by Jack Hyles
Let me explain. Often I’ve gone out to win souls and asked, “Are you a Christian?” If he said, “Yes, I am,” I would let it go at that. But some people will answer yes to “Are you a Christian?” who are not really Christians and you need to get the Gospel to them. To do this, we must get to a verse like Romans 3:10. I’ve got to figure some way to get to Romans 3:10 and get them to let me tell them how to be saved. Do you see what I mean? Let me illustrate. A family comes to talk to me and I know they are lost. “Brother Hyles, we have a home problem. Do you know any Bible verses that would help our home?”
“Ah, yes. There is a verse in the Bible that will help anybody’s home. Turn to Romans 3:10.”
Somebody comes in, “Brother Hyles, my business is going bankrupt. What does the Bible say about business?”
“Ah, it says a great deal about business. The best Scriptures about business in the Bible begin at Romans 3:10.” Then tell them about Jesus. He will solve any problem.
Now, let me give you an illustration that will prove what I am trying to say. This is the only time that it has ever happened but it is a most vivid illustration to explain this point.
I went to visit a family. Let’s call the name Hill. It was up on the second floor of an apartment building. They had three lovely children. I walked in and said, “How do you do, Mr. Hill. Are you a Christian?” “Oh, yes,” he said. “I was saved when I was three years old.”
Well, I didn’t know what to say. Then I asked Mrs. Hill, “Are you a Christian?”
“Oh, yes,” she said. “I was saved when I was a baby.” Well, now I didn’t think they were saved. If they had said they weren’t Christians, I could have showed them Romans 3:10 but I couldn’t when they said they were Christians. So I asked, “Have you been born again?” Oh, yes; both of them were born again. He was born again when he was three; she was born again when she was a baby.
“Have you been converted, saved?”
That’s right; they had been saved.
“If you died, do you know if you would go to Heaven?”
Yes, yes; they knew if they died they would go to Heaven. Well, I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to get to Romans 3:10. So I said, “Well, let me ask you this: Do you ever wish you knew how to pray? If I could show you some Scriptures on prayer, would you be willing to learn how to pray better?”
I was going to show them a good Scripture about prayer—Romans 3:10– but she said, “Oh, we have family altar and private devotions; we took a correspondence course on prayer recently.”
“Well,” I said, “did you ever wish you had a Bible study, some Scriptures to show you how to study the Bible?”
If they had said, “No, we don’t study the Bible much,” I was going to say, “Listen, there are some Scriptures that will unlock the entire Bible and the first one is Romans 3:10.”
But she said, “Oh, yes; we are taking a Bible course right now, a correspondence course.”
I tried every way I could to get to Romans 3:10, but I couldn’t do it. I said, “Well, is your home what it ought to be? Would you love to have some Scriptures on the home—how to have a better home and a good Christian home?” I was going to show them Romans 3:10– how it would lead you to have a better home, etc. I couldn’t do it, so I prayed, “Lord, help me.” Finally I said, “This is a good home. You have been born again; you are converted; you have been saved; you pray and you are taking Bible study courses. You know, there is one thing that a home like this ought to have.”
They asked what.
I said, “A formal dedication service.”
Now that sounded good to them, and Mr. Hill said, “Honey, that sounds real good.
When could we schedule that?”
I said, “It so happens that I have one of the services with me right now.”
He said, “Could we do it here?”
I said, “We can do it right here.”
Listen, she went in and changed clothes, combed her hair, put clean little dresses and shirts on the children. They came in like a group going to Sunday School. I said, “Now, then, we’re going to read some Scriptures on home dedication. It says in Romans 3:10, “As it is written, there is ‘no home’ righteous, no, not one.” In Romans 5:12 it says that sin came into the first home and it was the first home that brought the first curse upon man. I went through the same old Scriptures, Romans 3:10, 5:12, 6:23, 5:8, and I said, “Those are Scriptures about the dedication of the home. Now would you like to pray a prayer of home dedication?”
They said that would be real nice. So we all got on our knees. I prayed and then said, “Mr. Hill, you want to pray a prayer of dedication for you home, don’t you?”
“Yes, sir,” he said.
I said, “Mr. Hill, this is the prayer to say: ‘Dear Lord, be merciful to me a sinner and forgive my sins and save my soul. I do now repent of my sins and trust Jesus to save me.’” He prayed the prayer. She prayed the same prayer. We got off our knees and they were both crying. I said, “That’s wonderful! Now you said you were saved when you were three, didn’t you?” Mr. Hill looked at me and said, “No, I just got saved a minute ago.” That is a long way around to get the Gospel to them without them wanting it if you don’t think they are saved.
Let me say this also. If you can’t get it to them, I have what I call a long plan and a short plan. In the long plan I read the Scriptures; in the short plan I quote them. For example, I say, “Would you like to be a Christian?” He says, “No, I don’t think I would.”
I say, “If I were to show you in the Bible, would you be willing to look at it?”
“No,” he says.
“Well, let me ask you this question.” (Now that is the secret. Every soul winner ought to learn that little sentence, “Let me ask you THIS question.”) I was previously going to take the Bible and show him these Scriptures, but he says he doesn’t want to see them. So I say, “If you don’t want to know the plan, let me ask you THIS question: Do you realize that Romans 3:10 says that there is none righteous, no, not one?” I’m doing the same thing that I was going to do. He thinks, “Boy, I sure got him off the subject; he is not going to show me how to get saved.” He thinks you are off the subject. So if you can’t use the long method, use the short method. Just back up and take another path and go at him from another direction, but get the plan to him. Then you can go to him with the short method where you quote the same Scriptures but do not read them.
by Jack Hyles from the book Let’s Go Soulwinning