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I want to share a story with you

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today, friends, because it shows us how much

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trouble we're really in.

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I tried to join a Southern Baptist Church,

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and it was peculiar in how they would

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enter you into public membership.

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If you wanted to join that church, you

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had to submit to a three-hour new

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member class taught by a staff minister.

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Well, I signed up and showed up and

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was seated in a banquet room with about

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a hundred other people.

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The staff minister greeted us and handed out

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a booklet on the plan of salvation that

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had fill-in-the-blank spaces.

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First, he went around the room and asked

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us about our church background.

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There was quite a hodgepodge of church backgrounds

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there.

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As people said, they came from churches that

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were Methodists and Lutheran and Baptist and Catholic.

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Some were even unchurched completely.

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Then the staff minister gave a long history

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of his church and what they expected of

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us in regard to baptism and serving and

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tithing.

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Then he had us open the plan of

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salvation booklet, and he slowly read it to

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us page by page and had us fill

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in the blanks that were in each paragraph.

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When we got through doing that, he gave

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his personal testimony, how he got saved when

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he was eight years old that he was

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in a Baptist church.

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He responded to the pastor's invitation to become

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a Christian, how he walked the aisle and

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accepted Jesus as his personal Savior.

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As he told the story, his voice broke

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and he shed some crocodile tears, as a

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lot of evangelists tend to do.

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He said he made his mother proud that

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day.

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I glanced around the room and the people

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around me, believe it or not, had tears

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in their eyes.

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That's why TV shows use canned laughter, because

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human emotion often follows imitation.

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Then he made the following statement.

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He said, our church will not allow membership

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unless you have accepted Jesus as your personal

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Savior.

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And if there are some of you here

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today who would like to accept Jesus right

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now, I'm going to give you that opportunity.

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And he asked us to close our eyes

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and bow our heads and raise our hand

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if we wanted to accept Jesus.

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Everybody closed their eyes except me.

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I looked around the room in startlement as

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I saw hands go up all around the

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room.

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Then he closed in a prayer and welcomed

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us to his church.

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Well, I never went back to that church

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again, because on the drive home, I felt

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nauseous and mad at the same time.

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It sickened me and angered me that our

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modern churches have so cheapened the gospel to

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reduce it to a few steps of a

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physical act, while at the same time playing

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with people's emotions.

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A dead room full of people were now

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convinced they were Christians because they did what

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the minister told them to do.

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They filled out a booklet.

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They got a little teary-eyed.

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They raised their hand to accept Jesus as

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their personal Savior.

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The whole thing made me sick to my

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stomach, and it still bothers me to think

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about how those deceived individuals will one day

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die and drop into hell one by one,

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like everybody else who mistook church membership for

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salvation.

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None of that man-centered denominational nonsense is

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even in my Bible.

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Jesus didn't tell Nicodemus to close his eyes

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and raise his hand if he wanted to

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accept him as his personal Savior.

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Rather, he told him, Accept a man, be

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born again.

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He cannot see the kingdom of God.

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A person gets saved when they are born

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from above and washed into blood.

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We must have a new nature, new principles,

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new affections, new aims.

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By our first birth, we are corrupt, shaped

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in sin and iniquity.

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We must undergo a second birth and regeneration,

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where God performs a supernatural act of grace

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upon our heart.

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But those deceived individuals in that room that

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day were given a false assurance of heaven

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by church membership, but they never had been

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awakened to their lost condition.

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They never had come under Holy Ghost conviction.

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We were yet strangers to God's demand for

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repentance and His necessity of regeneration upon the

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heart.

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They were not told that salvation avows the

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fact that sin and all the occasions of

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it must be forsaken, that we must cast

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away and throw down every beloved idol from

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our heart, that following Christ meant to renounce

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ourselves as we're bought with a price, and

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that price is His blood that God required

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of them to use themselves and everything else

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for Him and His glory.

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Their strength, their substance, and their influence should

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be God-centered.

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And from that point forward, their time was

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not their own.

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Their money was not their own.

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Their body was not their own.

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Christ must be a complete master.

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That Jesus said, if any man will come

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after me, let him deny himself and take

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up his cross and follow me.

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No.

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Instead, they were given instructions to close their

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eyes and raise their hand if they wanted

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to accept Jesus.

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What they didn't realize was they raised their

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hand for hell.