Alright, we're in part three of, “How to lead someone to Christ”.

How do you do that? It's it's way easier than we think it is, but it requires some knowledge.

There's four basic steps to going through the Gospel. I have a list of these steps and the verses I use in each to lead someone to Christ.

You can click on this link for a list which includes the entire verses, but here’s a list with just the references:

1) Be Holy

Hebrews 12:14; 1 Peter 1:14-16; Romans 3:9-20; Hebrews 4:12-13

2) Judgment is Coming

Revelation 20:11-15

3) What God did through Jesus

Colossians 2:9-15; Romans 3:21-25b; 1 John 2:1-2; Hebrews 10:11-18

4) How I Make the Work of Jesus Count for Me

Ephesians 2:1-9; Romans 4:4-8; Romans 6:23; John 3:16-18; John 3:35-36

5) Bonus: What Happens When I Believe

Romans 5:1-5; Romans 8:1-4; Romans 8:15-17; Romans 8:31-39

Or discussion about the Gospel at the end of the book of Revelation is of course triggered by these verses—Revelation 20:11-15—so let's read these verses again and get us all on the same page.

Revelation 20:11-15 (NIV)

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

This is the Great White Throne Judgment, when the age of humans in this life, on this globe, in this way, is over. It ends in a moment when God pulls the plug; when he decides time is up.

I suspect that is when he has “wrung out” of humanity everyone who will follow him.

If you listen through the Book of Revelation, he is wringing it out—getting every last drop out—of the rag. He is getting the very last human onto team Jesus that he can. Then, it’ll be over in a moment.

So, in a single moment of time, God is going to end human history, but not before it gets terribly dramatic because he's going to do some wringing. But when it's over, all of humanity, every human, will stand before God. Every human.

And that's a weighty time.

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life.

This is one of the key verses that I start witnessing with because it's dramatic. Everyone's going to stand before God and notice that there are books—plural—and then a single book and those are radically different.

and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

“God’s heart for us is full of grace. When we know and understand that about His heart, we see His grace in how He interacts with us and in what He tells us in the Bible.”

— Amanda Hovseth

Let me say this about the Book of Revelation: we can see this passage as judgment. It is a judgment scene. But here's the beautiful thing about understanding the heart of God, it is absolute Grace.

The fact that this passage is even in the Bible…not having people know that judgment's coming…that would be that would be like, “Oh, surprise! You’ve now got to answer for your life.”

That would be a bad surprise.

A good God; a loving God, is going to say, “Listen, this day is coming. I don't want you to have books, I want your name in The Book of Life. I have done everything I can. I have sent my son. He paid the price. I had the end times happen. I wrung people out. I had churches on every corner. I had your grandma know the truth. I have done what I can. I have done it.”

By putting it in there God is saying, “Get your name in The Book of Life, do it now! Don't wait. You don't know when a bus is coming that you don't see. Get your name in The Book of Life.”

That is a good thing, that's a good God, it's not just put in to be a judgment scene.

So, this is week three and here's the movements I take when evangelizing—when I lead someone to Christ; help them to become born again:

1) Start with the problem.

The Problem: We have to be holy. You're not holy. No one's holy.

You take this passage—Revelation 20—and you bring it to bear on their life. Stay with the problem, focus on the problem. What's the problem? Be holy. Jesus said that; Peter said it; the Law said it; it's all over the Bible. Be holy. You're not holy.

When Jesus was asked, “What's the most important thing I should know?” He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.”

Destroy the person you're talking to with those two laws. No one you will ever talk to loves the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, and mind. No one, not you, and you're a Believer. Not me, and I'm a pastor. Who loves God with all their mind? You don't. Your mind doesn't go to bad places ever?

Ever love with all your heart? No. With all your passion—everything you are? No.

With all your soul? No. With your whole being—your money, your time, your energy? No.

You should love God above all and always and with all your mind.

No one does that. We might do it for milliseconds and then we're lost.

And, no one loves their neighbors more than themselves.

The guy even asked Jesus who’s your neighbor? Like he was thinking, “I love some of my neighbors.”

Then Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan which teaches that every person in the world who has a need is your neighbor. That was Jesus’ answer, treat whoever needs a neighbor as if they were your neighbor. So, all the needy people of the world.

But, we do not give up our cars for them. We do not cut our celery in half and give half to them and half to ourselves. We don't. We just don't love people like we love ourselves. Most of us, when there's a tiny bit of ice cream left in the freezer, we make sure we eat it so even our children don’t get the last bowl. That's how we don't love our neighbors as ourselves. We don't even love our children as ourselves.

And I'll tell you this, if my kid gets cancer and your kid gets cancer, you will care more about yours than you care about mine. That's just the truth of it.

Point One: is to wreck them.

2) Explain the consequence to the problem.

They're going to stand before God. They're going to answer for their lives. And if they go into that experience and they're counting on their own goodness to get them through, they're done.

Don't let them think that they can go stand before God and their life is going to save them. Their life is going to wreck them. There's an angel who is writing down every single thing we think say or do—including motives—that doesn't measure up. Don't relent on this truth.

You put the weight of holiness squarely on their shoulders—just the weight of holiness.

“You’re not the judge, you are warning them about the coming judgement. You are not the judge, be careful, that’s a big distinction.”

— Bruce Peterson

Don't bring up their own personal sins, you'll just build a wall between you with those. Talk about your sins. Talk about humanity in general. Talk about how no one does it right. Don't go, “Oh, well you're a thief and you're a drunk and you're…” Don't do that. You'll just alienate them. That turns you into their judge, but you’re not the judge, you’re warning them about a judgment which is coming. You’re not the judge, be careful, there's a big distinction.

Put the weight of holiness on them and they will beg for mercy and they will ask for the solution.

Then, here's the beautiful thing, here is the grace of God.

3) Take the weight off of them.

Take all of the weight, all their guilt, all their shame, all their sin, and you just pick it up and you carry it over here and you set it squarely on the shoulders of Jesus. Jesus is the hero. Jesus is the solution.

Because of the great love of God, He sent a Savior: the Lamb.

John 1:29 (ESV)

“The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’”

You show how huge and glorious the sacrifice of Jesus is. You honor Jesus with the credit do Him and the victory that He won. He conquered the books. It’s just amazing.

Paul says Jesus took everything that stood against you— all your legal indebtedness (that's the books) and he nailed it to the cross. God the Father nailed your books to the cross his son died on. What a profound profound love of God. God loves you so much that he took all your books—all your thoughts, all your motives, all your laziness, all of it and he nailed it to his son. Wow! The love of God and the grace of God, it just doesn't get bigger than that.

Make Jesus the hero that He is. Give them the weight of holiness and then take that and put it on Jesus. Jesus can handle it. He can handle the weight of holiness. He is the only holy sacrifice. He is the only pleasing sacrifice. God was satisfied with the death of his son for us.

All your sin, yes, the secret ones, yes, the really terrible ones, yes, even Hitler's sin, yes, all of Hitler's sin was paid for on the cross. That doesn't mean he's in heaven but he might be, who knows. If I can go to Heaven, anyone can go. Because Jesus said hatred is equal to murder and thinking about somebody sexually is equal to adultery. Well then, you are terrible. You're a cheating, lustful, murderer. Savage is what you are.

And greed is equal to idolatry. If you don't love your neighbors as you love yourself—which none of us do because we’re greedy—so we're all idolatrous. And we're all adulterers. And we are all murderers, every one of us.

And Jesus loves us so much that he said, “Give it to me. I will pay it. And I will give you my robes of righteousness so that when you stand before God you have no books.” You will literally stand before God clothed in the holiness of Jesus.

Move the weight of holiness from them to Jesus.

I haven't told this story in a while, but I'll tell it again.

Landon Franklin, if you're listening this is for you buddy.

Way back in youth group I was teaching these exact same verses 20 plus years ago in my old house. And what I do when I'm teaching Junior High, I say, “Who will volunteer to let me witness to them, so you guys can actually watch me do it.”

Landon goes, “Oh, I'll do it.”

He wasn't saved so I was like, “Oh, that's perfect!”

That's what I try to get to happen. I'm going to actually witness to somebody even though they think I'm only practicing and the youth group watches.

Celebration Painting by Priti Gokani | Saatchi Art

So, Landon volunteers, he might have been around 8th grade, so he is old enough to be bad enough to care. And we get to this point where I take the weight off them an put it on Christ. He literally started crying and he got out of his chair and was jumping up and down and he said, “The weight is gone! The weight is gone! I'm free!”

He was literally celebrating in my living room in front of his peers, saying, “Wow! that was amazing news!”

It's not that dramatic to everyone, but that happens. It is a dramatic truth. If I see my real guilt before God and then I finally see Jesus as taking all of the guilt—it's a huge thing.

We sing a song called “Your Great Name” by Natalie Grant:

“The Lost are saved they find their way at the sound of Your Great Name. All condemned feel no shame at the sound of Your Great Name. Every fear has no place at the sound of Your Great Name. Jesus, worthy is the Lamb that was slain for us, the Son of God and man. You are high and lifted up that all the world will praise Your Great Name. All the weak they find their strength at the sound of Your Great Name. Hungry Souls receive grace at the sound of Your Great Name.”

You have a profound Savior.

The lost of this world are loved dearly by God. Jesus loves every one of them and paid as much for them as he paid for anyone.

And he entrusted—this is all over the Bible—you’re ambassadors for Christ.

Peter said in 1 Peter 2:9 (NIV):

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Here's your one job according to Peter: that you might declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness.

If you can't elaborate on the awesomeness of Jesus, what are you doing? Are you asleep? This is a profound truth and it's right there on these papers. Memorize those verses, memorize them!

“You should be able to spew for hours what Jesus has done for you.”

— Bruce Peterson

You should be able to spew for hours what Jesus has done for you.

Sometimes if you just talk about what Jesus has done for you enough someone might say to you, “I want some of that. I want some of that.”

But mostly when you share the Gospel you're going to start with the problem. You're going to say something like, “Hey do you know the confidence I have before God? I know for sure I'm going to heaven when I die. You might think I'm crazy. But. can I tell you why I have that confidence?”

Then put it on yourself:

“I used to be…
“I never loved God the way I should…
“I am guilty of…

You can talk about yourself. They'll understand what you're doing.

Then get to Jesus. You should be able to spew about Jesus for hours. He's amazing.

But, if you stop there your person may or may not be saved and you might give them the impression that it means Jesus paid for everyone’s sin; therefore, everyone is saved.

Which is not true. You have to appropriate Jesus’ payment for yourself.

4) Tell them how the work of Jesus can count for them.

How does Jesus's death to count for you? Would you like credit for Jesus? Would you like Jesus to be your holiness? Would you like him to answer for your sin instead of you? Yes? Okay, so this is the issue of Faith.

It's time to move them to the place where you're going to offer salvation to them and see if they want it.

They might go, “I'm still counting on myself. I really don't think I need it.”

Where would you go to if they did that? Back to number one. “Explain that to me. What exactly are you counting on?” Take them back to number one.

But, if they do want to move forward to learn about salvation, they have to learn that we get salvation by faith.

So, here's the verses we're going to look at and they're amazing verses each in their own right. You should know them. They are classic salvation verses. If I’m going to explain the Gospel there’s just literally no way I’m not referencing these verses. It’s just critical “bread and butter” Gospel presentation verses.

“I will literally say again, “As we read these verses what I want you to notice is how much work you do versus how much work God does. Okay?””

— Bruce Peterson

I will literally say again, “As we read these verses what I want you to notice is how much work you do versus how much work God does. Okay?”

I want them to see how much their life matters in the situation.

I'll just go slowly with them, read the verses and explain them as we go.

Verses don’t speak for themselves. People don’t automatically understand them. There’s words in the Bible they won’t understand. They don’t understand what “grace” is, what “righteousness” is, what “justification” is.

You have to explain those words in the context of the Bible.

I’ll start with Ephesians.

Ephesians 2:1-9 (NIV):

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.

Let’s break it down.

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins..”

Again, I'll ask: What are you doing? You're sinning.

Are you alive or dead? You're dead, obviously, spiritually dead.

When you were far from God and just not caring, living your own life doing whatever you wanted, that's where we start. What are you doing? Sinning.

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.

Who's a sinner? All of us.

Now let me, for theology's sake, clear something up. When you get saved you are no longer a sinner, you're now a saint. The New Testament does not call us sinners; God does not refer to believers as sinners, not all of us as a group. We aren't all still in that category, some of us have been saved. I'm not a sinner. Sinners have books. I don't have books. My name's in The Book of Life. I don't have sin. I am righteous. I am holy and blameless, that's who I am. If you're a believer you are holy and blameless.

Hebrews 8:12 (NIV)

“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

That's a promise. You are holy and blameless. Christ is my righteousness.

Now, do I sin? Yes, oh yeah. I'm good at it too. I like it most of the time. Yeah, I can be honest. I sin, God loves me anyhow. I sin, that doesn't keep me from a relationship with God. I sin all the time, all the time.

Again, I will say I don't think humans have a moment in time when they are not sinning. Because, I am never outside of myself, and; therefore, I'm guilty of my own greed all the time. I don't have to be in the moment where I ignore someone who needs my help, that's just a moment. But, our shortcomings don’t just exist in the moment when we act on them, we're never free of our shortcomings.

We just fall short, but as believers, we're not sinners.

That's Grace. We get credit for Jesus. Real credit that really matters. God doesn't see me as a sinner.

God does see me as needing to grow, needing to mature. I have a long way to go. I don't look like Christ yet and he's building me into the image of Christ. I fall short of that every moment in my life and I always will, even though I can make progress. Growing is a key part of the process, but as believers we're not sinners.

Everyone starts as a sinner, everyone, all of us start there. All of us lived among them at one time gratifying the cravings of our flesh, following its desires and thoughts. That's just saying, you do what you want to do.

What is the governing rule of your life? How do you decide to spend your money? On what you want?

You do what you want; we call that sin.

That's what Adam and Eve did and it has never stopped. People do what they want. It's a problem. We're supposed to do what God wants. If you don't do what God wants every time, it’s sin.

It's a lot of sin, yes it is. We were, by nature, objects of wrath. It's a bad place to be.

Back to Ephesians 2:1-9, what have we done so far? Sin. That's all we've done.

Look at look at what Paul says next:

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions

Where are we? Dead in our transgressions—our sins.

What have we done so far? Sin, that's all.

What did God do? He made you alive with Christ, while you were a sinner. Not after you clean yourself up. Not after you repent. Not after you change. Not after you make some great vow or make some great pilgrimage. No, that’s all nonsense. It’s not what God says. God says, while you were doing nothing, you weren't even born yet, Jesus came and paid your price. God who knows the future tallied up your life. God already tallied your debt.

Why? Because of his great love for you.

This sounds like point two but it ends up in point three:

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

You're saved. It's grace. You can't earn it and you don't deserve it. According to God you're just sinning.

it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus

What did you do in that verse? Nothing.

What are you doing so far? Sinning.

What is God doing so far? He made you alive with Christ. He paid your debt. He raised you up and seated you with Jesus in the Heavenly Realms.

God's done all that and what have you done? Sin.

Hmmm…seems a little unfair, doesn't it?

in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

Why did God do that while you were just rebelling and sinning? Because he wants to be the hero. He wants to show off his love. He wants to show off the victory of Jesus. He wants to brag about Jesus in the age to come. He doesn't want to brag about you, he wants to brag about Jesus. So, he did it while you needed help.

For it is by grace you have been saved,

Here it is, step three:

through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.

You get no credit. As a matter of fact you can only take credit for sin. While you were sinning God did all this work. All this work is amazing and it's all final and complete.

How do you get it? Through faith.

Don't look inside yourself, look outside. You are not your help. The help is not inside of you, it’s external, it’s Jesus.

You're not the hero in your own story; you are not your own salvation. You do not earn your own standing before God.

God, who loves you, is offering you a gift.

What is the gift? Salvation.

What are you being saved from? Your own books.

How do you get it? By grace, which is something amazing that you don't deserve. You get it by accepting it. You can use whatever word you want: “believe”, “trust”, “accept”, “follow “Jesus. Those are all synonymous. Just believe it.

The Gospel isn't magic words, you have to understand the process.

You're guilty.——> You're going to stand before God.——> Jesus loves you, so he took your debt and paid it because you can't.——> Jesus offers that payment as a gift to you.——> Do you want it?

If you did a good job at painting Jesus big, they're going to want it. They might jump up and down, they actually might

Now for the next verse on your handout:

Romans 4:4-8 (NIV)

Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

“Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”

Starting at the begining:

Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation.

This one's easy to explain.

You go to work. At the end of the day, when you get your paycheck, can your boss claim it was a gift? No, he owes it to you. It's not a gift.

God understands that and he's explaining that to us so that we know he understands it so that when he uses the word “gift” we know he means gift. He’s not saying, “If you earn it, I'm going to give it to you, but it's really good so I'm going to call it a gift even though you deserve it.”

No, no, no. God's going to say, “Listen, I know what a gift means and we all know what a gift means: wages are not a gift, they're a debt you owe me. I did the work, pay up.”

However, to the one who does not work…

The one who does not do what God wants—what do we call that? Sin. That's what it is called.

So, what is this person doing? Sinning.

However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly,

“Justified” is probably the best word in the Bible. It means “to be declared innocent”. It's a legal term in Paul's day—to be declared innocent.

It's a ridiculous idea that God will look at me and declare me innocent of what I've actually done. I'm guilty. I'll plead guilty. I’ll throw myself on the mercy of the court. I am guilty.

And God will go, “No, you're not; you're not guilty. Stop doubting me, Bruce. You're not guilty, you're innocent. Jesus became your sin and—when you accepted it—you became his righteousness.”

Jesus is guilty of those sins. That's why sinning is so gross, because I literally make Jesus guilty of that.

And, yeah, he already paid it. I get it. And I won't have to pay it. But, do I want to see Jesus doing the things I'm imagining doing?

Remember:

to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly,

What are we doing? We're doing the ungodly stuff.

What is God doing? Declaring us innocent.

Of what? everything that's ungodly.

That's ridiculous, I know.

their faith is credited as righteousness.

Faith is credited=counted as goodness. Your faith is counted as perfection.

What are you actually doing with your behavior? Sin.

But you've accepted the payment—which is a massive gift—and by accepting it, you now stand in Christ and everything here in Christ is righteous.

However, to the one who does not work…

All they're going to do is trust that God will declare them innocent and declare them righteous.

Would you like that? Would you like to be innocent?

If you're innocent, can you have books in Heaven with all your sins written in them which you will have to give account for some day? No, you cannot. You cannot have books and be innocent. You can't have both. so you either have books or your name's in The Book of Life.

Would you like to have your name written down in the Book of Life? How would you love that? Yes, I would like that very much.

David says the same thing when he speaks of “the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works.” David even had a clue about this message of grace because David sinned badly and God let him off the hook and David's like, “Wait a minute…that's not how this thing's supposed to work…?”

David gets a glimpse into Grace and here's what David writes:

Psalm 32:1-2a (NIV)
Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the LORD does not count against them…

How would you like to not have any of your sin count against you? What do you have to do?

…to the one who does not work but trusts God…

That's it. Accept the gift. Would you like to accept the gift?

Let me read you some more verses so that you don't think I'm just cherry picking. I'll actually say those words, “Let me show you some more…let me keep showing you more…”

Romans 6:23 (NIV)

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

It doesn't get clearer…or it doesn't get more succinct, rather.

You sin. It's getting written down. You're going to stand before God, which means trouble (death) for you. God doesn't want you in trouble because he loves you. So, the gift of God is eternal life, not eternal death—eternal life.

Would you like to go from death To life? It's a gift from God.

Would you like this gift?

“The gift is: You can stand before God innocent of your guilt.”

— Bruce Peterson

If I were going to offer you a gift, what would you have to do to make it your own? You'd have to put your hands out. You'd have to receive it. You'd have to accept it. You'd have to trust it. You'd have to believe me. Whatever word you want to use, God is offering you a gift today.

The gift is: He will take the weight of Holiness off of you and he will put it on Jesus and that payment will count for you. You can stand before God innocent of your guilt.

That's a good gift.

John 3:16-18 (NIV)

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

I'll try to put their name in there as I read these verses:

For God so loved Kim that he gave his only one and only son so that if Kim would believe in him, he wouldn't perish but have eternal life…

You're trying to make it personal.

If Kim would believe…

It's a gift, Kim, you’ve got to choose it. You’ve got to believe it. If you do, you will not go to the Lake of Fire, you will go to Heaven. You'll have eternal life not eternal death. This is good news; it's outrageous news.

But, you have to choose it.

Why would God make it so you have to choose?

The answer is the whole thing—the whole plan—this is the Book of Romans and the Book of Revelation. This is the Sons of God. God created us with free will because we're His children and we're going to reign with Him. He wants us to be able to put on wisdom and to grow, to make choices, to become powerful, to lay down our lives in ministry, to lay down our wealth for the spread of the Gospel.

That's Jesus talking. “I'm here to accomplish this,” Jesus said, “God so loved you, he sent me. And just like the snake in the wilderness has to get lifted up I'm going to get lifted up for you.” (John 3:14 paraphrased; referencing Numbers 21:4-9)

“I'm going to get lifted up for you.” I don't know how easily that rolled off of Jesus lips. Did he quiver, even then? Did he not like to think about that day? I'll bet he didn't. But he did love to think about the love of God.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Jesus was saying, “I'm not here to condemn the world. I'm not here as your judge now. I'm here to save you. I'm here to save you. I'm the answer. I'm the solution. ‘I'm the way, the truth, and the life, no one gets to the Father but through me (John 14:6).'”

Whoever believes in him is not condemned,

Whoever—what? Believes in him.

….is not condemned

No books. There's no condemnation, you can't have books. If you believe in him you're over here, just a name in Heaven in the Book of Life.

Whoever believes…

If you would just believe; if you would accept this gift of God, your name would be in the Book of Life, your books would be destroyed. When you stand before God you would end up in Heaven because all you have is a name and you have become a Son of God.

That's next week's sermon—the results of choosing God’s gift of salvation for yourself.

but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

Why would you stand condemned already if you don't believe? Because you're still following the ways of the world. You're still over here in your sin. All you have before God is books. You're in grave trouble right now.

You should see the mountain of literature on your life, it's not pretty it's really gross. You're in big big trouble. You're not in trouble later, you're in trouble right now. You just don't see it coming. The Mack truck is literally inches from you and it's going a thousand miles an hour and all you keep doing is putting fuel on that fire. You're in grave trouble.

I'm already out of trouble. My books are already gone.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe…

You don't have a way out.

What is your payment? If you're not going to accept Jesus, what is left for you to pay with?

They might say, “My life.”

Well, let's go over that again. Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And love your neighbors as yourself.” And if you do those things you're going to be okay. How are you doing?

We are right back to that. You’re doing terrible at it.

Let's actually look at your life, let's actually talk to your wife. Let's talk to your actual neighbors. Do they like your dog? Do they like your cats? Do they love your hoarding? Do they love the broken down cars, the trailer that’s parked in front of their house? How are you doing as a neighbor? Do you even talk to them? Have you even shared the Gospel? Because, if you haven’t, you're a terrible neighbor.

“Love your neighbor.” You're in trouble. But notice—you're in trouble based on what you believe and not by what you do. You don't have a way to pay for your sins, because you refuse to believe. The issue is belief.

That's step three, you're driving home belief. It can't be clearer than that and if it is still not clear to them, just a couple verses later in the same book is our last verse. It's John 3:35-36 and it's crystal clear.

John 3:35-36 (NIV)

The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.

Jesus is the solution. God loves him. God affirms him. He’s like, “It's all about Jesus.”

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.

“You call God a liar when you say Jesus isn’t the solution.”

— Bruce Peterson

Problem #1 God is Holy and He doesn't excuse sin.

Sin must have a payment and you're either going to pay your debt or you're going to believe in God's solution. You're going to trust the wisdom of God. Trust that He knows your debt and solved your debt through Jesus.

Here it is and I can keep going like this all day long. I’ll say, “If you want a hundred more verses that say you have to make a choice. That what God wants most is for his people, the people he created, is to trust, to use their wisdom to believe Him. God wants to be believed.”

You call God a liar when you say Jesus isn't the solution.

Jesus said, “I'm the solution.”

You just add more stuff to your books.

Here it is, you want the sun? It's a free gift.

If you stand before God on the basis of your own behavior, you're done, you're just done.

God loves you so much. I love you. But, God loves you more than I love you and God wants you to be part of His family. So He has offered you Grace. He's offered you the greatest gift possible—the gift of eternal life, the gift of holiness.

Will you accept it?

I'll tell you right now, this is the hardest part in the whole Evangelistic process, the last bit once you get done with these verses, the bit where you go, “So, what do you say? Do you want it? Or, don't you?”

This closing bit is difficult, so here's what I do and you can figure out your own way if you want.

I say this, “So, does that make sense to you?”

And they'll go, “Yeah, I get what it's saying. I get the thing”

So I just ask them a couple questions. I say, “Okay, so if you were to die right now and stand before God and He would say to you, ‘Why should I let you into Heaven?’ What would you say?”

If they say something like, “You know, I don't know right now.” …and that happens, I've had that happen… “I don't know right now. This is a lot, it's a lot. I need to think about it. I don't know how to answer.”

If they answer like that, it’s important to be cool.

I'd go, “Okay, great! If you decide, I would love to know that. I would love to learn that you actually believed. But, it's okay, you know, God wants you to think about it. This is a choice. That's a lot of truth I just dropped on you.”

This has been three sermons for me, but it’s usually just one conversation. It's a two and a half hour conversation I've just had with somebody.

“So, yeah, take your time think about it. But, here's what I'd recommend: don't die until you make a decision. Literally do safe things for a little while until you're settled on this issue.”

If they answer correctly right away—which—a lot of people are going to be able to answer right. But they might be answering just because they know what you want to hear. They might just be saying it right back.

I would answer, “Jesus is the solution, trust in Jesus.”

I'm never going to tell someone they're saved. What I'll do is follow up with a second question sometimes.

Because I never actually come out and say it, they would have to put the pieces together, so I say to them, if they answer the first one right, “Well who do you think goes to hell then?”

Usually they have to pause because I've only been talking about how to go to Heaven. I haven't been talking about who goes to Hell—not directly. If they've followed me though that's self-evident. And, if they followed, if they really have agreed with step one, if they just got saved, they can almost always answer this question without a problem.

They say, “Well…those who don't believe in Jesus.”

Then you go, “Okay, awesome, I love that you understand!”

Then I'll say, “If you believe that, if you just chose to believe that…that’s faith. You don't have to muscle through. It doesn't mean you're not going to question it later, it just means if you understand this and want this, then that's what God calls faith. And, if you just chose to have faith in Christ’s sacrifice…”

This is when I explain to them all the things which just happened for them.

“If you believe that, if you have done that today, your name just got written down in the Book of Life…”

Then I go into next week's sermon.

In “How to Lead Someone to Christ (Part 4)” We will talk about all of the wonderful things which happen for someone when they first believe in Jesus.

Click here for “How to Lead Someone to Christ (Part1).

Click here for “How to Lead Someone to Christ (Part2).

Click here for “How to Lead Someone to Christ (Part 4)”.

This series of blog posts titled, “Holding on to Reason”, is named after Amanda’s favorite C.S. Lewis quote: “Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.”

Click here for more things written or transcribed by Amanda Hovseth.