Can you hear me now? Sounds good to me. On the screen, it will say lecture number one because the first one that was last Sunday night was our introduction to what we're doing. So now we're going to get into the message and the bad part of the message. When I was 22 years old, I remember it well. I was a student at Florida Bible College. I'd gone down with a busload of teenagers from Chattanooga, Tennessee, and I watched everybody at the camp there at Boca Raton, Bibletown, USA. And while I was there, I met a man by the name of Hank Lindstrom, and met somebody named Ray Stanford, who was the president of the college. By the time I finished that week, I decided I was not going back to Tennessee Temple. I was going to get my wife up in Georgia and was going to head down to Florida Bible College. I didn't know that there was no college. It was a church on the side of a road and not a big church, but they were doing a big work. And everybody there was copyable and copying the man named Ray Stanford. When I first took the class, personal evangelism, he was gonna tell us how to win souls. Well, I was a little bit of a smart upstart and I had my way and he had his way. And I thought he can do it his way and I will do it my way. He says, everybody has to learn the seven steps and you have to do the wallet illustration. Then they just call it hand gesture, but that doesn't seem to be too good of a phrase to use anymore, so we call it a wallet illustration, or a cell phone illustration, or anything you can get out of your purse for the women. See, what can a woman use? Anything in her purse can be sin. But anyway, moving right along. I sat there in the class, and he was gonna have different students come up, and they had to do the seven steps in order and the verse that goes with them, and then do the wallet illustration. I thought, I'll learn the steps and I'll learn the verses, but I'm not doing that wallet illustration. I didn't want anybody calling me a Stanfordite. I'm a Yankee-ite. Well, anyway, it was getting close to my turn. But I didn't get to do it that day. I was going to get to do it the next day. So I was a little reprieved there. The next morning, I'm on my way to school. I saw this kid on the side of the road, and he was hitchhiking. So I pulled my car over. He got in. I thought, I got me a victim. Now all I got to do is just give him the gospel. He's going to get saved and on my way. So I sat there, and I tried to explain the gospel to him. And I told him my typical Romans road. And he just looked at me and looked down the road. I wasn't getting anywhere. I mean, he wasn't following me at all. So it's one thing to get the gospel out, another thing to get it across where the person understands what you're saying. I don't know if he was following me at all. I didn't know then you're supposed to ask him questions and things like that, see if they're following you. All I knew is that I was frustrated because I just knew my way would work, but my way wasn't working. I pulled over the side of the road. I says, can I show you something? He said, sure. I pulled out my wallet, and I said, now let this hand represent you and me, and my wallet represents, and I went through it, and he watched, and he followed everything that I said. I said, does that make sense? He says, it sure does. I said, will you trust Christ? He said, yes, I will. I said, where are you going to go? He said, I'm going to heaven. I said, how do you know? He said, you just explained it to me. Anyway, I got to the college, it was my turn. I saw the advantages of doing it. Ray Stanford's way. So it was a better method than what I had used. So I decided if I'm going to do this, I want to be as good at it as I can be, because I can see that it is superior to just, you know, talking about certain things and then hoping that they caught something. There was a There was a plan to this thing. There's a story to tell, not just a one-line statement. So I decided I'm going to learn how to do the wallet illustration. And it wasn't just, you know, take out my wallet and we're sinners and Christ paid our sins. Now believe. And I've seen a lot of people, they don't explain it. Who is this? They don't even tell you who this is. They don't even explain that this is sin. And what's the problem? They think there's some magic in throwing the wallet from one hand to the other hand. I remember Ray Stanford would always take his wallet and he'd throw it over there in that hand. He'd throw it and catch it every time. I tried it one time and that wallet went flying. Everything came out of my wallet. I said, I ain't doing that no more. So now I put it there in my hand. And I try to tell the kids now, whenever you're going to do it, look at what you're doing. You don't say, let this hand represent you and me. See, that don't look too good. You want to look at what you're doing. You don't say, let this hand represent you and me and the wallet represents sin. See, there's certain things that people look at what you're looking at. I used to go on bus routes, knock on doors. And I would lean back a little bit, and I taught the people who knocked on doors to get kids to ride their bus. I said, just go up to the door, and you automatically say, my name is Ralph Arnold. I'm the bus captain in this area and I want to Be able to take your children on our bus and we'll come by here and pick him up and take him to church Would you like to have your children come and ride on our bus to Sunday school? And I watched this one lady and she started Why yes, yes, you sure can and then she stops. What am I saying? I don't even have any kids but I was influencing her by the way, I looked and act and what I said, so I You've got to be on the positive side, because there's some do's and don'ts about explaining the gospel. And so it's good to, if you're going to learn how to do it, do it good. Now, you may not always use the wallet. I've led a lot of people to the Lord. I don't use the wallet illustration. But the points in the story, I try to tell it. Sometimes you can kind of round it off and just hit certain parts because you know that they already know this or they know that. And so you find out where they are. And so a good soul winner is a good listener. Learn to listen. And you'll find out where's a good place to, you know, jump out of that conversation into the gospel. And so you learn how to open the conversation, the content, and how to close. And so if you're going to cast a net to catch fish, draw the net. See if whether or not that what you say, that it makes sense. Did you get it across? Do they understand? So whenever you're explaining things to them, always keep asking them simple little questions. You know what I mean? You understand what I'm saying? And if you're going to use terms, define your terms. And it's one of the best ways of doing it. And I will show you what I do. And the way I believe that I do it is a good way. But if you find a better way, then just do it. You find a better illustration. We didn't use it. After all these years, I haven't found a better one yet. So I've been using the same one for over 60 years. And so every time I preach, I travel on the road, I always use the wallet illustration. Now there's people now, and there's preachers even, they're using the wallet illustration because they saw it made a difference. Last year, I preached in a church. down in Texas, and the guy was a, he was free grace. He believed just like we believe on salvation, but he would not give the gospel, but he didn't mess it up. When he did, it was clear sometimes, but he didn't always do it. So I was asked to go down and I was to preach at this funeral that he would have in his church. So when I was preaching at the funeral, I explained the gospel, did the wallet illustration, gave an invitation, had about 15, trust Christ as Savior. He's sitting there, and it blew his mind. So that Sunday, I was to preach at his church. So, you know everybody's saved in this church. Well, I gave the gospel, and he was sitting over there. When I gave the invitation that if you understand what I've said and you will trust Christ as your Savior right now Because you believe he died on the cross and paid for your sins would you just let me know by an uplifted hand and Hand after hand went up and he jumped up and he looked around he couldn't believe those people in his church We're trusting Christ to save because see he would cast the net but he never drove through the net in didn't try to catch the fish and So I had about 30 something people trusted Christ as Savior that weekend at a funeral and also in his church. So there's a lot of places that are not making the gospel clear. Sometimes I don't think they really understand how to make it simple, how to make it clear. I wish I could get all the preachers together in a room and teach them soul winning. so they'd understand, because there's a good way to do it and to make it clear. But anyway, as we go through this, now get this, in leading a person to the Lord, please remember that this person needs to understand the plan of salvation, nothing else until after he's saved. Don't talk to a person about how to get saved, I mean, how to live for the Lord, things you ought to do and not to do and things like that. That's how he's living has nothing to do with the gospel. Just preach the gospel. And you'll find out that you don't have as many questions about getting into debates with people if you explain it to them very clearly up front. And tell them what it is because it's so easy to get into arguments with people. Like we had this one student that came to Ranch, they were coming to college, but every time they'd go to Ranch, On, you know, next day in chapel, they always raise their hand and everybody's giving testimonies and says, I like to know how come every time I talk to men, they always want to argue. And so we were taught, don't try to argue with people. You want to win the soul, not win an argument. So try to eliminate the argument. Don't say something, do something that automatically creates an argument. Because you don't even need to do that. Just tell them the truth about the gospel, and then they can see it, and they don't have to argue with it. I very seldom argue with anybody on the gospel. I don't have to. Now, there's times whenever I come from different religions, cults, they know enough that they can challenge you on it, and so you may have to do that. So anyway, in ranch, somebody decided to watch the person, because they said every time they witnessed to somebody, they'd always want to talk about evolution. So they watch the person, this girl, she goes up and she talks to this new person, first time they've ever been there. So she'd walk over and says, do you believe in evolution? Who was creating the problem? Well, she was. So automatically she wants to try to prove that evolution is wrong. You started the problem. I used to take and do this in ranch. I should have done it, but I did. We'd have all these kids sitting there in ranch. You know and I'm leading the singing we get through and they're sitting there And it's so easy. I'd love to tell humor jokes There were illustrations sometimes But then the kids would start laughing and then when they start laughing Well, I got to get him quiet And then I try to get him quiet And then I tell another joke and then they start laughing and I thought I got to get him quiet who was causing trouble Me Because I said something that caused them to laugh. So I had to, Ben told me one time, he said, Yankee, you're the issue. You try to get them to settle down and then you say something that gets everybody all riled up. So I had to learn there's, using a little humor here and a little humor there, but trying to use it as a ministry, not just to be a funny guy. So everybody laughs at me. Well, anyway, in 2 Corinthians 2, verse 14, the unsaved man cannot really grasp spiritual teaching because they're not born again and do not have the Holy Spirit within to teach them these things. Because the Bible says those things are spiritually discerned and they don't have the Holy Spirit to discern spiritual things. So you got to teach them what to know. That's why you gotta know the story that you're gonna tell. So this issue about the message is broken down into two parts. The bad news, then the good news. Learn them well. Learn the scriptures that goes with each one of these four points. And then the good news, the three points. So there's a lot of scriptures that you can use. You're not going to do a good job just because you know a lot of scripture and you want to dump them all on the person. It's better to use a few scriptures and explain them well than a lot of scriptures that you don't explain at all. So you can win, you can lose. The goal is to win a person to Christ. Now, one time I was up in Minnesota and I was going to witness and I had this person that, well, He was underneath the car checking the oil, and I walked up to him, been a sweet guy that I am. I says, can I ask you a question? He says, sure. I said, where are you going today? He says, to hell. I didn't like the way he answered my question. I walked off, and I thought that was smart. I almost slammed the hood down on his head. Then I realized I didn't have a very good attitude. So I walked back over, and he looked at me, and he says, I said, well, I'm going to heaven. He said, how do you know? I said, you really want to know? He said, yes, I do. I said, all right. So I explained the gospel to him while he's checking the oil, put water right here. And afterwards, I said, does it make sense? He said, yes, it does. I said, if it makes sense right now, would you trust Christ to save you? He said, yes, I will. I said, if you trust Christ right now as your Savior, God said, He'd give you what kind of life? He said, eternal life. I said, if it's eternal life, how long would it last? He said, forever. I said, if it lasts forever and all you're sent to pay, where are you going to go in your life? He said, I'm going to heaven. I said, where are you going to go in your life? He said, I'm going to heaven. I said, how do you know? He said, you just told me. I said, OK. So I went into the service station, and I was going to wait until he got through. I was going to pay. Several others were there with us, but they were looking at some car, and they weren't paying attention. I go inside the service station and there's three teenagers in there and a manager sitting there. It was late at night. I'm tired. I'm weary and worn. I didn't even want to talk about the Lord. I hate to say that. I'm tired. I've had a hard day. But anyway, I stand in there and he opened the door. He looked over and he gave me a smile. He said, did you tell him? I says, no, I didn't tell him. He said, why didn't you tell him? I says, they don't want to know. He said, yeah, they do. I said, no, they don't. This one kid said, no, what? I said, you don't want to know. He said, yeah, I do. I said, all right. Do you know where you're going to go when you die? See, you can bait them to where they want you to tell them. I mean, I know what I'm doing, but you're setting them up. Why do you set up those pins in the bowling alley? So you knock them down. So you set them up so you can knock them down. And so I explained the gospel, one, two, three, all three of them trust the Lord. I looked at the man, I said, what about you? He said, nah. Anyway, you can't get them all, but you learn to make the gospel simple. So that wherever you go, you can win people to the Lord. So it is a great thing to know the greatest thing in all the world, the knowledge on how to go to heaven. and then to be able to tell that story. See, some people can tell you they know they're going to heaven, but they don't know how to explain it. And yet it's the greatest thing in all the world because the greatest thing you can ever do for anybody is tell them how to go to heaven. There isn't anything better than going to heaven. It's the greatest news. It's a treasure in earthen vessels. That's why we do it. So there's power in the gospel. But not if you don't understand it, because it's about you believing something. So anyway, in John 16, it says this, God wants the unsaved to trust Christ as their Savior, and by the Holy Spirit will help them understand the verses on the plan of salvation. See, the Bible says, if you go, He says the Holy Spirit lives within us. And as we go, it is the Holy Spirit that helps them understand, to illuminate their mind by the message that we give. And he talks about three things that are the content of the gospel, and that is of sin, righteousness, and judgment. So those three things should always be in our message because that's what the Holy Spirit uses to enlighten a person. Let them know they're sinners, they need to be righteous, and they're going to be judged. So that way the gospel message explains that and the Holy Spirit will use that. So you are becoming a tool for God to use. But learn how to do it. If you're going to do it, do it well. It's like if you're going to do something to try to win, try to win. So wait until the person is saved before you talk to them about deeper truths, because everybody wants to impress people with their great knowledge of how deep they go down in the Bible. So they go down deep, stay down long, and come up dry. So you want to learn what the Word of God says in simplicity. Like I made the statement, it might have been this morning, but I can't remember. That was this morning. That was a long time ago. I says, the pastor is the shepherd to feed the flock. He's not a clown to entertain the goats. So you want to try to be used by the Lord to feed the flock. And he says, feed my sheep, not my giraffes. Put the food down on the bottom shelf so people can hear it and understand it. So he said, nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It's expedient for you that I go away. For if I go not away with the comforter, the Holy Spirit will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send him to you. So that's why when you trusted Christ as your Savior, God gave you the Holy Spirit. Now, the Holy Spirit was for the purpose of witnessing, not only to teach you truths from the Word of God, because he's the author of the book. So you have the author of the Bible living inside of you, and he wants to teach you this. But he said, I will go with you always. to the ends of the earth. So there's no place you can go where God doesn't go with you because he lives within you. And so when he does that, he says of sin, righteousness and judgment, that's part of the message. In other words, without God's children, the Holy Spirit is not out there within the world. Holy Spirit's not out there witnessing. There's evidences of God by the things that he's made in the creation. So God can use the word and he can use the world. But with you and I, he says, for all of us who know the Lord, go into all the world, and through us going with the message and preaching the gospel, through the gospel, he draws people to him. That's why he said, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me. But drawing is because he heard the gospel. I want God to use me to draw people to the Lord. And if I understand that, and I know that I never witness alone, Because I got the holy spirit living inside of me, but there's certain things that he can do more with If I make it simple and make it clear And I explain the things that he says to do And you'll have more people trust christ the savior and understand where they're going to die Otherwise you just simply make people religious. Just go to your church any church Just believe No, there's a story you need to tell I covered that this morning. So Let all things be done decently and in order. I believe there's a story to tell, but as you tell the story, put it in order so people can follow your thinking. You just don't throw all the stuff out there. There's a plan to this thing. So, as you explain it, be sensitive to where people are so that you can help them get to where you want them to be. First, we will cover the doctrine, then we'll cover the presentation. You can know the doctrine, and many people know the doctrine of these seven steps that we're going to talk about, but they don't know how to present it. So on each one of these, you learn how to present that truth, and it can be done so quickly, so simple, and you can do it where you can kind of flow with it. I enjoyed watching it when I did teaching in a college in Colorado, and also here. And I remember we used to have the kids lined up over here, and I had them come up on the stage here, and they had to do the wallet illustration in all seven verses in order. Trent was one of them, John John was one of them, Jesse was one of them, and there's some others that have done the same thing. But I enjoy watching it, and you think, well, that's just, that's so easy. Anybody can do that. Well, it is easy, and anybody can do it, but you ought to watch it when they get up here, and they can't even know who is this. They don't know, and they say, no, they got a saved man going to hell. They'd get all flustered. Get in front of a mirror, practice, and see if you can win yourself to the Lord. Now, you're getting good when you can win yourself to the Lord, but it's got to be simple, it's got to be clear, and you can do this. So the first doctrine is everybody's a sinner. See how simple that is? Everybody's a sinner, but you need to know the scriptures that will prove the point. Because it's based upon a doctrine, a doctrine that's taught in the Bible. So everyone's a sinner, less perfect than God. If you compare your life with that of those around you, you might feel you're a good person. And many people do. Don't try to make the person you talk to feel like a hill. You know, trying to pull them down, throw them in the mud, stomp on them, you dirty, lousy, rotten sinner. You want to win them or just, you want to murder them? You want to win them. And so there's some things that you should not do or say because it won't help you win the person. So you don't have to always try to put people down and don't try to exalt yourself as though you're so much better. You know, I used to be a sinner. Now I'm saved. Well, I got news for you. You're still a sinner. You're just a safe sinner. But anyway, you work on these things. Now, the one word, harmitano, means to miss the mark. So there's an illustration we use, there's a bullseye and shoot an arrow and it misses the bullseye. But I did one time, I did hit the bullseye. So you can't use that illustration because I did hit the bullseye. I could not find, I pulled my arrow out and I couldn't find the tip of my arrow. And that broke my little heart because I only had three arrows and I had three tips on those arrows. And so I went back and I thought, man, I wish I could not find it was in that hay somewhere. So I went back, got me another arrow and I put it in there. I pulled out that arrow and my tip was on the end of this arrow. It had gone in the same spot, pulled it out, and I got two tips on the end of that arrow. You see, that didn't happen. I got no witnesses there, but I swear to you it was the truth. Wouldn't lie to you of anything in the world. Raise my right hand. Now, so, missed the mark. So it's easy to prove to people they've missed the mark. Missed the mark of what? The mark of perfection. So when people today, if you tell a person you gotta turn from your sin, you're saying you gotta hit the mark. Cause turning, see hitting, missing the mark is harmatano, you missed the mark. Well, turning from your sin means you got to turn from missing the mark to hitting the mark. You just told the person you got to be perfect. So anyway, we'll move right along, but you don't do that. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Now you may use this, but if you're talking to a Catholic, you may not want to say too much. You know, Virgin Mary, she was a sinner. Well, you want to win them or you want to lose them? Now you know she was a sinner and she talked about God, her savior. That means that she had to believe just like everybody else did. The Pope, who's supposed to be infallible. Well, that's not true either. The Bible says that we're all sinners. Nobody is perfect. The only time I had a real problem with this was when I had this one individual. that I was witnessing to. I got on a plane, I sat down, minding my own business, and I was waiting for some victim, I mean, some person to come in so I could talk to them. And lo and behold, this year, one woman, she came in, and she had on some flowery stuff, and she was like from the Far East, and she was, you know, silky, and it was just a flow, and everywhere, the air would just hit it, and she'd come walking down the aisle. I thought, I wonder where in the world she's going to sit. Would you believe where she sat? Right beside me. I said, all right, got me a victim here. And I brought up a subject. I says, where are you from? She says, Peru. I said, you mean Peru? Yeah, Peru. Anyway, I said, what are you doing in Denver? Because I was flying down here to meet with Hank Lindstrom. So I got on the plane and she says, Peru. I said, what are you doing in? She says, Maharajah. I said, where are you going to go when you die? She says, Maharajah. Say, I go to heaven. And the only thing I knew about Maharaja was that big old fat guy that sits around contemplating his navel, but I didn't want to tell that to her, so I just let it go. And I says, how do you know you're going to go to heaven? She says, me perfect. I thought, oh boy, I've never met anybody that was perfect. And here she is. I says, you're not perfect. She said, yeah, me. I said, nobody's perfect. Yeah, me. So she was trying to explain some things. She had a little book out and she was checking certain words and saying, because she spoke two literal languages and trying to explain some things, you know, and then she wrote some things down. And then she raised some things. She writes some things down. I said, you're not perfect. She said, yeah. I said, no, you're not perfect. I said, you write. You're ready. You make a mistake, so you erase it. And right on the plane, she goes, and she screamed bloody murder. I mean, the waitresses, they come running from both directions. I thought they was going to try to tell me off the plane. I hadn't touched her. She would not talk to me the rest of the trip. But it's easy to convince somebody they're a sinner. Are you perfect? That's all you got to know. You don't go, how many sins have you done last week? Tell me what they are. Take everything out of your pocket. Let me see what you got in your pockets. I was in a rescue mission one day, and this guy was trying to convince this one man he was a sinner. He said, I don't know if I'm a sinner or not. He says, what you got in your pocket? He pulled the whole thing out of his pocket. See there? He had a Swiss blade. And he had some charred tobacco. I mean, that's proof you're a sinner. And so I thought, there's got to be a better way to do this than that. There's not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. There's not one. So you know this so that you know all of these points, clears a bell, and you know them well. And Isaiah 60.6 says that we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags. Not the worst thing, but the best. And we do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. That's why the Bible says all we like sheep have gone astray. Means you've gone your own way. That's what you've done. So presenting this is not that difficult. Admit you are. Don't try to convince them you're a sinner. Well, lo and behold, so are you. So am I. So we've all sinned. He will be willing to admit he is, an effective statement is, God says everyone is a sinner. I am, you are, we all are. And it doesn't hurt to include yourself in this. Because you don't want to approach a person as though you're going to have it by some righteousness that you have and you can look down on them. No, you don't want to do that. Because they resent that right off the bat. If you come across as a holier than thou, you're a sinner. If you happen to know that the person is very moral, compliment that, but show that he still isn't perfect in God's sight. Now, James 2, verse 10 simply makes a statement about if we keep the whole law and offend in what? One point, he's what? Guilty of all. In other words, an illustration that I use with a person, I said, if you're hanging over a cliff and there's 10 links in a chain, and you're hanging on to the last link in the chain, how many links in the chain has to break before you fall? Does it matter which one? Mashed potatoes. It doesn't matter which one. And we've all sinned. And it doesn't matter how good you have been, if you've ever broken one. How many sins did Adam and Eve have to commit to get kicked out of the garden? And God says that not even one sin, one lie can enter into heaven, wherein dwelleth righteousness. So it's not usually that difficult to convince a person that they are a sinner, but you've got to know the right things to say. But whenever you have proven a point, move on. Don't dwell on it. Try to find out just how wicked have you been. Tell me about all your sins that you've done. And some people, when they witness, they like to tell a person about all their sins. Let me tell you how bad I was. I was on drugs, and I was in jail, and I did this, and I did that. You don't need to know all of that stuff. There's no glory in bragging about all of your sinful, wicked deeds that you've had. Well, I wanted people to know that I came from the prison to the pulpit. Oh, that's great. But maybe you don't need to say it. You just need, I was a sinner. I realized I'd done things wrong. I know I'm not perfect. I heard that Christ died on that cross and paid for my sins. And so keep it simple. Because you don't have to talk so long. Most people I lead to the Lord is without about three minutes. Three minutes is all I need. And many of them I've led to the Lord in a lot less time than that. Because I've learned how to condense it down where it's more powerful. Just more words is like diluting it. It dilutes the message. It spreads it out so much and they can't find where you are. You didn't lose me. You talk too much, too much scripture, and you get sidetracked. So you have to watch that. Never act like or imply you're holy because of personal righteousness. Neither is it wise to go to the other extreme by telling them how wicked you are or how righteous you are. I have to be very careful of that because, and I'll just use it as a stricture. In my life now, so I've never sworn the cuss word in my life, never have. I've never had a drink, a strong drink. I've never smoked a cigarette, never done drugs. So if I say all of that, it's all, look at me. But then I say, look, and that doesn't make me better than anybody else. That doesn't help me get to heaven, because you're not saved by your good works. I say it so that they won't think that they got to even match what I've done, and I'm the guy that's telling you that that won't work. So don't tell them your past sins. Don't use phrases like, I used to be a sinner, but now I'm saved. It may be true, but they will think that you don't sin anymore. And you have to be careful coming across as, I'm better than you. I had a person one time tell me, you're trying to tell me I'm not good enough. I said, yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am, that's what I'm trying to tell you. You're not good enough because everybody else, you got to change it if they say that. Oh, yes, ma'am, you deserve to go to heaven. Yes, you do. No, you don't. And no one does. So an effective statement that you can use with somebody is that God cannot save a good person. Why? There aren't any. I've had people say, well, you just don't know what I've done. I had a man who came to Northside one time, and he was there to take pictures. So I decided to try to talk to him, and he had a little break. And he was taking pictures of everybody in the church, you know, and they're going to put it in a little thing. It was a good thing. So I asked him, and he says, God can't save me. He says, you don't know what I've done. And I said, no, but God does. He said, I have killed 52 men. He said, I was a Navy SEAL. I killed 52 men. And he broke down, and he started crying. He says, I have done wicked things. He said, and God cannot save me. So I enjoyed telling him, if God can save the chief, which was Paul, he can save all the Indians. And I says, you qualify, you're a sinner. And Christ died, he died for everybody, so that would have to include you. So it was a wonderful thing when he finally saw that boy, the lift of all that weight off his shoulders that he's had for years, because nobody ever told him that it doesn't matter. God still loves you and you pay for all of your sins and you can have eternal life. And so now he knows he's going to heaven. Now he may have died since then, so I'm gonna look for him when I get up to heaven. Now, when you have explained one thing, move right on to the next thing. The main thing you'll always find in the issue in the Bible is that you don't have to have all the answers, but know where the answers are. One of the things that helped Dr. Ray Stanford gain the knowledge that he had was having an open type Bible study. He would ask anybody, you can ask me any question you want on the Bible. And they'd ask question after question after question. Well, when he didn't know the answer, he said, I don't know the answer to that, but I'll get back with you next week. That way they had to come back and he'd get the answer. He'd study all week long trying to learn the answer to a question. And so he never went to Bible college, didn't go to seminary. But he had an open type Bible study and their questions straightened up his theology. Because if it's wrong and anybody can ask you any question, it puts you on the spot because you don't want to be hypocritical. You can't contradict the Bible and you can't say this is what the Bible says and in another place it contradicts it. So you got to straighten it up. And so he got super duper clear on the gospel. And I was just thrilled to death that of all the years that people can live on planet Earth, I had that opportunity to sit under this man for four years, and he taught me what I know, and it had benefited me for the rest of my life, learning how to win a person to Christ, learning what the gospel is and the truth of the gospel. So, but you have to know God has the answers And if you don't know them, you're willing to study and to find out. This is why I went to Bible college. This is why hundreds and hundreds and thousands of people have gone to Bible college so they can learn what the Bible says, because they want to be able to answer the questions and to be able to answer the questions of why you believe what you believe. Now, doctrine number two is the result and penalty of sin. And the Bible says it is the separation from God. So we know in Romans 6, 23, the wages of sin is death. The payment for sin is death. Sin is not paid for by good work, penance, church membership, water, baptism. Sin is paid for by death. You have to die. And so that's why, because we are all sinners, we're all going to die. God does not hate the sinner. Have you ever noticed when we do the wilder demonstration, no, this is you and me, and this is sin. We all have sin on us. Now God says He loves us. He hates our sin. So a lot of people think God hates them. No God loves you, but he hates your sin and that Christ Came into the world because he took your sin Because he loves you and he paid for it on the cross So you're saying that over and over again and a person here. God loves me. God loves me. God loves me. I Because many people don't know that God loves them. And how much did he love me? How did he show that he loved me? He paid for what you did wrong, and he'll give you eternal life as a gift, and you can go to heaven, and it's free. That's love. And you don't earn it, you don't work for it. That's why it's called grace. So keep the gospel clear and simple. Now, in the book of Isaiah 59, it says, God does not hate the sinner, but he hates the sin. He hates sin because it separates us from him. 2 Thessalonians, people who sin must be punished. Look at these two verses. In flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God. Salvation is knowing God. And it says, and that obey or believe not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. So to obey the gospel is what does the gospel say to do? Does the gospel say keep the Ten Commandments? Does the Bible say that the gospel says turn from all your sins, commit your life to Christ? No, the gospel says believe on Jesus Christ. So to obey the gospel is to do what it says, believe the gospel. And that's better even understood and explained in the book of Romans in chapter 10 and get a chance to you all to study those verses. But all these verses you have on your notes, what I would do I'll get your Bible and go through and underline every one of the verses you find on the sheet. Learn where they are, learn how to quote them. Memorize scripture. Sometimes you can't always have your Bible with you. But if you know the truth of those verses, there's power and knowledge. And it says in verse 9 of 2 Thessalonians in chapter 1, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. Do you really believe that people who don't know Christ are going to go to hell? You really have to believe it. If you don't really believe it, N. Ray used to always say, I don't think many of you really believe that people are going to hell. He said, because the way you live, you don't talk about the Lord. You don't talk about how you love the Lord. You don't witness about the Lord. And you don't do anything to try to win people. Maybe you don't care if they go to hell. Or maybe you don't really believe it. But then how can you be saved if you don't believe it? It's that we get sidetracked. Life is so busy. There's so many things to do. Life is so short. We want to get as much as we can. And yet the most exciting dynamic life you'll ever live is learning how to serve the Lord. That's why I tell the college to don't be bored, serve the Lord. Except for those taken in the rapture, everyone will die physically. You say, what's the rapture? Well, it's not rupture, it's rapture. We're going to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and never see death. So there is a generation living that will never die. I'd love to believe that's my generation. I'm kind of looking forward to it. It's not October yet, but anyway, we're moving right along. Everyone is born dead spiritually. We're spiritually dead, separated from God. Christ said in John 3, 7, you must be born again. Only through a new birth of the Spirit can man have eternal life. So that's why you want to explain it where they can understand it. They may not know all this stuff. They just need to know, I'm a sinner. Christ paid for it. Explain it where they can understand that. And if it makes sense, Will you right now, will you trust Christ as your savior? And if they trust Christ right now, let them know they right now have as a free gift, have everlasting life. If a person dies without Christ, his soul will be separated from God and he'll be cast into the lake of fire. This is why, because I believed this, I did everything I could to win my brother to the Lord and make sure my sisters trusted Christ and also my stepdad and my mom. And most of them are dead now, except my brother, he's still around. He's 80 years old coming up in January or February, and I'm just four years older than him, but he's right behind me all the way. But I wanted to reach my family. There's a lot of people that I wanted to reach. I didn't want them to go to hell. So I took my wife and my kids, and I'd go off to Bible school, and I didn't have a job, didn't have a place to live. I had no clue how it was going to be done. I had a reckless abandonment of faith. I don't know how God's going to do it, but I just trust that He's going to take care of it. I didn't have anything to go back to, because I didn't have anything that I came from. And so I just took God by faith that he's going to work all this stuff out. And whenever you have a wife and kids, and they just have this nasty habit of wanting to eat, and you had to put a roof over their heads, and you got to have a vehicle to drive, and you got to have clothes on the back, and there's a lot of things. I want to preach a sermon one day, not yet. I've almost got it done. My guardian angels. Preach a sermon on my guardian angels. I've had many of them put in for transfers, but I want to preach the sermon on my guardian angels. How fortunate I am to be alive. But anyway, that's another sermon. But anyway, as we're moving right along, the presentation for most people, God loves us, but he hates our sin. God loves us, but he hates our sin. And that's not very hard to do. Just let him know that and how he loves us. Doctrine number three, not only is God perfect, but the eternal heaven is also a perfect place. Have you ever noticed when we do this? God says to go to heaven, you have to be perfect. No sin. But God is perfect. Heaven is perfect. We say that for a reason. Why? Because it's the truth. And you have to be perfect to go there. And we're not perfect. So how do we get there? God says, it's a gift, free. And he can forgive you of all of your sins. If he forgave you of everything you've ever done, it means you don't have a debt to pay. If I owe the bank $10,000 and they forgive the loan, it means I don't have to pay it. If God forgives you of all of your sins, it means you don't have a debt to pay. It's paid. And when you see it and understand that, that's a wonderful message. You see why it can give such wonderful peace and joy and hope and so forth to a person, and why they say, boy, when I understood the gospel, it's like somebody took a ton of weight off of my shoulders. Because that's what it does. And you're rested in that. He said in 2 Peter 3, 18, we're in dwell of righteousness. There's no sin there. Revelation 21, 27, we tell kids to learn this verse, memorize this verse. There shall be no wise enter into it. Anything deadly followeth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. It also says, for thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with thee. That's why when we get to heaven, there will be no more evil. There'll be no more sin. There'll be no more death and heartache. So if you love heaven enough, don't you want people to go there? I can't wait to get to heaven. But when you get to heaven, you might be in tears because you think about all those people that are going to miss out on this. What about if you had a brother or sister, a mom or dad, and they didn't trust the Lord? They're going to miss out on all of that. When should you really care? When it's too late or now? That's what makes the difference of why you want to win souls now. instead of always waiting down the road. That's why I enjoy getting in a motor home and driving across the country, because I'm going to get in that church, that church, that church, that church. And if I can get them on fire, and that, and on fire, and that, and on fire, and everybody's doing streaming, and everybody's got their own Facebook, and they're putting it all over on YouTube, man, I can cover America. It's a wonderful thing, great way to live, but you've got to believe it. But anyway, God's heaven, He created it, He lives in it. He said there'll be no more tears, sorrow, pain, or death in heaven. And God has the right to say who gets to go and how you get there. Ain't that true? God says it's free. And all the preachers, they're saying you gotta earn it, you gotta deserve it, you gotta work for it. That's heresy. You have to know that and believe that or you'll give in to people who, well, they say some of the right things, but then they butt it all over the place. You want to win souls to Christ? You want them to really trust in what Christ did. In thy presence is fullness of joy, and at thy right hand pleasures for evermore. I've used that many times at funerals, but it wouldn't hurt for a person to know that ahead of time. One of these days, we're going to get this glorified body, a new body that's going to be just like the Lord's. We haven't got it yet, but it's coming. So present it. When a person sees that he's a sinner and that with his sin, he cannot enter heaven, he's usually ready for the next point. Usually a statement like heaven is a perfect place. No one, no sin can enter heaven because sin would bring death would be sufficient. We're sinners. Heaven's perfect. We can't go. You can solve so many, and you don't have to get no arguments with anybody. So once you start it, be interesting enough that they want to listen to what you're saying. If you start chasing rabbits, well, they want to chase rabbits too. And so they'll throw out a rabbit. You say, what's chasing rabbits? I knew you was going to ask that. When I used to go hunting, I was always told when a rabbit jumps up, wait till it cuts. They'll blast it, because a rabbit don't run straight and stick on it. So whenever you're talking about chasing rabbits, the person says, yeah, but what about Adam and Eve? Did Adam have a navel? Oh, boy, if I got the answer for that. And no, you try to mash it down there, and then they pop up over here. Oh, then they got to go over here and answer this question. And I says, my wife is just like an angel. She's always up in the air, nothing to wear, and harping on something. But you see, they'd say, where would we be if we were all just wonderful and no sin and so? We'd be back in the garden of Eden eating strawberries. But I still want the women to pick them for us. But anyway, heaven is a perfect place, and sin brings death. So there will be no sin in heaven. The last one is doctrine number four. There's nothing man can do to save himself. A person cannot save himself by his works, or help Christ to save him by his works, or help keep himself saved by his works, will be the most difficult thing in helping a person to trust Christ as Savior alone. Because it's so ingrained in people they got to do something. They believe there's something they have got to do and it's a free gift. So this is one of the problems, the difficult thing is getting them to see that you cannot save yourself. So here's a few verses that I would learn these verses, learn how to quote them, know where they are, mark them in your Bible. If you use your Bible and you say, see here, right here, if it's underlined and marked or highlighted, their eyes go right to it. It'll also help you to know where it is. And you get to where you're, now let me tell you this, it'll take a couple minutes. Raymond Jackson, the guy who led me to the Lord, He was asked to go to somebody's house. This woman wanted him to witness to her husband and says that now he's a bad man, he's a hard man, he gets drunk and things like that. She said, would you come and witness? So my father-in-law asked me, would you like to go with me? I said, yeah. I want to see what happens to this. Because I'd never been soul winning. I didn't know anything about this stuff. So I wanted to go with him. So we got in the car, we pulled up, I opened the door, got out. He says, get in here and sit down. I thought what was going on. I closed the door. He said, let's pray. So he prayed. The Lord opened the door, helped him to say the right things for the person to be. He prayed. And I thought, whoa, that's interesting. I never knew you did that. Got out, went inside, and then she met us at the door, and she said, oh, Mr. Jackson, I'm so sorry. He saw you sitting out here, and so he took off running out the back door. She said, but you can come on in. So he went on in and there was their daughter and another college. They were students in Athens, Atlanta, Georgia, and they were there at the house. So it didn't take long before Mr. Jackson just sat down there. And so she was sitting there and I'm sitting over here and the two girls sitting on the couch. And so he started talking to them about the Lord. He explained the gospel. He said no in John 3 16. It says and he flipped his Bible. He was on John 3 16 He said over here in first John 5 13 to flip this Bible and he was on it He never looked down, didn't have to flip another page. They were not paper clips. He just knew where it was, because he did it, and he was a good soul winner for years. And he was just Ephesians 2, 8, 9. Look there. And I said, now, I couldn't believe my father-in-law. But that's what he did. He knew the Bible. And when he got through, the one college girl, trust in Christ the Savior, The other girl that was their daughter dedicated her life back to the Lord. Mama was just weeping and crying and having a shouting time. We walked out there, I thought I was walking on cloud nine, because I had just witnessed the power of God's word. But the knowledge that a person has in the Bible, if you ever could have seen Dr. Ray Stanford's Bible, it was a thing to behold. Hank Lindstrom had a Bible just like Ray did. And he marked it all up. You had to have a roadmap. If you wanted to get around, you'd need a GPS because it was just marked all over the Bible because they knew the Bible. He used to do a Bible line. And when he would buy a Bible line, people call in, he wouldn't have to look it up. He could quote it to you. True, anybody that knew? Hank was unreal. He was just awesome individual. But these are simple verses that if you want to become effective, learn them. Ephesians 2, 8, 9, by grace are you saved, not of works. Romans 4, 5, but to him that worketh not, but believeth. Galatians 2, 16, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, not by works of righteousness which we have done. And then in Romans 3, 28, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Those are good verses. Religions, Well, you could say they're man-made. Come from two Latin words, re and legio, meaning to bind back. There's religions trying to bind you back to God by your good works. That's why we don't say that we're religious. Some people can, they can do all these things. And that's why they can recommend go to any churches that you want, it won't matter. But anyway, this is why it's so important. God's works for salvation is counterfeit, Satan's counterfeit. God's grace for salvation, He counterfeits the truth. The issue is always gonna be grace versus works. Is it free or do you have to earn it? And it is free and that's why it is a sin to try to earn your way to heaven. In closing, look up here very quickly. You and me, sin, we all have sin on us and the Bible says that God loves us, hates our sin. But the wages of sin is death, which is eternal separation from God and a literal fire burning hell. But God loves us, wants us to go to heaven, and we'd have to be perfect. Nobody's perfect. Since we've all sinned, we're all condemned, and nobody can save themselves. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He's the Lord God in the place. Came into the world because He loves us. Hates our sin because our sin separates us from Him. So Christ, who didn't have to die, took our sins and died for us in our place. And all He wanted us to do was to believe He did it for us. And when you believe He did it for you, He gives you as a free gift everlasting life. See, number six and number seven, only believe and have eternal life, that comes after you've told the story. It's not the first part, it's the second part. So that's why that is so very, very important. Study all of your notes, learn your verses, and learn them well. And I hope some of you live long enough to take the test and pass them. Let's pray, shall we? Father, we thank you so much for all you've done for us, and we thank you for each person that's here. And with heads bowed, eyes closed, if you have already trusted Christ as Savior, you know you're God's child, you're going to heaven when you die. But there's so many people that do not know this. and you need to be able to tell them. So you're equipping yourself to do the work of the ministry. But if you're here tonight, or if you're watching by internet, then why not right now if you've never done so? Say, Lord, I don't understand it all, but I believe that when Christ died, he died for me, and I will right now trust him as my savior. And by trusting him as my savior, I know I have eternal life, and I'll go to heaven when I die. Because you said eternal life was the gift of God. Thank you so much for all you've done for us, Lord. We ask your blessings upon the person here tonight and for those that will be watching this video in the days to come and years to come. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.