So keep a finger in Acts chapter 14 and turn over to 1 Peter 3, please,
which is our verse of the week, 1 Peter chapter 3.
We looked at this verse briefly actually last week when I preached about
the difference between a fundamentalist and an extremist and we're talking,
used it, I think we're on the first verse we went to just talking about,
you know, the need for people to actually want to hear the gospel
before we preach in the gospel, we want them to want to hear it.
But we're going to look at this in another way here as well.
So 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 15, which says this,
but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer
to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness
and fear and to sanctify God in our hearts is to not have a double heart.
It's to keep focused on him,
keep him clean from the filth that often enters into our heart.
We're sanctifying God in our hearts, trying to keep the rest of that junk away,
which is one of the ways that we're then ready to preach the gospel.
So when we're focused on the right things,
if you're constantly focusing on the things of God,
you're already a split second notice to preach the gospel, aren't you?
Whereas if your mind is full of all sorts of other junk
and all sorts of worldly stuff, sometimes when the opportunity's there,
you're not ready to take it, are you?
Which is, well, it is people that want to know here.
So here he says, he says here to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope
that is in you with meekness and fear.
But often we need to start the conversation
to find out what they want to know, don't we?
OK, so like I said before, you know, you get the church
that will use these sorts of verses to act like we should just wander around,
you know, in life, waiting for someone to say, so what must I do to be saved?
But that's not really how it happens.
And often people don't even know that, you know, that there is necessarily
a way other than work, salvation to get saved.
So often we want to show them why we're so sure,
why we're so confident we're going to heaven.
And there's many ways obviously we can get that conversation going.
We keep God untainted in our hearts.
But is it just keeping God untainted in our hearts, sanctified in our hearts?
That means that we're ready to preach the gospel.
Is everyone that's got saved and starts living right?
Are they just ready to preach the gospel?
No, they're not.
There's everyone like I preach this in our in our Matthew Gospel series recently.
Everyone who's saved should be able to tell people how they got saved.
Yeah, it's not the hardest thing in the world.
And some people can put could make it feel so complicated.
And obviously the people that aren't saved, it is complicated
because they don't really seem to know what it is they have to do to be saved.
But just, you know, you're saved.
But that doesn't mean that automatically, you know, the best way of showing
other people, but you can still show other people.
So don't don't listen to a sermon like this and think, right,
until I get this spot on and bang on, I've got and I better not ever try
and tell someone how I got saved.
Look, you know, you know, you can sow seeds anyway, right?
You can at least do your best.
However, however, there are good ways.
There are effective ways, I believe, of getting people saved.
And in case you're wondering if anyone hasn't been here before
or is getting a bit confused about things, this is a soul winning church.
OK, we are a soul winning church here.
It's a great commission.
And that's why it's our number one ministry here.
So in case you're wondering, you know, why we don't, you know,
kind of have 20 other ministries that we put up here and put outreach down here
where we do it once a month or something, you know, to at least try
and claim that we still do something that soul winning is our number one ministry.
The reason that we now have four soul winning times plus once a month,
a fifth soul winning time is because that's what we're told to do.
It's a great commission.
We're told to go you there from into all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature.
That's what a church should be doing.
If a church doesn't have a heart for soul winning, I've got big issues
with that church, OK?
If they believe the gospel and they believe the Bible,
why aren't they out trying to teach people what you have to do to be saved?
OK, and a lot of the times because they don't really believe the gospel,
they just claim they believe the gospel.
And sometimes it's just because they're so weak, they've got so lazy,
so apathetic about people's souls, they're not going out and preach the gospel.
But we're a soul winning church, and that's our number one ministry.
We're in the business of winning souls,
which means that we need regular in-house training
to be able to run our business properly, don't we?
Yeah, you go to any secular business out there and they're going to regularly do
in-house training to make sure that people are doing the or at least
that they're doing the sort of work in the business
that they want done to make the business thrive. Right.
OK. And we're a soul winning church.
So pretty regularly, I believe we need to have a little recap on soul winning
and we need to just remind everyone on what we're doing.
And hence, I got the usher to give you our pen today, because I don't care
whether you've been soul winning 20 years or you've been soul winning 20 minutes.
Yeah, everyone can learn something from soul winning.
I learn every year.
I look back and think I've learned more for this.
I've learned more about that, that we're constantly learning.
We're constantly improving.
So I hope everyone here is ready to listen to what what what, you know,
what I've got to say today and what ultimately what the Bible has to say as well.
Now, the thing with with soul winning is, is, look,
many people have different ways and different means of doing it.
And look, I don't I'm not trying to say I'm this ultimate expert.
I've been so winning for many years now and I've been so winning very regularly
for the last couple of years, especially since this church has been on.
And like I said, I've learned a lot in that time as well.
Before that, I was only for many years. However, I'm not an expert.
So I thought for this in-house training today, I'll put in,
you know, a real expert in the field of soul winning.
And in case you're looking around going, he's about to make an entrance here.
Well, his name's the apostle Paul.
So I go back to Acts 14, where we see some of his practical
examples of soul winning in tough conditions.
The title is Soul Winning Training today.
And while you turn back, I'm going to pray.
Father, thank you for your word.
Thank you for well, thank you for the gospel, Lord.
Thank you for salvation.
Please help me to just preach this message today.
Clearly help me to to help everyone here to just, you know,
want to get more effective at their soul winning, inspire people
that haven't maybe gone out soul winning before to be confident enough to try.
Lord, I want to want to start getting involved.
Help me to to just preach this message clearly and boldly and accurately as well.
Lord, in Jesus name, pray all of this. Amen.
So the apostle Paul, he's going to show us in Acts 14.
Like I said, some pretty tough conditions where he was soul winning.
And Acts 14, basically, we're joining Paul and Barnabas
after they're sent out from Antioch at the beginning of Chapter 13.
And they did a bit of time in Cyprus, among other places.
And then they end up in a place called Iconium,
which nowadays is pretty much sort of southwest of central Turkey.
OK, it's a central part of what we know of as Turkey now.
And it says in verse one, it says, And it came to pass in Iconium
that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews
and so spake that a great multitude, both of the Jews and also the Greeks believed.
And the first soul winning lesson I want to hit here is that they went to the pair.
OK, this is Paul and Barnabas.
They went as a pair.
You don't have to turn there. Mark 6-7, it's Jesus Christ sending out the 12.
And he called unto him the 12 and began to send them forth by two and two
and gave them power over unclean spirits.
Luke 10-1, it's a 70.
It says after these things, the Lord appointed others 70 also and sent them
two and two before his face into every city and place,
whether he himself would come.
OK, a big part of soul winning, what we believe is the most effective way
and what we see as a biblical principle is going out in pairs.
OK, going out in two as we go out together, soul winning for a few good reasons.
OK, the reason that we have what we call a silent partner,
someone with you while you're trying to preach the gospel.
And as we know, many people here are what we call talkers.
And if you're thinking, what is all this silent partner and talker?
Basically, if you believe you're confident enough to preach the gospel to someone
to get that conversation going and preach the gospel,
then you're able to be a talker.
If you're not and you think, no, I don't think I'm ready for doing that.
No, I don't want to do that.
I don't feel, you know, that that's kind of where I'm at yet.
Then you're what we would call a silent partner.
Now, when you get obviously you need a talker to go with a silent partner.
Otherwise, it's a pretty quiet gospel presentation.
But on the same way, often, though, we do have two talkers together.
So you might have a pair of guys go out, a pair of ladies go out,
that are confident preaching the gospel.
So what happens is, is they'll take it in turns to be the talker
and the other one be the silent partner.
OK, and in this in this passage here, we've got Paul and Barnabas here.
They're both together.
They went both together into the synagogue of the Jews.
So you're thinking, well, what's the point in all this pair stuff?
Well, there's a few points.
Firstly, there's quite an importance made in the scriptures
commonly about pairs, about two witnesses.
OK, and look, it's handy to have someone with you
when people want to accuse you of stuff
or to act that you've said things that you haven't,
that you've that you've maybe done things that you haven't.
Look, there's a lot of haters out there, right?
Going in pairs is important.
And something we've got to remember with going in pairs
is that we kind of want to keep those pairs.
And look, we can all kind of veer off from that sometimes.
I even did this yesterday knowing that I'm going to preach a sermon today
and my soul winning partners talking on the door.
And I just saw someone walking past and felt kind of obliged to to talk to them.
And we ended up both preached the gospel at the same time.
Now, this was later on in the day.
And at this point, I had had just my two elder kids left with me
and we had one of the elder kids each with us.
So at least we did still have a witness, but it probably wasn't ideal.
And in the middle of that, what did happen and praise God,
we got a couple of people saved.
But I had a guy try and hijack the middle.
And my daughter wasn't ready for this big six foot three guy
shouting at me about the King James Bible
and how I'm trying to enslave black people and everything else.
And came with the racial line.
And I was trying to deal with him while I'm trying to preach to this
this lad on the street.
And it was quite an awkward situation,
which would have been much easier had I had a silent partner.
And and really look, we we go in pairs for a reason.
And sometimes it can be tempting on marathons.
You see people sometimes you will be drawn away.
But some people that there are some bad silent partners out there.
OK, and we don't want to be that.
OK, we want to be good silent.
But there are people that you're preaching the gospel
and they're in La La Land, you know, and someone comes in as a distraction.
They're not even trying to deal with that,
because that's what part of the idea of a silent partner is,
is that they can they can deal with the distraction.
They're praying. Sometimes, you know, you might turn around
and talk about a gospel presentation and you're trying to talk to someone
and they don't even know what was going on.
I know full well they weren't praying.
OK, they were probably thinking about
what they're going to be doing next week or something else.
Yeah. So when you're a silent partner, you should be praying.
You should be listening in, tuned in, praying for what you think is.
It might be the problems, praying that no distractions come.
Be aware of your surroundings, ready to maybe deal with the distraction as well.
No, it's important to be in pairs.
Yeah, they should be able to hear at the same time.
Now, there's a couple of issues as well with it is that
sometimes because of children, because of families and things like that.
And I'm not saying because all those kids, because kids are a great asset
to soul winning.
OK, you'll find, look, so often people are open to talking to you
when you have your kids with you.
They're a bit less intimidated.
A lot of the time they can just soften that situation,
especially when they're doing cute things and saying cute stuff.
Yeah, people are just, oh, how lovely, you know, where really
they would have been growling through their teeth at you.
So kids can be great with it.
But however, sometimes you're turning up at a door
and you might have a couple of ladies with a few kids each
and suddenly you're turning up a door with sort of what looks like
the Brady Bunch and, you know, and a couple of adults, too.
And that can be a bit off putting for people.
So something I want to try and just just recommend that I think we find helps
for us is if you have got a big group of kids is maybe as long as the adults,
the second adult, the silent partners in hearing distance,
maybe you don't have to all go up to the door and be sort of surrounding
the doorstep, like there's kind of eight of you and they think
they're going to start begging or something else.
Yeah, maybe the best bet is to have that adult sort of in between
with the other kids, you know, sort of in between you and the kids
while you're talking at the door, maybe take one of the older kids with you.
And then it kind of breaks it up a bit.
And it doesn't feel like they're about to get mobbed
and you're about to rush into the house
something and eat all their food or something else.
So things like that are kind of helpful.
Now, with this, it said they went both together
into the synagogues of the into the synagogue story of the Jews.
Another thing is and we're going to see it in a minute is it's important
if you're a silent partner to be silent.
OK, so often I hear people come back.
Oh, yes. Oh, I said this and he said that and he said this.
And then I said that or she said this and I said that.
And it's like, look, that's not the idea.
OK, we're going to see in a minute.
Paul was the chief speaker.
You need one to be the chief speaker.
It really does.
I look now I will cut in sometimes.
OK, I have done it.
Some of you might be sitting there going, oh, I remember, brother.
I'll cut in when I feel that I need to.
And sometimes it's and a lot of the time it's for good reasons.
Sometimes it might be at the end.
A silent partner has seen an angle of thought.
Actually, I think, you know, you're seeing things from from a nice perspective
sometimes where you can notice and see, oh, maybe this might have worked
and you might I might but I'll only wait till the end unless it's really important.
I think they're about to pray with someone that's not going to get saved.
But otherwise, I wait.
And then at the end, I might say just something that they were trying to say
and see if I got an angle that has worked before.
And sometimes and other people have done the same.
So I've been with someone and at the end and said, look, would you mind
maybe explaining in your own words something?
Because I just wasn't getting through to them.
So it's not that it's only OK for me to if you feel at the end
that maybe a silent partner can say something to add. Great.
However, it shouldn't be in the middle of the conversation.
It's really off putting when people start cutting in,
start interrupting what you're saying, start trying to say, oh, no, no.
What they're saying, oh, no, no.
Well, you've just said it's like, look, that's not how I want to be doing things.
Yeah. So please remember, if you're a silent partner, be silent until the end.
If you really feel the need and it's not an ego thing,
it's because you think, actually, I think we can get this person safe.
You might it might not happen.
Otherwise, please keep quiet. OK?
OK, so that's what a silent partner is.
OK, they're there obviously for distractions.
They should be speeding things up. I've said this before as well.
So as a silent partner, if I'm walking, if I'm if I'm the talker,
no one's answering the door.
I've knocked on a door. I've put something through the door.
Yeah, they're not answering. But I'm with a talker as well.
I'm going to move on even quicker because I know that if my silent
partner's behind me, they're shutting the gate.
They're kind of putting whatever back needs to be put back as we go in.
I know that if someone does answer, they're able to deal with them.
OK, look, it's a numbers game. I said this the other week.
OK, there's no point standing at a door for two minutes.
Well, just in case. Yeah, look, look, if you've got a silent partner,
you can talk, you rush off, let them re-shut the dodgy gate
and you go to the next door and knock again and they can help with that.
So we want to be thinking that, think speed, speed, speed with it.
Yeah, we're trying to get to the people that want to hear
because they're limited, aren't they?
You know, and what are the distractions for?
Just and we're going to talk about them in a minute.
What are distractions for? To stop you getting the people that want to get saved.
We don't want to then be that problem as well, be all just kind of
wandering down the road, you know, having a chat and everything else,
stopping here and doing a few things that you might have ended up
getting someone saved had you actually hurried up.
But you never got to that door in the end. Yeah.
OK, so right.
First number two, it then says,
but the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and made their minds
evil, affected against the brethren. OK.
And that's something that we often deal with, don't we now?
And like I said, I had that racial angle last night,
and I've noticed that a few times.
There's obviously the hate speech angle that you'll hear a lot as well.
And what is it really?
It's the unbelieving Jews stirring up the Gentiles.
Nothing's new under the sun.
And that's what we deal with a lot is people that are just getting brainwashed
constantly, the hate speech one, like we're some sort of horrible haters
because we preach the Bible, something which people have been preaching
for the last, well, at least since the New Testament last over 2000 years.
Yet somehow it's like something new, like with this hateful bunch.
So you get that, you get the question.
So what do you think about homosexuals or something else?
The unbelieving Jews have stirred up the Gentiles, haven't they?
But here's another one as well.
What about with the kids stuff?
So so it never ceases to amaze me
that you can have children literally running around in dangerous areas
doing crazy stuff.
They're being sent off to school to be taught all sorts by who knows what.
Yet a couple of people with a Bible
at a safe distance are just going, would you like?
And obviously, you know, you want to make sure kids want to hear.
OK, don't be forcing them.
And people are like, well, what are you doing with those kids?
And they say, I'm studying with a Bible, just trying to get it safe.
It's really odd, isn't it?
But that's something they have been stirred up to feel like you're some
you're pushing your religion on them.
You must be some sort of weirdo to be talking to a kid.
Oh, but it's fine if it's like, you know, some sort of sort of my schoolteacher.
That's all right, you know.
But so we do have this bizarre situation.
So it's something we have to deal with.
What did Paul and Barnabas do because of that?
So the unbelieving Jews stirred up their Gentiles
and made their minds evil effect against the brethren.
Did they sneak around?
Did they apologize for being Christians?
Well, look at verse three.
Long time, therefore, about they speaking boldly in the Lord,
which gave testimony unto the word of his grace
and granted signs wonders to be done by the hands.
They spent longer and they spoke bolder
because of the minds being evil effects against them.
They stayed even longer and they spoke even bolder.
And that is the only answer to it.
You have to be bold when you preach the gospel.
And if you and if from this sermon and we're going to be getting into
actually preaching the gospel in a minute, OK,
the ghost is sitting there going, oh, you know, I don't even I don't even go out.
I don't even know what half of this he's talking about here.
We're going to get to that in a minute.
OK, so kind of think about this first bit for those of you
that are regularly going out preaching the gospel.
OK, being bold is of utmost importance.
It makes such a difference.
OK, if and we have all everyone here has been so many for a while.
Well, no times when they've gone out,
not just feeling a little bit kind of nervous for whatever reason,
feeling a little bit anxious or something else.
It's a different game, isn't it?
People don't even want to hear you get a word out when you're,
you know, stumbling the words out and everything else.
It's such a difference.
And when you're just boldly confident, it's almost like you just like
the person that would have tried to tear you apart about,
you know, whether they've got some nonsense atheist beliefs or something else.
It's almost like they don't even have the confidence to do it half the time.
Do they? When they see your confidence in the word of God.
So you see a long time, therefore, about they speaking boldly in the Lord,
which gave testimony unto the word of his grace.
I believe that saying that them speaking boldly was what gave
gave testimony unto the word of his grace.
OK, it's that your boldness gives an extra testimony unto the word of God.
So when you go out soul winning, you have to be confident, confident
that you're going to get people saving, you're going to do something,
that you're going to you're going to at least sow a seed.
Yeah. And sometimes that can be hard when you go.
And I've noticed if I go to when I've been doing every door policy round here,
sometimes I'm not quite as bold, you know, I'm knocking on some of these doors
and, you know, they look like pretty wealthy houses, you know,
and you start to feel a bit this isn't going to go to work.
And I'm like a shadow of how I can be in another place.
And it's something we have to remind ourselves, be bold, be confident,
pray, be in the spirit and make sure you're bold as you preach the gospel.
It makes all the difference.
The boldness, like it said, gave testimony unto the word
and notice how it's a word of his grace.
It was testimony unto the word of his grace.
And I would say that kind of doesn't go hand in hand with bold
in your rudeness and aggression.
So some people can get confused about this, right?
Boldness means telling them, you know, you're going to hell.
How dare you? I'm walking out laughing at the guy, you know.
You know, let's see how good, how that works out for your judgment day.
That's not the boldness we're talking about.
Yeah. And again, some people get tempted to do that, right?
The boldness is in the word of his grace, is in the gospel,
is your confidence in giving the gospel.
But we should still be polite, shouldn't we?
Be polite, be nice.
And look, you get tempting sometimes.
But we want to look, we want to be be a good testimony, don't we?
Yeah, be a good testimony.
Not be aggressive, not trying, you know, and with that, you know,
we want to be careful when we preach the gospel as well,
because it's very easy to when someone gives an answer
of what they believe to just cut them.
And that's not always a very effective way of soul winning.
Yeah. If you just smash what they believe in the first second,
a lot of the time their defenses go up
and they're not going to listen to you anymore.
OK, so there are polite, nice ways of doing it.
OK, look, for example, well, you've got to be good.
You've got to do this.
You've got to X, Y and Z to get to heaven,
which we'll often hear most of the time.
This is the sort of thing you hear.
What do you think is going to be better?
I could go, that's not what the Bible says.
Yeah. Oh, sorry, you're wrong.
Yeah. Or I could go, look, there were really good things to say.
There were really good things to do.
Yeah, we should be good, shouldn't we?
We should do some good things.
However, do you know that it's actually much easier than that, getting to heaven?
What do you think is more likely to end up with a continued conversation?
Yeah. OK, we've got to be careful with that,
because it's so easy to just cut someone, cut them to shreds is what they say.
And you've lost them.
You've lost them straight away.
OK, it says, verse four, then it says,
But the multitude of the city was divided and part held with the Jews,
and part with the apostles.
And when there was an assault made, both of the Gentiles,
also of the Jews with their rulers, to use them despitefully and to stone them,
they were aware of it, and fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia,
and unto the region that lieth round about.
So, they were sensible too, weren't they?
They were sensible, they were wise, they were about to get killed, right?
Stoning generally ends in death, although we see in a minute there
that Paul Woey seems to be a cat with nine lives.
But that's not usual, OK? Stoning is usually meaning you're about to be killed, you know.
And they knew when to move on, didn't they?
They knew, right, now it's time to move on.
And we need to know when it's time to move on sometimes, OK?
And the big one is the debates, yeah, the debates.
You've just got to know when it's like, look, I ain't getting nowhere with this person, yeah?
And sometimes, look, the trick, isn't it, when you're soul-winning,
is to give people a fair chance without getting pulled into a debate.
And that's the kind of balancing act sometimes, and we're all going to fail at that sometimes, yeah?
Where you're like, well, I don't know if maybe they just need a bit of correction on this and that,
and then they're going to get there.
And I've seen and seen people who somehow you think, look, this is a lost cause,
I've been with people before, and somehow it's turned out with them getting saved.
And I think, amen.
But I'll tell you what I've seen much more often, is I've seen people wasting 15 minutes
having a debate with a false prophet or something, yeah?
And that is a waste of your time, OK? It really is.
If someone's, look, and I'm going to use this example,
because there was a great one with my soul-winning partner yesterday,
and I wouldn't have done it as quick as this, but I thought it was great,
because, look, we're trying to get people saved, right?
We're in a receptive area, we're like, let's get to some people, yeah?
Knocked on the door, the guy says, you know, answers the usual questions,
and he says, well, you've got to, you know, it's how you live, you've got to do this,
you've got to do the commandments, you've got to, you know, all the usual stuff.
He says to him, oh, OK, well, you know, the Bible says something else.
The Bible actually says there's only one thing you've got to do.
Oh, yeah, of course, it's faith.
So then he's gone, actually, I'm a pastor.
OK, so he's just said you've got to do works.
He's then just spoken out of both sides of his mouth, said it's faith.
Actually, it's just faith. Oh, no, no, agreed with him,
because, you know, they'll just flip-flop, you know, whatever's in front of them.
Then said he's a pastor.
Do you think there was any chance of getting that guy saved?
So he just said, OK, have a good day, walked off.
Fair enough. What happened? A couple of doors down, got someone saved.
Had he stayed, we wouldn't have got that next person saved.
Yeah, look, you've got to learn to just move on when it's time to move on, yeah?
If someone... Look, if someone is a false prophet,
if they are a priest, a vicar, a pastor, any of that stuff,
and they believe in a work salvation,
believe me, you're not getting them saved.
It's not happening. They're reprobates.
They're false prophets.
I've never seen them get saved.
I've never... In a time when I've been wrong about it,
I've never seen them get... They never go,
oh, I've just been preaching it wrong for years.
If only a soul would have come to my door.
Straight away, like, who are you?
What are your credentials or whatever else?
Look, the pride goes up, you're never getting them saved.
As soon as they say that, it's time to go.
Yeah, time to go.
And then it says here and there they preach the Gospel.
And that's the goal, isn't it? OK?
Look, our goal when we go outdoor knocking, OK,
is to preach the Gospel.
It's not apologetics time.
OK? Just to make that clear, this is an online...
Now, I might give a brief, just like if someone tries to go,
oh, the Bible, I might just say, well...
Like, literally, a split few seconds about,
look, the Bible is the word of God.
No-one could have written a Bible.
Just something quick to just go, but would you like to hear it?
But what I'm not going to do is stand there
and have a debate with them for 10 or 15 minutes
about Christianity versus some other religion.
Or a debate about the Bible versus, look, that stuff is nonsense.
And those clowns that are all over the internet doing that stuff,
who's getting saved?
No-one. It's nonce, it's carnal.
Now, don't get me wrong, it's carnal, which means it can be enjoyable.
Look, I used to love listening to that sort of stuff
and it used to be amusing watching, you know,
Kent Hovind smash three, like, moronic professors at once
and things like that, but it's not really achieving much.
Look, sometimes you might get your faith strengthened
or something as a believer.
No-one's getting saved with that stuff.
OK? You're getting saved by hearing the Gospel.
So when we go out and preach the Gospel, we want to preach the Gospel.
And, look, sometimes you might need to just put them straight
on a couple of things before you preach the Gospel,
but if you think, oh, I'm going to smash them with the proof of this...
You're wasting your time, all right? You're wasting your time.
There they preached the Gospel, OK?
And there sat a certain man at last, impotent in his feet,
being a cripple from his mother's womb, who never had walked.
The same heard Paul speak, who, steadfastly beholding him
and perceiving that he had faith to be healed,
said with a loud voice,
stand up right on thy feet, and he leaped and walked.
Paul didn't whisper, did he?
He didn't... Paul didn't go, right, I've seen a man there.
Right, stand up on your feet and get up, yeah?
Now, look, I say that because not everyone...
And, look, it's not necessarily a blessing.
It's a blessing sometimes when you're preaching.
It's a blessing when you're preaching in quite a big room
and you don't need the mic up here, yeah, OK?
It's not a blessing when you've maybe got loads of kids
that sleep at home and your wife says that your whisper
sounds like you're shouting, yeah?
I naturally have quite a loud voice, yeah?
Other people naturally have loud voices.
Some people don't.
If you don't have a loud voice, when you preach the Gospel,
you need to lift your voice up.
OK, please, make sure, look, you're outside as well,
the wind will carry your voice.
You've got to be... And it shows boldness as well.
If you're there and they can't really hear what you're saying,
they're just thinking,
you're not confident in this message at all.
Be loud, be confident.
Look, you don't have to scream their head off, OK?
Obviously, don't start shouting at them, you know,
I've asked me so, and everything else,
but make sure that it's loud, yeah?
Loud enough that people can hear you, OK?
It's important Paul said with a loud voice,
stand upright on thy feet, and he leaped and walked, OK?
It's important to be loud and it shows confidence.
Verse 11, and when the people saw what Paul had done,
they lifted up their voices saying in the speech
of Lycaonia, the gods have come down to us
in the likeness of men, and they called Barnabas Jupiter,
and Paul Mercurius, because he was a what?
Because they were taking turns?
Because they were kind of double-teaming him?
No, he was a chief speaker, OK?
There needs to be a chief speaker,
and it's not that that person's better than the other person,
we just, the way we do it at this church, OK,
in case anyone's unaware,
is that we'll knock on a door until someone talks.
Now, that person can literally just open a door and go,
go away, and shut the door, that's your turn done, OK?
But now it's the next person's turn until they get someone talks, yeah?
Now, they might knock one door,
and then they might get to talk for a while,
and then you knock a few doors,
and then you get to give the whole gossip,
it doesn't really matter, OK?
All evens out in the end, if you're like,
oh, this isn't fair, well, come soul-willing more,
and you'll notice it all evens out, yeah?
OK, so when we go out,
we just take it in turns until you get someone to talk to you.
Now, it's a grey area, I'll be interested in ideas here,
what about if the ring doorbell answers?
Anyone think that's your go-gone?
Oh, Max is on a couple,
anyone thinks that's not your go-gone if it's a ring doorbell answer?
A couple, I've got a few on the fence here,
only a few people are raising their hands, right.
OK, I'm not sure about that,
you'll have to agree with your partner on that one, yeah?
But, I don't know, because it wasn't really real, was it?
But if that person's on the ring doorbell, you are kind of talking.
Anyone got anyone saved on the ring doorbell yet?
It's possible, isn't it?
No people saved over the phone and over the garden fences,
but not yet on the ring doorbell.
OK, so, maybe because you just look so weird on it, but...
I don't know.
OK, so, verse 11 then says here,
sorry, verse 13 we're up to, it says,
Then the priests of Jupiter, which was before their city,
brought oxen and garlands unto the gates,
and would have done sacrifice with the people,
which when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of,
they rent their clothes and ran in among the people, crying out,
and saying, Sirs, why do ye these things?
We also are men of light passions with you,
and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities
unto the living God, which made heaven and earth
and the sea and all things therein.
OK, couple of points here.
Number one, they said we are men of light passions with you.
Look, when we go out and preach the gospel, it's not about us, OK?
And we have to make, look, it's not about how great you are,
it's not about, man, I could get all these people,
I'm such a, like, soul-winning expert.
Look, we're just sinners, OK?
We're sinners as well, yeah?
You're not going out to show everyone how holy you are,
you're going out to preach the gospel, OK?
First point here, they said we are men of light passions with you,
but secondly, we have to preach, excuse me, repentance.
Now, in case everyone go away, repentance is a dirty word.
Now, it's not when you define it in a correct way, OK?
We have to preach that people have to turn from what they do believe
to faith in Christ, OK?
If you're not preaching that,
then you're going to get a lot of done salvations.
You're going to get people to go, oh, yeah, yeah, oh, yeah,
I already knew all that, yeah, yeah.
You're like, oh, great, OK, come on, yeah, let's pray.
That doesn't mean that they got saved, OK?
It's faith plus nothing.
It's not faith plus Catholicism, faith plus Pentecostalism.
They have to acknowledge and accept that the way they were going
and what they believed would have taken them to hell,
otherwise you're not getting them saved, yeah?
So you've got to be careful with that.
Do you know what the simplest way of doing that is?
At the end of a Gospel presentation...
Look, I don't see any reason ever to not say this to some of the...
The only hard thing might be when they're fairly young
and they're a child, yeah, because where's that age of accountability?
But otherwise, yeah, is this.
Based on what you did believe, up until I spoke to you today,
had you died, where would you have gone?
And anything other than hell,
they're not accepting the need for a saviour,
they're not getting them saved, yeah?
Because, look, there are people that go,
yeah, oh, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, agree, agree, agree, agree, agree.
You get to the end, you ask that question,
they go, I still think I would have gone to heaven.
But those are people that often people would have prayed with, right?
They have to accept that they weren't saved before as well, OK?
If they're like, oh, yeah, well, yeah, yeah, oh, OK, yeah, yeah.
Look, and that all goes hand in hand, OK?
OK.
He said they need to turn from these vanities unto the living God.
They need to turn from what they did believe to faith in Christ, yeah?
OK, so, and that's not turning from your sin, by the way,
in case anyone's confused about that, that's impossible.
Verse 16 says...
And having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead.
So they're hunting down Paul, the same people, the same people,
the same usual characters, persuading the people.
Verse 20 says...
So he just got stoned, yeah?
What did he do?
He'd go, man, I need a couple of months off.
He's just literally been, I mean, nearly killed.
I don't even know how he survived.
These people throwing rocks at his head, yeah?
And a lot of people throwing rocks at his head.
It wasn't like one guy threw a little stone at him, yeah?
Well, what does he do?
Brushed himself off and cracked on.
Yeah? He went, let's crack on.
Now, hopefully no-one here gets stoned when you're out stoning, OK?
Otherwise, you know, you're doing something wrong, probably, OK?
Cos it's not really going on right now in this nation, at least.
However, sometimes we've got to move on from disappointment, though, don't we?
Sometimes we've got to move on from a failure.
Sometimes you're preaching the gospel and, you know, you get something like...
For example, yesterday, my wife's preaching to a young lad
and then suddenly, you know, he seemed receptive,
suddenly doors slam.
Right in her face, dad just comes
and many of us have had these sort of situations, yeah?
Parent comes and it wasn't, when we say young, it was a teenager.
It wasn't like it was some little child who we hadn't asked if the parents were in.
Slams the door in her face.
What have you got to do there? You've got to go right next door.
And it's hard, cos sometimes it really is gutting, isn't it, Simon?
I've had it when they're literally getting to the point of,
right, you've just got to call the name of the Lord
and then the dad just starts wrestling and slamming the door
and shouting through the door.
It can be really tough, but at those points, you've got to move on.
Disappointment, failure, cos it is a failure, it's not your fault,
but it does, it's a failure.
It's like, no, I could have got that person to save.
You've got to move on, don't you?
And we've got to remember, look, you've just got to keep going,
keep preaching, cos it can be hard sometimes.
Don, what did he do? It says, verse 21,
when they had preached the gospel to that city.
So he departed with Barnabas to Derby
and then he just preached the gospel to that city.
He just moved on and carried on.
You go, oh, man, this just isn't working, I'm going to get...
Oh, man, you know, the police were called out this time,
oh, we've got the emails coming through saying that we're wicked
or something else, we're preaching the gospel to someone.
No, we just carry on, we carry on preaching the gospel, don't we?
That's what we're here to do.
And they talked many, they returned again to Lystra
and to Iconium and Antioch,
confirming the souls of the disciples, and last bit here,
and exhorting them to continue in the faith that we must,
through much tribulation, enter into the Kingdom of God.
So, last point is, once you get someone saved, don't just run off, yeah?
Encourage them to continue in the faith, yeah?
Give them just the bare minimum.
We have a great follow-up sheet, encourage them,
just take a few seconds, please, to talk about baptism,
to talk about church attendance, to talk about Bible reading,
to talk about just praying to God, to talk about getting other people saved
and learning how to do that and encouraging them,
you've just got saved.
You know, at the least, use a video that we've given...
I mean, what a day and age we live in.
Here you go, here's a gospel presentation
you can share with your family and friends.
I mean, use it, yeah?
Don't just go, right, got them saved.
OK, great, where will I see you one day?
Heaven, way, yes!
OK, see you later, yeah?
OK, try and encourage, but, again, how long do we spend with that?
Well, you've kind of got to be led by the Spirit, I think, a bit with that.
There were some people, like, we got a lady saved yesterday
with her two sons, it was heartbreaking, the whole thing,
you know, it was a lovely moment,
and we spent a bit longer with her afterwards.
We were thinking, look, we can really encourage them,
they seemed to be having a hard time in life and everything else,
and we spent a bit longer trying to encourage them, you know,
to get involved in the things of God, to come to our church and stuff.
And others, I mean, and then I preached to a guy in the street,
and afterwards, I mean, he was literally walking away
while I was trying to tell him stuff, I mean, he was just done, you know?
I still believe he got saved, but it doesn't mean they want to be in church,
they're two separate things, yeah?
You want to get saved, you want a free gift, OK?
And that's what we're preaching to people.
However, we do want to encourage them to then want to serve the Lord as well.
You know, and those are the key, like, they're the bare minimum is, look,
talk about baptism, talk about Bible reading, talk about church attendance,
talk about prayer time and talk about trying to encourage others in your family.
And you know what?
If you come to our church, we'll teach you how to do that.
Maybe you can make it clear that they won't be suddenly out soul winning
the next week.
So I think a lot of people have put off, they think you've just come to our door.
That means that next week I'm going out soul winning.
I ain't never going to that church.
I'll go down to Funk Club instead.
Yeah, at least I can feel holy.
No, look, we'll never force anyone out soul winning here.
But what we will do is we will try and encourage people to go towards that point
at some point.
Yeah.
So, OK, so we encourage them in the faith that we must do much tribulation
and enter into the kingdom of God.
OK, and you could also say that as well.
Some people think, oh, right, life is going to be all right now that I'm saved.
That is not the case, is it?
Maybe it's a good thing to point out.
Look, you're going to go through tribulation in life.
Yeah.
OK, so verse 21, it did make that clear that that, you know,
that they're preaching the gospel.
Yeah.
And this church, we preach the gospel.
OK, now turn to Proverbs 13, turn to Proverbs 13, because like I said,
I'd like you to take notes in this sermon.
And if if you have never preached the gospel before, if you're sitting here
thinking, look, I've I've never done this.
I don't really know how to do it.
I don't really know where to start.
I don't maybe I'm not able to make someone.
I'm not really able to be a silent partner or maybe I am.
But I just don't I haven't done that yet.
You know, what do I do?
You know, I want to get people saved in my life.
I don't know how often I can come.
I don't know how long is it going to take me to be able to then preach
the gospel to a family or friend who's receptive?
Or maybe you're just here and you're already preaching the gospel
and you just need some reminders on this.
I would like you to take notes.
And the first thing is just a marked Bible.
Just make soul winning so easy.
All you need to if you all you need to do is remember Romans chapter three
and highlight either verse 10 or verse 23.
And from there, just make a note of where to go next.
You don't even have to remember that.
Yeah. So and we're going to go through this in a minute.
And look, let's let's put it this way.
Yeah. What is our what's our ultimate goal as a Christian?
Really, it's soul winning. Yeah.
That's what we should be doing. That's what we're called to do.
That's how people get saved.
People don't get saved another way than someone preaching them the gospel.
OK, so if the only way people are going to get saved is by us preaching the gospel,
it's probably if there is anything that you put some effort into
making sure you're prepared for it, it would be soul winning, wouldn't it?
It would be preaching the gospel, whether that's in your personal private life
or whether that's coming out of soul winning times.
Mark up your Bible.
You could do it and you could do it in this sermon.
And if not, and you could add to it and look for different places
and and practice and you could practice soul winning.
And the easiest way is just to mark up the first.
Know where you're going.
You can put your ribbon in Romans three, so it's even quick.
You don't have to flick through while you're talking to someone.
And from there, just mark up where to go next.
So for me, I'll go Romans 310, Romans 323.
I could put a note in my Bible, Romans 623.
Then when I get to Romans 623, I've got a mark going go to.
And then it will be Revelation 2014.
Yeah, et cetera. How I like to preach the gospel.
And I'm going to show you this in a minute.
You're in Proverbs 13, OK?
Proverbs 13 four says this,
The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing,
but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.
And is there anything that's more worthwhile being diligent about the soul winning?
Is there anything in life
where it's worthwhile being more diligent than it is about soul winning?
I don't think so.
Look, that's something ultimately that we're that we're called to do.
We're commanded to do it.
It's how you, you, everyone in here who's saved.
You got saved because someone else preached you the gospel.
And if you didn't, if someone else didn't preach you the gospel,
whether that was online, offline or whatever, then you're not saved.
Someone had to preach you the gospel for you to have got saved.
OK, you didn't read the Bible and get saved.
You had to be preached the gospel,
which means someone took their time out to preach you the gospel,
and they probably spent some time learning how to preach it effectively,
which means that surely that's the least we can do, right?
OK, so with that in mind,
we don't want to be desirable.
We want to be the sort where our soul is made fat.
And that's ultimately because we're doing the work of God.
And, you know, we're being blessed for that. Right. So.
Right. First thing, and we want to cut
and I'm going to try and get through this fairly quickly.
OK, so just just, you know, as you can make notes,
if there's anything after that, you know, I didn't catch that bit.
I didn't catch that. Please come up to me afterwards.
Look, there's nothing that I would happily I would happily stay here
till late tonight explaining things to people about about soul winning.
OK, because it's so important. Right.
OK, so because it's hard to get through this all in one sermon.
OK, so. Right.
Introduction, how we do it at this church.
So if you go out soul winning at our church, you're representing our church.
OK, that means please soul win as the church wants you to soul win.
OK, so that means don't go out with your own private invites,
with your own private gospel videos or any of that.
And you might laugh, but people do that weird stuff. OK.
I'll be like, yeah, but I've got a better presentation myself.
Yeah, what's that? No, no.
Go. We go out. OK, you represent this church.
That means you take these church invites. Now here's another thing.
If it's not a church soul winning time,
then you're not representing our church, please. OK.
There's a reason we have soul winning captains.
There's a reason we have areas.
There's a reason that we know where you're going.
If you're like, well, I can't make any other times. Come and talk to me.
We'll try and work out something for you because I want you to soul win.
But if you've got our materials,
that means you're going out on our church soul winning times, please.
OK, that's how it works at this church.
OK, this isn't a free for all.
This isn't, oh, well, I've turned up at the church.
I've got a load of invites. Let's just go and do what I want.
Yeah, that's not how it works.
OK, right. So you're going out for our church.
This is how we like you to deal with things when you knock on a door.
You knock on a door.
OK, someone answers the door.
OK, not. Hi there.
Would you like to know how to go to heaven?
OK, no, we think break the ice first.
OK, so the way that we like to do it is something along the lines of,
hi, we're from either the local Baptist church or we're from Shore
Foundation Baptist Church.
Just make it very clear you're from a Baptist church.
Yeah, I even raise my voice when I say the Baptist part
because I really want them to know I am not a Jehovah's Witness.
OK, I'm not some cult member,
wicked heretic coming to your door.
I'm an independent Baptist.
OK, so I'll say something along the lines of depending on who I knock,
where I knock. Hi there.
We're from Shore Foundation Baptist Church.
Now you can introduce your name if you want.
I don't. I usually just say just because I don't want to say too much.
I just want to. Hi, we're from Shore Foundation Baptist Church.
We're just giving out some church invitations in the area,
which is what we're doing.
We are giving out church invitations.
Look, people can come to church unsaved and get saved. Yeah, OK.
And people can come to the church unsaved and not get saved.
The first time, maybe the second time.
Yeah, we are giving out church invites.
Yeah, it's a good icebreaker. OK.
After we do that, after I say that,
instead of then going, but more importantly,
I like to just talk a little bit more first if they're open to talking.
And again, it varies depending.
But I'll probably say something along the lines, OK, well, look,
because then they think, oh, at least they're not going to start harassing me.
So I go, OK, well, but if you ever do want to come along,
if you have a look at our invite there, there are service times.
This is our, so I usually have my own invite on me as well to just show them.
So I'm not kind of leaning over them, breathing on their face and stuff.
So squeezing in their door or something.
I'm just like, look, this is these are our service times.
We've got a live channel as well.
If you ever want to check us out online,
this is a really interesting video on the back.
Some people might say, oh, you know,
if if I have to go, just check out this video before I continue.
But whatever you want to do, make a point in the video on the back,
which is a Bible way to heaven.
Then I want to ask the question.
Now, something, look, and I do think I for me, this makes a difference.
If I'm standing and I'm talking to somebody who looks a little bit nervous
or is maybe a lady on her own or something or a kid or whoever,
and especially if I'm not with my kids, I usually don't say to them,
if you died today.
OK, now some people are in a habit of saying that.
And if you say that, please just make it really clear that
you're not being weird because people get freaked out.
People watch a lot of horror movies and stuff.
Some of them, they're all going, if you died today, where are you going?
And they just say, what?
So I usually say something like, look, you know, God forbid,
say the worst, came to the worst tomorrow and you, you know,
you died or something, you know, are you 100 percent sure you're going to heaven?
Well, some of them might not even mention that.
I might just go, oh, you know, are you 100 percent sure
that you're going to heaven one day?
Or just whatever, depending on what they say when you talk to them,
I go, oh, I'm a Christian.
You know, OK, well, look, God forbid, say you died tomorrow,
you're 100 percent sure that you'd be going to heaven.
Now, it's really important what they answer, isn't it?
And you've got to make a mess.
Sometimes, sometimes if you have a receptive time,
you preach to a few people.
I kind of forget, like, I kind of start emerging into a light one
and I'm like, did that one say this?
And you have to make a mental note.
OK, you've got to stop yourself.
OK, what was their answer?
Because sometimes I was like, look, you said this.
They're like, no, I didn't.
I know I got mixed up with someone else.
OK, so you've got to remember,
what did they think you had to do to go to heaven?
OK, and look, this is the same.
If you're sitting and going, I ain't never coming soul winning with you lot.
Yeah, look, even in your private life, even with your family, your friends,
find out what they believe, because what happens, the pride goes up.
And at the end of it, they'll go, I already believe that.
No, you didn't, because you said this.
Yeah, so you need, you need them to, you need to get what they say.
And sometimes it gets awkward when they then like,
and the hardest ones are these.
And a lot of the time you'll get this with maybe the Pentecostal, for example,
will say something along the lines of, yeah, yeah, it's faith in Christ.
You know, they sounded and they're saying all the right things.
You're going, oh, OK, well, is it, you know, is there anything else?
Oh, just, you know, and they'll say something like, give my life to Christ
or something, and it's a little bit sketchy.
Maybe they won't say that.
Maybe they'll just be like, oh, well, as long as you know,
I accept Lord Jesus Christ, my son, something like that.
You're like, OK, yeah.
And and you have and it's awkward, but you have to ask this question.
So what if, what if
when you get to that point, what if you went out next week
or next year or something, whenever it is, and you you did a bad sin?
Say you killed someone.
God forbid, say you just had a bad day, you killed someone.
Where are you going?
And if they don't say anything other than I'm going straight to heaven
because I've got faith in Christ and you need to find out what they believe.
And if they say that, great. Amen.
Yeah, they've got faith.
Christ has got faith in Christ.
If they still think they've got to do so, well, well, I wouldn't do that.
Look, well, OK, but what if you did?
What if you did? Look, who knows?
Yeah, look, we've all got the flesh.
Everyone's capable of sinning. Yeah. OK.
And look, there's some funky teaching out there, obviously,
where people look, they might have got saved
and then they kind of been led to believe, well, yeah,
but you wouldn't do some really extreme sins because you're saved now.
OK, that's wrong.
But does that mean that they that they're unsaved?
You know, you need to dig deeper.
And sometimes I'll say something like, I'm sorry,
I know I've just come to your door
and you don't really want to just be interrogated.
It's just because a lot of different people
who say they're Christians believe different things.
It's you know, we just like to find out what people believe.
See if I need to show you a couple of things in the Bible to help you with that.
Something along those lines, because suddenly when you get to the fifth
or sixth question with someone that seems to believe that doesn't,
you know, it starts to get a bit uncomfortable, doesn't it?
Well, what if what if that and what if you didn't ask for forgiveness
when you did this in a way and it gets a bit uncomfortable, doesn't it?
OK, so but you need to get to the bottom of it, because if you don't,
so many people are just going, oh, I was already saved.
OK, you need to find out what they really believe.
Right. OK, so that's the whole point of the introduction.
That's what we're asking.
Now, here's a couple of things just to remind you. OK.
When you're asking questions.
Please use layman's terms.
OK, and if you're wondering what I'm talking about there,
don't start sending them things like, so are you sure of your salvation?
Did anyone hear if someone had said to you before you ever got saved,
before you ever in church said, are you sure of your salvation?
Yeah. No. Yes and no.
You don't know what that means.
OK, they're not in church.
OK, they don't know that what that word is.
You've got to make it clear.
Do you know where you're going?
Do you know you're going to heaven or not?
Yeah, that makes it easy.
We're trying to look.
And even if they seem to be a Christian.
Look, some some churches will preach salvation.
Something else, won't they?
They'll. Oh, yeah. Well, yeah, I'm sure my salvation in their mind,
they're like, as long as I keep going to church,
as long as I keep this, as long as I don't do a bad sin, et cetera.
Yeah. OK, so that doesn't mean anything.
Make sure that are you going to heaven? Why?
Yeah. Could that ever change?
And unless it's a no, it couldn't ever change.
Yes, I'm definitely going to heaven and I need to get saved.
Yeah. And the last point on that.
Some people, look, their terminology,
they haven't been in our NIFB church.
And sometimes when you get to the bottom of it,
they do actually believe they're saved.
Yeah, they do believe there's no way they could lose it.
Just sometimes, you know, they might use different words than we do.
You need to work that out as well when you're doing that.
OK, so when you're asking what someone believes,
here's something that that's that's a good thing to do as well.
Is is, look, focus on on sort of positive things they say as well.
Like, look, people need like positive reinforcement is a good skill.
Yeah. Don't just be no, you're wrong.
No. Well, that's not what the Bible says.
Like I said earlier, that's just going to be like, like, OK.
Yeah, no, they're good things.
OK. Yeah. Yeah. No. Amen to that.
Yeah, et cetera.
However, you know, the Bible just says actually it's much easier than that.
Or, you know, there's actually only one thing you've really got to do.
And people need to hear that quite early on.
If you just go to them.
Well, let me show you how the Bible says you've got to have nothing.
Here we go. He's going to be telling me how I've got to come to his church.
I've got to give up all my sins.
I've got to do this. You got it.
I like to make it clear very quickly.
Look, there is actually only one thing.
But what's that thing?
And some people, they don't want to give you 10 minutes.
Then I want to explain to them, look, I want to show you what that one thing is.
But there's just a few things you need to understand first,
because otherwise people like you said there's one thing.
And now he's like, right, then he goes into robot mode.
As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one.
Right. What that means is, well, then they're like, where's this one thing?
And then they're drifting already.
They have to be prepared to listen to the explanation
to know that they're going to get to that one thing.
And sometimes I go, look, I'm getting to that point.
I'm going to show I just need you to understand a few more things first.
Yeah. So, again, you want to make it natural, don't you, as well?
OK, don't be a robot. Don't be a robot.
Don't just like, right, this is, you know, what I'm going to say.
No matter what they say, I'm just going to keep saying the same things.
You want to try and try and have some two way conversation with it as well.
OK, last couple of points on this. OK,
have some empathy, please, everyone as well.
You knock on a door and they go, I've literally just lost my wife.
OK, OK, well, more more important than that.
People do that stuff, OK? Don't do that.
I've just lost my wife. I'm really sorry.
You probably, you know, maybe this isn't a good time for you right now.
Blah, blah, blah. Now, sometimes depending, gauging it,
depending on how they are and have some real empathy, not like, oh, yeah,
sorry about that anyway.
Look, you know, we want to show some empathy for people.
We want to show some care about them.
We want to look, we want them to go away and go, look, actually,
that was the first person that's ever actually cared about the fact
that I've just lost my spouse.
The rest are going, when are you going to get back to life?
You know, you can't just mope around forever.
All these, like, you know, insensitive family members
and they've actually had someone with the Holy Spirit
and go, look, look, and actually sharing some grief with them.
And those people might go away and then look at that gospel presentation.
They might, next time someone knocks on the door and says,
I'm an independent Baptist, say, actually, I want to hear this person.
Yeah, you might not get them.
The chances are they're probably not going to want to hear the gospel
at that point. Most people don't.
Now, if I think maybe they will, I might say something along the lines of,
well, what I wanted to show you is is something where,
you know, to show you how actually you can be 100% sure
you're going to heaven and, you know, and it's actually what like
if you get into the conversation, I might say something along the lines of,
well, what I was going to show you, like, will give you more hope than anything else.
Because it is that even if they're like, well,
who's to say their spouse was a Christian?
There's no other way they're getting into heaven
because they're going to be going through their mind for the rest of their life.
Well, yeah, but they did this and did that.
Those sins are going to get them out.
They might have got saved. You don't know.
Yeah, they don't know.
They can at least have that hope.
I never know. Maybe at some point in life, they did get saved.
Doesn't mean they're automatically going to be a church member, does it?
Or anything else. However, that's quite few and far between.
Most of the time, I'm just like, look, I'm really sorry.
They usually don't want to hear any theater.
Just try and say something nice to them.
Yeah, try and make them feel, you know, cared for.
People want to feel cared for, don't they, OK?
So, right, I'm going to go through and I know I'm running out of time.
So I'm just going to go through some of the verses that we like to go through.
Now, just to make this clear to everyone again, OK,
there's not one way to get someone saved.
There's not like a right way.
However, we believe at this church in a nice methodical way,
which was coined as a Roman's robe, but we like to add other verses.
Now, you don't have to do exactly the same verse as me.
But I would like you to do the same stages as me.
Now, you can swap as as some people will
maybe present the gift before they present the gospel and vice versa.
Again, that's up to you.
But when you preach the gospel,
these are the key points that you need to get someone to understand,
because ultimately they have to believe the gospel
and the gospel includes all of these points, OK?
So, again, look, someone can get saved off John 3 16.
However, it's much more effective if you can show methodically each point.
And some people just go, I've never heard it so clearly as that.
OK, because it is a very tried and tested way of getting people saved.
OK, using the word of God and then explaining the verses. Right.
So, again, a lot of you here know you might you might use all these verses.
Why am I? We'll give you a couple of alternatives as well,
because sometimes you get someone that maybe tries to argue a verse
or maybe sometimes you just feel like, oh, my, you know,
sometimes it's useful to go somewhere else for one reason or another.
Sometimes you get led to and it does help.
So there might be some alternatives.
You might already have these alternatives.
I think it's helpful to just have a little note next to some of the verses
with alternatives to go to.
But it's up to you. Right.
So first, I like to go to Romans 3 10 to start with.
If someone says, Yeah, I want to hear.
I'd like to know how I can be sure I'm going to heaven.
I'd like to hear the gospel.
I'd like to hear what what it is, you know, you know,
reason of that hope that's in you. Yeah.
Whatever it is that they say, I'd like to go to Romans 3 10
as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one.
Why? I just think it's a nice, soft start.
And I just go, there's no one perfect.
OK, now some go straight to Romans 3 23.
Some people might not even go to either, though.
I like to go to Romans 3 10 and go as it is written,
there's none righteous, no, not one.
What the Bible is saying is no one's perfect, because that's just
everyone's going to agree with that. Yeah, I'm not perfect.
Then, well, therefore, Romans 3 23.
I just say, well, actually says we're all sinners.
All have sinned to come short the glory of God.
And very rarely you'll get someone who goes, I'm not a sinner.
But they've just admitted they're not perfect.
It's a bit less like they're going to now go, I'm not a sinner.
Whereas I have jumped straight to Romans 3.
But again, it's up to you.
If I'm in a rush, I'll go straight to Romans 3 23
if I feel like I don't have as much time with someone.
But it doesn't take long to just quote Romans 3 10 to say no one's perfect.
OK. OK, again, I like to explain that my way.
And again, you have to explain that way.
I'm going to have to be quick here, but I like to explain
that what a sin is.
I like them to give me some examples of sins.
OK, because it just helps to get them talking, get them.
And it's not like a dangerous talk where they're going to go off
on a tangent somewhere.
Just examples of sins.
Usually, you know, because you've got to be careful with people.
On one hand, we want it to be interactive.
But on the other, you don't want to just be sidetracked either.
And you've got and you've got to be aware.
Some people who are sidetrackers or just can't stop talking.
You need to limit the questions.
And some people that it's like getting blood out of stone.
You need to increase the questions.
Yeah, because you want them to interact because they're going to remember it more.
They're going to feel involved, included in the conversation,
not where you're starting to wonder, are they even listening to me?
OK, I like to just get them to explain about sins.
And I explain that sin is a transgression of God's law,
which really is from 1 John 3.4.
I don't usually go there. I usually just quote that.
It's pretty obvious that that's what sin is.
Yeah. Basically, you're breaking God's commandments.
I explain that.
I like to explain that therefore that another way of looking at that
is that God's past marks up here and we're all down here.
OK, because we've all sinned to come short of the glory of God.
OK, therefore, this is how I like to bridge it.
Some people go, oh, what's the punishment of sin?
I just go, so if we come short and because we're sinners,
we're not good enough to go to heaven.
Where does that mean we go?
And, you know, most people have an innate knowledge and understanding.
Unless they want to, you know, they're just denying the truth.
Most people just go to hell.
Without even, and I will go to Romans 6.23 and you could go to Romans 5, 12 after.
But so we'll get to that in a second.
But ultimately, look, most people just go, OK, yeah,
if I come short of God's glory and I'm not good enough to go there,
I'm going down there. Right.
Now, I sometimes quote Proverbs 24, 9,
the thought of foolishness is sin.
That's Proverbs 24, verse 9.
And just part one of that verse, because that's the bit
I want to get across just to show, look, we actually sin every day.
OK, so I just say, look, in fact, not only is it, you know, are we sinners,
we sin every day because some people think, oh, maybe I can stop sinning.
Look, you can't. Everyone's going to sin.
OK. And then some people like to go to James 2.10 for whosoever
should keep the whole law and yet offend at one point is guilty of all.
And sometimes I make that point, actually, when I go to Romans 6.23a,
which we're then going to go to.
So, OK, and I'm going to talk about that in a second.
So Romans 3.10 or Romans 3.23 to start,
you can quote, you can go to those other verses if you like, it's up to you.
But from there, you've just shown that we're all sinners.
So point number one, you want to teach people, you want to get people
to acknowledge that they're a sinner.
And sometimes a gentle way of doing that is to acknowledge that we're all sinners.
Not going, you're a sinner.
Now, what I'll also do with that is say to them, when it, for example,
lying is a great one, I like to use lying
because I'm going to show them that in Revelation 21.8.
But what I say to them is, is something along the lines of, look,
do you know that lying is a sin?
And we've all, I've lied before.
Yeah, have you lied before? Because I've lied before.
OK, but whereas if I just say to someone,
you know, lying is a sin, you've lied before haven't you?
They're a bit, oh, well, you know, they feel like criticized.
So it's a good thing to acknowledge that you're also a sinner
while you're doing this, because people are expecting the J-Dub
to come at the door and be all holier than thou with them
or someone else like that. Yeah.
OK, so then, then I like to go to Romans 6, 23A.
This is the first part of the verse which says,
for the wages of sinners death.
Now, I actually highlight it in a different color
because I don't really want to jump ahead at this point.
So I, if I can, I like to just show them that first part,
have it in a different color.
So they focus in on that color of the verse.
Just look at that first part.
We can get to the Jesus Christ bit afterwards.
And with that, you know, I like to point out it's the wages of sin,
not the wages of lots of sin, not the wages of more bad than good,
not the wages of really bad sin, the wages of sin.
One sin will take you to hell. We just agreed we're all sinners.
Where does that mean that we're all destined?
Where should we all go? Because we're sinners.
And already you've made that clear now, haven't you? Yeah.
Because, and you go, well, it says death.
Look, sometimes I just explain it like this
because I know some people separate, go, well, that's a physical death.
Let me show you the second death.
And look, there's nothing wrong with that.
But ultimately, the wages of sin is death, is really spiritual death in hell.
And I just say, look, sometimes I say it like this.
I say, you know, we have a soul, you have an eternal soul.
It's either going to live forever, it's going to die forever.
Because you're a sinner, it's going to die forever.
And I'm going to show you that and go to Revelation to make that clear.
Yeah, you could go to Romans 512. I used to.
Sometimes I do, but not maybe if I've just here's something I do.
And again, you don't have to do this. Yeah.
I just think it's a bit better sometimes.
So if I've just preached to someone on the door
and then they go, yeah.
And by the way, this is something I want to add.
If I've just preached to someone and there are children around,
children old enough to listen, I'll say to them,
would it be OK if I showed your son or daughter or someone else?
Yeah, whoever it is.
Is there anyone in the house who would want to listen?
Now, when they come down, I sometimes, and this is just something I do.
I sometimes use some slightly alternate verses when I preach to them,
just because I just think it feels a bit parity or whatever the word,
if they just listen to me preach the exact same gospel presentation to their kid.
Now, there's nothing wrong with that.
If that's how you want to do it, do it. Yeah.
However, I sometimes will then maybe use Romans 512 instead of Romans 6, 23.
And just so they're listening to it,
because it's also just building up the faith of that person.
I've just got saved.
Well, at the same time, as long as they're legitimate good verses to use
and I know how to explain them, then again,
you're also getting someone saved at the same time
and they're seeing other verses and going,
wow, look, there's more and more and more,
because, look, you know, people will try and then lie to them.
Look, they're not going to get unsaved, but people want to put doubt in them.
Well, you know, they've just shown your hand picked out of context.
No, there's a lot of verse in the Bible which make these points.
These are just the clearest ones to explain. Yeah.
So you could go to Romans 512, which says,
wherefore was by one man sin entered into the world
and death by sin?
So death pass by all men for the all have sinned.
OK, clearly showing that the wages of sin is death.
OK, then I like to go to Revelation 20, 14 after Romans 6, 23.
So I've shown them Romans 3, 10, Romans 3, 23, that we're all sinners.
I've shown a Romans 6, 23 now for the wages of sin is death.
Again, you could go alternate.
I'm just going to tell you the ones I use.
Then I like to go to Revelation 20 and verse 14
and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.
This is the second death.
And to show that clearly the lake of fire is the second death.
The wages of sin is death. Yeah.
Where does that mean if we're going to end up?
The lake of fire. Yeah.
I'd sometimes say that we commonly call that hell.
Look, yeah, strictly speaking,
hell is eventually relocated into the lake of fire.
It's all hell. Yeah.
And for the average person,
you don't really have to go into all of that.
You can just make it clear, look, this is hell.
And then, then I like to go to Revelation.
Sometimes either way round, I like to show Revelation 20, 10
and just quickly just say something along the lines
of the movies might paint it as some sort of, you know,
biker gang hangout where you can,
some people even say, I'd like to go to hell,
see my friends down there.
Well, this is what the Bible says.
It says, and the devil that deceived them
was cast into the lake of fine brimstone
where the beast and false prophet are.
And I usually say, these are two men, by the way,
a thousand years later and shall be tormented.
That's tortured day and night forever and ever.
And make it very clear that hell is eternal.
It's eternal punishment.
It's not a quick kind of, it's not a quick death.
And it's also not a biker gang hangout
where they're all playing rock music
and playing pool and stuff like that.
Okay. Nothing wrong with pool, by the way.
It's where people play.
All right. Okay.
So Revelation, Revelation 21, eight is great.
Because you can show that the all liars
shall have their partner lake,
which benefit from brimstone, which is second death.
And again, with this, I don't go,
these are the only people going out.
I like to go, this is a list of common sins
to show that we're all going to hell because we're sinners
rather than only these sins.
Cause then the person who gets interrupted here
might go away and go, right.
So as long as I'm not fearful, unbelieving,
as long as I take, no, no, look, all sins take you to hell.
We've just seen that. Yeah.
Just to make it clear, this is just a quick summary
of just common sins that everyone's done
because we've all lied.
Everyone's lied.
You just said you're a liar.
I'm a liar as well.
So where does that mean we deserve to go?
Okay. And that's where they need to,
they need to acknowledge that and accept that, don't they?
Even if they don't necessarily agree that they should,
what does the Bible say?
Therefore, what does God say?
Where does God say you deserve to go?
Yeah. And for me, that's all right for now.
When I get to the end of it, they need to accept that.
Yeah. They, they would have been going to hell.
Yeah. And, and cause some people can really like you go,
I'm not moving any further cause they're not.
Look, sometimes when you're showing them
the gospel, they then will accept, okay, no, you're right.
Yeah. I'm a sinner. I deserve hell.
Okay. So sometimes they might need a bit more of God's word,
but at this point, hopefully you get that.
Romans 5, 8, I like to go to after this.
So I like to soften it a bit now and say,
but you know who doesn't want you to go to hell?
And again, you don't have to copy me word for word.
This is the way I like to,
you explain it how you want to explain it,
but you need to show these points.
Number one, they're a sinner.
Number two, the way you sin is death.
Number three, well,
at least part of that showing what that death is.
Yeah. That it's in the lake of ice.
It's hell. Yeah.
It's eternal.
That all sinners are going there.
However, I like to say, but you know that, you know,
who doesn't want you to go there, you know,
and usually they'll say something like God,
or maybe some will go my mum or something.
You'll be like, yeah.
And you know, God doesn't want you to go there either,
you know, and God actually loves you.
And it's a nice point.
We preach on hell.
Let's preach some nice stuff here.
Romans 5, 8, I think it's a nice bridge and gap there,
but God commended his love toward us in that while we're yet
sinners Christ died for us.
Then from there, I like to explain who God is.
Now, some people do have a good knowledge of God.
You don't have to spend ages on some people who have been
at a church which preaches and believes the Trinity.
Okay. Because again,
it's an innate really knowledge and understanding,
but some people that they denied that,
or they've heard some wicked stuff.
Sometimes you need to spend longer on this.
For people who I think had just got it,
I'll just go to 1 John 5, 7, and some will just go,
yup, the words, Jesus, yup, fine.
Other people who maybe don't have much of a knowledge,
you need to go to some other places.
So 1 John 5, 7 says,
for there are three that bear reckon in heaven,
the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost,
and these three are one.
And look now on this,
I know some people kind of asked me about this after this,
cause I think I hit the egg.
What are we talking about preaching the gospel?
Okay.
Look, I'm not a big fan of the egg.
Okay. Just cause God's not an egg.
Okay.
Now I understand that some people like to use the egg
to explain God.
I don't like to use the egg to explain God.
I don't think we need to go to maybe some analogy of that.
I just think that when you,
when you preach what the word says,
and I usually say something like this.
I just say, look, there is one God.
However, there are three persons that are all one God.
There's God, the Father, God, the Son, God, the Holy Ghost.
I say it like this.
God, the Father, isn't God, the Son.
God, the Son, isn't God, the Holy Ghost.
However, all three are one God.
Okay.
It's confusing.
It's a bit of a mystery how exactly that works.
However, that's what the Bible says.
So you either believe it by faith and you don't.
And usually people just believe, okay, by faith.
Now, you could go to, you know, 1 Timothy 3.16.
I sometimes do.
Go to John 1, verses one to three.
Maybe go to John 1.14 and show them
that the word is made flesh and dwelt among us.
I had to do that yesterday with someone
who was a bit unsure about this sort of thing.
So depending on how much, how quickly they agree with you.
Again, people have an attention span.
You're probably sitting here going,
look, we've got an attention span, brother.
It's already five past 12 here.
And you ain't, it looks like you ain't finished yet, yeah?
Okay.
People have an attention span,
especially people that aren't used
to sitting in church services.
If they get it and they understand who God is,
we don't have to go to four different verses to show that.
If they don't, other handy ones,
for example, Hebrews 1a, Colossians 1.15 to 17.
You could put those on your notes
in case you have someone who's a bit of a problem.
Hebrews 1.8 and Colossians 1.15 to 17.
I'm going to hurry up a bit here.
Also, you could go to Mark 14 and 61 to 62
for the Muslim that claims
that Jesus Christ never said that he was the son of God,
where it says, art thou the Christ, son of the blessing?
Jesus said, I am, and you shall see the son of man
sitting on the right hand of power
and coming in the clouds of heaven.
And John 8.58, but again, a lot of that's just a sidetrack.
How often do you have a Muslim who's going,
I don't believe he's the son of God,
and then you end up with getting them saved?
Often they just want to debate with you, okay?
However, now and again, you might need one.
You might have maybe a younger one
or someone who actually seems like they want to hear it.
John 8.58, where he said before Abraham was, I am, yeah?
Just other nice clear place,
because they go, Jesus never said it!
Because they're trying to deny then.
But again, if someone's denying the Bible,
at what point are they really not going to hear the gospel?
Because they're denying that the Bible's the word of God.
However, again, it's one of those things,
you have to work it out for yourself at the time,
don't you, okay?
I'm going to try and hurry up.
So from there, from showing that Jesus is God,
I like to go to 2 Corinthians 5.21,
which says, for you have made him to be sin for us,
who knew not sin that we might have made
the right to have gone to him.
Before I do, I show who Jesus is and I preach the gospel.
So I just explained some things at this point.
Now, sometimes I might quote the odd thing
from other words, but I'm just showing you who Jesus is.
What he did, and ultimately the top reason he came,
the ultimate reason he came, was to die on that cross.
And then I go to 2 Corinthians 5.21
and show them what he was doing while he's up on that cross.
And often I ask them, what do you think?
Some people, a lot of them will just go,
yeah, he's taken away our sins.
And you go, well, think about that.
He was taking away your sins.
So why, you know, sometimes depending on a person,
but remember you said I have to do this, that and this
and that, and they start to get it, don't they, you know?
Okay, alternative verses, 1 Peter 2.24,
who his own self bear our sins in his own body on a tree
that we being dead sins should live unto righteousness
by whose stripes you were healed.
Some people go there.
1 Corinthians 15 and verses one to four are again good.
Alternatives, I like 2 Corinthians 5.21,
show that he was sinless
because it reminds me to explain that Jesus Christ
had no sin, he was sinless,
that what he was doing for us, he was swapping with us,
he was paying for our sins, but they're good alternatives.
Okay, then after that, I've shown them,
I like to show them that Jesus Christ went to hell
and Acts 2.31 is an easy one for that.
But if not, as well, if people are a bit funny,
you know, Matthew 12.40 is just, you know,
as Jonas was three days or three nights in the world,
so shall the son of man be three days,
three nights in the heart of the earth.
Okay, and again, most people don't have a problem with that.
Just because of the bad teaching and all the,
it's heresy, I'll say something,
that's what the Bible says.
Can't escape it, yeah?
He died, he tasted death for every man.
Okay, now, then I like to say, look,
so does that mean everyone's getting saved?
And most people will say no.
Okay, yeah, because there's one thing you got to do.
Do you remember I said there's one thing you got to do?
Well, let me show you that one thing in Acts 16,
30 to 31 is for me just clear as day, isn't it?
Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved in the house.
Acts 16, 30 to 31.
Now, what I usually do myself is before I explain
what believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is,
I like to usually show them John 3.16.
And for that, just because then it's believe in
and believe on, I go, well, what is believing on
or believing in the Lord Jesus Christ?
Is that just believing he exists?
No, and then I explain what believing on someone is.
You can use an analogy for this.
I usually just say something like,
you know, if I ask you to do something,
I'll give an example, something really important.
I said, I believe in you, what am I saying?
Because it's the same thing, but people don't go,
I believe on you, yeah?
So I like to give that,
and that's why I go to John 3.16.
Sure, it's the same thing.
And also to just confirm that it's not just this one verse
that I've plucked out of the Bible,
because a lot of people are wary of that.
So I like to go to John 3.16 straight away.
Sometimes I might even go to maybe John 6.47 as well,
if they seem a bit unsure.
And again, you're gauging it.
Some people are just like, yeah, great.
Some people may be just about 16.30,
but show them what believing is,
explain what, remember, you have to explain these verses.
And just before I carry on,
you have to explain the Bible,
because we can read it and go, oh, it makes perfect sense.
The unsaved man does not understand it.
You have to explain each verse.
So you preach it, you explain it.
You turn to the next verse, you explain it, yeah?
Okay, so I'm showing them what that means,
what it means to believe.
Then I give an example.
Usually if someone that says they believe in Jesus,
they believe he died, was buried, rose again,
they believe he's the son of God,
they believe that they're sinners.
And then you say to them, okay,
so what have you got to do to go to heaven?
And they go, well, I've got to be good.
I got to do this, I got to do that, I got to do this.
Then I ask them, are they believing Jesus Christ
or are they believing themselves?
Or I say, who are they believing?
And usually they'll go themselves.
Or who are they trusting in?
Who are they putting their faith in?
Have you just explained it for it to be turned, yeah?
Okay, now then I go, okay,
so what about if they just said this?
Well, I'm going to heaven because I put my faith in Christ.
Who do they believe in now, Jesus Christ?
Then I like to go, I really like going to John 3.36
while I'm on this point of belief
and show them that there's two types of people
in this world.
So just to confirm it again, we're all sinners.
Sinner number one, he that believeth on the son,
where's he going?
They'll go to heaven, have everlasting life.
Sinner number two, and he that believeth not the son
shall not, where's he going?
This one's, I'll go to them, this guy's a good guy though.
This guy's better than sinner number one.
This guy goes to church, they read the Bible,
they do all these things, where are they going?
And usually they'll say, hell shall not see love,
but the wrath of God abideth on him.
Okay, then I like to explain that it's a gift.
Okay, I'll try and hurry up now to finish off.
John, Romans 6.23, I like to read that whole verse,
remind them again, one sin's taking you to hell,
but the gift of God's eternal life to Jesus Christ a lot.
Explain what a gift is.
I like to use the analogy of my Bible.
It's just easy, it's the hand.
If I gave you this and said,
you got to give me 20 pounds, is that a gift?
No.
What about, and then I go down and down.
What about one penny?
No, any sort of, anything in exchange is not a gift,
it's a trade.
And then when they understand that,
usually they get the rest of the questions right then,
because you give them the example of a penny,
you give an example of, well,
what about if I said you've got to come to church?
What if I said you've got to never lie?
And I like to go, what about if I said,
you never commit murder again?
No, never commit in the first place, whatever it is,
you've never done it.
You know, maybe I'll make a joke there or something.
It's only you're the light in it.
You know, I'm sure, I'm hoping you're not the type
that does commit murder.
However, you know, would that be a gift?
No, it's a good deal.
It's still not a gift.
And because they need to understand that,
it's got nothing to do with you.
It's just faith in Christ.
And then once you've done that, sometimes, by the way,
a good little alternative, keep in mind, Romans 5.18,
if they try and claim a gift's not free.
And people do that.
So I try and explain the gift before I ask now.
I try and remember to do this.
Because here's the thing, just a quick side point.
Try not to ask questions that constantly get wrong answers.
You don't want to be constantly telling people they're wrong.
So you want to ask questions
that they're going to get the right answer to.
So if I used to regularly go,
and this used to work until recently,
I don't know if it's that Santa Claus,
but you go, is a gift, you go, is a gift free?
Or do you pay for it?
Oh, you pay for a gift.
This is why they keep saying that.
What do you mean you pay for it?
It's a gift.
So now instead I say something along the lines of,
okay, so if I gave you this Bible, who's paid for it?
Me.
Who's received it freely?
You.
Okay, so if I told you to pay for me, is that a gift?
No, because a gift's free, they agree.
Yeah, okay?
And again, you haven't then got them
to answer a question wrong.
And then they're like,
oh, this person keeps telling me I'm wrong.
You know?
So last bit, we explain after that,
and again, you could show a few other verses with that.
There are many you could show.
I like to show what happens,
because people will confuse them,
what happens if a believer sins,
if they do a bad thing,
show them the chastisement of God.
I just go to Galatians 3.26, usually it's nice and quick.
At this point, I generally can cover it fairly quickly.
For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ.
You just show that you become a child of God.
Like to give an example of one of my children
or one of their children,
and explain that they can,
they're never gonna stop being your child,
even if they sin, et cetera.
So we're going over a bit,
but it's important stuff.
Again, show what a child is,
show that God chastises children
like we chastise the children.
Explain why we do that.
We ultimately, we want them to be good.
We want them to have a good life.
We want them to be well-rounded adults.
Then we, I like to go to Hebrews 12, 500.
You can go to John 1.12 and confirm that it's belief.
Again, if I think they're a bit off still on the gospel,
I might go to John 1.12 instead and just confirm.
Again, it's who so believeth on his name,
and hammer home that point.
Again, depending.
Alternatives, Proverbs 3.11 to 12,
says Hebrews 12.5 to six in the same sort of way,
if you like, if you prefer that.
It's up to you.
It's got kind of easier language there.
My daughter likes to use that with kids.
It's a bit easier language.
It's talking about correction and chasing
rather than rebuke or reproof, sorry.
Rebuke, sorry, in Hebrews 12.5,
and scourging, which most people
don't understand what that means.
But again, you can just explain that.
And then after that, I'm nearly done now,
and I like to wrap up usually with John 5.24,
because I think it just summarizes it all, yeah?
John 5.24.
Now, I might go to John 10.28, 29,
if I think they're still maybe a bit shaky
on eternal security, if they're still a bit unsure,
when I was giving them some examples maybe.
But John 5.24 says,
verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that heareth my word,
I say, this is what you've just heard,
and believeth on him that sent me.
Do you believe that God sent Jesus Christ
to die for your sins?
Do you believe that he's buried and rose again?
They go, yeah.
Have everlasting life.
How long's everlasting?
Forever.
So if I gave you this Bible,
and I said it was everlasting,
then I took it away for any reason,
was it everlasting?
No.
He just said, if you believe you have everlasting life,
and shall not come into condemnation,
that means you will never go to hell,
but is, and I make a point that is,
is present tense passed from death unto life.
It happens in a split second.
The second you're saved, you're saved forever.
Okay.
Now, again, you could go to alternatives,
John 11, 25 to 26.
Some other nice ones for eternal security,
Romans 8, 38 to 39, if you want.
Again, they're good alternatives,
but ultimately, look, I want them to,
at this point, hopefully now they've got it, okay?
I've shown it's everlasting.
I've shown it's a gift.
I've shown Ephesians 2, 8, and 9,
for by grace you say, through faith,
that not of yourselves it's a gift of God,
not of works of any man.
Did I mention that?
That's after Romans 6, 23.
When you go to a gift, I like to go to Ephesians 3.
Now, after I explain the gift,
because I like the fact that I've shown what a gift,
explained the gift,
and now I'm confirming it with the word of God,
clear as day what my explanation was, yeah?
That it's not of yourself, it's a gift of God,
not of works, sorry, I've just done that.
Then I go to being a child, explaining about chastisement.
Then I want to summarize with eternal security again,
make it very clear now, if I think they've got it now,
this is the questions, this is important now,
this is what you need to ask someone.
Number one, do you agree that we're all sinners?
Is a nice way you can go, do you agree that you're a sinner?
However you want to say it, are you a sinner?
Do you agree we're all sinners?
Whatever it is, yeah, yes, okay?
Okay.
Number two, where do sinners deserve to go?
Okay, yeah.
Number three, hopefully they've said hell at this point.
Number three, who's Jesus?
Hopefully they'll say something along the lines
of the son of God, God in the flesh,
God manifest in the flesh, he's God, he's God the son.
Hopefully they're not going to say he's a prophet,
or he's, you know, something else like that, okay.
So you've explained that, oh right, I've got that right.
Number four, okay, what did he do for us?
And they're going to say something along the lines of dying
and what you want to make clear is that he rose again.
And I've explained that one, I've explained the gospel,
he's bearing that he rose again the third day.
And again, you want to make that very clear, okay?
Don't make it clear that they believe that he rose again
because that was very important.
It showed that he was God,
it showed that he was who he said he was.
He wasn't a liar, yeah, it was paid for, it was done, okay.
Okay, he's rose from the dead, he's done.
Then I say, and what's the only thing you got to do?
I say, what do you have to do to go to heaven?
And hopefully they're going to say, believe on, trust in,
have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then once you believe is there anything
that can make you lose that salvation,
hopefully they're going to say no, absolutely nothing.
Then I'll give them a couple of examples.
What about if I went down to shop and I stole something
or the shopkeeper wasn't looking?
Hopefully they're going to say,
you're still going to go to heaven,
but you're going to get punished.
Then I'm going to say something like,
what if I then killed,
what if the shopkeeper tried to stop me?
I panicked, I killed him.
It can happen, but you wouldn't commit murder.
Well, okay, I'll tell you what,
how about if you committed adultery?
Or how about, look, anyone could, look,
everyone has got sins that maybe they're able to do
and maybe not, yeah?
Yeah, look, some of the, maybe more likely the men here
could get in a row and get angry
and end up doing something that they regret
when they calm down a bit.
Or maybe, look, sadly, what are you trying to tell me?
Because people who say that,
well, they're trying to tell me
that there's no Christian woman
that's gone and ended up getting an abortion.
That's murder.
Yeah, look, we are perfectly capable of committing sin.
Okay, I try not to go onto those
because you get into a tangent.
I'm not going to say that usually to someone on the door.
However, what I am going to do is say,
well, what about, and they could kind of see that then.
And they'd be like, okay,
what if in the heat of the moment you did something crazy?
Where are you going?
And unless they say heaven,
but I'm going to get chastised,
and you need to start going over
some of these points again, yeah?
Doesn't mean I'll write done.
It means go over it again.
Okay, then ask them this.
Do you believe that now?
Do you believe what the word of God says?
Now, if they say yes, then I say to them this.
I say, okay, but before I came to you,
and like I said earlier,
had I not knocked on your door and you'd died,
where would you have gone?
And unless they say hell,
then I'm not going to get them to call the name of the Lord.
I need them, and that's something I do every time now.
Okay, if I don't do that,
for me, there are people that all agree with everything,
and then ultimately,
they still thought they were saved before.
Okay, would you like to get saved now?
Yes.
Well, the Bible says, then I go to Romans 10, nine,
that if thou shalt confess for thy mouth,
the Lord Jesus shalt believe in thine heart
that God has raised from death,
thou shalt be saved.
And I just jumped to Romans 10, 13,
for who shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved,
and just say, if you believe, let's ask him to save you.
And I'm not going to go down this again.
I've already done, we've run well over time, so I'm sorry,
but calling on the name of the Lord
is putting your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, okay?
This is this nonsense argument out there,
like, I'm never going to ask him,
because I've already believed.
Look, if you believe, ask him to save you, job done.
Okay, that's Romans 10, nine, Romans 10, 13,
is where I like to go at the end.
Sorry that we went over a little bit there.
If I had a problem, last point, guys,
if they kind of were a bit hard on it,
because look, and like I said before, yeah,
and I've said this many times,
people who say that stuff don't go soul winning, okay?
Because I've had people who've gone,
I believe, I believe, I believe everything you've said.
And then I go, would you like to call the name of the Lord?
And they go, I'm just not ready.
Just don't want to do it yet.
They're not going, oh, I'm nervous,
or, oh, you're trying to tell me the same magic words.
No, they say, I'm just not ready
to put my trust in him this point, okay?
That's the issue.
That's why you're asking them to do it there and then.
Then you could quote Isaiah 55, six,
seek he the Lord while he may be found,
call ye upon him while he is near, okay?
Because there's a, and I'll try and explain to them,
look, I'm going to be honest with you.
If you go back in that house now and you reject him now,
I don't think you're going to call on him,
because some people go, oh, well,
I'm going to go and think about it.
I want to make it clear, yeah?
And then last chance saloon,
if I've got someone that's like,
I've just done, yeah, I'm going to go away and think.
They're not going to go away and think about it, okay?
The fowl is going to come in and take that seed away.
That's the truth.
Now, you might've sown a great seed
and maybe that seed will stay there.
Maybe they'll get saved.
I'm not saying, all right, that's it, they're done.
They won't, but the truth is they're rejecting, okay?
And ultimately I want to encourage, but leave a good taste.
I'm not like, right, that's it.
Shout at them and then hopefully, you know, they get saved.
However, Luke 16 is where I like to go last chance saloon.
So if I feel like someone really isn't still not getting it,
then I like to go to Luke chapter 16,
show the story of the rich man Lazarus.
I just show the whole story.
I go, if they're still happy to listen,
then and just show them the reality of someone in hell,
calling out and saying, Lord, send Lazarus
that he may dip the tip of his finger in water
and cool my tongue for I'm tormented in this flame
and show them that that person was saying,
but if someone came to them from the dead,
no, because I tell you what, that person,
what did Abraham say?
Look, if they have Moses and the prophets, you know,
let them hear them, okay?
Because neither will they be persuaded,
though one rose from the dead.
Look, if they won't hear the Bible,
and I say, look, if you won't hear the Bible now,
look, the truth is, you know,
it sounds like nothing will change your mind.
And you know what, quite a few times I've had people
listen to Luke 16, okay, I want to get saved.
Yeah, and it is a great kind of last chance saloon one.
Sometimes it doesn't work, sometimes it does.
And that's preaching the gospel, okay?
Now, sorry, we've gone well over there,
I kind of thought it might, okay, sorry.
However, look, it's important, right?
That's now, you can go to different verses.
You could swap around the gift and the gospel, yeah?
You can kind of explain things in your own way,
that's fine, but you need to make,
to get saved, you have to believe you're a sinner.
You have to believe that sinners deserve hell.
You have to believe that Jesus Christ
is the son of God.
You have to believe that he died, was buried,
and rose again to pay for all your sins.
You have to believe that the only way
you're getting to heaven is faith in Jesus Christ,
in the blood of Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ,
death, burial, resurrection, the shedding of his blood,
paying for all your sins, past, present, and future,
and then obviously, therefore,
you cannot lose your salvation.
If you don't, and you have to go through this,
people don't believe that,
they ain't really getting saved, yeah?
Okay, and that for me is the most easy,
methodical way of showing that, yeah?
And look, what do we see at the beginning?
First Peter 3.15 said,
"'But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts,
"'be ready always to give an answer.
"'Every man asks you of a reason,
"'of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.'"
We want to be ready, and how are we ready?
Mark your Bibles up.
If you've been a bit confused,
I know that was kind of a couple of bits
that kind of skimmed over.
I kind of had to speed up a bit.
If you're confused about anything now,
you're like, oh, where would I go from here?
How do I explain this verse?
What should I say here?
Come, please come and see me.
I'd love to show you.
Look, my way's not the only way,
but however, look, most people here preach
pretty similar to how I do there,
and we've got a lot of salvation
at this church with that, yeah?
Okay, it's tried and tested.
Let's keep doing it the right way.
Let's keep being diligent about getting people saved,
and got any questions, please see me after the sermon.
On that, we're gonna play.
Father, thank you for your word.
Thank you for the gospel.
Thank you for the, you know, well, you've entrusted us
to, you know, what a responsibility
to go and get people saved.
Lord, help us to just do that, you know,
from this afternoon, and do that
in our own private lives as well,
to learn, wanna learn how to get people saved,
to be diligent about it as well.
Help us to all be successful this afternoon.
Return this evening for this afternoon,
well, this evening's service,
and she's known for all this.