Soul-Winner’s Refresher Course - L4

Introduction - We will be dealing with the very first step concerning leading them to Christ.

And we will be looking at this very first set of verses.

The title of this first step is appropriately “I’m a sinner, You’re a sinner.”

Let’s read together these verses:

Romans 3:10 “10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:”

And now let’s flip over and read Romans 3:23

Romans 3:23 “23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”

Let’s Pray

We begin in step 1, when someone agrees to want to be saved.

In other words, we have already gone through some kind of introductory process and are at the point where they say yes, I want to know heaven is my home and Jesus is my Savior.

Before we begin with “the Steps,” we have in mind a transitional statement to lead into step 1.

Illustration - How many remember what is was like to right papers and essays?

In those essays, how many enjoyed having to follow the particular guidelines for writing papers— ie. MLA or the Turbian 4th Ed. format…

Those formats setup particular rules on how to setup your paper for fonts, sizes, indentations, bolding and italics, quotations.. etc… But then the professor or teacher would say that you need to begin with a Thesis statement— and then break down each section… and between each paragraph going from one big idea to another—- you must have some transitional sentences or even a transitional paragraph.

The transitional statement is to smoothly go from one idea to the next.

The same hold true when we are navigating the different steps in leading someone the Lord.

We must transition from the introduction to step 1 in our Soul-Winning outline.

One statement or something like it we can use is this, “There are several things we must understand to go to Heaven one day. First of all, God’s Word says,”

Or you could use the phrase “the Bible says….”

I have heard of late one language scholar is using the term “the Scriptures say,…”

My personal preference is to use the phrase “God’s word says” versus “The Bible says”, however either statement will do.  

By using that term, what we are declaring to the one to whom we are speaking is this is not an idea we are coming up with, but rather is God’s truth— this is His way.

I want you also to remember and not forget, that no two Soul-Winning sessions will ever really go the same way.

In fact, it may be that you end up jumping around to different parts of the steps.

Why? Because we are not dealing with robots…we are dealing with people.

When we get to this first step, we want to emphasize the reason we are reading these two verses.

What is the main thought that God’s Word is communicating in these two verses we read at the beginning?

That we are all sinners.

Look at the first verse with me…

Romans 3:10 “10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:”

Now just for or knowledge, this verse is a quotation from the Old Testament. How do we know this?

That formula— it is written is most often referring to the Old Testament Scriptures.

Remember in Matthew 4, the Lord’s responses to the Devil all used this formula.

Does anyone know the Old Testament reference?

Psalm 14:1–3 “1 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, There is none that doeth good. 2 The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. 3 They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: There is none that doeth good, no, not one.”

In verse 1, the connection is made that the blindness and folly our fallen state is to declare — there is no God.

Illustration - We think of a kid - who closes their eyes and says…. you are not there…

Or a kid or closes their eyes and says you can’t see me.

In both cases, the child is imagining something that is not true.

And this is the way it is with the lost world. They attempt to close their eyes to the truth, that they are sinners, but watch this —- the reason why is because they are accountable to the Creator.

One of the sad results of our fallen state is a deceived notion that we are not accountable to God.

You see this prevalent in society today— no one is responsible for anything… everything is someone else’s fault.

Psalm 14:2–3 “2 The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. 3 They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: There is none that doeth good, no, not one.”

So we are presenting Romans 3:10 to reveal the true state by God’s judgment of every man… Why? because they do not understand.

In fact the Bible tells us in Romans 1:21–23 “21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.”

So many things in our lives have been affected by sin…

The Word of God through the ministry of Holy Spirit in the heart of man reveals the truth… that we are not as good as we think we are… in fact we are all sinners.

So now go back to Romans 3:10.

When we say this verse, what I would like for you then to do is to emphasize particular words when you read it.

We do this through voice inflection…. and by using a rise and fall in volume….the opposite of that is monotone speech… like the clear eyes commercial guy….

He would say “For dry red eyes clear eyes is awesome…the difference is clear clear eyes…”

By the way— as a side note for Bible study — sometimes it is helpful to emphasize each word in a favorite Bible verse to meditate on it as you study…

A lot of times, I will have the person hold my Bible and read the verse, and then I will read it again out loud, emphasizing particular words.

In this case, we want to emphasize the words ‘none’ and ‘not one…’

So let’s practice that together…

Romans 3:10 “10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:”

And from there in our Bible’s we have the road map to go to verse 23.

Romans 3:23 “23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”

Reading from verse 21, down to verse 23—- look at it with me as I read.

Romans 3:21–23 “21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”

We see that there is a particular word repeated in the text.

What word is repeated several times from verse 22 to verse 23?

This by the way, just as another hint to study you Bible more effectively — pay attention to—- what words does God repeat. If God is repeating particular words… and we believe in the verbal and plenary inspired Word of God — than it must be that the Lord is doing so on purpose.

Repeated words are emphasized words.

Can someone tell me what word is repeated in verse 22 and 23?

The word ‘all.’

So, when we read this verse back to the one we are walking through the Romans Road, we would do well to emphasize that word.

Let’s read that together out loud and emphasize that word.

Romans 3:23 “23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”

Once we are done reading and emphasizing these two verses, it is a good idea to have a dialogue with the person to make sure they understand what they just read. This may be even more beneficial to dialogue one verse at a time.

After the first verse, one good question we might ask is,

“What do you think this verse is saying?”

Now they may come up with the right answer, or they might be somewhat off target.

If they are off target, what do you think we should do?

We can teach them what this verse is saying.

This will require you to break down some of the words in the verse.

For instance, how would you explain the verb sinned to someone?

It is a good idea to think about that. Believe it or not, someone may or may not understand what that means.

1 John 3:4 “4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.”

1 John 5:17 “17 All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death.”

James 4:17 “17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”

We are teaching not just the definition of sin, but the concept of sinning.

In other words, people may think they are doing wrong against society or doing wrong against family…

And that may be true, but in terms of Salvation, what we are dealing with is doing wrong against God’s holiness. In other words, we sin against a holy-perfect God.

Our wrong— is accountable to our God.

There is right and there in un-right— or we might say unrighteousness.

Secondly, notice the phrase — “…come short of the glory of God.”

How would we explain that to someone?

The glory of God—- plainly would mean the praise of God.

In other words, we have fallen short of God’s perfect and his approval of us… His assessment of us is short of what is expected and required.

What is the standard? Perfection.

One Bible scholar said it this way (Mattoon),

Treasures from Romans IV. The Prevalence of Sinfulness (3:22, 23)

Man calls sin an accident. God calls sin an abomination.

Man calls Sin a blunder. God says sin is blindness.

Man says Sin is done by chance. God declares we Sin by choice.

Man calls Sin simply an error. God declares that sin is enmity with Him.

Man looks at Sin with fascination. God declares Sin is fatal.

Man believes when he sins he is at liberty.

God declares that Sin is lawlessness.

Man minimizes Sin as a mistake. God shows us that sin is really madness.

Man says Sin is just weakness, but God reveals the truth that all Sin is willfulness.

And so as we close, I pray that you will spend sometime thinking about this first step.

First of all, how you would introduce the first step…

Secondly, would you take some time and practice emphasizing the words in these verses. Continue to work on memorizing them.

Thirdly, would you study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed—rightly dividing the Word of truth…

Study these verses and see what God will teach you — ask Him to help you to understand in a greater way what these verses are saying.

And then, with a better command of the Scriptures the Lord surely the Lord will help us explain those things to others who are seeking Him.

Let’s Pray