1) Establish A Need – Before one can be
led to obey the gospel, he
must first realize he is a sinner doomed to the
fires of Hell.
2) Display A Loving And Caring Attitude - Use a
low, calm tone of
voice.
3) Eliminate Objections Before The Close – "John,
if in the course of
our study tonight you were to discover something the Lord
wanted you
to do that you have not done, would there be anything to keep you
from
doing it tonight?"
4) Ask The Individual To Respond. "John
let's go to the church
building right now so that you can be baptized into
Christ."
5) Close In The Affirmative – By asking a series
of questions which he
answers yes to.
A. Do you love Jesus?
B. If you
love Jesus will you obey Him?
C. Do you want to please Jesus?
D. Do you
want to go to heaven?
E. Is it your understanding that one has to be
baptized to be saved?
F. Since Jesus wants you to be baptized and you
understand the
importance of being baptized, wouldn’t it please Jesus for you
to
be baptized right now?
G. Fine let’s go right now. (Stand up)
6) Silence – Ask the one to be baptized and then
remain silent.
7) Change Places With Him – "Suppose that you are
me and I am you,
and you have taught me what God wants me to do to be
saved. Let’s
suppose that I see that I need to be baptized for the
remission of my
sins so I can be saved and go to heaven, but I don’t want to
do
anything about it. What would you tell me? No really tell me
what you
would say if you really loved my soul and wanted me to go to
Heaven?"
8) Emotional Close – Relate an incident with
which you are personally
acquainted with in which the sinner hesitated to obey
the gospel and
died lost. "But the tragic thing about it is he will not
have another
opportunity. You have an opportunity right now, but do you
know if you
will have another opportunity after tonight? Then let’s go
and take of
this matter right now."
9) Help The Individual Face The Consequences –
"John, do you
realize what you have just said? You are telling God that
the death of
His Son on the cross on your behalf is not important to
you. You are
rejecting the salvation that God wants to give to
you. John, God is
going to put you in one of two places: Heaven or
Hell. Now you have
just rejected Heaven. What does that leave
you?" (Remain silent and
wait for his answer.)
10) Reassurance – "1. John have I shared anything
with you that is not
from the Bible? 2. Have I taken anything out of
context? 3. Then the
conclusions you have come to are your conclusions
based on God’s
word, aren’t they? 4. So if you do these things who will
you be
obeying? 5. Can you go wrong if you do what God’s word says to
do?
11) Comparison – Compare what he believes with
what the Bible
teaches. Or compare the advantages of being in Christ
with that of
being outside of Christ. "Which one is according to the
Bible?" or
"Which one will God accept?"
12) Welcome Objections - Don’t Be Afraid Of
Objections. Objections
tell you what he thinks and feels? 1.
"John, your question is why
wasn’t the thief baptized, is that right? 2.
John, do you have any
other questions? 3. If we can answer this question
to your
satisfaction is there anything else that would keep you from being
baptized tonight."
13) Key Words To Use In Closing –
1.
Why or Why Not – The individual cannot answer honestly without
committing himself. "Why are you waiting?" "Why not now?"
2.
Let’s – This is a cooperative and unselfish word, which leaves
the idea
that you and the one you are studying with are trying to
work the matter out
together. "Let’s see what the Bible says." Or
"Let’s go now to the
building and baptize you into Christ."
3. When – Helps nail down a
specific time and impress upon him
the urgency of the matter. "When does
the Lord want you to be
baptized."
4. Which – "Which one is
according to the Bible?" "Which one will
God accept?"
13) Every Time You Try to Close you are checking
the individuals
spiritual pulse to see how near he is to being baptized.
If you try to
close and he does not respond, give him some more teaching
concerning the questions he has and try for a close again. Continue
to
persuade as long as you can. Acts 2:40 "And with many other
words he
testified and exhorted them, saying, Be saved from this
perverse
generation."
14) Always Leave The Door Open For Further
Studies – Try other
studies such as OBS, Jule Miller, etc.
Scriptures To Use In Closing
1. Mark 9:43-48 "Cast into Hell, where their worm does not
die and the
fire is not quenched."
2. Luke 16:19-31 Rich man and
Lazarus.
3. Hebrews 9:27 "It is appointed unto man once to die, but after
this the
judgment."
4. James 4:14 "For what is your life? It is as a vapor
that appears for a
little time."
5. John 5:28-29 "All that are in the
graves shall come forth, they that have
done good to the resurrection of life,
they that have done evil to the
resurrection of damnation."
6. Matthew
16:26 "What is a man profited if he gains the whole world and
loses his own
soul."
7. Hebrews 5:8-9 "He became the author of eternal salvation to all
who
obey Him."
8. Ephesians 5:23 "He is the saviour of the body."
9.
Acts 26:27-28 "You almost persuade me to become a Christian."
10. 2 Thess
1:8-9 "Vengeance on them that know not God and that obey
not the
gospel."
11. John 12:48 "He who rejects Me and does not receive My words
has
that which judges him"
12. Mattthew 7:21-23 "Not everyone who says to
Me, Lord, Lord, shall
enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of
my Father in
heaven."
13. Luke 6:46 "But why do you call Me Lord, Lord and
do not the things
which I say?"
14. Revelation 20:10 "Devil was cast into
lake of fire and brimstone and
tormented day and night"
15. Revelation
20:15 "Anyone not found written in the Book of Life was
cast into the lake of
fire."
16. Matt 25:41 "Depart from Me, into the everlasting fire prepared
for the
Devil and his angels."
17. Matthew 7:13-13 Few saved, many
lost.
18. Acts 22:16 "And now why are you waiting, arise and be baptized
and
wash away your sins"
19. 2 Corinthians 6:2 "Behold now is the accepted
time, behold now is
the day of salvation."
20. John 14:15:
"If you love Me,
keep My commandments." (Do you love Jesus?)
