Calling Upon the Lord: The Key to Salvation

They want to leave left leave with regret it's all isn't it just getting up okay I've got a day go do over what am I whatever with me for the we personally real challenge in this setting class but I'm there I'll just I can't remember sign up sheet but before the apologetic starting however I just took every this class need to do is attend that class whatever reason just so we'll know we've got some so we are that's the fun this afternoon we're going to be finished and have the opportunity more Sunday I mean Wednesday and Lord's already changed time sir God didn't change times still trying to is the Lord I know what you'll see now just eye head then talked about sections why do we need to God who can save us only Jesus Jesus Christ God's about the fact the only way of saying it was man it was who was who cast on to sin by his law and be a man's law to stand man's behalf and he's the God and then was page four skip over to 50 why is Jesus because Jesus the son he died the debt demanded for let's see we talked because directed grave I didn't hit on that because I emphasize and emphasize I have I myself in when I was seminary zeal of knowledge I left direction many tracks will leave no soul winners extremely important it can't happen if you don't believe rose from the just cannot but we're on page don't know if I went over said letter E be resurrected it is the ordinance that we never leave off the Christ from present belief in his patient without the shedding of subsequent death all in rise and in first Corinthians if there be no red then is Christ be not preaching vain Also in verse 17 says your faith and ye are sin and so be absent out of yourselves it is the gift of God bottom line I mean you have to use that verse I mean I don't know how you can have a soul winning conversation and not use Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God grace and then you have the word saved there which is salvation faith I believe all three of those are gifts from God all three of them the word grace and I've given you all this information right here the Greek word is charis it means death benefit or favor God's riches at Christ expense Some people like to say that unmerited favor divine influence.

Definition number two is divine influence upon the heart and its reflection in the life.

Grace is more than just.

There's more to grace than just getting saved.

So once a person does, by the grace of God, receive Jesus as their Savior, that same grace is what will work inside of them and work out what God has done on the inside.

Expecting somebody to turn away from all their sin in order to get saved is completely unbiblical.

There is no repent of all your sin.

You won't find that in the Bible.

You might find that in some of our hymns.

But repent of all your sins in the way that many preachers mean that or people mean that is turn from all your sins.

You don't even know what all your sins are.

You can't turn from your sins in order to get saved.

Salvation is by grace through faith.

And his grace, which was bestowed upon me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all.

Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

So the grace that saved him is also the grace that worked in him to work, to work out.

So we are saved Letter A by God's grace, but then B through faith, we are saved by grace through Faith Again, Ephesians 2, verse 8 and 9, and then Romans 12:3 at the top of page 55.

For I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

God has given us that faith.

I believe that Philippians 1:29.

Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe, but also to suffer for his sake.

I am not a Calvinist.

I'm not.

I'm not even.

I used to say I'm a one point or two or three point.

But once, once I started actually studying Calvinism, I realized that if you're going to say you're one point, you have to be all, because they all work together.

They work upon each other.

And so I'm not a Calvinist, but I do believe that we.

God supplies everything that we need to get saved and he gives us the opportunity to choose.

We are a free moral agent.

We have to make the decision.

God works upon our heart.

I believe that no man comes to God except the Spirit draws him, except the Spirit of God draws the Holy Spirit's working on somebody's heart.

That's why when we're out knocking doors or when you're passing out a new.

A new move in bag, you're pretty much going to know pretty quick if God's not working on their heart.

It's pretty evident.

And to be very candid with you, and you've heard me say this already, and I don't mean to discourage you by it, but I hope actually by me saying this encourages you and you won't stop doing it.

Because the fact of the matter is, most of the time, most of those people are not feeling any kind of conviction about their sin.

They don't think about where they're going when they die.

And if the younger they are, the less they think about it, they think they're bulletproof and they got all the time in the world.

And so I hope that even by saying that, you recognize the fact that you're going to have to take a lot of those bags before you run into somebody who's going to give you the opportunity to talk to them.

And then when you talk to them, according to the parable of the soils, the seed that's actually sown, only 25% of that is going to reproduce fruit.

If you read the parable of the soils, you have four different grounds, four different soils.

Seed is sown on all four of them.

Some of it just kind of falls by the wayside.

But there's seeds sown, and three of them don't yield any fruit.

A couple of them will.

You'll get excited because they'll come to church and you think, man, I mean, this happens to me.

It's happened to all of us who have been soul winners, who have led some people to Christ.

They get in and you're very excited about them, and they fizzle out after.

A couple of months.

And you're like, what happened?

Why?

Why what?

Why?

You take into consideration the soils, and that's exactly.

You'll see it every single time, the soils.

So don't forget that when you're out there.

I hate to say it this way.

I really do hate to say it, but it's just a good analogy.

It is a numbers game.

If you're in sales, you understand this.

You got to talk to a lot of people before you get somebody to listen.

And so there it is.

It's through faith.

And then letter C.

Letter C.

We call upon the Lord to save us.

That's at the middle of page 55.

We call upon the Lord to save us.

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Now we call upon the Lord.

Is that a works?

Well, the Bible says call upon the Lord.

I've had preachers argue that.

I've been on deputation trying to raise support to start churches, and man, I've run into Calvinists and works.

And I've run into them, they're so nitpicky.

They would say, well, do you pray?

Do you think a person should pray when they get saved?

You know, I'm like, well, the Bible says call.

Well, that's works.

You believe in works for salvation and they just write you off.

No support.

That's crazy.

I mean, the word of God says, call upon the Lord.

Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

I guess you can do it under your breath.

But Romans 10:9 says, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart, that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

It's so important, he said it twice.

For with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation.

And so when I'm witnessing to somebody and I'm coming down to the bottom of it, I mean, we're fishers of men.

And you've already, you've already, you've got this fish on the hook, so to speak, and you've got to reel him in, you've got to bring the net in, you've got to bring it in.

And this is how you do it.

The Bible says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Now, what that word call means is.

Just to call out.

It's to call, it's to talk, it's to pray.

It's to pray.

Now because we understand why we need to be saved.

We understand who can save us.

And by faith we call upon him.

To do just that.

There's a lot that I've given you, and when you look at a tract, and I'm going to show you that in just a minute, when you look at that tract, all that I gave you is not in there.

But you have already explained to them why they need to be saved, who can save them and why only Jesus can save them based on that information, now it's up to them to call upon the Lord.

And at each point you'll stop and ask them, do you understand that?

Do you understand you're a sinner?

Do you understand that that sin is Against God.

Do you understand that Without Christ, without, you're going to hell.

Do you understand the penalty for sin?

I mean, ask them.

We've got to make it clear, right?

We want them to know.

Do you understand that?

And then I'll usually close it up by saying something.

Every situation is different, but many times I will just say something like, all right, so if you understand this now, and you said you understand, is that right?

You understand, I'll bring them through it.

I want them to tell me they understand.

And then I will say, is there.

Any reason that you can think of.

Right now why you wouldn't be willing to call upon the name of the Lord to save you?

And some will say, no, I can't think of any reason.

And then they will pray and they'll ask the Lord to save them.

I've had some who said, yes, I want to ask Jesus to save me.

And then I will say something like this, okay, now, again, praying to the Lord.

There's nothing magical about the words you say.

There's no magical prayer.

But it's believing what you pray.

It's believing what you say.

And then I will say, I will do this.

I'll say, however, 40 years ago, I prayed something like this.

And I will say it.

I will say, this is something like, I prayed.

I prayed.

I said, God, I know I'm a sinner, man.

I know it.

And I know that I deserve to go to hell.

But I believe that your Bible says that you loved me enough to send.

Your son to die in my place.

And I believe that Jesus died for me.

And I believe that he rose again.

And the best I know how, I'm asking you to forgive me and to save me.

And I'm receiving Jesus Christ.

I accept Jesus as my Savior.

I say it like that.

And then I will say, now you.

Pray in your own words something to that effect.

And I will have people just bow.

Their head and not say anything.

And I'm like.

And sometimes they'll pray in their heart and.

And when they're done, they'll say, okay, I did it.

I'm not going to say, no, you got to do it out loud.

I'm not going to do that.

It's just as real if they do it in their heart.

And bottom line is, time will tell.

But I'm going to trust that they did it.

I'm going to trust if they have that information and they tell me in just a minute, yes, I did it.

I made that choice.

I'm going to accept that.

I prefer that they pray out loud, but it can be just as phony, it can be just as unreal out loud as it can be silent.

And so I do try my best.

I ask him to pray.

And many times what I'll say is I want you to act like.

I want you to pretend Jesus Christ is sitting right next to you.

I want you to pretend God is in the chair next to you.

And I want you to pray to him.

Because you're not praying to me, you're praying to him.

And so whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Believing in our heart and confessing with our mouth and then letter D.

We receive Jesus Christ as our Savior.

We receive Jesus Christ as our Savior.

Folks, I'm going to say this because we're done, we're finished almost.

But I do want to say this.

Well, go ahead and turn to page 56.

How are we not saved?

We are not saved.

Number one, by asking Jesus into our hearts.

I understand that's been used forever.

And I know that if you do it right, if you're careful, people can get saved if you use that phrase.

A lot of times people like to use Revelation chapter 3.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in unto him and I will sup with him and he with me.

And I've heard a lot of preachers, a lot of people, I've used that verse as a soul winning verse.

And I said, now Jesus is knocking at the door of your heart and you obviously hear him right now.

Because you allowed me to share the gospel with you.

If you're willing to open the door of your heart and ask him to.

Come in, he'll do it.

I've done that.

And I think that I was just as sincere and I think they were just as sincere, but it's not, that's not in the Bible.

He's not talking about salvation there.

He's talking to a church in Revelation.

That's not a soul winning context.

And so it's best to stick with the context.

Okay.

If we can, let's stay with the context and do it the real, the Bible way.

I don't even like to use ask Jesus into my heart with children.

I just don't like to because then they have this idea, they're more abstract.

You know, they got this idea of little Jesus running around inside their heart.

And so how are we not saved by asking Jesus into our heart?

So what I said was at the bottom of page 55.

We receive Jesus Christ as our Savior.

I do like to take him to this verse.

John 1, verse 10 and 12.

He was in the world, the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

He came into his own, and his own received him not.

But as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God.

Even to them that believe on his name, receive him.

And I'm going to show you that in just a minute, receive Him.

So how are we not saved?

We're not saved by asking Jesus into our hearts.

We're not saved by telling the lost they must repent of all their sins.

They can't do that.

I was just talking to somebody a little while ago about repentance.

Repentance has been an issue forever.

There is a doctrinal view of repentance.

There is a real, true area to talk about, but this isn't the time for it.

But I can tell you right now, no one will repent of their.

All their sins to get saved.

Repentance is different than that.

It's something different than that.

And then number three, repeat this prayer after me.

How are they not saved?

Repeat this prayer.

I just don't like to do that.

I have had people actually say, will you help me pray?

I've had people say that.

Will you help me to pray?

I'm not going to say no.

You must do this on your own.

I will help them, and I have helped them, but I don't like to do that.

But if they ask me to help them, I will help them, and that's fine.

But obviously we want this to be all them, right?

We don't.

How many times have you heard somebody say, well, I went down there and shook that preacher's hand?

You may have never heard that.

I've heard that.

Or, I went down to this altar and I prayed something with that preacher.

I prayed something.

I prayed down at the altar with that person.

They prayed with me.

And there's no confidence in that years down the road, you know.

So these are how we are not saved.

So what I've given you, this is more information than you'll ever need to lead a soul to Jesus Christ.

But now, in these 55 pages that you have in front of you, you have a greater understanding of the importance of personal evangelism.

You have a greater understanding of the depth of man's depravity.

And that ought to break our heart.

That ought to.

That ought to create the compassion that we need.

You have a greater understanding of the Nature of Satan and the scope of his reach.

And now that you have all this information that I gave you, and I only touched the surface of doctrinally, I didn't.

We didn't go too deep into any of it.

But now that you have this, you are better equipped to take a gospel tract or a New Testament and lead a soul to Jesus Christ.

This is way more than you need to lead someone to Jesus, but it gives you a greater understanding of the process, their heart, where they're at, why they react, the way they react or respond, the way they respond or don't respond.

This helps you to get that.

So that concludes this particular lesson, this class on personal evangelism.

I do appreciate you sticking with me through this whole thing.

It's 7:34.

What I want to do in the next 10 minutes or so, 10 to 15 minutes the most, I want my wife to come up here and I actually forgot to bring my New Testament.

It's in my truck.

I have a New Testament that I like to use, by the way.

I ordered and bought and received 10 soul winners new Testaments.

They've got helps in them and I've gone through it.

I don't agree with everything that's in those helps, but it's not heretical.

And it's kind of.

Some of them are just real old school stuff.

But it's good.

And we'll make those available to you here soon.

I think Savannah said we paid $9 each with shipping, so it's got to be nine or ten bucks each, which is extremely cheap.

But what I want to do is.

Here's what I'm going to do, guys.

Folks, I've got all four tracks that are in our track rack there.

This is pastor's favorite.

You've never been so loved.

That's pastor's favorite.

And then we have.

And that's everybody's favorite.

Actually.

When you go out there and knock on doors, everybody loves that.

And then I have this one, what you're looking for.

And then these two are just cards.

These are bi fold and tri fold tracks.

And then these are just.

These are cards.

If you've never done it before, this trifold is going to take you kind of off track of what we've been doing.

But all the Romans Road is still in here along with a couple other things.

It kind of gives.

It explains it a little bit differently.

But it's all here.

And you can lead someone to Jesus Christ with what's in this track.

It kind of helps you to explain it.

And this One gives you a little bit of explanation, but it stays on track.

It's just Romans road, period.

It stays on track.

It gives you a little bit of explanation.

I like these because this is simply just purely Romans road.

It's got the verse underneath each one.

I like these because I have.

At this point, I have my own explanations.

And I don't like to get sidetracked.

I don't want to get thrown off by reading.

So a lot of times when we were on deputation, I would go to someone else's church, I would grab their tracks and I wasn't familiar with it and I would try to use it, and I.

Many times I ended up just putting it away and using my own New Testament.

I like these.

It's just pure Romans road.

So what I'm going to do is I'm just going to take a couple minutes with Ms.

Sim and I'm going to act like we're in a perfect world.

She's not going to try to interrupt me.

She's not going to ask any questions.

She's going to be completely complicit.

She's going to be compliant in every way.

She's going to be agreeable.

Very agreeable.

Listen, I'll tell you this.

If you get into.

If you start with the gospel with someone, if they allow you to get to the point where you can actually start giving them the gospel, most of the time they won't interrupt.

Most of the time you'll have the opportunity to go all the way through.

And so that's what we're going to pretend is happening here.

I don't have.

I don't even have a bag with me today.

So we're just going to.

We're going to pretend that she's already.

Either let me in the house.

Well, she's a woman, and I wouldn't.

Go in with a woman.

So we're out on the front porch.

And.

Huh, Grandma's front porch.

That's right.

She was sitting on grandma's front porch.

When I led her to the Lord.

Yeah, she was 18.

Amen.

All right, so that's what we're going to do.

I'm going to do this in a.

And I don't even have my New Testament with me, so I'm going to really have to rely on memory.

Okay, can we get this up on the screen, guys?

Because when we sit here, I know.

Not everybody's going to be able to see this.

All right, thank you.

All right, so I've given her one of these.

So you Understand?

We got to the question, if you.

Died today, do you know for sure you go to heaven?

She says, no, I'm not sure.

At that point I usually say, well.

If I could show you from the Bible that you can be sure, would you like to know?

Okay, well, Sim, and I'll take my Bible out.

I forgot my New Testament.

I would lay it out right here in front of me and I would turn it around backwards because I want her to see it in the Bible.

And I'll have.

See, I have these verses memorized, so.

That helps a lot.

And I will ask her.

I say, well, now, Simon, can you see this well enough to read it or do you wear glasses or contacts or something?

I can see it.

Okay, wonderful.

Well, Sim, you know, in order for us to get to heaven, according to the Bible, there's really just four things that we have to know.

There are three questions we need to.

Ask, but really it's four to five things.

Within those three questions we need to answer the questions, why do I need to be saved?

Who can save me?

And how do I get saved?

Okay, those are the three questions.

Now, within those questions, there's four real items.

So under the question, why do I need to be saved?

Is because if you notice in your Bible there, the Bible says that everybody's a sinner.

Everybody is a sinner.

You see that In Romans, chapter 3, verse 23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Right?

You see that?

Do you believe that you're a sinner?

Now the fact is everybody believes they're a sinner.

Most people don't have a hard time with that.

But what I want you to see is that according to the Ten Commandments, I left that sitting on my desk too with my New Testament or somewhere.

I thought I brought them.

They're back there.

This is not going like I thought.

So, Sim, do you believe that there's a standard for heaven?

Do you believe that God would just let anybody in, or do you think that he has a standard for heaven?

He probably has a standard.

What do you think that standard is?

I don't know.

You ever heard of the Ten Commandments?

Yeah, yeah.

You know, the Ten Commandments is basically God's standard for heaven.

You see.

Let me show you this.

I'm going to give her Ten Commandments tract or a Ten Commandments bookmark.

I'm going to say.

I want you to look at that ninth one there.

That ninth one says, thou shalt not bear false witness.

Let me ask you this, Sim, have You ever told a lie?

I have.

And everybody says they've lied, right?

I don't know of anybody who hasn't lied.

Most everybody will admit to that.

But I want you to notice this other one.

Look what this one says.

Thou shalt not steal.

Have you ever taken anything without that didn't belong to you when I was a kid?

When you were a kid.

Yeah, that's right.

Well, let me ask you this.

Is it wrong to steal a car?

Yes.

Is it wrong to steal a pencil from school?

Is it wrong to steal a piece of candy from a store?

It is.

So it doesn't really matter the item that we stole.

Stealing is still wrong.

Right.

And what does that make you?

A thief.

A thief.

Let me ask you this one.

Look here.

The Bible says that thou shalt not bear fault or thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

Have you ever used God's name in vain?

I have.

How about this one?

Honor your parents.

Have you always done that?

Do you honor your parents?

I try.

Well, let me ask you this, Sam.

You just admitted to being a lying, thieving individual who uses God's name in vain.

Do you think that honors your parents?

No, it definitely doesn't, does it?

I would have to say no as well.

But the fact of the matter is we've broken God's laws.

We're sinners not because we broke these laws, but because we're born sinners.

We are born that way.

But these are.

This is how it's all manifested in our life.

We didn't just break a law out here by speeding.

We broke God's laws.

We didn't break a civil law.

We didn't break a run through a school zone running 80 miles an hour.

You know, that's bad enough.

And in fact, if you did that, what would happen if you got pulled over, what would happen?

Put in jail or a ticket?

Right.

Probably get put in jail.

That would be an offense worthy of jail.

But that's not a.

But that's not a.

These are not man's laws that we broke.

These are God's laws.

And I want you to notice that just as there's a penalty for man's laws when we break man's laws, there's also a penalty for breaking God's laws.

Notice what it says right there, that there's a price for sin to be paid.

So the first thing we have to understand is we're all sinners.

And that's such a.

It's so a common word we use that so common people don't really feel the weight of that.

But when I bring in God's laws, if God were to judge you, if you died today and God judged you by his laws, would you be innocent or guilty?

I would be guilty.

Mm.

You see the weight.

People don't understand the weight of the word sin until we bring God's law into it.

It's God's laws that we broke.

We're sinners by nature, by birth and by nature, and by choice, but we choose to break God's laws.

And just like it's just like there's a penalty for man's sin or for man's laws, there's also a penalty for breaking God's laws.

You see what the Bible says right there?

See what it says in Romans, chapter 6, verse 23.

The wages of sin is death.

The wages of sin is death.

Let's just stop right there at that point, okay?

The wages of sin is death.

You know what that word wage means?

Do you have a job?

Do you work?

Yes.

You get paid?

I do.

That's your wage.

Whatever you do at the end of the week or two weeks or however often you get paid, that's the wage that you've earned.

Well, the Bible says that the wage for our sin is death, but that's not just talking about the death of our body.

That's bad enough, but the fact is, this is talking about the death of our soul.

You see Ezekiel in the Old Testament, which I don't have that in front of us right now, but in the Old Testament, Ezekiel says, the soul of the Father and the soul of the Son.

The soul that sinneth, it shall die.

God said that every soul is mine, and the soul that sinneth, it shall die.

Notice right here in the book of Revelation.

Bear with me.

Revelation is not on these tracks.

That's why I always keep it in my New Testament.

I always use it because I think this portion is very powerful.

So I'll take my New Testament and I'll turn it to Revelation, chapter 20.

And I will show her this.

I will show her this.

Now, in the last day, there's going to be a.

There's going to be a judgment when God judges man.

And we see in Revelation, chapter 20, verse 21, this is called the Great White Throne Judgment.

He says, I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.

And the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life.

And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works.

And the sea gave up the dead which were in it.

And death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them.

And they were judged every man according to their works.

Now watch this part, Sim.

And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.

This is the second death.

Did you know that the Bible speaks of two deaths?

Did you know there were two deaths?

You see, there's the death of the body and then the death of the soul.

Now, I also like to use Hebrews where Hebrews 9:27 says, as it is appointed.

I don't think that's on here either, but I always incorporate it into my tracks.

But I keep it in my New.

Testament and I always go there after this.

The Bible says right here in Hebrews 9:27, as it is appointed unto man once to die, but after this, the judgment.

So let me ask you this, Sim.

If.

If we die and our body goes to the grave after say 10 years or so, what happens to that body?

Decomposes.

Decomposes.

So if our body goes into the grave and it decomposes, then what goes to judgment?

Our spirit or our soul?

See, that's what we just read.

The Bible says that our spirit, our soul will be cast, our soul die.

And it's not annihilation.

The death that it's talking about is in the lake of fire.

The wages of sin is death.

But that death is hell and the lake of fire, that's the judgment.

Now, everything that I've told you up to this point, do you understand all that?

Does that all make sense to you?

Yes.

Do you understand that you're a sinner?

Do you see how that you've broken God's laws and not just man's laws?

Do you see in the Bible how that God said there's a penalty for that?

Yes.

What is that penalty again?

Death and hell.

It's death and hell.

Now, everything that I've told you up to this point is just bad news, isn't it?

I mean, I didn't mean to just come bring a rain cloud to your house today, but that's pretty much what I've done.

Right.

Well, Sim, did you know that the word gospel actually means good news?

First time?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, it means good news.

And all I've done is brought bad news.

But it's bad news.

What makes the good news good news?

It wouldn't be good news if it didn't.

If it wasn't followed by bad news, you'd have nothing to compare it to.

And the good news is, let's look at the rest of that verse in Romans 6:23.

Remember, the wages of sin is death.

But look at this next part.

Actually, look at Romans 5.

8.

It says, But God.

Can you read that?

Yes.

Can you read that for me?

But God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Christ died for us.

For the wages of sin is death.

Christ died for us.

God loved us so much that he demonstrated that love by allowing his son to die on the cross.

You ever heard of John 3:16?

Yes.

That's a pretty universal verse, isn't it?

Listen to what it says.

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.

You could put your name in there.

For God so loved Sim that He gave his only begotten son that whosoever, you could put your name there, that if Sim believes in him, you should not perish but have everlasting life.

That's the good news, is that God loved you enough to send his son to die in your place and pay that debt, that sin debt that you owed.

But it doesn't end there.

You see, Jesus Christ, he not only paid.

He paid our sin debt, but because Jesus is the God man.

You've heard this term, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, right?

Well, God the Son.

Most people don't even take that into consideration when they think about Jesus Christ.

But he is God and he was man.

And he died on the cross for us.

And he took our penalty as a man.

He paid our debt as a man.

And only as God, he could do that.

He could rise from the dead.

Because as a perfect man, he had no sin of his own to pay.

He didn't have to pay the penalty for his own sin, only for yours and mine.

So after three days, according to the Bible, he rose from the dead.

And when he rose from the dead, because he did that, he conquered sin, he conquered death, he conquered hell.

And he's able to offer us eternal life.

I want you to notice with this Bible, look what it says.

The wages of sin is death.

But what is that next part?

The gift.

The gift of what is what?

Eternal life continue through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

You see, Jesus Christ, because He died on the cross, he paid our sin debt.

He rose from the dead.

He now can offer us eternal life as a gift.

It's a gift.

There's nothing you can do to earn it.

I mean, when you.

You know, when.

If I was to say to you, Sim, I'll give you a thousand dollars if you'll just pick up that piece of trash off the floor.

Would that be a gift?

It would be a good deal, but not a gift, would it?

If I said, sim, I'll give you $1,000 if you'll wash my dog for me one time.

Would that be a gift?

Why not?

I'm still working for it.

That's right.

It's not a gift.

And that's what God is trying to get us to understand, that salvation, eternal life is a gift.

It's not something you can earn.

Jesus Christ did everything.

It's like when you give gifts to your kids at Christmas.

You paid for that gift.

They didn't do anything.

Probably didn't deserve it, truth be known.

But they still got it because we love them and it's their gift.

And so the Bible says that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.

What's that next part?

Through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Sim, if I took this thousand dollars.

Let's just, let's do a, do an illustration here real quick.

What time is it?

Okay, I'm almost done.

Sim, let's pretend that I've got $1,000.

I don't.

Okay, we'll just.

There's no thousand dollars in there, but let's pretend I had $1,000 in here.

And I said, sim, I've got a gift for you and I'd really like for you to have it.

It's my gift to you.

Okay?

There's no strings attached, but it's $1,000.

I want you to have it.

Okay.

What would you have to do to make that yours?

Take it.

You would have to take it, right?

Okay.

Just take it.

That's right.

Now, did you notice that you had to take the wallet?

Yes.

You see, unless you've got some kind of magical powers that you're not telling us, you can't just make that thousand dollars float out of the wallet and become yours.

In order to get the thousand dollars that's inside the wallet, you have to take the wallet.

You see, a lot of people, Sim, they want the benefits of Christianity, but they don't want Christ.

They want the benefits.

They want to go to heaven, but they don't want him.

But the Bible tells us, according to that verse, that eternal life is a free gift, but it's through Jesus Christ they have to receive.

Jesus Christ.

In John, chapter one.

Let me show you this.

In the New Testament, in John, chapter one, it says, he came unto his own and his own received him not that was the Jewish people, but to as many as received him.

To them he gave the power or the authority to become sons of God, children of God.

See, it's only through receiving Jesus Christ that you can have that gift.

Just like it's only through taking and receiving the wallet that you can have the thousand dollars.

You can't have one without the other.

So many people want to get to heaven, but they don't want Jesus Christ.

Now, that's not the way it works.

Sim.

Okay, Now I want you to notice this last portion here.

Does that make sense to you?

Did you understand everything?

Notice this last portion.

The Bible says pray.

I'm sorry?

It says, for whosoever shall call upon upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

We're calling upon the Lord.

What are we doing?

When we call, we're asking or we're praying.

Can't pick up the phone and dial heaven.

But when we want to get hold of God, what do we do?

We pray for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

But we're calling on him.

And with this knowledge.

Okay, we're calling on him with this knowledge, I'm a sinner and the penalty for my sin is death in hell.

I'm calling on him with the knowledge that God loved me enough to send Jesus his Son, to die in my place on the cross.

He did.

He paid the debt I owed, but he rose from the grave.

And because he rose from the grave, he can offer me eternal life.

I'm calling on him, asking him to forgive me of my sin.

And I'm asking Him to be my Savior.

Do you see what that says there?

Yes.

Do you believe that?

I do.

Do you believe that if you called on Jesus today, he'd save you?

I do.

Would you like to call on Christ right now?

God bless you.

All right.

Thank you very much.

I was nervous.

I left some stuff out.

I forgot my New Testament.

I didn't have my 10 commandment track, but I hope that you get the gist.

Now, I took 10 minutes to do.

That, 15 minutes to do that.

I don't like to go that quickly.

Okay.

I went through it quickly because that's.

All the time I had.

But you see, I didn't need all of this, but a whole lot of it was incorporated.

Did you see that it.

And so I hope that helps you.

I really do.

I hope that it's a blessing.

Thank you again for hanging out with.

Me these several weeks.

Thank you, Pastor, for allowing me to do this.

And I pray that God will allow us to see many souls saved.

Amen.

All right, Pastor.