Becoming a Christian is not something we should enter into.

What I'm about to say is about methodology and I want dreadfully to underscore the

fact that when we are least expecting it, least planning on it, least ready for it, least willing

to do it, God may choose to intervene and surprise us despite ourselves. We are not the key. He simply

gives us the privilege of being a part of what He chooses to do. Only God can bring about conviction of sin.

And that conviction of sin is far more than merely an acknowledgement that sin exists. People may

be prepared to acknowledge the existence of sin without ever themselves being convicted of their

own condition. So the condition is as agreed upon. The diagnosis brings us to sin. Thirdly, we might

speak about the remedy. What is the remedy? Is there an answer to this? And again, we would take our

Bibles and we would turn them to an Old Testament picture. We might say to the individual, I don't know if

you have read the Old Testament prophets, some of the stuff is really hard to understand, but every

so often there's something in it that just hits you right between the eyes. Let me share one of

these, hit you between the eyes versus. And then we turn them to Isaiah 53 verse 6. And we would say,

look, this is a pictorial explanation of our human condition, of the diagnosis we've just agreed upon.

This is what it says. We all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. And the

Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. If the person is alert and is interested and is

following the conversation, they're going to almost inevitably say, and who is he? Who is the him?

You're going to answer while I'm glad you asked because the he is Jesus. I wonder, have you ever thought

about Jesus? Well, isn't he just a prophet? Isn't he just one along a line on a continuum of religious

leaders depending on their level of ability? What are we going to do? What we're going to open our

Bibles? We're going to say, you know what? You remember the Christmas stories? Sure you do. You've

heard them so many times. And you'll turn with them. And you'll say, you know what? For example,

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