Evangelism (part 1)

So, this week and the next two weeks, we will be looking at evangelism.

Evangelism is one of the subjects that all of us know what it means.

All of us, when we look at it from a distance, really love it, know that's the goal of the Christian.

And when we are right in the middle of it, feels like we are in war.

In the trenches, bullets flying around and we have no idea what we are supposed to do.

All training camp stuff is gone.

So, this is not just a training camp for war.

I wanna focus at three different elements of evangelism in these three weeks that

we have.

Today, in particular, I'm gonna focus on downtown Worcester.

I'm gonna use that as an example, so you can, those of you who go there.

Bruce, who else regularly goes here from here to?

Oh, Pat.

So, you know, you have some veterans here.

So, if you wanna know more about how to do this or you have questions, you please ask them.

They will tell you what it's like.

It's not really like, necessarily, like being in the trenches, although sometimes it can be.

But my goal is this.

So, if some of you have wanted to go downtown, this Sunday School will hopefully

give you some preparatory points.

You know, what should I do before I get out?

Is there something I really should be terrified of, you know, as maybe some of you are?

And if you haven't thought about it at all, maybe this is something that'll get you started to think about, should I be going

downtown or doing something like that?

The category in which this downtown Worcester evangelism falls is evangelism to strangers.

How do you talk to strangers whom you've never met ever in your life, you walk up to them, and then

you start talking to them about the gospel?

When you go and talk to a stranger, you normally don't even talk to them.

If you're like most people, you just look at them, maybe you smile, how are you doing?

And that's all we can manage with strangers, unless you're a very, very good communicator and a person who

knows how to open conversations.

But here in downtown evangelism, that's what we do.

We just go there and start talking to them and giving them the gospel and engaging with them.

How are those things done?

So we will see some of that.

And next week, I wanna look at evangelism of family.

That's honestly a much more difficult area, if you ask me, compared to evangelism of

strangers.

And you'll find that downtown evangelism is probably the easiest thing you could do when it comes to evangelism.

And we will see that in a minute.

And then finally, the third week, we will look at some aspects of missions and apologetics in

evangelism.

How does the picture of getting out into the world relate to us, those of us

who are right here in West Boylston?

And how are some ways in which we need to engage with people?

So that's the goal for the next three weeks.

We'll see how far we get.

To kick off today's material, I wanna use a passage from scripture.

I'd like somebody who can read really loud and clear to help me with this passage.

It's a longish passage.

If you can turn with me to Acts chapter three, we are gonna be reading that entire passage and then looking at some

points that we can learn from that passage.

Acts chapter three, and I need verses one to 26,

the entire chapter read.

So if I have brother Bruce.

So as he reads, I want you to follow along.

This is a narrative, so it's very easy to follow.

But just be thinking in your mind, if you were Peter or you were John and you were walking,

what would your thoughts have been as they go through this whole passage?

Thank

you,

brother

Bruce.

I saw some of you enter a little while the passage was being read.

That's from Acts chapter three.

And if you didn't pick up one of these handouts as you came in, if you could lift your

hands, some of the men will bring them to you.

So if you don't have a handout, just raise your hand and one will be given to you.

So as we get into

this

passage, I wanna give a caution.

So obviously this is a passage, a descriptive passage, a narrative passage that happens in the early church.

Now, there is a difference between the descriptive and the prescriptive.

So there are some principles upon which there are certain things that are happening.

And just because Jesus walked on water doesn't mean we walk on water, just because Peter,

the Lord through Peter healed this lame man doesn't mean that's what we need to be doing.

In fact, if you were thinking what I asked you to do, you'd be thinking, okay, you know, I go down

the streets of Worcester, here is a lame man and zap, you know, he gets his

foot restored.

Come on, that guy's got to believe, right?

That's how we normally think when we look at a descriptive passage like that.

And that is actually not so true.

In fact, in Jesus' lifetime, he did many physical miracles like this one,

which the people gladly accepted, rejoiced for a moment.

And then when the gospel came, they were out of there.

I mean, they wanted him killed.

So it's not necessarily true that a physical miracle will necessarily follow with a spiritual regeneration like it did

in this man's life.

And, but there is something extremely powerful that we as believers have in

Christ, something that we need to give to the lost and dying world.

And that's what we're going to look at using this passage as our context.

Now, this is one thing I want to actually give a caution for.

There are methods of evangelism and there are underlying biblical principles

to these methods.

Can you tell me some of the evangelistic methods, people that do evangelism that are really exciting, things that

you say, you know, if I was like that person or could do evangelism like this, I'd be out there in

Worcester every day.

Can anybody give me a few examples of ways of doing evangelism that you see people do that you

really like and admire?

Yes, Wes?

The fearless approach?

Yeah, there are some who are very bold.

Bold, yeah.

Yeah.

Right, they have no, they're not nervous like us, they're not sweating like me with a wet handkerchief.

They just go there and they are, you know, so easy, natural, casual, because they're just not afraid.

And I saw another hand there.

Yes, Bruce?

He was what I was thinking of, you know.

Only Ray Comfort can do something like that.

But how many of you can do the same thing?

You know, we'll provide you the ball and the banners and everything else.

Janet, that's right.

Excellent.

And I was actually looking for her.

I was a little disappointed I couldn't see them because I could use them as a good example.

And she likes Ray Comfort a lot because here is a method of evangelism that

Pam and her family are just very comfortable with.

You know, that's how they are built.

They can very easily resonate with that kind of approach, you know, that you can just go out there and kind of

throw a few bombs and see how, you know, things settle.

Yes.

Yeah.

And what I want to talk about is, you know, if you are going to try to be like Ray Comfort, you know, okay,

the gospel says I need to go and present, the Bible says that I need to go out and present the gospel.

And the way I need to do that is like Ray Comfort because, you know, obviously that's biblical.

It is biblical.

You're just going to be in fear and trembling and never get out of your door because what you're looking at is

not something that you can actually just do overnight.

And what I want to discourage people from doing is look at some methods, ways in which people do evangelism and say,

you know, that's evangelism and that's what I need to do.

That is not the goal of the gospel.

The gospel is, you know, God has done something remarkable, tremendous and supernatural in our

lives.

And we need to have the mindset of saying, I need to be about giving the gospel

in the, with the gifts that he has given me, with the opportunities that he presents to me and be about it

in greater measure day after day, because I'm going to, the spirit of God within me is going to equip me, but the flesh

is going to keep saying, no, no, no.

And it is our responsibility in Christ to keep excelling in this virtue.

As long as we have that mindset, you know, I want Christ honored and how can I do it in the

circumstances I have today?

And like Pastor Steve said, here's a guy who would not even speak the gospel when asked to, and

at some point in his life, now he is doing, I don't know if I can.

There we go.

I was trying to say maybe he's one up on comfort carrying crosses through LA.

But the point is, you know, if you just look at what people are doing, you'll probably never get out of your door, but if

you have the right heart attitude, and we'll see some of that in today's passage as we get to it.

So what actually happens in Acts chapter three?

So you have Peter and John going to the temple, a normal activity for the Jew.

This is what they do regularly in prayer times, ninth hour, three o 'clock in the afternoon, doing what

was normal.

Of course, if you look at Acts chapter two, nothing was normal at that time.

But here he is going to do what he would normally do, worship in the temple, and an opportunity comes by

and you are prepared for it.

I mean, like Pastor Steve said, you know, there are many times in my life when someone comes and throws a softball and says,

what must I do to be saved?

And your mouth is all tied up because I'm not in that mode of mind to say, I

know I have the gospel and I know how to give it to you.

And that's one of those areas where all of us should be equipped at.

And that handout that I just gave is from Grace Evangelism.

It just gives you a simple way.

We'll walk through this in a little bit.

So you know what the gospel is.

I mean, all of us know, but all of us are not necessarily as comfortable speaking the gospel out.

So it takes a little bit of preparation if you don't know how to say the gospel to spend some time, read it, look

at the scriptures, and know what you must say if somebody asks you what the gospel is.

So here's Peter and John going about their lives as usual.

And then they meet this man in verse two.

So we read in verse two that he was lame from birth.

Here was a man who had a certain need.

In those days, these men would need arms because they can't work and support themselves.

And that was one of the means by which the Jewish people supported one another.

And in verse three, he not just stood around, he actually asked, he was begging.

That was his means of getting support.

And there is a need there, a physical need.

And in verse four, we see that Peter directed his gaze at him.

He's intentional about this.

He could have just given him a shekel, or I don't know, shekel might have been too much, given him something and

moved on about his worship that he had to do.

But he was willing to stop because the gospel was central

to what Peter and John were doing.

And he does focus his attention on this particular individual.

And many a time, we walk through life just missing everything that we see because we're just too

busy to get to our final destination.

The gospel was not central in what we were doing in our lives.

And so that's one of the things that you want to keep in mind.

When you go about life, there is, the Lord brings many opportunities.

Many a time, we're just blind to them because we're just busy doing what we're doing.

Let the gospel be central.

Know what you need to be doing.

And then, you know, the spirit of God will give you those opportunities and the courage to do what you need to do.

Before I go further, I want to talk about something I mentioned earlier.

I said, if there was a physical need and there was a physical supernatural miracle, all of us would

suddenly feel a lot more stronger, bolder, fearless, you know.

Okay, Benny Hinn style, you know, go do something.

Okay, everybody starts coming.

The crowds start to follow.

And I think in one sense, that's possibly true.

So if there was a physical miracle, there would be eyes open, amazement, and wonder.

Is there a spiritual need among the people we meet today?

Okay, yeah, but unlike that lame man, they're not standing out there mostly

and asking for alms.

You know, how do I get out of my spiritual need?

Because A, they don't know they're lame, and B, they're not asking for means of getting out of their

lameness or deadness in the spirit.

And so when something supernatural happens, even in your encounters,

you're not going to be getting crowds and people, you know, following, and then all of a sudden, a huge multitude coming to know the Lord,

although the Lord has done that before.

So just keep that in mind.

You know, that's not the focus of what we ought to be doing.

We understand there is a spiritual need.

And deep down, everybody that you meet has needs, which are

grounded in spiritual needs.

And that's one of the things you find when you go down in Worcester Common, is you meet people who are

actually more open to discuss their needs than you would, maybe in your

workplace.

In your workplace, they would be very content and satisfied.

But when you go down downtown Worcester, I would say at least half.

What would you say, Bruce?

How many people are willing to talk to you about?

Yeah, there is.

There's a lot of people.

And people are normally in a state in life where they know they are in trouble and

they are glad to talk to you many a time.

So that's why I said downtown evangelism is a good place to be, because when you go there and start talking to people, you'll

find people willing to talk to you about their needs.

Now, in Acts, in verse six, he says, what I do have,

I give to you.

I don't have silver or gold, but what I do have, I give to you.

We could probably say, I don't have the means to get you out of your drugs

or alcohol or poverty or physical cancer or

anything else, but I have something that you desperately need and I can talk to you about it.

And the person who will minister to you is able to get you out of everything else.

That's secondary.

But there is something that I have that you need.

And that's basically what we do when we go downtown.

When you go downtown, the dynamics are very different.

It's not like you meet somebody on your street and say, hi, how do you do, and walk on.

You are going there with a team.

You go two by two and you have tracks or stuff in your hand with a Bible.

When people see other people walking two by two, I'm sure you've done this to Mormons who walk to you, they would either walk

across the street and get away from you if they don't wanna talk to you.

If they're bold enough to walk past you, they know that they're gonna get something in their hand and somebody's gonna shake their hand.

So just going two by two with those tracks will get an opening that you normally don't when

you're one by one, unless you're like Pam.

And you go there and most people are willing to receive the track.

And some of them will stop as you shake their hands and you start by saying, hey, we are

here to give you the gospel, and they're listening.

There are quite a few who would be willing to do that.

So you have an opening here, which is normally very difficult in other places.

So I'd encourage you, because this is not as threatening as some of you might be thinking.

It is an opening where you can actually go out and talk to people who want to hear.

Now, with regards to this supernatural miracle.

So let's say you'd meet somebody and he gets saved.

You're not gonna be getting the wonder and amazement of verse 10, because it's probably just that one person

who knows what has happened in his heart, what the Lord has done in his life.

And many a time that happens over a period of time, it's never instantaneous.

And the event of meeting and giving the gospel is the first stage of

your evangelism.

We will walk through the process in a little bit, but I want to look at what Peter does here in verses

11 to 19.

I want you to look at that passage a little closely and tell me how Peter gives the gospel.

You see, when Peter is talking to people, I'll just give you a little context here.

Here are Jewish people.

Jesus has just been crucified by the Jewish authorities and with a mob support in

some sense.

And Jesus has now been raised from the dead.

These people don't know about it, but Peter knows.

And here are the Jewish mindset.

And Peter fully understands where these people are coming from.

And with that in mind, he gives them a gospel that is extremely focused on the circumstances in which

they are.

So let's look at the gospel first and then look and see how you would do the same thing if you were in downtown Worcester.

So 11 through 19, how many of you here know the four Ws?

Okay, for those of you who don't know it, you have it in your hands.

So who is God, who is man, who is Jesus Christ, and what

must you do?

So you have the four main elements of the gospel presentation right here.

Now look at verses 11 through 19 and tell me, after this physical miracle that Peter has done,

when he starts proclaiming the gospel, how is he talking about the gospel in this passage?

Anyone who has, you can just start, raise your hand.

Let's take the first one, who is God?

Does anyone see that in verse 14?

And verse 13, can you say what is it that he's talking about,

God there, 13 and 14?

So he's talking about the attribute of God.

God is a holy and righteous God.

And in verse 13, he sets the framework.

You know, he's not gonna be talking about some event that happens.

It is about the God of Abraham, Jacob, and Isaac.

These are the Jewish people, and he's talking, this is the God about whom we are talking about.

This is not about just some justice event that has just happened here.

We are talking in the context of the God who is holy and righteous.

So that's the God, and the Jewish people know who God is.

He doesn't need to talk a lot more about it.

So if you go to downtown Worcester, if you say the God of Abraham, Jacob, and Isaac,

you think people will understand what God you're talking about?

So what would you need to tell them when you go and talk to them about God?

What are some of the things that people don't know that you need to remind them of God?

Yes.

Creator.

That's right, and that's the first thing, because we live in a naturalistic world.

Everybody thinks everything evolved out of nothing by no process, and it'll keep doing that,

magically, because they have to kill God and they have to come up with something else.

So you need to start right from there and say, wait a minute, there is a God, and that God has

created you.

He has created everything around it, and you need to tell them, because most people don't even hear that.

I spent this week with a lot of unbelievers, and most people had no clue that this is

what the Bible teaches.

It's like these were traditions that people held before.

They don't really understand that this is the command, or this is what the Bible declares.

There is one element here that I'm gonna briefly talk about, and then we'll continue here.

What we do when we go downtown evangelism is called presuppositional evangelism.

What that means is we don't go there proving to people that God exists.

Okay, so you say that we came from nature.

I say that God created us.

Let me prove to you that there is a God.

We never ever do that because the Bible never ever does that.

We will see a little bit more about presuppositionalism in a little bit, but our responsibility is to

tell people what the Bible says, because the Bible says they already know it.

We will see some of these verses later in Romans 1.

The Bible says every person knows that there is a God and that they have suppressed the truth, and our

responsibility is to bring up to them consciously so that they

can acknowledge it, that this is what the Bible says.

They may not agree with you, but they hear from you what the Bible says about God.

All right, so second point, what does...

Let's talk about the third point first, about Jesus.

What does this passage talk about who Jesus is?

Do you see?

Just throw whatever you see.

Yes, Jodi.

The righteous one and the author of life.

So he's talking about who...

Some of the attributes of Jesus Christ.

He's righteous and the author of life.

I mean, it's very interesting how Peter puts these words together.

He says, you denied him.

He was the righteous one.

You put him to death.

You condoned his murder, basically is what he's saying, and you murdered

or took away the life of the one who is actually the one who gives you life.

And he puts them together so that they will get the weight of what they have done in the context of who

Jesus Christ is.

So Jesus Christ is the author of life.

He is the one who can give you life, and he is the one who God raised from the dead.

So he's talking about all these different aspects of Jesus Christ in a way that they know that this Jesus Christ was not just an

ordinary man, but he was God himself, and he is the one who can actually

give you life because you're the ones who are dead.

And then questions two and four are kind of mingled here.

Who is man and what must you do?

They basically are merged together.

Can you find some verses here that Peter talks about the state in which these people are.

Or what they did that was wrong?

Yes, yes.

So he makes it very clear.

Man is separated.

He is in a state of sin and estranged from God.

You are the ones who denied this God that you were supposed to worship.

What else?

Very, very true.

I'll come to that in a minute.

Yes, yes,

exactly.

So he says, repent therefore.

So that's the, what must you do?

He says that very clearly, and you repent from something that you did wrong.

And what that wrong was is in 15, it says, you killed him.

You killed Jesus Christ, and you need to repent from having

done the sin.

Yes.

Or was it, who was it?

There was someone else.

Yeah.

So end of verse 13, it says, Pilate was ready.

And we know that from the gospel accounts.

Pilate was looking for means to get Jesus out, but the Jewish leaders, and he talks

about them and the Jewish mob.

Yes, Joanie.

And I think, you know, in this case is rather unique.

I mean, I don't think we'll ever have this kind of a circumstance in our life.

Here is Jesus Christ, you know, the purpose of all history.

In one moment in time, he's right there.

He gets killed by these people.

You know, these are the people who were there at that generation.

And he can directly talk about what they've done in direct relation to Jesus Christ.

And he actually brings it on.

He doesn't say, oh, you know, some of the guys did this thing, and you know, you were all,

there is an element of ignorance in the sense that they did not recognize Jesus Christ as the Lord or

as God himself.

And that was not like the unpardonable sin.

He says, okay, there was a time when you acted this way, but in verse 19, you have

hope.

You know, you need to repent.

And so he brings the sin directly before them.

This is what you've done.

And then he says, this is what you need to do in order to be reconciled with God.

So that's the context of Peter and John.

So if you went to downtown Worcester today, so we just covered point one there.

What are some of the other three points?

What are things that you would need to remind people of?

Let's take the first, second one.

What is man?

What would you need to tell people about man or the group that, group of manhood or

personhood?

That's right.

Why do we need to tell them that?

Right, yeah.

First of all, they suppress the knowledge of God.

And then now in relation to that God, they are now free beings.

They are individuals who could do whatever they want, especially in our society today.

There is really no objective, absolute standard of right and wrong.

It's, you know, I feel good and I can do it.

If I feel bad, then something must be going wrong with me.

It's not about I have offended the laws of my creator or I have

violated them in such serious manner, which is with the Bible called sin.

And people need to be reminded of that.

Yes, Wes?

So that's the first element of where they stand that people need to be warned of.

Let's keep going.

So what do you need to tell about Jesus?

People use the name a lot, but do people really know who Jesus is when

you go to people, talk to people?

And that's one of the elements that needs to be reminded again, that Jesus was not just an ordinary man.

He was God himself who came down.

And what was one of the things that he did that you have to remind them of?

Okay.

Yes.

I like the first two that you said, because this is, we'll, maybe not today, but we will cover this later.

Oh, depending on who you're talking to, you will understand that there are certain truths that they do not know about Jesus

Christ.

So if you take, for example, friends of sinners, you know, I don't think that's,

most people see Jesus as the loving, gentle kind, but some people don't.

They just think if I come to Jesus, I'll get condemned and kicked out, and I don't want to go to that place at all.

And we bring in scriptures that talk about the love and compassion of Jesus Christ, and talk about, you know, he

is a friend of sinners.

He came to help them out of their sin.

So you'll need to sometimes bring those scriptures in.

And other times, and most times, you would need to talk about, no, no, Jesus was not just this, you know, warm and fuzzy guy.

He confronted sin.

And you would need to talk about some of those scriptures to say, can I read this for you?

And then read out some of those scriptures, and wait, did Jesus do that?

Yeah, that's true.

He is both a just God and a loving God, and you'll need to sometimes bring that.

But the third thing you said, that is crucial.

You know, Jesus died on behalf of sinners.

He came to take away sin.

And that concept, you know, we assume most people know this.

Some do, and they are immune to it in some cases, but you would actually need to tell people, this is what the Bible says.

This is the divine exchange, like we hear from the scriptures, from our pulpit.

This is what Christ did, and that's the good news.

That's what Jesus accomplished.

And then the fourth point, obviously, we already saw, is repentance.

We need to do what we did today.

I think that you don't have to do anything else.

Repent, therefore, turn again, and your sins will be blotted out from you, and you will have refreshing times from the Lord.

So that's a very simple exhortation that God has for them, and

we are just the mediators.

We are just telling them what God has given them to be told.

So that's basically it.

So these four things don't have to be necessarily in this particular order, but those are four elements that are important in a gospel

presentation, because depending on who you're talking to, they may consciously not acknowledge any of these or

be unaware of these, so you need to just tell them that.

But also,

let me actually talk about this.

So sometimes we think of evangelism as data dump.

I go there, and I think, okay, if I give this stuff out, my job is done, and in

one sense, it is true.

There are some people who would not wanna, they'd say, and I have two minutes, and you tell them, and then

they're not asking you any questions, and they walk away, and that's basically all you can accomplish, which is fine, because you've

told them what the propositional truth from the scriptures are.

But other times, I mean, you've had conversations 45 minutes or longer, and

people wanna hear more, right?

There are times when people wanna understand what those four Ws mean,

or they are struggling.

They say, no, I don't agree with you, but it's not I agree with you, just leave.

I don't agree with you, but, and they start talking, and when someone keeps talking, that just means that

they're willing to listen, and you bring the scriptures to them in those areas that will help them

understand what the Bible is talking about.

And let me actually finish this, and then I'll go to that section.

So let me actually just finish this Acts 3.

If you look at the rest of Acts 3, it's amazing.

He has doctrine.

He's talking about the breadth of scripture.

He's talking about Jesus Christ coming back in verse 21.

He's talking about, in verse 22, how Jesus is like the prophet that Moses talked about.

He's talking in verse 23 about the destruction of those who will not listen to this

prophet.

He's basically just bringing it on, and many a time, when you go down to an evangelism, you'd be thinking, okay, four Ws, and I'm done,

and then an alcoholic comes and says, oh, you know, me and Jesus are just real tight, and all of a sudden, you start

talking about one John.

You say, oh, you're a believer.

You know, this is what the Bible says about believers.

You know, there's something that's changed in them.

They are different.

What's different about you?

Do you know this Jesus Christ?

And then you are now talking doctrine that helps that person understand where

he really is.

And it's not that, and the more and more you know the word, the more and more it gets joyful because you get to talk

about those elements of truth that are relevant for that particular person and where he is in that point in life,

and it is such a great joy because many a time, you think, oh, I don't know anything, and then you look at verse

six, right?

Peter says, what I do have I give to you.

Every single one of you here has a lot.

You have a lot of this in your heart, in your mind, and there is

a world that knows nothing of this, so every single truth that you have that you are

bold enough to just get out there and tell people is like dew,

it's like rain in a parched and drying land, and there are people in that land

who are holding up their bowl and saying, give me, and

you can actually be part of that great work that the Lord is doing here.

I don't see Barry here, but Barry's the one who's coordinating this, so if you have a desire to do this,

talk to Bruce, Pat, Barry, and there are a few other people who go.

The next days, Jim and Cindy, these are people who go regularly every Saturday, 10 to

12, and what they do is they meet in Worcester Public Library, they pray together, and

then go two by two, so if you haven't done this before, you're very nervous, you may not even have to open your mouth, you may just be praying as the person

next to you is giving the gospel, and as you get more comfortable, you can actually start speaking, but there is an

opportunity and there are many people, some of these are regular people that we meet, so you get to give them the

gospel over and over again, and you get to pray for them, you get to love them, and some of

them have come here to our church from these visits, so I'd encourage you to go out

and witness.

Pastor Steve, do I have five minutes, or do we stop at this time?

Four and a half minutes, okay.

In that case, we will just do the Romans road, because I think I've given from Acts 3 some of

the points that we have to do, and next week we'll pick up presuppositional and personal evangelism, some elements of what it is

to actually be yourself, in one sense, I don't like that

word much, but you don't have to be Ray Comfort to do it, you can be Chris or Becky and just do it,

in a way that honors Christ.

So let's look at Romans road, so if you can open up to the book of Romans, and if you

want, you can just mark these verses in your Bible so you have them as a reference when you're going out and talking to someone.

The four W's that we talked about, the first W is what?

Who is God?

So Romans one, as you look at, well, basically, you can look at 18 through

21, but 20 and 21 give you the aspect of God who is the creator.

We read, since the creation of the world, God's invisible attributes are clearly

seen.

Talks about God as the creator.

And you want to, like we said, we want to make sure that we bring that up.

And the second one is who is man?

And we see that in Romans 3, 23.

I'm sure all of you memorized it.

For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

There is no one who is exempt from this rule.

And if you know the book of Romans, that's very helpful, because you'll see Romans one and two building up the case for Romans 3,

23.

There is really no excuse for anyone who has sinned, who is

a human being.

Every human being falls in this category.

And for some people, as you read that, that's a shock, because somehow people think I am the exception.

My life has been so tormented, and yet I have done so much good that God sees me as the one guy

who deserves of his love and affection.

And we have to break that bubble.

And this verse is a great verse to help them see that no, not even, and your handout has

some additional verses.

I think it has the one in James.

Oh, that's right.

Yes, I think we have 6 .23 is next.

Yes, yeah, 3 .23 is all have sinned.

And then in 6 .23, you have the wages of sin is death, but you have the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus

Christ our Lord.

And I think James 2 .10 is what you have in your handout.

He who keeps the whole law yet stumbles in one point is guilty of them all.

So this handout will give you some good verses that you could memorize, or if you're like Barry, you can just

cut them up into four and have them in your hand.

And well, the next person is talking, you can look it up and then tell them the Bible says and read it out.

And that's all you need to do because you're telling them what God wants them to know.

So that's the second point.

The third point is who is Jesus Christ?

We have two verses, Romans 5 .8.

God demonstrates his love to us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

They're talking about the atonement of Jesus Christ.

And then Romans 6 .23 that we just heard, the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.

So it talks about what Jesus Christ does for you.

And then the final one, what must you do?

We see that in Romans 10 .9 -10.

Confess with your mouth, believe in your heart, you will be saved.

And we have Romans 10 .13, for whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

So those are some of the verses in Romans.

I mean, there's other ways you can look at it, but there's a quick way.

If you've forgotten, you don't have your notes, you have your Bible with the Romans stuff marked, you have them right there.

Or if you have your Acts 3 marked, now you have that.

So you can go to basically anywhere in the Bible to find the truth of the gospel, but you need to prepare

yourself for it because many a time we are just wandering about life.

You know, we know the gospel, but if I had to say it, I'm just not prepared.

And that's, I think, a shameful thing.

I'm not calling every one of us to be Ray Comfort or carry crosses in LA, but I think, you know, if the Lord

would purchase us with his blood by dying on the cross, I think, you know,

spending a little time to understand what the Bible says about the gospel.

So if someone comes and tells me, what must I do to be saved?

I think we need to be prepared to give that answer to those people.

So any questions before we close for today?

All right, let's pray.

Dear God, our heavenly father, we are indeed a grateful people for the work of your son, Jesus

Christ.

Lord, we thank you for the word and for the teaching of the word that we have received.

And Lord, we are also thankful for you placing us in exactly the same

places where you would want us to be.

Help us, father, to be faithful in ministering

to others what you have done and what you have given to us, what you have so preciously bought and

given freely to us.

Help us, oh, father, not to hold, but to give.

Help us not to hide our light, but to let it shine.

And Lord, I pray for each of these dear people who are here this morning.

Strengthen them, Lord, may your word equip them and by your spirit, oh,

father, use them for your glory.

In Christ's name we pray, amen.