Lesson number 9, page number 21, we'll just move right along, page number 21.
So up to this point, we showed them there's none righteous, for all have sinned, the wages
of sin is death, you know death and hell were cast into lake fire, this is the second death,
we showed them you know that Jesus died on the cross, obviously the wages of sin is death
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, salvation is a gift,
you don't earn it, you don't work for it, it's free, all you have to do is receive it,
He paid for it on the cross, that's the gospel and once you have it, you can't lose it, everlasting
life eternal life, okay everybody clear up to there, that's everything we've covered,
you can do this in 15 minutes, I promise, I've done it but I know we're going thoroughly
today.
So lesson number 9, let's talk about the sinner's prayer, what's referred to as the sinner's
prayer, some people don't like that term, you know, I don't think it's terrible.
Number 1, why someone must pray in order to be saved, why someone must pray in order to
be saved, that could be worded maybe better but let's talk about that, letter 8, the Bible
is very clear that part of salvation is verbally calling upon the Lord, the Bible is very clear
that part of salvation is verbally calling upon the Lord, now there's a lot of people
who disagree with me on this and I've even been called a heretic for teaching this but
let me show you what the Bible says because at the end of the day we got to come back
to what does the Bible say, Romans 10 9, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord
Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God is raising from the dead, thou shalt be
saved, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, verse 13, for whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, okay, letter B, this is seen all throughout
scripture, not just in Romans, all throughout the Bible you see this, this is seen all throughout
scripture, that's a fill in, let me give you some examples, Genesis 4 26 says, and to Seth,
to him also there was born a son and he called his name Enos that then began men, notice,
to call upon the name of the Lord, Genesis 12 7 says, and the Lord appeared unto Abram
and said unto thy seed, well I give this land and there builded he an altar unto the Lord
who appeared unto him and he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel
and pitched his tent having Bethel on the west and Ai on the east and there he builded
an altar unto the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord, so notice he called upon
the name of the Lord, Psalm 116 13 says, I will take the cup of salvation and call upon
the name of the Lord, notice how those two are connected, I will take the cup of salvation
and call upon the name of the Lord, Psalm 116 17 says, I will offer to thee the sacrifice
of thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the Lord, Zephaniah 39 says, for then
will I turn to the people of pure language that they may all call upon the name of the
Lord to serve him with one consent, so throughout the Bible you find this concept, people were
calling upon the name of the Lord, calling upon the name of the Lord, and then Paul said
for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, so the Bible teaches
that you have to call on him to be saved, okay, and obviously, you know, somebody can't
speak, well, you know, they have to call out to him whether it's in their own mind or whatever,
but God wants us to basically ask for salvation, number two, understanding the sinner's prayer,
letter A, there is nothing special about the prayer itself, there's nothing special about
the prayer itself, letter B, the mere words will not save you, praying a prayer does not
save you, if you say, well, I think I'm saying because I prayed that prayer, somebody said
to me once, well, I said those one words, okay, well, that doesn't save you, okay, the
mere words will not save you, letter C, it is the faith in your heart, you need the faith,
okay, the mere words do not save you, Romans 10 9 says that if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from
the dead, thou shalt be saved, letter D, we must make sure that we are not going around
just praying with people that do not understand salvation, we must make sure that we are not
going around just praying with people that do not understand salvation.
I grew up in fundamentalism where people literally were just like walking up to someone like,
hey, let me show you this one verse, John 3 16, for God so loved the world, he gave
his only begotten son, whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life, you believe that, sure, let's just pray right now, okay, if you are doing that, please
do me a favor, don't ever go swimming for our church, okay, that is, you know, you don't
know what they, what they mean by that, okay, and literally it becomes this game where it's
just like, I want to just be able to come back and say I got all these salvation, we
need to be extremely, extremely careful that we are not just praying with people that do
not understand the gospel, so how do you explain this concept?
Before I even get to the verse, I usually set this up, because remember I told you,
I like to use a gift illustration the entire way through, once I bring up the gift in Ephesians
5 and 9, I bring it back up during the gospel and talk about who pays for the gift, do I
pay for it or do you pay for it, but I'm giving it to you, well if you're giving it to me,
you pay for it, same way, God is going to give you a gift, God is the giver, you're
the receiver, who pays for the gift, well God does, well how do you do that, well he
died on the cross for your sins, exactly, that's how he paid for it, that's how salvation
is paid, I go back to the gift illustration and I'll say, you know, let me show you this
one more verse, but before I show you that verse, let me, let me show you, let me give
you this one more illustration, let me go back to this gift illustration, let's say
and this is what I'll say to the person, I'll say, let's say today was your birthday, right,
and I went out and I bought this pen for you, I went out, I bought it, I paid for it, and
I wrapped it up, and I put a bow on it, and I wrote your name there, I said to Bill, and
I came to you and I said, Bill, here you go, happy birthday, you don't have to give me
any money for this gift, you don't have to do anything for this gift, I'm going to give
you this free birthday gift, all you have to do is what?
And they'll say, well, all I have to do is take it, and I'll say exactly, and I'll tell
them the gift of God is the exact same way, see Jesus already paid for it on the cross,
and he offers it to all of us freely, but you get a choice whether you'd like to accept
it or reject it, and then I'll just ask, if you could accept the gift of God, would you
do it?
And most people at this point are like, yeah, I would do that, and I just say, well, let
me show you how the Bible says you can do that, Romans chapter number 10 and verse 9
says this, it says that if, and I'll say, now you say that word if, it says if because
you get a choice, alright?
He says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, the word confess means
to admit, what are you admitting, well, you're confessing the Lord Jesus, what that means
is you're calling upon Jesus, why are you calling upon Jesus?
You're calling upon him to save you, you're calling upon him as a savior, why do you need
a savior?
Because you're a sinner, does that make sense?
Because you are condemned to hell, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, not to
a man, not to a priest, the Lord Jesus, what are you confessing, what are you admitting,
you're admitting you're a sinner, you're admitting you deserve to go to hell, you're asking Jesus
to save you, you're calling upon him to save you, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe, that's the faith, in thine heart, what are you believing?
That God hath raised him from the dead, that Jesus died on the cross, was buried, and he
rose from the grave as a payment for your sin, notice what it says, that if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath
raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Doesn't say you might be saved, doesn't say you hopefully will be saved, God says I will
save you if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart, that's exactly how
I explain it at the door, those of you who have been swarming with me, you've heard me
say all of that, word for word.
And then I'll even, if you need to just make it even more concrete, I'll say, does it say
you gotta get baptized, or no, does it say you have to go to church, no, does it say
you have to repent of your sins, no, what does it say, it says you just have to confess
and believe, and then at this point I'll just, I'll, you know, let's, let me not get ahead
of myself, I'm gonna get you guys all saved here in a minute.
Number three, let's, so you just review the concept, let me read these notes, make sure
you explain to the people that the mere words do not save them, we pray because God told
us to confess with our mouth, but the faith is in your heart and it's equally needed.
Before I pray with someone, I basically, once I explain it, once I feel like they grasp
it, I just do one last check, I'm really about being thorough and not praying with someone,
and look, we all pray with people that aren't saved, because you just don't know, you know,
even in the book of Acts, John had converts that weren't saved, John the Baptist, John
the Baptist, who Jesus said was the greatest man, you know, on earth, other than of course
Jesus had converts that were not actually saved, so we're all gonna have converts that
are not actually saved, we get that, we understand that, but we don't want it to be because we're
not being thorough.
So after I explain that verse to them, I say look, here's what the Bible says, you know,
here's what you gotta do, I'll just go, I'll say something along these lines, I'll say
I don't know if you noticed, but everything I showed you came straight out of the Bible,
and usually at this point people are like oh yeah, I'll say all I did was read a verse
and explain it, read another verse and explain it, and I'll just ask them, I'll say do you
believe what the Bible says, do you agree with the Bible when it says that you're a
sinner?
Oh yeah, I agree with that.
Do you believe when the Bible says that there's a place called the lake of fire, hell, and
people who reject Jesus will spend eternity there, do you believe that?
Yeah I believe that.
Do you believe in Jesus Christ?
That he was born of a virgin, that he was gone in the flesh, that he died on the cross,
was buried and rose from the grave to pay for your sins, do you believe that?
And they're like yeah, I believe that.
Do you believe that God has a gift he wants to give you, and that gift is eternal life,
it'll last forever no matter what you do, do you believe that?
Yeah I believe that.
Well listen, if you believe all those things, you know, do you believe this verse when it
says that if you were to simply confess with your mouth, and you already told me you believe
in your heart, do you believe that God would do what he said he'd save you, if you called
upon him right now?
Yeah, I believe that.
Well if you believe that, why don't we just pray right now, and why don't you just call
upon the Lord right now, and that way you can have that assurance and know that you're
saved.
Would you like to do that right now?
And at this point, I mean if they've been listening to you for this long, more likely
they're going to be like yes, you know.
And then most people kind of have a thing about praying, maybe they feel like they don't
know how to pray, so at that point I just basically say to them, you know, let me help
you word a prayer.
What I can do is I'll say the words and you can just repeat what I'm saying, and I'll
just, you know, say, you know, let's just bow our heads and we'll pray right now.
Let me give you some things about the prayer.
We put a script here about a prayer that you can use, you know, you can say whatever
you want.
Let me give you some things to think about in regards to the prayer.
Don't give them too much to where they won't be able to follow along, okay?
I don't, when I say do you want to pray right now and call upon Jesus, why don't we just
do that right now?
Okay, I'd like to do that.
Let me help you form a prayer.
I'll say the words and you can just repeat what I'm saying.
Okay, let's do that.
At that point I'm not just like gracious heavenly Father, you know, just like going to a twenty
minute long prayer, right?
Just like, you know, Jesus, I know I'm a sinner.
And then just wait for them to say, Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner.
And I deserve to go to hell.
Forgive me of all my sin.
Please forgive me of all my sin.
Give me eternal life.
I'm not trusting in myself.
I'm only trusting in you.
Amen.
Whatever you're going to say, just make sure you say it in enough short snippets to where
they can repeat back what you're saying, okay?
And it doesn't have to be this thorough thing.
Honestly, the only reason I even say the prayer long enough, because to me it's this
one last jab at I'm not trusting in myself.
I'm only trusting in you.
I just really want them to understand and grasp that, okay?
So when you're taught, when you're doing the prayer, make sure you do it in a way where
they can actually repeat back what you're saying and understand what you're saying in
regards to that.
So let me give you a couple things.
Page 23, number 4.
Some last thoughts on presenting the gospel.
Letter A, we show people their sin.
We show people their sin.
For all have sinned, Romans 3.23.
Letter B, we show them the consequences for their sin.
We show them the consequences for their sin.
For the wages of sin is death, Romans 6.23.
Letter C, we show them that the Lord Jesus Christ paid for their sins.
We show them that the Lord Jesus Christ paid for their sins while we were yet sinners Christ
died for us, Romans 5a.
Letter D, we show them about eternal security.
We show them about eternal security.
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, John 3.36.
Letter E, we finish with having them receive the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior through prayer,
through calling upon Him.
We finish with having them receive the Lord Jesus Christ, for whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved, Romans 10.13.
So let me give you a couple of things.
If you're there at Romans 10.9, write a number 12 in front of Romans 10.9.
We went up to number 11, right?
You guys got number 11 already?
So just Romans 10.9 is going to be number 12 and that's going to be the last verse.
In this outline, obviously you may develop your own outline, but you should have in front
of Titus 1.2 is number 11 and that should take you to the reference, the next reference
is Romans 10.9.
In front of Romans 10.9, you can write a 12 and that's the last verse that you're going
to show them.