you read through the Bible.
Or you'll see another word that's always mentioned, saved.
Past tense. Saved.
The verse that was showed to me when I got saved, John 5.24,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word,
and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life.
There it is again.
And shall not come into condemnation.
There it is again.
But is passed from death unto life.
See, in three different ways in that verse, he's saying,
it's eternal, it's done, you've been passed from death to life,
you shall not come into condemnation under any circumstances.
He says, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
He says, him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
And on and on and on.
You'll see that emphasized in the Bible.
If God emphasizes it, I'm going to emphasize it.
And so I make it simple, the Gospel.
Believe eternal life.
And those are the two things I emphasize.
I emphasize faith, because God emphasizes faith, belief.
And I emphasize eternal, because God emphasizes that work.
Just look it up.
Just see how many times eternal and everlasting come up in the Bible.
You'll see it on and on.
Quickly on to the next point.
Number six, or number five actually.
Number five is keep the Gospel simple, understandable.
Make it manifest, as the Bible says.
I'll just read this for you.
The Bible says in Psalm 119, 130,
the entrance of thy words, talk about the Bible,
the entrance of thy words giveth light, but watch this,
it giveth understanding unto the simple.
You could speak with somebody who is not an intelligent person,
not a bright person, but the entrance of the words of God
is going to bring light.
It's going to bring salvation.
And it's going to give understanding to the simple.
Look, make it simple.
Don't be complicated.
Make it so that a little child can understand it.
You say, well, I'm not talking to a child.
I'm talking to somebody who has a PhD.
That person, the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.
And even if that person is a PhD, an intelligent person,
the Bible says, verily I say unto you,
whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child,
he shall not enter therein.
So if a person has to receive eternal life as a little child,
I better preach it almost like I'm preaching to a little child,
making it very simple,
making it so that it can bring light and understanding
to the most simplest person.
That's why I try to make it just so clear like I was saying.
It's all by faith.
Don't get complicated.
Number one, you're a sinner. Prove them they're a sinner.
Number two, all sinners go to hell.
Any sin.
All liars shall have their part in the lake
which burneth with fire and brimstone.
There shall not enter into it anything that defileth,
neither whatsoever worketh abomination,
or maketh a lie.
One lie, maketh a lie.
It's the last verse in Revelation 21.
But they that are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
And so you show them all sinners go to hell,
because all sinners die because the wages of sin is death,
and then after they die they face the second death, which is hell.
You have eternal life, you don't see the first death,
and you don't see the second death,
because your flesh is the only part of you that dies.
You breathe your last breath, you're in the presence of Jesus Christ.
And the Bible says very clearly in John chapter 11,
he said, whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
And so you make it simple.
Number one, you're a sinner.
Number two, all sinners go to hell.
Number three, Jesus Christ paid your sins on the cross.
You explain the gospel, and I don't have time to dwell on that.
That's the most important part of the whole thing.
Explain the gospel, the death, the burial, the resurrection,
go through it with them,
and then just make it clear to them that they only have to do one thing,
believe on Jesus Christ.
Put their faith all in him, not works, not a church, not baptism.
Put the faith 100% in him, and then just call on Jesus for salvation.
It's simple, isn't it?
I just explained it in less than 60 seconds.
Now, I would explain it longer when I'm talking to somebody at the door,
10 minutes, 15 minutes, maybe 20 minutes.
But don't get too complicated.
You don't have to explain it for 60 minutes to somebody.
You might be making it complicated.
You're just doing a really thorough job.
But if you're talking to somebody for 45 to 60 minutes,
you might be making it a little bit too complicated.
I'll put it that way.
And you want to keep it simple.
God makes it simple.
Read John 3 and tell me how long it takes you to read it.
Set a stopwatch until maybe it takes you 60 minutes to read John 3
when he explains the gospel to Nicodemus.
And obviously, he's probably better at explaining it than we are.
But I would say that it shouldn't be taking you an hour to explain the gospel to somebody.
Or you're letting them divert you.
And then lastly, I have several points.
A lot more points, but this is going to be the last point, okay?
Because we're out of time.
Number six, become an expert at closing the deal, so to speak, for lack of a better term.
Become an expert at closing the deal.
A lot of us know how to give the gospel to somebody and present the gospel to somebody.
But there comes the time.
What do you do once they understand the gospel?
You've given them the gospel, and we've all been there, so you understand you need to get saved, right?
Uh-huh.
So you're going to get saved, right?
You just kind of don't know what to do, okay?
That's a problem with a lot of people soul-willing is they don't know how to finish it.
They know how to talk to them and give them the gospel.
How do you finish it?
Look, if you would, at Acts 26.
This is the last place we're going to turn, Acts 26.
And look at verse 23.
And while you're turning there, I'll read to you another verse.
The Bible says, and I'll just read the part of this verse.
The Bible says, Behold, now is the accepted time.
Behold, now is the day of salvation.
I told that to the guy that I was talking to this afternoon.
He was saying I needed to think about it.
I said, no, now is the accepted time.
Now is the day of salvation.
Believe Jesus now.
And we talked to him for a long time because he was struggling with this.
But look, if you would, at verse number 23.
Be an expert at closing the deal.
Finish the job today if at all possible.
The Bible says that Christ should suffer.
This is Paul preaching.
That Christ should suffer and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead
and should show light unto the people and to the Gentiles.
And as he does spake for himself, Festus said with a loud voice.
Festus cries out.
He says, Paul, thou art beside thyself.
Much learning doth make thee mad.
And then look at the next verse.
But he said, I'm not mad, most noble Festus.
But speak forth the words of truth and soberness.
For the king knoweth of these things.
This is King Agrippa, the other man that he saw do.
For the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely.
For I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him.
This was not done in a corner.
King Agrippa, believeth thou the prophets.
I know that thou believeth.
And look what Agrippa says.
Then Agrippa said unto Paul, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.
And Paul said, I would to God that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day,
were both almost and altogether such as I am, except for these boss.
And when he had thus spoken, the king rose up and the governor of Bernice,
and they that sat with them.
And when they were gone aside, they talked between themselves saying,
this man doeth nothing worthy of death or of boss.
So here we see Paul.
Do you see how he's trying to draw a conclusion?
Not only does he preach the gospel to these people,
and he preaches this great sermon,
but he comes to a point where he homes in on the one person
that he knows is under the conviction.
He knows that somebody is being dealt with by God.
And he says, King Agrippa, believeth thou the prophets?
He says, you claim to believe the Old Testament scriptures.
You claim to be a man that understands the customs and traditions of the Jews.
You claim to know the Bible.
Do you believe what the Bible says?
I mean, do you believe what Isaiah says?
To him, all the prophets give witness.
We saw a couple of weeks ago, in Acts chapter 10,
that Peter said, and to him give all the prophets witness.
He said, believeth thou the prophets?
And he said, I know that thou believeth.
But you see how he asked him a question?
Do you notice that? He asked him a question.
He puts him to a point where he has to make a decision.
Do you believe the prophets?
And he puts the ball in his court.
And here's Agrippa. He's got to make a decision.
And he makes the wrong decision.
He said the same thing that I've heard many times.
Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.
But Paul did what he was doing right because he forced him to make a decision.
This is how you close the deal.
When you've finished giving somebody the gospel, this is what I do.
And I believe this is similar to what Paul did.
I say, I explain the whole thing to him.
It's all by faith. It's all eternal life.
It's salvation by grace through faith. It's eternal.
And I say, do you understand that? I say, yes.
But you understand that, right?
You need to get saved, right?
But what do I do next? Here's what I do.
I say, okay, well, let me ask you a couple of questions.
I don't even miss a beat. I say, you got it?
Okay, let me ask you a few questions.
Number one, are you a sinner?
And they say, yeah, of course.
Number two, I say, do you believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins?
And that he rose again?
And if they say yes, then I say, well, according to what I just showed you from the Bible,
if you were to ask Jesus to save you, hypothetically,
if you were to ask Jesus to save you right now, would he do it?
Yes.
And if I say, then I say, well, how long would you be saved for if you did that?
They say, forever, because they understood the whole thing.
Then I, this is what I say to them.
I say, well, let's bow our head right now, and I'm going to help you ask Jesus Christ to save you right now.
I don't say, do you want to pray and ask Jesus to save you?
Because then they're going to say, well, they think that they have to maybe come up with some eloquent prayer,
or they, you're putting it to them a question, and it's like, of course you do.
Do you see how positive Paul is?
He says, believeth thou the prophets?
I know that thou believeth.
See, he's kind of positive.
He's saying, come on, you know, don't you believe this?
And see, this is what I do.
I say to them, I ask them the four questions, and if they're not sure about one of the four questions,
then I say, you know, whoa, wait a minute.
And I might have to go back through something, or maybe they're just not going to get saved today.
But if they answer those four questions affirmatively, I know I'm a sinner.
I believe that Jesus Christ died and the cross was buried and rose again.
And I believe that if I asked Jesus to save me right now, he would save me.
And I believe I'd be saved eternally if I did that.
If they've answered those four questions, I'm not going to ask them, do you want to, or do you want to go to hell?
Oh, you want to burn in hell?
It doesn't even make sense.
And so I just say, let's pray right now, and I'm going to help you ask Jesus to save you right now.
Now, if you ask that question, usually they're kind of relieved when I ask that question,
because they've been thinking this whole thing, hey, I need to do this.
And maybe they don't know what exactly they did or how they're going to do it or when they're going to do it.
And so when I say, well, let me help you right now, let's just bow our heads and pray right now.
I'm just going to help you ask Jesus to save you right now.
They usually go, oh, okay, yeah, that sounds good.
Oh, okay, great.
The guy today, he was just like, yeah, okay, great.
He's like, okay, let's do it.
And I've had other people say, yeah, you know, help me do this right now.
I've had people say that when I still told them that.
And so then we bow our head and I lead them in a prayer.
Dear God, I know I'm a sinner.
I know I deserve to go to hell, but I believe that you died on the cross with me.
I'm just kind of quickly going over the points with them, just so that they understand, just to make sure.
I believe you died on the cross.
Rose again, please save me right now.
Amen.
And I don't get complicated with the prayer either.
I believe that you were born of a virgin.
I believe that you've always existed as the second person of the Godhead,
the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one.
No, keep it simple.
We were talking to a man a couple weeks ago.
He had a speech impediment.
This was the prayer.
Dear God, I believe you.
Please save me.
Amen.
Because the guy could barely talk.
I mean, he was like, blah, blah, blah.
He couldn't talk.
And so I was just like, Dear God.
I mean, he was having a hard time.
Look, I'm not going to make him word something right.
Well, he's got to say the right thing.
He doesn't have to say anything.
He just has to say, save me.
He'd be saved.
I mean, if he believes in his heart, right?
He'd say, Lord, save me.
I believe.
What does he have to say?
And so I just lead him through a prayer.
I keep it as simple as possible, but I kind of review the points a little bit,
just so that they understand what they're doing,
and so that they can know how to win other people to the Lord.
And then once they pray, say amen.
We look up at each other, and I say, how do you feel?
No, I don't say it.
That's horrible things.
That's all you don't want to say.
Who cares how they feel?
Oh, I'm tingling all over my body.
I feel it.
No, that's not what you say.
This is what you say.
I say, you meant that, right?
No, did you mean that?
Because then you're casting doubt in their mind to me.
Oh, I think so.
I guess I did.
I just say, now you meant that, right?
And they say, well, yeah, of course I meant that.
I say, well, that's all in the world that the Bible says you had to do to be saved.
And then I explain to them, I don't have time,
but I explain to them that the next step is baptism.
I explain to them I'm living for God.
I say, do you have a Bible?
And if they say yes, I say, bring it to me, and let me see it,
because I want to see if it's the King James Bible.
I say, bring it to me and let me see it.
If they bring it to me, it's the King James.
I put a bookmark in it and say, start reading here.
Read it every day.
If they bring it to me and it's good news for modern man,
like the last guy that we went to the Lord last week,
then I say to them, I say, you know what?
Let me give you a King James Bible.
And I explain to them briefly why it's wrong,
and I give them a King James Bible.
That's why that's what we do.
I carry my Bible for soul winning.
I have the silent partner carry a gifted award Bible, $5.
He carries this with him.
We win somebody the Lord.
They get saved.
They don't have a King James version.
This is yours, buddy.
And they're like, wow, thanks.
I say, are you going to read it?
They say, oh yeah, I'll read it.
Here you go.
Put their name in it.
Put down that they got saved.
Put a gospel tract in it.
Not a tract, forgive me.
The invitation to our church.
Put the invitation to our church in there.
Stick it in their hand.
Tell them to read it and let God.
God will do the rest.
And there's other ways that you could follow up and so forth.
But that's the scope of this sermon.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
God, I thank you so much for the things
that I've been taught by so many great soul winners
that I've been out soul winning with.
And Father, I feel like the Apostle Paul did
in Romans chapter 1, verse 15, where he said,
as much as in me is, I'm ready to preach the gospel.
I mean, I just feel like as much has been put into me
from all the people that have trained me
and taught me through the years,
all the great churches I've been in,
all the great preaching I've heard.
As much as in me is, I'm ready to preach the gospel.