Now, tonight I'm going to finish my sermon that I preached this morning. I didn't get all the way through the material, I pretty much knew that I wouldn't because it takes a couple hours to teach this, but I'm teaching about how to win somebody to Christ. We're talking about how to do it either door to door, or just if you're opening your Bible with your friend, co-worker, loved one, how to give them the gospel and get them saved.
Remember the verse we looked at this morning in Romans said, "so (as much as is in me) I am ready to preach the gospel to you also that are at Rome also." Paul was ready to preach the gospel, we ought to be ready, we ought to know what verses we're going to turn to, and have the skills to effectively preach the gospel to someone. Now I'm not going to re-preach my sermon from this morning, I'm not going to do a big long review, we're just going to jump in where we left off, but basically where we are is that, you know you've already shown up at the door, you've already knocked on the door, and we already went through point one of the meat of giving someone the gospel.
Remember, there's the intro, then there's the main course, and then there's the closing. So, in that main meat and potatoes of giving someone the gospel, there are four main points. One of them is that we're all sinners, and that we all deserve Hell, and we already covered that this morning. The second point is going to be to talk to them about how Jesus Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again, and just tell them the story of Jesus. Now flip over if you would to Romans 5:8, Romans 5:8, and then we're also going to look at First Corinthians, 15, 3 and 4.
So this is the second point, when I'm giving somebody the gospel, after I've already shown them we're sinners, we deserve Hell, I always tell them that God loves us, and because God loves us, God does not want us to go to Hell. But that is where we deserve to go, so I make that distinction, we deserve Hell, but God does not want us to go to Hell. So, I show them Romans 5:8 which says, "but God commendeth his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." At this point I just explain to them who Jesus Christ is.
Now, a lot of people that you talk to out soul winning or friends that you talk to, they've already known who Jesus is, they know the basic story of Jesus, maybe they've seen a Jesus movie on TV, or they've been to church, or they've heard people talk about it. I still think it's great, even if they already know who Jesus is, just to give them a quick review, and just make sure that you're on the same page about who Jesus is. Now, sometimes you'll run into somebody who knows virtually nothing about Jesus, and at that point you've got to slow down and actually explain more on this point. Usually that will be a child. Today, I'm running into teenagers who literally know nothing about Jesus Christ, because our culture in America has become so de-christianized, that you ask them "have you ever heard of Adam and Eve?" Talking to 15, 16 year olds, "have you heard of Adam and Eve?" "No." "Have you heard of Noah?" "No." "Do you know anything about Jonah and the Whale?" "No." "Samson?" "No."
Look, go soul winning with me, I'm telling the truth. That's the answers you get from teenagers today. You'll talk to 15, 16 year olds, and you'll say to them "so Jesus died on the cross and what happened three days after Jesus died on the cross?" They have no clue. Then, when you tell them that He rose from the dead, I've said to them, "have you ever heard that before, that Jesus actually walked out of the grave? That He actually came back to life?" They'll say, "I've never heard that."
I talked to a girl that went to one of these kind of woo-hoo, you know Pentecostal type churches, you know the holy roller type church. She'd been going there her whole life, she was 15! She said, when I told her about the resurrection of Christ, she said "wait a minute, did this really happen? Is, this real?" I'm like, "yeah, this really happened, you never heard it?" "No." She, what was the name of it, what's that church, the Pilgrims Rest Baptist Church is where she went, and she said she'd been going there her whole life and she's 15. So, there you go they're really teaching the gospel well down there.
What I'm saying is that a lot of people today, you can't just assume that they know who Jesus is, so that's why it's always good to just give them a quick run through of who Jesus is, and if they're nodding their head and saying "oh yeah, I'm familiar with this." Then you don't need to spend a lot of time on the point if they've already heard it, but a lot of people, especially children, especially teenagers, maybe somebody who's coming from a Hindu background, or they're an immigrant from another country, you might need to spend more time on this point.
So the basics of what I like to run through with somebody about Jesus, is I explain to them, that basically God came to this earth and became man. God was manifest in the flesh, and that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh and he lived a sinless life. He was born of a virgin, and when he was 30 years old he began to preach and to teach God's word. He also performed a lot of miracles, you know maybe you can talk about some of the miracles he did, just to refresh people's memory about the stories of Jesus.
Then I explain to them, that because of his preaching, he was hated by a lot of the Jews, and the Pharisees and the Sadducees had him arrested, they lied about him, they beat him, they spat upon him and they nailed him to the cross. The Bible says, that when he was on that cross, he himself bear our sins in his own body on the tree, so I explain to them, that every sin that I've ever done, every sin that you've ever done, when Jesus was on the cross it was as if he had done it.
Now, flip over to First Corinthians 15. First Corinthians 15. This is an optional verse you can turn to, the core verse for this point is Romans 5:8, but an optional verse that you could turn to and show people, is First Corinthians 15 verses 3-4 which drives this in. It says in First Corinthians 15, 3-4, "for I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures." I just explain to them, that when it says that Jesus died for our sins, basically he was taking the punishment that we deserve for our sins. I show them that verse, I show them Romans 5:8, and explain that.
Then, I like to ask this question. Okay do you think Jesus died for everybody? Or just for certain people? And 99% of people will tell you "I think Jesus died for everybody." I always tell them you're right. Because the Bible says that he died not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world. But do you think that because he died for everybody, that means everybody is automatically going to Heaven? And again, 99% of people will tell you no.
So, then I take them to Acts 16, and this is where we get into the third point, okay? So, when we get into the meat of the gospel, point one is that we're all sinners, and that we all deserve Hell. I show them at least four scriptures on that. Then we get into just the story of Jesus, you can tell that in your own words, show a few scriptures, go into depth as needed. If somebody is unfamiliar, spend a lot more time on that point. If somebody already knows a lot about Jesus, that's not the point you're going to want to spend the most time on necessarily, because they already know that, you want to talk about the stuff they don't know. Then, the third point is to teach them that believing is what saves us, that faith is what is going to get us saved. So, I always say to them, not everybody is automatically going to Heaven just because Jesus died for all, there's one thing that we must do to be saved, and I take them to Acts 16, verse 30.
It says, "and brought them out, and said, 'Sirs, what must I do to be saved?' And they said, 'believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." Then I just like to ask that person, "what does that verse say that we have to do in order to be saved?" Sometimes, if they're not paying attention they'll go "what?" You can kind of tell, that's why I like to ask people questions a little bit, just to make sure that they're paying attention, that they're listening. Then, if they don't know, then I say "let's read it again." Then I have them read it, and then tell me what it is, and it's of course believe in Christ, and I ask them "does it say, go to Church and thou shalt be saved?" Does it say get baptized and thou shalt be saved? Does it say turn over a new leaf, stop sinning, live a good life and thou shalt be saved? No.
Then, I flip over to John 3:16, that's the next place I go, and I like to tell people that John 3:16 is the most famous verse in the entire Bible, because I notice that if I say to people, "John 3:16 is the most famous verse in the whole Bible." That gets their attention. And I always tell them "hey, if people in the world know one verse, this is usually the verse they know." Because then it peaks people's interest, like "oh man, I better listen to this if this is the big one." So I show them John 3:16, and sometimes I even ask them "hey, have you been to In-N-Out Burger? Bottom of the cup says, John 3:16." Sometimes there'll be a guy at a football game holding up a sign that says John 3:16. This is the most famous verse on the planet.
It says in John 3:16, "for God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life." Again, not whosoever is a part of the church, not whosoever gets baptized, not whosoever lives a clean life. Then I just jump them right down to verse 18, it says "he that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not, is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God." It's crystal clear, if you feel like you want to reinforce it even more? Jump down to verse 36, it says "he that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life, and he that believe in not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God, abideth on him."
Now again, I show people as many verses as are necessary on this point. If after i show them 2, 3, 4 verses that believing is what it takes to get into Heaven, that it's all through faith, then I'll move onto the next point. If I feel like they're a little shaky on it, they're a little skeptical of it, they're thinking "hey, wait a minute I think I still need to do more" there are so many verses that you can show, I mean just take your pick. Just to give you a few, a lot of times I like to ... just if I need to belabor the point I'll go to John 6:47, because I think John 6:47 is just such a short, clear, concise verse. It says "verily, verily I say unto you he that believeth on me hath everlasting life." It just doesn't get any simpler than that folks.
If I really want to drive it in even more I'll flip them over to John 11:25-26, where it says "Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life, he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.' Believest thou this." Of course you don't have to turn there, but Ephesians 2:8-9, is another great scripture to show people that says, "for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." Because the main thing I'm trying to get across them on this point, is that salvation is not by our deeds, it's not by our works, it's not by following the laws of God, because we've all sinned and come short. It's just by believing on Christ, it's faith in Christ, trust in Christ as our savior.
You can use as many verses necessary to get that point across, usually 2, 3, 4 verses is plenty to get that point across, but if somebody is skeptical I'll just keep showing them. Let's look at 20 of them, you know because we could go on and on. We could go to Romans 3 and find all kinds of ... "therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." Romans 4:5, I mean Galatians 3:16, I mean just ... not 3:16, what is it 2, Galatians 2 ... 2:16 yeah there you go. So, there's all kinds of scripture on that.
So then the fourth point that I like to cover, besides the fact that we're all sinners, we deserve Hell, Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again, faith is what saves us, not works. It's not based on works of righteousness which we have done, but then the fourth point is I show them from the Bible that salvation is eternal. Do not skip this point, this point is important. So many people across America today, when they go out and knock doors in Fundamental Baptist churches, they don't cover this point, they skip this point. Now, let me say this, if you skip this point, it is still possible for someone to get saved and understand the gospel, if you skip this point. Because you've already shown them that it's by faith alone. You've already shown them that Christ died, was buried, then rose again. You've already shown them that it's by faith alone.
So it is possible for someone to be saved if you were to skip this point, but here's the problem with skipping this point, if you skip this point, most people haven't got it yet. Because people are so ingrained that they have to do all these works, or go to church, or live a good life. So if you skip this point, there are going to be people that haven't got it. Now every once in awhile, I'll run into somebody, that when I get on this point it's like they already understood it from point three. They're just like "well yeah, of course you can't lose it if it's just by believing." But here's the problem though, 9 out of 10 people still are hanging on to some kind of works or something that they have to do.
So when you get to this point that salvation is eternal, that you can't lose your salvation. This just really makes it so crystal clear, and isn't that the goal of soul winning? Is to make the gospel clear, so that people will understand. What's the number one thing that Jesus taught in the Parable of the Sower, he said, "when any man heareth the word of the Kingdom and understandeth it not, then cometh that wicked one and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart, this is he that receives seed sown by the wayside." That shows you that that is a major problem, where people are given the gospel and they don't understand it. What happens when they don't understand it? The devil catcheth away that which is sown in their heart.
We need to make sure people understand, and the best way to make sure that people get it crystal clear, that it's by faith alone, is by teaching them that salvation is eternal. Again, a lot of scriptures you can go to, here are the ones I like to go to. I like to take them back to Romans 6:23, where I took them earlier in point one, and give them the rest of that verse. Because in Romans 6:23 it says "for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." I use that illustration of a gift, and I say to them "if I were to give you a gift, let's say I were to give you my Bible as a gift," but I said to you "hey, I got this gift for you, I just need you to give me 5 dollars." Is that really a gift?
Or if I said to them, "hey, it's free but I need you to wash my car, and then it's yours." That wouldn't be a gift. Or I'll say to them this, "if I were to give you this Bible, and then 3 weeks later I come back and knock on your door and say hey, I need that back." Was that a gift? No. So you learn two things right away about a gift, gifts are free, and you get to keep them, they're permanent, they're not a temporary thing. That would be a loan, or a pawn. This is a gift, you get to keep it, you own it. I always say to them "who pays for a gift? The giver or the receiver?" Because everything costs money, the giver pays for the gift. So I say, "who is giving us eternal life? Jesus Christ. Who paid for it? Jesus. And how did he pay for it?" And let them answer, with his blood, with his death, with his burial, with his resurrection.
Jesus paid for it by dying for us, how much do we have to pay? Nothing. So, the gift of God is eternal life, when we believe on Christ, he gives us eternal life. Now, I always say to them this "what does eternal mean?" Usually people know that eternal means forever. If not, then I'll explain it then using the word everlasting. I'll say "hey, have you heard the word everlasting? Lasts forever, everlasting?" I explain to them that eternal just means it goes on forever. I say, if God gives you a gift that lasts forever, how many times do you have to receive that gift, if once you get it, it's eternal and it lasts forever. One time. And once you have it, it lasts forever. I tell them I was never good enough to be saved in the first place, I'm never going to be bad enough where he'll take it away, it's all of grace. Grace is something that we do not deserve.
Now, another supporting verse on this point could be John 10:28, okay? John 10:28 or Titus 1:2, you turn to John 10:28, while you're turning there I'll quote for you Titus 1:2, which says "in hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began." God promised us eternal life. First John 2:24 is another one, that says "and this is the promise that he had promised us, even eternal life." Look at John 10:28, this is another good one to show people, it says "and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."
Again, you can show them all types of verses here to show them that it's eternal life, the one that I like to use is just Romans 6:23 on that point. I show them Romans 6:23, and then you could use John 10:28, Titus 1:2, a multitude of others. When I'm on this point, I like to make a second point on this point of eternal life, because I feel it's so important, and that is a point that I like to make in John 1:12. John chapter one, verse 12. Because I find that this illustration really hits home with people, people really get this when you show them. Sometimes people get it with the gift, I mean the gift is a great illustration, a lot of people, that makes perfect sense to them. I like to use this illustration also, because this really hits home with people, and that is the illustration of a parent and a child.
I say to them, John 1:12 says "but as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." So when the Bible says that when we believe on the name of the Son of God, we are His child now, we're His son. And sometimes I ask them, "do you have children?" "Yes." "Do you have rules for your children?" If they don't have children I tell them about my children, I say "look I have rules for my children, and if my children break my rules I punish them, but I'm not going to kick them out of the family." I don't say "hey you're not my son anymore." I explain to them it's the same way with God, when you believe on Christ you have eternal life, you're a child of God. God has a lot of rules, he's got a lot of commandments. I always say to them "when my kids break my rules, I don't just laugh and say that's okay, don't worry about it." Neither does God.
God expects his rules to be kept and he has commandments, he didn't say "if you love me, keep my suggestions." He said "if you love me keep my commandments." I explain to them that if you break God's rules he's not going to kick you out of the family, he will discipline you. Just like I would punish my children, I'll give them a spanking, I'm not going to throw them out of the family. God's not going to throw us out of the family, but the Bible does say "whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son who may receiveth." Now the reason I think this is an effective point to make is because a lot of times when you explain to people eternal security, it kind of just blows them away because it's a radical concept to them. To us, it's the gospel, but to them it's this crazy radical "wait a minute, you mean to tell me I can do whatever, and I'm still going to go to Heaven?" They can't comprehend that.
Now, I like to really drive the point in about eternal security, because I want to make sure they understand it, so a lot of times I'll even give examples and say look, if I were to go out and commit murder, or commit adultery, or even kill myself, you know? Look, there's nothing you can do to lose your salvation, but here's the thing, you want to be careful though, when you say that, you don't just sound like a raving lunatic. Now, is it true that you can commit murder and you're still going to go to Heaven? Of course, that's biblical. Is it true that if you commit adultery that you're still going to go to Heaven? Of course, but you don't want to phrase it to people in such a way that you sound like a raving lunatic. "Yeah you just kill, rape, pillage and just you're saved!" What in the world? Because what's your goal? Your goal is to get people saved, you want them to understand it, you want it to make sense to people.
Look, you're not giving them the full picture if you just say it like that. You do want them to understand that, so here is the way I explain it. I say to people "look, God's going to punish you on this earth when you commit sin, but he's not going to send you to Hell." Because that's the truth, when it comes to people that are saved. Now, the unsaved are going to go to Hell, the unbelievers will have their part in the lake of fire. When it comes to people that are saved, we get our punishment now on this earth. So I explain to them look, if I went out and committed murder, God is going to punish me. I'm going to prison, I'm going to the electric chair, something horrible is going to happen to me, God is going to make sure that ... I always say to them, "do you think if I went out and committed adultery that I'm just going to get away with it, as a Christian? No, because God could cause me to get a disease, to lose my family, to lose my job, to be busted."
So I always explain to them, that yes, if we commit a big sin, we will still be saved, but God will test us on this earth. Because usually when you say it that way, it clicks with people, they understand. When you just say "yep, you murder, you commit adultery, and you go to Heaven." That just, what in the world? Even though it's true, it's better to give them the whole picture and then they say "okay, that makes sense, so God punishes us here, but because of our faith in Christ it's all forgiven, we make it into Heaven." That helps people to understand it, so I like to touch on that.
Now, that pretty much wraps up the meat and potatoes of giving somebody the gospel, okay? So, just to give you a quick review if you're taking notes or anything, the core verses that I show people, the minimum core verses, are Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23, Revelation 20, 14 and 15, Revelation 21:8, Romans 5:8, Acts 16:31, John 3:16, Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 6:23. Then the father, son point would add John 1:12 onto that, okay? So that's the core right there, so it consists of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. 12 verses that are the backbone of when I give someone the gospel. Those 12 scriptures are the backbone.
Again, any point where you feel like they need some extra clarification, they need some reinforcement, additional verses are good to have on hand to kind of park it on that point, and give some additional support, additional verses. I showed you about 10 or 15 additional verses, you can find your own additional verses, but 12 scriptures make up the backbone when I present the gospel. Just a minimum that I show people to get all the points out there. Now, here's a tip for you if you're new at giving people the gospel. You can draw a map in your Bible, and here's what I mean by that. You go to the first verse which is Romans 3:23, if you always start with Romans 3:23, all you have to do is put a bookmark or something in Romans 3:23, dog-ear the page, just make it easy to find and Romans 3:23 will get you started.
When I was a child, my parent's Bibles both had this in their Bible. Where next to Romans 3:23 they had the next verse already labeled. So next to Romans 3:23 it said 'Romans 6:23.' So that tells them okay, after I show them this verse I go to Romans 6:23. Next to Romans 6:23 it said 'turn to Revelation 20:14.' Then they go to Revelation 20:14 it says 'turn to Revelation 21:8.' When you get to Revelation 21:8 it says 'turn to Romans 5:8.' When you get to Romans 5:8 it says 'turn to John 3:16.' Or whatever, and so that's a way where if you're new and you don't have it all memorized, you can write out a map in your Bible, so to speak, that just takes you to the next step, then all you have to do is be able to find Romans 3:23. Once you find that, it's all just walking you through it.
What you can do in addition to that, is in the back of your Bible, find a nice blank page in the back of your Bible, and just write out the whole list of the core verses, maybe really big put the core verses. Then maybe next to them, put in small, some of your auxiliary verses, some of your extra verses that you might tie in, if you need to really drive in a point. That way you got like a master plan in the back, and then in the text itself it always tells you what the next step is, so that's a good point. So that's the meat and potatoes.
Before I get into the closing, because remember the most important parts are the beginning and the end, those are the hardest parts, those are the parts where people mess up. Before I get into the closing, let me just bring up one objection that sometimes people will raise when you bring up the fact that we can't lose our salvation, that it's eternal life. Sometimes people will bring up the objection "well hey, what if you stop believing?" Who's had somebody ask them that? I mean see what I mean? It's pretty common, they'll say "hey, what if you stop believing?"
Now, let me say this, personally my opinion from my study of scripture, I don't believe that anybody who's saved is ever going to just completely stop believing in Christ. That's my opinion, okay? The reason I say that is because when a person gets saved, the Holy Spirit does indwell them, the Bible says "the Spirit itself beareth witness with our Spirit that we're the children of God." The Bible calls being saved being enlightened, having our eyes open, and so I'm not really fully convinced that a person who's saved could ever stop believing.
Theoretically, hypothetically, if they did stop believing, they would still be saved. Because it's impossible to lose your salvation. Now, let me say this, I think that everybody has probably doubted their salvation at one point or another. I'm not going to ask for a raise of hands, but if I said "hey, who here has doubted your salvation, or doubted the Bible, or doubted Jesus Christ." Pretty much every hand would go up, that people have had doubts, but to just fully stop believing in Christ is something that I do not believe that a believer is going to ever do. That's my opinion, I'm not a hundred percent sure on that, but that's where I would lean toward.
This is a question that comes up though where people say "hey, what if you stop believing?" What I like to say to people at that point, I like to show them John 3:18. Because John 3:18 really just puts this one to bed in my opinion, and there are a few places you could go to answer this common objection, one place you could go to is Second Timothy 2:13. In Second Timothy 2:13 the apostle Paul is talking to Timothy, this is one preacher to another, Paul saying to Timothy "if we believe not, yet he abideth faithful he cannot deny himself." So he can't break his word, he can't break his promise. If we believe not, he's still going to abide faithful, according to Second Timothy 2:13, that's a good scripture on that.
The thing I like to point out in John 3:18, is that it says "he that believeth on the Son is not condemned ... I'm sorry "he that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, watch this, because he hath not believed." Now notice it's past tense. It says there the one who is condemned hath not believed. It's he never believed on Christ, you see what I mean, because if you've ever believed on Christ it could not be said of you, you have not believed. So I think John 3:18 proves that even if you were to stop believing, you would still be saved, because the one who is condemned is the one who hath not believed. Of course there's the scripture where Jesus says in Matthews 7, "I never knew you to part from me." He didn't say I used to know you, he said I never knew you.
So, if we believe not, yet he abideth faithful. The ones who are unbelievers it says they have not believed. I even can bring it back at this point, if they're stuck on this, to the father, son illustration and say "hey, what if my son came to me and said Dad I'm starting to doubt that you're really my Dad." That would be an awful thing to say, but would it change the fact that I'm his Dad, if he doubted ... or what if he said "I don't even believe that you're my Dad." That would not change the fact that I am his Dad, so that proves it again. There's a lot of scripture you could go to.
So, now we're done with the meat and potatoes of giving somebody the gospel, now let's talk about the closing. A lot of people they get to this point, it's like they don't know what to do. "Okay, so you got it, you got it, you believe that?" Now some people will say "hey, just declare them saved at this point." Now the reason I don't like that method, and theoretically yeah, you've given them the gospel, you've preached the gospel, you've done your part. Theoretically that could be enough for somebody, just show them everything, preach them everything, but here's the thing, that is not the best way to go soul winning or the best way to win people to Christ, because you want to make sure that people are brought to a decision right then and there.
A lot of times people that hear all this information, they're agreeing with it, they're agreeing with it, they're seeing the scripture, they're nodding their head, they're believing it, but how much do they believe it? Have they really, fully gotten onboard, are they fully trusting Christ, or is it theoretical in their mind at this point? So you want to bring that person to the point of pulling the trigger, sealing the deal and calling upon the name of the Lord. Now, a lot of people will badmouth the doctrine of calling upon the name of the Lord. Calling upon the name of the Lord is a very scriptural doctrine. Now we know that of course by faith we're saved, and that anyone ... and people have accused me of teaching that if a person believes on Christ but doesn't pray a prayer, they're not saved.
Look, you'll never catch me saying that anyone that believes on Christ isn't saved. Because the Bible says that "whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish but have eternal life." There are no exceptions to that. If a person truly believes on Christ, not believing on their own works, but truly believes on Jesus Christ as their only way to Heaven, they are saved no exceptions. Period. You'll never catch me saying anything other than that, but I will say this though, the doctrine of calling upon the name of the Lord is a biblical doctrine, all throughout the Old Testament and New Testament, and what it is, is it's the outward expression of the belief of the heart.
The person confessing with their mouth, and of course it says in Romans 10:9 that "if thou shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." It follows that up with "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call upon Him whom they have not believed." I'm not going to go through all the ... I've done whole sermons on calling upon the name of the Lord, all the way back to Genesis 4, it says "in the days of Adam, Seth, and Enos then began man to call upon the name of the Lord." Abraham called upon the name of the Lord, Isaac called upon the name of the Lord, David called upon the name of the Lord for salvation.
It's all in there, it's all biblical. A lot of people with a strange Calvinist type doctrine, and we're not Calvinists here at all, a lot of people with this strange Calvinist doctrine will say that calling upon the name of the Lord is works. Good night, it's so bizarre. Jesus said "if thou knewest the gift of God, thou wouldest have asked of Him and He would have given thee living water." So, if you ask for a gift, that doesn't mean you worked for it, you just asked for it and God gave it to you. Look, if I walked up to you and said "hey Charlie, give me that Bible as a gift, give me that Bible as a gift," and he gives me his gift, was that a free gift? Did I pay for that? Did I earn that, did I work ... no.
So, to say that asking for it is working for it is bizarre. Not only that, the Bible says "if ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" So it's still a gift, even if you asked for it. What's the purpose of asking for it? It's just to solidify the deal and to just tell God that that's what you believe, and to just ask Him to save you so that you can know for sure that you're saved. You just ... okay I've seen all the facts, I believe it, now I'm going to act upon that by calling out to the Lord and just asking Him to save me.
Now, you'll run into some people where somebody gave them the gospel, and didn't close the deal, they did not finish the third point, and what happens is, they gave them all the gospel, they gave them all the scriptures, and they believed it, and they went away and they thought about it, and obviously they're talking to God. My belief is that the only reason a person would never talk to God is if they don't believe He exists. Any person who believes that God exists is probably going to call out to Him at some point in life and talk to Him.
Even atheists, I talked to an atheist who had later gotten saved, he said even when he was an atheist he would talk to God and say "God, I don't know if you're out there, but if you are..." you know. I've talked to people who heard the gospel, they believed it when it was shown to them, and then basically over time they thought about it, they prayed, they talked to the Lord about it, but here's the thing, then they're like ... obviously they're saved because they believe the gospel, but they had trouble pinpointing when they got saved. Because of the fact that they didn't call upon Him right then and there, so then it was later on, and they just ... it created in them doubts about their salvation, like did I believe it enough?
The question is, how much do you have to believe it? Here's what I say, believe it enough to say it with your mouth. If you say it and you mean it, that's enough. Jesus said to a guy one time who came to him about getting his son healed, he said "if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." And do you know what he told Jesus? "Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief." Did you get that? "Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief." So did this guy have just a ton of faith? No, but he put his faith in Jesus. He had enough to just say "I'm trusting you, Jesus." You know what, Jesus did heal him, he healed the son. So that's a great example of just a guy ... you know he didn't have much faith, but he was willing to put it all on Jesus.
So you can't have some of your faith in Buddha and Jesus, you can't have some of your faith in your works and Jesus, you got to put it all on Jesus, even if it's a tiny faith, put it all on Jesus and confessing it with your mouth, it shows you and God and the person that you're talking to, that you believe it. It's just an outward expression of the faith that's in your heart. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." It forces people to make a decision right then and there, because sometimes you'll go through the whole gospel, everybody's nodding their head, agreeing with you and then it's like okay well let's pray right now and you can tell God and ask him to save you. "Oh, no thanks I'm good, I go to church, I live a good life." It shows that they were just kind of agreeing with you and going along with you.
The prayer kind of weeds people ... that's why I insist that when you go soul winning for Faithful Word Baptist Church, that you pray with people when you give them the gospel. You can sit there and say "well theoretically, can people get saved ..." you know what, I could actually, I could put on my pants every morning with a pair of pliers, but is that the best way to put on my pants? Is that the most effective way to put on a pair of pants, to use a pair of pliers, to do it? No. So this idea that says "well is it possible?" You know a lot of things are possible, buddy. Okay? But is it the best way to do it? What's a scriptural way to do it, the best way to do it is for people to hear the word of God, believe the word of God, and call upon the name of the Lord. That's what Romans 10 teaches is a best case scenario.
Yeah, you could go to Acts 8, where he didn't really pray it to the Lord, he just said it to Phillip, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Obviously that guy got saved, he confessed with his mouth in a little different way, but the best way to do it, is to just have them tell God and call upon the Lord right there. It just makes it so much clearer to everyone, and there's not any doubt about it, for them. It's good for them too.
So how do you do that? Let's work on this third point, this is the closing, this is it, we're done. We've already knocked the door, we've already gotten into the conversation, we've already given the people a whole plan of salvation from scripture. Now, where do we go next, how do we land the plane, how do we seal this thing and make sure? Here's what I do, number one I review the points quickly by asking them a series of questions to verify that they've understood what I said. These are the questions I ask: do you believe that you've sinned? They say yes. Do you believe that according to the Bible we all deserve to go to Hell, according to scripture, because of our sins? Yes. Do you believe that Jesus died on the cross for all your sins, was buried and rose again? Yes.
Then I like to say this, "what do you personally think that a person has to do to be saved?" By wording it that way, "so what do you personally ..." then they'll be like "well, I personally think that they have to go to church, get baptized ..." you know what that tells me? Everything I just told them for the last 10 to 15 minutes just went over their head, and I say to them "well, you know what, that's not what the Bible says." I show them a few more supporting scriptures, I shake their hand, say "hey God bless you, have a great day, but you know you didn't get it, hopefully you'll get it next time."
By wording it that way, because you don't want to just feed everybody all the right answers, because some people are just really agreeable. "Yeah just believe right? Just believe, yeah okay pray with me." It's better to just ask "what do you think?" Now you don't want to make it hard for people to get saved, but you don't want to just feed them every answer. Now, throughout giving them the gospel, feeding them the answers is great, but what's the purpose of the closing? To actually see if they really got it. So at this point we don't want to feed them the answer, we want to ask them "do you believe you've sinned, do you believe that Hell is the punishment for our sins, do you believe that Jesus died on the cross, was buried and rose again for your sins, and what do you personally believe that a person has to do to be saved?"
At this point they should say "you just have to believe on Christ, it's all faith, nothing more." That's the answer you're looking for, then I say to them "do you think it's possible to lose your salvation for any reason after you've been saved?" No. So those five questions tell me that this person has understood, and they're saying "I in my heart believe what you've shown me from the Bible is correct." So that gives me confidence, now that I've asked those five questions.
Now at this point you might want to, depending on the situation, gently and I say gently, explain to them that when you first got there, why they didn't know for sure when you first got there. I say gently because I've seen some people kind of badger people at this point, they say like "well, when I got here you said something totally different. When I got here you said it was works, you said it was ..." You're putting people on the defensive, because you've just shown them how wrong that is, and they're like "yeah, that's what you thought."
It comes across as offensive, instead of ... or you know okay, this is another bad idea. Another bad idea is to say "okay, why did you not know when we got here?" It's just like what in the world? But I've seen all this stuff, okay. Here's the best way, and I personally, I don't even think this is necessary, you know you don't have to do this, because honestly just because a person ... I don't think a person has to admit, or say "hey, when I got here I was wrong." You know that's true, you know that when you got there that they were wrong and that they're right now because they've learned it.
Here's the thing, I like to just gently explain to them why, and I've done this literally, listen to me now, I've done this hundreds of times, this is the best way to do it. I've done it hundreds of times, and I've watched other people do it other ways and confuse, and basically just cause division and cause animosity. The way that I do it is to say to them "now when I got here, you said that you weren't a hundred percent sure that you were going to Heaven, and here's why you thought that." I don't ask them, I already know why. So I just say to them, "you know when I first got here, you said you didn't really know for sure that you were on your way to Heaven, here's why, because you thought I've done good, I've done bad, I don't know if I've done enough."
Whenever I do that with people, you know what they always do? Nine times out of ten, ninety nine times out of a hundred, they nod their head and say "yeah, that is what I thought." Because I do it in a friendly way, not a badgering, adversarial way. I just say "now when I first got here, you said you weren't a hundred percent sure you were going to Heaven and I think it's because you thought I've done good, I've done bad, and you weren't really a hundred percent sure that you're good enough to make it." Usually they're nodding their head, and then I say "but now you see that that has nothing to do with it, it's whether or not you believe on Christ." That's the best way to just gently show them that something has changed in their belief, if you feel that that's necessary.
Then I say this "before I go, I want to help you pray right now, and just tell God that that's what you believe, so that you can know for sure that you're on your way to Heaven. I just want to pray with you right now, just help you tell God that's what you believe, and just call upon Him to save you right now. Just ask him to save you right now. You can just repeat after me." Now, I do not ask them "would you like to pray and ask Jesus to save you?" Well why not ask them? Because here's the thing, I've already determined that they believe and understand everything, they just need to do it. You understand what I'm saying? If you ask people "so, do you want to pray?" A lot of people are just intimidated by prayer, they think that they have to compose some big prayer, you know "our Father, which art in Heaven, hallow be thy name ..."
A lot of people don't know much about prayer, they don't really know what that entails, so I don't ask them "hey, do you want to pray?" It's a done question, you already showed them everything, they already said they believe it, at this point just say "let's do it." I mean look, the Bible says, "others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the ..." The Bible says "compel them to come in," talking about into the Father's house in Heaven. The Bible says "almost thou persuadist me to be a Christian." Look, we should be aggressive about this part, now look, we don't want to walk people through something that they don't believe in. Because then we're just going around praying prayers with people and wasting our time.
We already asked them the question ... we've thoroughly given them the gospel, then we ask them questions saying "what do you personally believe?" They've given the right answers, we've taught them everything, they've agreed to it, they believe it, it's their personal belief, at this point let's just pray and do it. You want to just help people do it. Then I say "you can repeat after me" because then that alleviates any fear that they're going to have to come up with ... and look there's a trendy thing now amongst Fundamental Baptists of like, "make em' word their own prayer, MAKE THEM WORD THEIR OWN PRAYER." Yeah, okay, why? Give me one good reason, shut up. You know if you gave the gospel thoroughly, and asked the questions and verified that they understood it, you don't need to make sure ... you've already made sure.
Making them compose their own prayer, putting them on the spot, making them uncomfortable, there's no point, you know? And being like "oh no repeat after me, oh no you're Catholic." Look, this has nothing to do with being Catholic, there's nothing wrong with helping somebody pray and having them repeat after you, if they believe it, if they're saying it and they believe it. So what? Guess what, is it the prayer that saves, or is it faith that saves? So the prayer is not where the emphasis is. Whenever I ask people that I won to the Lord, how do you know you're going to Heaven? They never say because I prayed a prayer. They always say because I believe on Jesus. The prayer is not the emphasis. I like the prayer, the prayer is important, the prayer is biblical, calling upon the name of the Lord is biblical, but I'm not going to sit there and make it all about the prayer, and you got to word your own prayer, it doesn't matter what words they use.
"Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom." That got the thief on the cross into Heaven, the publican who prayed and asked for salvation said "Lord be merciful to me, a sinner." Those are very different prayers, "Lord be merciful to me, a sinner" "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom." It doesn't matter the exact words. I like to just lead people in prayer, because then they're not nervous or intimidated. I'm trying to make it easy, for ... oh easy ... yes easy believism. What do you believe in, hard believism? Hard repentism? Look, believing is easy. You know what the hard part was? Dying on the cross. You know what the hard part was? Living a perfect life for 33 years, being tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. You want to know what the hard part was? Rising from the dead. You know, believing isn't the hard part.
Thank God for his unspeakable gift, okay? So, I don't ask them, I just say "hey, before I go, I'd like to help you pray right now and just tell God that's what you believe, and just ask Him to save you right now, and you can just repeat after me, let's go ahead and pray right now." Usually, again the vast majority of people that I'm talking to are nodding their heads saying "yeah, let's do it." They understood, they want to do it, and then I lead them in a prayer, and the prayer again, it's not important, it doesn't have to be a big, long complicated prayer. It can be something like "dear Jesus, I know I'm a sinner, I know I deserve Hell, I believe you died for me and rose again, please save me, give me eternal life, I'm only trusting you Jesus, Amen." Or it could even be simpler than that, just "dear Jesus, I believe the gospel, save me now, Amen." I mean, it doesn't have to be anything fancy, it can be anything, okay but that's just some samples.
Now, before I end the sermon, let me just cover some special situations, because what we've gone over so far is the basic plan. This morning and tonight was just the basic plan of how to win somebody to Christ, I gave you the backbone, about 12 verses, a bunch of auxiliary verses you could bring in, the four main points, how to get the conversation started, how to end the conversation.
By the way, when they're done praying what do you say next? You know what I say? I say, "you meant that didn't you? Well according to the Bible, you're on your way to Heaven, congratulations because you believe that." I shake their hand, I tell them about the church, I give them a Bible, we have those Bibles in the back; they're pretty good Bibles that we give out for free. Give them a New Testament, give them a Bible, I talk to them about Bible reading, I try to talk to them into coming to church, set them up on a Bible. And when you give them a Bible, show them where to start reading and give them a plan. I like to show them, "Hey, read the book of John or whatever." And if it's a small child or something, I will start them on Mark, just because there's a lot of Bible stories in the book of Mark. "Hey, read the book of Mark," because it's exciting.
Wherever you start them, you can give them a little disciple-ship, that's not really in the scope of this sermon, but give them a Bible, give them a sermon-preaching CD, give them a DVD, one of our DVDs, whatever you want to give them to help them grow. Let me say this, some people that are of false religions, that have really been taught and ingrained with false doctrine, you might have to go a little beyond what I just taught you this morning and night. First of all, let me reiterate what I said this morning though, the same gospel works for everybody, because let me tell you something, that the Muslims, Mormons, Catholics, Jews, and everybody else that's on their way to Hell all have in common. They all believe that you have to work your way to Heaven, and they all believe that you can lose your salvation. True or false?
Do the Catholics believe you work your way? Do they believe you can lose it? Mormons? Jehovah's Witnesses? Go down ... Muslims? Here's the thing, what I just showed you is applicable to all of them. It's the best way to give the gospel. You'll eventually personalize it and tweak it to your own methods but listen, that gospel plan, you don't have to just get out a whole new gospel plan when you run into a Jew. Now, a lot of people will say this, "well, the Jews they only believe the Old Testament, so use the Old Testament." They don't believe the Old Testament. Jesus said "if you believe Moses, you believe me." They don't even claim to believe the Old Testament. Let me say it again, Jews only claim to believe that the first five books of the Bible are the word of God, that's it. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Jesus said "you're lying, because if you believe Moses, you believe me."
"You're of your father the devil." We were out soul winning recently, was it you Quinn? Quinn and I were out soul winning recently, I think Wednesday or something, and we're out soul winning, and we knock on the door of a guy and this Jew says "well, you know we're the original you know, because they said we believe in the Old Testament, the New Testament came out later." I said "no." He's like, and we're trying to be nice to him but the guy is just like, "that's a yes or no question" and I said okay, well the answer is "no" because I said "you don't believe the Old Testament, you guys follow the Talmud, all of your teachings come from the Talmud." I said, "your rabbi has never even read the Old Testament cover to cover." I said, "you believe the Talmud and the Talmud was written after the New Testament, so ours goes back further than yours."
Then he called us skinheads and neo-Nazis, I mean it's just ... that is you know anti Semitic, anti Semitic, see anytime you expose the errors of Judaism, the ... look, forget errors ... the lies, the satanic lies of Judaism, whenever you expose the satanic, devilish lies of Judaism, you know what you're accused of? Being racist. News flash, Judaism is not a race. Neither is homosexuality by the way, okay? Judaism is not a race, Judaism is a religion! People who are Jews today, are not a race, because all throughout history, all kinds of strangers and mixed multitude have gotten circumcised and joined the nation of Israel all throughout history, and so Jews are of all nationalities.
They'll try to get you to believe "oh we all descend from Abraham." Oh, bologna. There's so much mixture in there of just all different strangers who've come in, even in the days of Esther, many became Jews. Even when they left Egypt, a mixed multitude followed them, that was all circumcised and join the multitude. Okay, even when Abraham and Ishmael, the first men in the whole Bible got circumcised, guess who else got circumcised besides Abraham and Ishmael? All of his servants, 316 men all got circumcised too. Okay, were they all Jews? No, Abraham wasn't even a Jew because Jews are descendants of Judah and Benjamin from that Southern Kingdom, Judah, Benjamin and Levi.
The point is that, what is the point? Jews don't believe the Old Testament, so go to Romans 3:23. Because they're not going to believe Romans 3:23 any more or less than if you try to go through some elaborate Old Testament, "hey let's go to Ecclesiastes to show you you're a sinner." Because in Ecclesiastes it says "there's not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not." They're not going to believe it anymore from Ecclesiastes than they will from Romans 3:23, so you might as well go to Romans 3:23 because that's where you have the map in your Bible.
So you got to get off this idea that every religion needs a totally different gospel. Let me say this though, there are some religions where there is some specialization that needs to take place. Here's what I like to emphasize, that I like to do that at the end of the gospel, not at the beginning, at the end. Here's why I do it at the end, I don't want to just right out of the gate attack their religion, because then you're putting them on the defensive.
So if I'm there with a Mormon, the first thing I do isn't I whip out a quote from Brigham Young talking about how there's gods on other planets. That's not the first thing I do with the Mormon ... because that's just going to make him defensive. Some girl cussed me out when I was speaking at South Mountain Community College about a week ago, because I pulled out the Brigham Young quote, because I was teaching a class, I didn't even know she was Mormon, she started screaming and cussing and the teacher's like Googling it and putting it on the powerpoint saying "this is what Brigham Young said, why are you so mad?" "We don't believe that!" It's like well, is this your prophet? Because they do believe that, they believe that people live on other planets.
You don't want to just attack people right out of the gate, what's the power of God unto salvation? Proving to them that they believe in false gods? No. What's the power of God's salvation? The gospel. So start by giving the gospel because that's where the power is, okay? Give them the whole plan of salvation, and if you give them the whole plan of salvation, hopefully the Holy Ghost power has already been working in them as you've been preaching to them, and they're going to be more receptive to hearing what's wrong with their religion.
If somebody is just a run of the mill non-denom Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentacostal, whatever. It's not necessary ... or even an unsaved Baptist ... it's not necessary because you've already gone through all the points that would be applicable for them. Here's the thing, when you're dealing with Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses, there's kind of something else that you need to cover, because Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses are denying the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Jehovah's Witnesses are saying "hey, Jesus is not God, he's a created being." The Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Jesus is Michael the archangel. Well, that's another Jesus. When you're believing in Michael the archangel, and that he's not God. Jesus said "if you do not believe that I am he, you shall die in your sins."
The Mormons, they believe that there are billions of gods. You've got to confront them with that. Because if they're going to still walk away, and still believe in billions of gods and Jesus isn't the only one, and everything, you know what? They're not saved. They can't .... you can't believe all that crazy stuff and claim to be believing in the Jesus of the Bible. Mormonism has another Jesus. The Jehovah's Witnesses have another Jesus, and the Bible warns us in Second Corinthians 11, of someone who will come to you preaching another Jesus. Just because his name is Jesus, doesn't make him the Jesus of the Bible. So when I'm dealing with a Mormon or Jehovah's Witness at the end, meaning, after I've covered the eternal security point, but before the review, I add an additional point and I say this, I say "now look, I know you're a Jehovah's Witness, and I know you guys don't believe that Jesus is God, I know you guys believe that Jesus is a created being, that he's Michael the archangel, can I just show you a couple verses real quick, on the fact that Jesus is God.
I say to them this, I say "if I show you in the Bible, where it flat out says that Jesus is God, would you believe it if you saw it in the Bible?" I've had a lot of Jehovah's Witnesses say "if I see it in the Bible, I'll believe it" and I say "let me show you four places." I show them four places, and I've had Jehovah's Witnesses get saved. Many times. Because you just say to them "if I could show you in Bible, will you believe it?" If they say yes, you show them. If they will confess at that point that Jesus Christ is God, contrary to the cult that they've been in, and I don't call it a cult to them, but I tell them it's false. I tell them that Jehovah's Witnesses have taught you a false doctrine, and that Jesus is not God, let me show you from the Bible. Then I'll take them through the review and pray with them. I'm not going to pray with them if they're going to keep on believing this nonsense.
I don't believe you can be saved and believe in this other Jesus, that's Michael the archangel, that's a created being. Similar to what the Mormons believe too by the way. Here are some verses, and again, you can write these down if you like. I take them to Hebrews 1:8, I take them to Second Timothy 3:16, I'll take them to ... oh I'm sorry First Timothy 3:16, so I'll take them to Hebrews 1:8, First Timothy 3:16, I'll take them to Mark 10, where it says "there's none that doeth good but one and that's God." A lot of times I like to take them to Isaiah 9:6, because the new world translation of the Jehovah's Witness Bible, it changes a lot of the proofs of the deity of Christ.
In Isaiah 9:6 it's not been changed yet. So, in Isaiah 9:6 it says "unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, his name shall be called the mighty God, the everlasting Father." So, you can take them to John 1:1, you can take them to First John 5:7, show them the trinity. You can take them wherever you want, but you need to deal with that, when you're dealing with Jehovah's Witnesses. Now, if I'm dealing with Mormons, basically I show them the fact that there's only one God. I take them to Isaiah 43 verse 10-11, show them that there is no other gods on other planets and everything, you've got to deal with it and you've got to show them. Now, here's the thing, those are pretty much the only ones that have that special scenario of the deity of Christ. Because usually it's going to be Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses that are really ... you really got to deal with them the deity of Christ.
Let me also say a word about Catholics, because you're going to talk ... if you go out door to door soul winning in this area, you're going to run into a lot of Catholics, and let me tell you something, Catholics are usually pretty receptive to the gospel. Catholics are a pretty good mission field, I mean they are pretty ... my wife was raised Catholic ... who here was raised Catholic before you got saved. Look around the building, keep your hand up high, look around. Catholics are often a very receptive mission field, they're very receptive to the gospel, and we run into a lot of them around here, so I want to say a word about Catholics.
Again, I don't start out by attacking Catholicism, give the gospel first, but here's how I end it with a Catholic, a little special ending for Catholics. I say this, "now look, you mentioned that you were Catholic, the Catholic Church teaches something different than what I just explained to you, the Catholic Church actually teaches that in order to be saved you do have to be baptized, you do have to go to church, you do have to confess your sins to the priest, and you have to do good deeds to be saved." Usually, they'll be nodding their head, "yeah, that's right." I always say to them, "but the Bible says, that it's by faith alone, which one do you believe?" Now, isn't that ... I mean that's it. So, you're not badgering them, you're not being rude, you're not being adversarial, but you're getting them to choose.
You know what? They need to choose. The reason I tag on the special ending for Catholics is because some Catholics have this attitude of just ... they just kind of believe whatever they're hearing right now, and then they'll just like, repeat any prayer. Remember these are people that just go around just repeating prayers all the time. To saints, Hail Mary, Our Father, mindlessly repeating. So we don't want this to just be another mindless repetition, we don't want them to just "yep, yep, yep." It's just a good way to make sure that they're understanding the difference. Without being rude or adversarial, I just say to them "look, the Catholic Church teaches that it's x, y and z. I just showed you from the Bible it's faith, which one do you believe?"
The vast majority of time, if I've gone through it thoroughly and they've been with me up to this point, they're going to say "I believe what the Bible says." At that point I say, "okay, let's pray." I don't need to expose to them every single error of the Catholic Church. "Let's go into Mary worship, let's go into calling the priest Father, let's go into why he needs to put on a pair of pants, let's go into ..." I'm not going to sit there and go through everything that's wrong, it's not necessary, if they've understood everything about the gospel, and they're willing to admit Bible right, Catholic wrong, on the gospel, that's enough.
I just say that simple question, "which one do you believe?" If they say "I believe the Bible" great, "let's pray I'm going to help you right now, tell God that's what you believe and just pray and ask Jesus to save you right now." If they say "well I'm going with my Catholic religion" well there you go, you have your answer, God bless you, have a good day, thanks for listening, take it easy. You know what? If they're going to hang onto that, "no I still think you have to do it" well, they can't be saved unless they stop believing that stuff.
I hope that it's been clear tonight, again, the only ones I tag on a special ending ... the Jews don't get a special ending, atheists don't get a special ... the only people I tack on a special ending for is like Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Roman Catholics. Other than that, it's pretty standard. One other question that people have asked me is, how do you deal with an atheist? I've seen people get real intimidated by an atheist. They knock the door and somebody's like "well, I'm an atheist" and then they don't know what to do, "okay have a good day, see you later." I've been soul winning with people who did that. Where it's just like "oh, you're atheist? All right, see you later."
Here's what I do with them, I just say to them "can I just take 5 or 10 minutes and show you what the Bible says about how to go to Heaven, and then you can decide whether or not you believe it." Remember these atheists, they think they're so smart, they're so intellectual and they're so open-minded and they're ... so by saying like "hey, I'm just going to show it to you and then you can decide whether you believe it or not" then they're like "yeah, you know I'm going to decide whether I believe it or not." At least it gets them to listen, that's what I say to atheists. Other than that, the gospel's the same, and I have one atheist to Christ, they can be saved. I don't need some special ... and by the way I don't whip out the fossil record, with an atheist. I don't whip out a Kent Hovind Creation Seminar, and say "hey, let's sit down and watch this together."
Here's the thing, the power of ... and I'm not against Kent Hovind's Creation Seminar, I think it's really interesting stuff, I think it's educational, but let me say this, the gospel saves. Not science. Science does not save, the gospel saves, and what's the gospel? The death and resurrection of Christ. I'm not going to sit there and go into young earth theory, now here's the thing, if I give somebody the gospel, and I'm done giving them the gospel, and then they say "well I believe in all this Big Bang, and Star Trek ..." then I tell them ... then I might argue that point with them a little bit. After I've given them the gospel.
Honestly, that's not going to save anybody, and look can I just explain something to you? People were going to Hell for thousands of years before evolution was ever invented. You talk to some of these creationists, and of course we believe in six day literal creation, we believe in young earth, we believe the earth is about 6,300 years old. We don't believe in millions of years. You talk to these people who are really into creationism and it's like they believe, it's almost like they think that like everybody would be saved if it weren't for evolution. Why did people go to Hell for like 6,000 years before Darwin was even born? Because that's not the biggest issue, that's not the biggest hangup that people have.
Most people I talk to on the streets, they already believe in some God. They believe something is out there. The minority believes in the Big Bang and evolution. Who agrees with that, if you've been out somewhere and you say "hey, most people don't believe Big Bang." Now if you're on the ASU campus? Devil State University? Satan U? Then they're going to believe that stuff, but Joe Plumber doesn't believe that. So I hope that this has helped you, I hope you're inspired to go soul winning, I hope you're going to give the gospel to your friends and family. We'll have a word of prayer, Father thank you so much Lord, for a great church, that's a great soul winning church Lord, and for people that came this morning and heard the teachings, came back tonight to finish it out Lord. Please help these teachings to bear fruit, and that people would give the gospel and see people saved Lord. Please just help every single person to be thoroughly furnished unto all good works, and ready to preach the gospel. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
