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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the You can reach us toll-free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the Bibleignmenistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Well tonight we are on Lecture 11 in our personal evangelism class. And so you also have a copy of our notes for today. And it’s on the interesting subject on how to handle objections. You finally have learned a few verses, you have gotten up the courage to go talk to a victim, you’re scared to death, you’re trembling and you’re afraid somebody’s going to ask you a question. That can be devastating because the last thing you want to be able to say is, I don’t know.

And then you want to just run home. But there is a way of handling some of these as you go through your life and don’t expect everything to be done the first six months of learning something. Remember, these are tried and true methods that have been done for years and years and years. But you are going to have to find out what works for you. Some answers, they work good for some people, but you’re different. You need to find something that you’re comfortable with, whether in order to open a conversation, to sustain that conversation by answer and objections or what scriptures you use, how you present the gospel but make sure you do and then how to draw the net.

You’ve got to get the fish in the boat. Let a car salesman want to get you to, he doesn’t care about anything else that he showed you, how you test right, can he get you to sign on the dotted line? That’s what he’s after, right? Sign on that dotted line. So you and I, we want the person to sign on the dotted line. We want to get them to say, yes, I will trust Christ as my Savior. We want to be a sole winner.

We want to convince, persuade. So if you look there, in order to help you always try to remember these little bitty things at the beginning, relax. Don’t get so uptight. I try to tell kids when they’re going to speak and do public speaking, be relaxed. If you walk up to the microphone and you’re scared and you’re tense, they will be too. You’re shaking, they start shaking for you. But if you can open up with a little joke maybe and then everybody laughs, they relax and they laughing with you, hopefully not at you.

And so you learn what to say and what not to say, but relax. Number two here is resist. Resist the know it all attitude where you think I am the expert, you’re the dummy and you are just privileged to have me talk to you. You may feel like we don’t come across that way because most people do not like it and or an argumentative tone. Sometimes you can say the the thing that’s truth and right, but you said in such a way that it turns people off, so you got to be careful of that.

And expect objections. Not everybody is just going to swoon when you start talking to them. They’re going to have some objections in some way. And so a good soul winner is a good listener. You listen to what they have to say. And then you recognize these objections for what they are. Generally it’s to chase a rabbit. It means they want to change the subject. A diversion, it’s a technique that they use when they don’t want to talk about religious things.

They… Talk about something else or ask you another question. You’ve got to be the soul winner and you lead a person to the Lord by taking the lead. You want them to follow you, not you follow them. So you have to know when and how to make a natural point of departure from talking about the natural things into spiritual things. So have fun. Some of these common objections that people have is I don’t believe in God. So therefore, now you’re going to set out, now I’m going to prove you that God exists.

No, no, don’t go so fast. Remember, you’re not alone. A lot of people don’t believe in God. Tell me, why don’t you believe in God? Now what have I just done? I put the monkey on their back. So do me trying to prove there is a God, well why don’t you believe in God? it would be because they may have a simple little thing because I don’t see why God made my hair stand straight up and I got a cow lick.

I know some kids that look like they cow lick their whole head. So you want to find out it may not be that they need all these evidences it’s just might be something simple. Remember this in the book of Genesis in chapter 1 and verse 1 in the beginning God created heavens and the earth. There’s the evidence. That’s all the evidence you need that there’s a God. Why? Somebody made it. It’s here. Did you do it? You didn’t do it, did you?

Well, I didn’t do it. And so it’s very easy. Just say, look, when God created the heavens and the earth, He laid down all of His tracks that leads to Him so that you’ll know that there is a God. But you’ve got to keep things clear, simple, easy to follow, easy to understand. Don’t get so tied up into things. Don’t get tied up in little knots. Look at the next little statement we have here. You’ll notice there at the number two, I don’t believe the Bible.

I don’t believe the Bible. Well, that’s your privilege. A lot of people don’t believe the Bible. But you know and you believe that the Bible is true. And so sometimes you can ask a simple question like, may I ask you what you believe is the main message of the Bible? Do you know what the main message is of the Bible? You don’t believe the Bible because did you know what the main message is of the Bible? And so you would boil it down to what is the gospel?

Because you know that that’s the main message of the Bible. How a man can get to go to heaven when he dies. And it’s not by his goodness, not by his worst. See most people think when you start talking to them you’re just got another religious spill and you’re trying to get them to join your church or give money and to change the way they live and you just want to tell them about some good news of how they can go to heaven because of what Christ did for them.

See most people think all the religions are just after them for something. They want to get something from them. And you want to let them know that you don’t want anything from them, you have something you want to offer them. You want them to see what God has to give to them. And sometimes, like the next statement, why don’t you believe the Bible is true? They may have a very simple question that you can answer and get right back.

Now, if they do happen to ask you a question and you don’t know the answer, fake it, bluff them. No. No, because if they know you’re wrong, they’ll know you’re dishonest. They’ll know you’re lying. And you don’t want that to happen. And the last statement down here, may I share with you some reasons the Bible was written, and then you can make an intelligent decision whether to accept it or reject it. I had a man who says, I’m an atheist, thank God.

Okay. So he’s an atheist. And I told him I says, You can be an atheist if you want, but there is some verses in the Bible and you have to be careful how you use them because when it says a fool have said in his heart there is no God. God has your number. He has something he said about you. Well, where is that in the Bible? Well, he called you even by name. Now, you don’t want to say things that’s going to rile a person or just to irritate them when you don’t have to.

and so be very careful of that. Look at number three on the back. There are so many errors, there’s so many mistakes and contradictions in the Bible and so one simple little question is name one. For example, And majority of people cannot name one. Oh, the Bible’s just full of them. It’s just full of them. Well, then you shouldn’t have any problem finding me just one, would you? Can you find me just one? And you put the monkey on the back and they’ll find out, I said, you’re letting them know thatpez you’re willing to listen.

Show me. And then see if I can answer the question for you. But majority of the people, they really don’t know the Bible. They’re the only polypeared in what somebody else has said about them. Now, if they do ask your question that you do not know, there’s a little statement here. That was a good question and I am not prepared to answer it at this time. However, I’ll try to get the answer and get back to you. And when I have been in a meeting and I’ve had people ask me a question that I really don’t know the answer to and I can’t get to it, I don’t always tell them that I don’t know the answer, you know that is a good question.

And as soon as we finish this little subject we’re on right here, remind me and we’ll deal with that. Okay? So I didn’t say I could or I couldn’t, but I put the monkey on their back to you remind me when we get through. So if we never get to it, oh you forgot to remind me of that. So it’s not always on you. And also try to always keep everything between them and the Bible. You always want to show them what the Bible says, what God has to say.

So it’s not between you and me. We’re going to just argue. Well, this is what God says. See, your argument that you have is with God. This is why you have to develop a good working knowledge of the Bible so it works for you. The next little statement here is, do not bluff your way. If they know you’re wrong, they will know you’re dishonest because they know you’re wrong and they know that you know that they know you’re wrong.

So don’t try to bluff things. Just be honest and above board. And when you don’t know some, just say you know that’s a good question. I don’t have the answer to that. But I know this. I’ve had people say you know I don’t believe the Bible. You know that’s your prerogative and a lot of people don’t believe the Bible. But you know he says in Ephesians 2, 8, 9, in Cotea, 8, 9, 4, by grace, so you’re safe to face.

In other words, like somebody walking to you and I got my sword in my hand and he walks up and he says, I don’t believe that sword will cut. So what should he do? Well throw it down. No, start cutting on the enemy. Just start, did you know in John 3, 16, do you know Ephesians 2, 8, 9? on 513 says, use the word, the sword of the Spirit, the word of God. It’s what the Holy Spirit uses, He uses the sword.

So don’t throw away your weapon, just because, well, I don’t believe the Bible. Okay, I mean, I can’t use the Bible. No, you go ahead and use the word of God. That’s what it’s for. Look at the next statement. Number four, the Bible was just written by men and there are so many different interpretations. So that’s always a good reason not to believe the Bible because it was written by so many different men and there’s so many different interpretations.

So that’s always a good one. Remember this and this is a little statement I want you to write this down in your notes. You may not be able to prove everything you believe. Just not a making of it. You may not be able to prove everything you believe. I really can’t prove there’s a God. There’s enough evidence for me, but my evidence may not be enough of an evidence for somebody else. So I know it’s enough for me to believe and I can believe that the Bible is the Word of God.

And though it’s had 35, 40 different writers over a period of 1600 years, there’s only how many authors of the Bible, only one author. And who is the author of the Bible? That’s God. And so men were moved by the Holy Spirit and they wrote the scriptures. And so we still have some Hebrew today and we still got some Greek today and so did King James that we use is only, that’s one translation. So it’s not because of millions of translations over the years and nobody knows, see that’s not true.

That’s what people have heard and it’s not true. Look at the next statement, just this word you can underline it, the word history. You can use history. The next statement is useful for prophecy. You can use prophecy. And also the next statement, remember the Bible has many writers, only one author. God wrote this, that’s why this is called the Word of God. It’s God’s Word. It’s God’s mind on paper. And so you have to put your confidence in the Word and that’s revealed by your using the Word.

Look at number five. How many times I’ve had people say, I don’t believe in heaven. I don’t believe in heaven. Well, are you saying you don’t believe in life after death? Well, and I usually ask the question, have you died before? So, well, no. Then how do you know there is no life after death? Where’s there life here before you were born? How do you know there isn’t life after you die? Just because you didn’t know that there was even life before you were born, you don’t know there isn’t life after you die.

True? So if they want to use some logic, you can use a little bit of logic, but you don’t want to trust and rest in your logic. You’re still always got to get them back to what the word of God says. Now, a good question to ask, and you can underline this there in your notes, why don’t you believe in heaven? Why don’t you believe in heaven? because my kitty cat died, because if God loved me, He wouldn’t let my kitty cat die.

Some people have the stupidest reasons for not believing in heaven. So you don’t laugh, you don’t make fun of them, but just listen to what the reasons may be. Because a good sinner has to learn to listen and also you try to prepare as much as you can, but you’ve also got to believe that the Lord can help you come with some answers on the spur of the moment you never even thought about. You’d be surprised how many times it’s like the Lord has just given me things to say I never studied for or prepared for.

Or I’m talking to somebody and all of a sudden a verse will come into my mind. Did you know there’s somebody else trying to do some soul winning and he wants to use you and he can help you to remember things, call them or think of a statement to make and so forth that you never even thought about. Later on you say, you know, that was good. I need to write that down because you don’t know it didn’t come from you back in guarantee.

It didn’t come from the devil. Sometimes you will have some wonderful thoughts and it can help you the next time you witness on how to use that certain statement, but try to be a good soul winner. Or somebody says, you know, well, there is no heaven. Is that true? Well, there’s nothing absolute. Are you sure about that?

There’s nothing absolute. Are you sure about that? See, most people don’t think about what they’re saying. They just copy what somebody else has said. But you’re different because you can discern some of these things and it’ll help you tremendously. All right, look at number six. Number six, there are people that will say, I don’t believe in hell. Don’t believe in hell. And generally, you can ask them this question, do you believe in heaven? Oh, yeah, I believe in heaven.

But you don’t believe in hell. I don’t believe in hell. Well, the one who said there was a heaven, is the same one that said there is a hell. So you mean you’ll believe part of what he says, but not the other part of what he says. Isn’t Jesus the one who talked about hell more than he talked about heaven? So it is there. And here’s a little statement you can underline it there in your notes. Psychiatrists tell us the number one fear of the human heart is what’s going to happen to me when I die.

Of all the things that they have in life and all the struggles and trial, people still, number one fears, where am I going when I die? What happens to me when I die? Because see, if you’ve never died before and nobody’s come back from the dead to tell you what it’s like, well, you’ve got to imagine what it’s going to be like or if it’s nothing. It’s just like when I go to sleep and I don’t know anything. But have you died before?

Well, no. Then you don’t know that’s true. So why not listen to at least one person who did die and came back from the dead? If he came back from the dead, there must be life after death. And as far as I know, there’s only been one person that’s, um, thing back from the dead on his own power. Who was that? I bet you don’t know. Jesus Christ. God in the flesh. So he’s the one that told us, and that’s why we need to believe what he has to say.

What’s going to happen to me when I die? I believe in hell because God says it exists and Jesus spoke about it more than he did about heaven. And he says, it’s a literal place and it’s eternal punishment. It’s not a place that I would want to go to. But you see, some people, they want to witness, but they want to shy away from the subject of hell. Now, just about every time whenever I do the Wall of Illustration, I always say, and the wages of sin is death.

Eternal separation from a literal fire burning hell. You ever hear me say that? Because see, if there is no hell, there’s no need of a Savior. Why do I need a Savior to keep me from going to a place that don’t exist? There must be a hell. That’s why I need a Savior. And so it is very important to cover this. Look at number seven. I’ve had people say, well, I just can’t believe that God would ever see this children to hell.

I agree with you. has never and never will send any of his children to hell. But in the book of Romans in chapter 9 and verse 8, they that are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God. Not everybody in the world is a child of God. And sometimes you’ll hear people talk about, you know, we’re all the children of God. I’ve heard Hannity say that. I’ve heard O’Reilly say that. We’re all the children of God.

No, we’re not. You’re a child of God if you trust in Christ as your Savior and if you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior you’re not a child of God and God is not your Father. He’s your Father if He fathered you. He is my Creator but when I trusted Him as my Savior He gave me a new birth and a new birth without a sinful nature. So my new birth doesn’t have a sinful nature. That’s why it doesn’t sin doesn’t sin it doesn’t die doesn’t die it lives forever.

My new birth is born of God. I still got so fresh birth I’ve been dragging around for 75 years now. One of these days I’m gonna just leave it some place and y’all can have it. But the statement there you are so right none of his children will ever be cast into hell. Now many of these points down through here you’re gonna read those and study those on your own because you need to figure out how to answer these objections because it could mean the difference between heaven and hell for a person who can you can remove that obstacle out of their way.

Remember people are blind and some of these things cause them to have a blind spot. They don’t see the truth of the gospel because of this problem and so what you want to try to do is remove that obstacle. Now look down at number eight. What about all the hypocrites in the church? Boy do I get this one. Well I always say we have room for one more but I don’t tell them that I think that. No. And so if you look there at the one little statement I’ll be the first to agree that there are hypocrites in the church and there are hypocrites where you work and there’s hypocrites at the restaurant, there’s hypocrites at the gas station, and the grocery store, and the neighbors, and maybe where you live.

So if you don’t want to be a hypocrite, you’re not gonna go there either, are you? Ch-chop. But you do it in a nice way. You have to figure out how to do it. See, a good politician is somebody that can stomp on your shoes and take off the shine and then have you thank them for it. They’re that good. They can walk all over you and you’ll thank them for walking all over you. Now you want to be wise.

You don’t want to hurt somebody. You don’t people to reject the truth of the gospel because you’re sarcastic with them or you’re just argumentative or just mean and ugly. It doesn’t cost but an extra quarter to be extra kind and sweet and nice and and loving and all that. That’s part of so many. You want to win them not to become a barrier where you don’t get the gospel. You might get it out but you don’t get it across and there’s a difference.

So, down at the bottom of the page, right at the very bottom of the page, be careful in allowing this type of question to cause you to attack the person. You’re trying to recognize it as a diversionary tactic that you may not wish to pursue. In other words, there’s hypocrites. Well, let me tell you, and you can go, you know, that’s true. I agree with you. But let me talk to you about going to heaven. You know, there’s no hypocrites in heaven.

There’s no liars in heaven because you see when we get to heaven God says he’ll make us perfect and Everything’s gonna be wonderful in heaven. There’s no more sand. There’s no sorrow. No say you just got rot away from it You don’t have to dwell on it Don’t always feel like you have to answer every question now If it becomes critical and they want to hang on that and not gonna move on until you answer that question answered best We can’t and get off of it.

All right number nine the gospel doesn’t sound reasonable to me. And there’s a lot of things. Well, no, this place called hell, that doesn’t sound reasonable to me. Nothing sounds reasonable to me. This whole thing about, oh, I got to do it, believe it. You got to be more than that. That’s just not reasonable. What you mean is, is this this sound too good to be true? Think about it. You can go to heaven for all eternity eternal joy and bliss and pleasures forevermore.

That sounds too good to be true. Now I can see why a person would think, you know, that’s just unreasonable. But let me tell you this, what seems unreasonable to me is that somebody would love me that much, that he would send his son into the world to down that cross, pay for all of my sins, and give me as a free gift everlasting life. That is what blows my mind. So you see, you don’t have to put them down, but you can try to explain it a different way, and I think it will help them.

Now you know the natural man received if not the things of the Spirit of God, for their foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them or understand because these things of God are still spiritually discerned, and they don’t have the Spirit. And the Bible says also that the preaching of the cross is foolishness to them, which don’t believe, that believe not. This is why you need to believe all these things that you’re supposed to believe, but you can’t make that person see.

You cannot make a blind man see and don’t mock him for being blind. The only thing that helps them to see is the truth of the gospel. And that’s why you explain it over and over and over again if you have to, because that helps them to see what God is really like. Because you’d be surprised how many people have false ideas about the image of God. They think he’s just maybe a big old mean God. He got up on the wrong side of the bed and he’s got it in for me today.

I mean, God got out of bed and he looked over the banister and he looked down here and he saw me and he said, I’m gonna get you today. And you think God just out to get you. And he’s a bad God. And look at all the problems in the world. It was a good God look at all bad stuff and they got reasons and the devil is also working behind the scenes and so you’re trying to let them see how much God loves them.

Remember God wants to love them through you. So the way you do it is not just the message as Paul says in the book of Thessalonians in Chapter 2. It’s delivering your very soul, your feelings, your compassion, been able to be understood. This is your invitation to join us for our third Sunday dinner held in the Florida Bible College of Tampa building on the Calvary Community Church Campus. The dinner is a family-style Calvary dish dinner and a great way to showcase your favorite dish and pick up new recipes.

Each month, you have the opportunity to invite your family and friends to join us for our Sunday morning service at 1030, and then stay for our third Sunday dinner immediately following noon. Third Sundays at Calvary Community Church, where you’ll be fed spiritually and physically. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now, a closing thought from Pastor Arnold.

Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. And we will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.