WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?

At the moment when i preach the gospel, I go through the following sequence:

sin-law-death-judgment-hell

then God's Amazing Grace, John 3:16-17.

My problem is that im not sure what to tell the sinner to do once they have heard eveything there is to hear.

They see and understand they are a sinner, they are convicted in their conscience- they understand the substitutional death of Christ for them on the cross and that he paid for their sins and that grace is being offered to them.

How do they apply the grace to their life?

If i were to tell my wife there is shampoo in the bathroom and that she can use it, its no use until she applys it to her hair. How does the sinner apply the shampoo of Gods offer??

If i say just believe- is that enough?

some say believe and recieve(saying a sinners prayer)- will a prayer be enough? even a prayer from the heart?

some say belive and repent

some say believe and obey.

B.H Clendennan says:
the message of the Cross has two sides

(1) Good news to be believed.
(2) Commandments to be Obeyed.

"..Obviously faith is necessary for the first and Obedience to the second. The only thing we can do with a promise of eternal life and forgiveness of sins is to believe.

To believe the message that has been preached. It is impossible to obey a promise or a truth,for it is not addressed to our will power but to our understanding.

It is equally impossible to believe a command, it is not adressed to the understanding but to the will..."

(1)John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him.

These are 2 scriptures that have been on my mind recently regarding the answer to the question

"what must i do to be saved?"

(2)
Act 17:30-31 Truly, then, God overlooking the times of ignorance, now He strictly commands all men everywhere to repent,because He has appointed a day in which He is going to judge the world in righteousness by a Man whom He \tappointed, having given proof to all by raising Him from the dead.

Act 26:20 But to those first in Damascus, and Jerusalem, and to all the country of Judea, and to the nations, I made known the command to repent and to turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance.

Id be glad to hear what you brothers have to say regarding this subject. I take the preaching of the gospel very seriously and i want to make sure what i preach is pure. I dont want to lay emphasis on anything that the new testamant doesnt.

praying for wisdom, rod.

I just feel to say from my heart is keep it simple, God is so simple yet we make things hard for our selves and others, in Romans 10:9 - that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

how simple those people you spend your time with preaching the gospel only have to acknowledge and confess Jesus is lord and believe that he was raised from the dead and they are saved, Go with what God is telling you brother, God knows who have recieved him into thier lives, you just have to do your Job and trust and know God is doing the rest. God Bless. :-)

I have been in the ministry for around a year, done some one on one, and handed out lots of tracts, and so far I have never had anyone ask me those words (though I have often wanted them to).

Those words were spoken in the book of Acts after the jailer was scared for his life, and he had seen the preachers that cast out demons, that got beat up for preaching the gospel, and get thrown into jail. Then did they pray before the jail shook. Some often say that if you tell anyone anything more that 'believe,' you have gone too far, and I would say this depends. In the case of the jailer, he was scared, he was ready.

If the person in question is still arrogant, self-righteous and proud, they are not ready to be told to believe. If it is apparent they are under convinction, or they recognize their own inability to face God righteously at the judgment, they are ready.

There is no magic way to say it. I think John R Rice does the best job of painting what is necessary to be saved when someone is ready. He says things like (paraphrased):

-The only way you can be saved is if you stop trying and let Jesus do the saving.

-If you try to be saved through going through all the ceremonies and bobble just once, your sunk. If Jesus does the saving, and He bobbles just once, your sunk. (But Jesus wouldn't bobble, they say). Then wouldn't you prefer His kind of salvation?

In my opinion, some of the best words are: "It is finished." This is why Jesus is SEATED on the right hand of the Father, because His work is done.

Hebrews 6 tells us the foundation is this: Repentance from dead works and faith toward God.

Salvation is not just giving our sins to Christ and expecting God to give us eternal life while our heart's desire it to go back to our sin. We are bought with a price, the precious blood of Christ. Yet we act as if all Christ died for was so our sins could be washed away.

How me-centered our theology has become.

Christ died to reconcile us to God, to himself, so that we would be His people and He would be our God. Call them to repent and surrender their lives to Christ.