Page 51 - Personal Spiritual Life Syllabus w videos

Romans 10-9-11 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your
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heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is
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justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who
believes in him will not be put to shame.”

A special NOTE:

Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I
will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

In many Gospel presentations, the presenter will use this verse to help the person understand that they
need to ask Jesus into their heart to be saved. Please do not use the verse in your Gospel witness.
Why? First, there is no place in the Bible where a person is to “ask Jesus into your heart” for salvation.
The emphasis of verses is to BELIEVE, RECEIVE, TRUST, and CALL UPON! The concept of Jesus coming
into a person’s heart is not only confusing, but inaccurate. When a person receives Christ, the HOLY
SPIRIT comes to indwell the believer. Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven
making intercession for us as our mediator. He does not come down into each person’s heart. You also
must remember that God is omnipresent. That means He is everywhere at all times. He does not just
reside in the heart of the believer.

The second reason you don’t want to use this verse is that in context, the verse is written to the Church
of Laodicea. This was a literal Church who had walked away from their love for Christ and believers
there were lukewarm in their faith. They had, more or less, excluded Jesus from their daily walk and
become worldly. So in Jesus’ plea to this church of believers, He was telling them that while He was
outside knocking, He would be willing once again to step into the doors of the church and renew
fellowship with them. This verse in context has NOTHING to do with an act toward salvation. To use it
to tell people they need to “ask Jesus into their heart” is a misuse of this Scripture and a violation of
Biblical hermeneutics.

Conclusion

Salvation is offered to every man as a GIFT, to be received. Just as a person reaches out and takes a gift
into his hands at Christmas, so also he receives the Gift of Eternal Life and forgiveness. He simply, by
faith, recognizes his need for a Savior. He must acknowledge that He is a sinner and has defied the
Living God in his life, which leads to repentance. He must understand that the penalty for sin has been
dealt with at the Cross of Christ. Jesus offers the GIFT of salvation as a free gift. The person in belief
reaches out to God and receives what Jesus Christ has done for him or her, not by working for it, but in
simple faith, believing. At that moment of belief, the person is declared righteous before God.

Remember, witnessing to the lost world is the MOST IMPORTANT duty that Jesus Christ left for us to do.
Be faithful in every aspect of your life!

Relationships with Friends and Family – Fellowship
(Some information comes from an article on Christian Fellowship, Bible.org https://bible.org/article/christian-
fellowship)

In Acts 2:42 we read that one of the four things the early church devoted itself to was “fellowship.” The
Bible has a lot to say about this topic and gives a very important reason for meeting together. Before we

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