Now go to Matthew 28.
Matthew 28, what have we learned so far?
Number one, the purpose of soul winning
is to get people saved.
That's why the fundamental Baptist churches in Arizona,
a lot of them are either scaling this back
or have eliminated it all together.
And you are very hard pressed to find
fundamental Baptist churches in Arizona
that are aggressively soul winning.
It's rare.
I mean, they're out there.
There are some out there, praise God for that.
But it's rare because they have the wrong purpose.
They think, oh, well, we've got to get with the times.
We've got to get more modern on how to bring people in.
And you know what?
I'm not against trying to bring in saved people
into the church because the more saved people come to church,
the more people are going to be equipped
and sent out and everything like that.
But soul winning has another purpose
that they've just completely missed, okay?
And then secondly, the purpose of church
is to train the saints and teach them.
Now, a lot of people will commonly complain about church,
and this is what they'll say.
I stopped going to that church
because I wasn't being fed there.
Have you heard people say that before?
And I'll tell you why that complaint is so common.
Because many churches, every Sunday morning service
is a gospel sermon.
It's the plan of salvation every Sunday morning.
And 98% of the church is saved.
So you got 90 some percent of the people are saved,
and they're just hearing the gospel every Sunday morning.
Gospel, gospel, gospel, gospel.
So they're not being fed
because they're just hearing stuff they already know,
and they're not getting the equipment
and the training that they need.
Because they're just being taught the same thing over.
You know, I've heard people say this
where they went to church
and they almost wanted to shout out to the pastor,
we're all saved.
We get it, you know, teach us something else.
And I've heard these pastors say,
well, if you get tired of hearing the gospel,
there's something wrong with you.
You should want to hear the gospel every Sunday morning.
But here's the thing, if you want to hear the gospel,
let's go soul winning and we can hear it all day long.
To the people who actually need to hear it.
You know, but why would you come to church
to hear the gospel again and again?
I've had people complain about our church.
I went there and he never even preached
the plan of salvation.
When I visited one time and there was no gospel.
That's because I wasn't preaching the gospel that Sunday.
I'm preaching the rest of this big giant book
that God gave us.
He didn't give us a three by five card
with the gospel on it.
He gave us a whole book with 1,189 chapters
to edify you and to perfect you
and so that you could grow in grace
and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Look at Matthew chapter 28 and see the great commission,
very famous passage.
And Jesus came and spake unto them saying, verse 18,
"All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Go ye therefore and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world. Amen."
So what is our job as Christians, as believers,
as a local church is to go out and teach all nations the gospel?
Yes, but then we're also supposed to baptize people
and we're also supposed to teach them to observe all things
whatsoever Christ commanded.
So it's not just, "Let's just get people saved and baptized and stop there."
No, part of the goal is to get people saved and baptized
and to teach them all things whatsoever Christ commanded.
And you know where we're going to teach them all things whatsoever Christ commanded?
Right here, three times a week.
Here's your classes in session, three times a week,
Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night, to learn all things Christ commanded.
Now look, people are doing things for the wrong reason, they get the wrong purpose.
They think soul winning is to bring people to the church,
when in reality the main reason we're going out soul winning is to win people the Lord.
Okay, they miss that.
Then they get it backwards and they think, "Oh, the church, that's for winning people the Lord."
No, church is primarily to teach the saints.
And then they get this backwards and they say,
"Oh, teach them to observe all things whatsoever we command you."
That's out, that's done out on soul winning.
How are we going to teach people to observe all things that Christ commanded out there?
At each person's house?
You know, how would we have time?
Because we would just be stuck with one person for years teaching them all things that Christ
taught us to observe.
And a lot of people will say, "Well, you know, you need to follow up with people and do in-home
Bible studies and teach them the Word of God."
No, no, the Bible studies right here.
This is where the Bible studies at.
You know, and if I go out and bring somebody the gospel and win them to Christ and they
get saved, then it's like, "Okay, you need to grow more.
You need to learn more."
And guess what?
It's at church.
Here's where the church is.
Here's what time it meets.
You need to get down there and get some teaching and get training.
And if the person isn't going to come to me, I'm not just going to keep going back to that
person's living room.
I don't have time to sit in the living room with every person I win to the Lord and teach
them all things that Christ commanded for hours and days and weeks and years, because
you know what?
I'm already doing it to a group here.
It's just so much more efficient to do it in the local church as God commanded.
These young babes in Christ need to be convinced to get down here and get the teaching.
But here's the thing, you can't force people to come to church and if they don't come,
they're not going to get the training unfortunately.
They're not going to get the teaching.
But this is, well what kind of a discipleship program do you have for these young converts?
Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night, three times a week.
Discipleship class meets three times a week.
New believers classes three times a week.
Because you and I know that a new believer could sit in this sermon right now, they're
going to learn something.
They're going to get some growth from hearing this sermon.
They're going to learn about what it means to go out and give the gospel to people and
be sent out and what the purpose of church is and so forth.
Everybody needs to learn that.