In Acts chapter number 11, we just finished up the story with Cornelius and how Peter
went and preached unto Cornelius and his whole household. They got saved, they got baptized
and all that, and so there's a little bit of a recap of that story at the beginning
here. It says in verse number 1, And the apostles and brethren that were in Judea heard that
the Gentiles had also received the word of God. And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem,
they that were of the circumcision contended with him, saying, Thou wentest in to men on
a circumcision did he with them. But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning and
expounded it by order unto them, saying, We're not going to read through that whole account
again for the sake of time. We just read it, and we also talked a lot about it last week.
But notice right away the critics. Peter's coming back with this great report about all
these people who have gotten saved, and of course there are people right away that want
to criticize and find something wrong with what he did. They're probably just jealous
that he's over there getting a bunch of people saved and they're doing nothing. Go to 1 Thessalonians
2 quickly. Keep your finger in Acts 11. But there are always going to be people ready
to criticize and attack whenever you do anything for God, because the devil doesn't want you
to do anything for God. So every time you go out and do great things for God, you can
expect there to be adversaries and criticism and attacks, and people will try to find fault
with what you're doing. I'm going to talk about that a little bit later in the message
also. But in 1 Thessalonians 2, it says in verse 14,
For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God, which in Judea are in Christ
Jesus. For ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have
of the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted
us. And they pleased not God, nor contrary to all men. Look at this next phrase in verse
16, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved. You see that? So
this is, again, Paul later on, rebuking the Jews for forbidding them to preach unto the
Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins all way, for the wrath has come
upon them to the uttermost. Back to Acts chapter 11, if you would. You see, the Jews had a
real problem with this. And you remember later on, when Paul is preaching in the book of
Acts, right before he gets arrested for the final time that he's going to be taken to
Rome, he stands up to preach and he preaches a big long sermon. And everybody listens to
him until he gets to the part where God tells him that he's going to be preaching the Gospel
to the Gentiles. And it says, they listened to him up to that point. As soon as Paul said
that, they say, away with such a way. It's not fit for him to live. They wanted him dead
just for saying he's going to preach to the Gentiles. And the Jews in the New Testament
had a real problem with thinking that they're better than everybody else, and thinking that
they were somehow some kind of a master race or something, and that they're the supreme
race on this earth. And you know what? That is not biblical. That was not biblical in
the Old Testament. That's not biblical in the New Testament. And basically, they took
the thing of Abraham and his seed being chosen, and they totally warped it and blew it out
of proportion. And they thought because they were the physical seed of Abraham, that they
had some kind of a special blessing on their lives. When in reality, today, we are the
spiritual seed of Abraham, according to Galatians 3 and 4. The Bible says, if you be Christ,
then are you Abraham's seed. And it doesn't matter whether you're Jew or Gentile, bond
or free, if you are in Christ, you are Abraham's seed, just like the song. Who sang that song
when you were a kid? Father Abraham, and many sons of Abraham. How did you say that song?
A lot of people say, that's a doctrinally correct song. I wish people would understand
the doctrine of that song. Because I've sung that song in a lot of churches that didn't
understand that doctrine. But at least we sang the song. And so, we've knocked on doors
of Jewish people. Like for example, we knocked on the state senator. Is that what he is?
Mitchell. Not Mitchell. Because US Congressman Mitchell, we knocked on his door. But then
like just a few weeks later, as Brother Garrett and I again, we knocked on David Shapiro,
who's like the state senator or state congress. I believe it's the state senator. We knocked
on his door, and he said he's basically going to heaven because he's a Jew. He said, well
all the Jews, everyone who's Jewish, and he didn't mean the religion, he's talking about
the nationality. He said, well we're all going to go to Abraham's bosom, you know, when we
die. All of us. And today, a lot of the Jews, they somehow think that they have a free pass
into heaven. And John the Baptist warned him about that. He said, think not to say what
think yourselves, we have Abraham to our father. He said, the ax is laid unto the root
of the trees. And so, the Jews here, in Acts 11, are jumping down his throat just for preaching
the Gospel of the Gentiles because they look down on the Gentiles. We should never look
down on a certain nationality or a certain group of people. God is not a respecter of
persons, as we learned in Acts chapter 10. And anyone from any nation is respected in
his sight if they do right. And so God is not partial toward one certain nationality
or another. And today we have Messianic Jews. You know, you've heard of the Messianic Jews?
It's funny because I've met a lot of Messianic Jews, it's too bad I've never met one that
was saved yet. Every single one of them was totally trusting in works, they totally said
you have to repent of your sins, live a good life, do works, all that kind of stuff. And
I'm against that movement, by the way, because you know what? Jesus Christ said, other sheep
have I that are not of this fold, them also must I bring. He was talking about people
outside of the nation of Israel. He said, them also must I bring. He said, there shall
be one fold and one shepherd. God's house is to be a house of prayer for all nations.
We don't need Jews having their own separate church, some kind of a Messianic Jew church.
They need to get in a Baptist church and just get right there next to a Gentile and
Jew in gentility to sit next to each other and sing the hymns and listen to preaching
from a Baptist preacher, not some Messianic Jew church where they teach work salvation.
We don't need a separate church, we don't need a separate Chinese church, we don't need
a separate black church. This church should be for every nationality if you believe on
Jesus Christ, we don't need a separate church. And so this is the problem that they're having
here. But people always attack you when you do great things for God and that's what's
happening in Acts 11 here. Let's jump past the rehash of the story because we just read
it and we already went over it last week. Basically he tells the whole story, everything
that happened. The only part that we will highlight is verse 14 just because it's a
verse that you should memorize. Acts 11 14, who shall tell thee words whereby thou and
all thy house shall be saved. That's right there, another verse about the word of God
saving you. It says in verse 17, for as much then as God gave them the gift, the life gift
as he did unto us who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who believed on the Lord Jesus
Christ, what was I that I could withstand God? So he finished the whole story and in
verse 18 the people who were criticizing him earlier, now they back off and say when they
heard these things they held their peace and glorified God saying, then hath God also
to the Gentiles granted repentance of the light. Now why is this surprising then? The
Bible said in the Old Testament that the nation of Israel was to be a light for the Gentiles.
Even in Matthew, you remember that it was preached about Jesus when he went into Zebulon
and that fly when he was up in that area, they said he shall show judgment to the Gentiles,
my servant whom I have chosen, my son whom my soul is well pleased, I will put my spirit
upon him, I'm talking about Jesus, and he will show judgment to the Gentiles. And so
the Jews were just really slow to understand, even the Jews that were saved were just really
slow to understand the fact, hey we need to get the Gospel to the Gentiles too. And they're
shocked that the Gentiles are filled with the Spirit and that they've got saved and all
these different things. They shouldn't have been shocked by this, this isn't something
new. In the Old Testament there are all kinds of saved people of all different nationalities,
there's a whole chapter in the book of Jeremiah, one entire chapter in Jeremiah dedicated to
an Ethiopian man named Ebeg-Melek where God's just talking about how great he is and how
he's going to bless him and all these different things. One of Jesus' disciples was a Canaanite.
So these people are really confused here and they think that somehow salvation and the
Holy Spirit was only for the Jews. So God's having to show them over and over again, hey
that's not true, that's not the case. So he says in verse 18, then hath God, this is what
they said, then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. Now, repentance
unto life, notice something that it doesn't say. Does it say repent of your sins unto
life? And everybody will always try to add that, because you'll never find the phrase
repent of your sins in the Bible or repent of his sins. You won't find that phrase so
people will just say, oh see it says repent, well it doesn't say repent of your sins. Let's
let the Bible define itself. Jump down to verse 21, because right up here in 18 we saw
that the Gentiles were granted repentance unto life. Here's more Gentiles down in verse
21, and the hand of the Lord was with them and a great number believed and did what?
Turned unto the Lord. Does it say a great number turned from their sins? No, it says
a great number turned unto the Lord. This is like in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, when
he said, for they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we have of you, how
that ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his
Son from heaven, who he raised from the dead, even Jesus which delivered us from the wrath
to come. He said he turned from idols unto the living and true God. He turned from Islam
unto the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. He turned from Catholicism unto faith alone
for salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. He turned from Buddhism to Christianity. There's
no mention of, well I have to turn from your sins. Well if you have to turn from your sins
to be saved, then nobody is saved. And turning from your sins is worse anyway, because in
Jonah 3.10 it says that God saw their works that they turned from their evil way, and
God repented of the evil which he had said he was doing to them. If repent means repent
of your sins, well then I guess God repented of his sins 36 times in the Bible. But that's
not what it means. Of course if you're reading the NIV or the New King James Version, they
take out every time that God repented, because they want to prop up this false doctrine that
you have to turn from your sins to be saved. You know who repented of his sins by the way?
Judas Iscariot. Still went to hell in Matthew 27.3. But he didn't believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Jesus looked right at him in the face in John 6 and said there's some of you that
believe not. And it said he spake of Judas, he knew it was him that would betray him.
He knew that he was a devil. He said if not, I've chosen you twelve when he's a devil.
So don't let people, every time somebody tries to show you some verse on repent, just notice,
wait a minute, does it say repent of your sins? Or is it just turning to God? Is it
just turning from a false religion? Is it just turning from something else? It says
in verse number 19, and by the way, yes the Bible does tell people to repent of their
sins, it's always people that are saved. He doesn't use that word repent of your sins,
but like in Acts 8 he told a saved guy, repent of your wickedness. A guy that was already
saved, already baptized, already been serving God, he just committed a sin, he just did
wrong, and he was told to repent of that. Christians are told to repent all through
Revelation 2 and 3 of all various things. So it says in verse number 19, now they which
were scattered abroad, upon the persecution that arose about Stephen, travelled as far
as Phoenice and Cyprus and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only. So
we kind of jump away from the Peter story, because the book of Acts is kind of following
a few different stories, okay? We jump away from the story about Peter and we pick up
kind of where we were at the beginning of chapter 8, when a whole bunch of people, a
whole bunch of Christians, not Peter, not Paul, not those guys, but just a whole bunch
of other Christians were scattered pretty much throughout the whole area and even to
some of the other parts of the earth, they're all scattered because of the persecution that
started with Stephen, the persecution that Saul was causing. So we kind of jump back
and see, hey what happened to those people, what were they doing? Well it says that basically
the ones who were scattered abroad, they travelled as far as Phoenice and Cyprus and Antioch,
preaching the word what? To none but unto the Jews only. Now was that the right thing
for them to do? No, because Jesus, when he was on this earth, he basically just stayed
in Israel and pretty much preached the Gospel throughout Israel, and he told his disciples
when he sent them out, he said, go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any city
of the Samaritans, enter ye not, but go rather the lost sheep of the house of Israel. During
the three and a half years he was just trying to just canvas his whole area and just do
all of Israel. Once he finished that, after he died and was buried and rose again, he
said, go ye therefore and teach all nations. I mean wasn't that pretty clear? He said go
ye therefore and teach all nations. He said go ye therefore into all the world and preach
the Gospel to every creature. So these people are still not getting it, are they? They're
just going, okay, we'll go all over the world, but we're still just going to that one nation.
We're just going to the Jews only. So they're preaching to the Jews, they're trying to get
the Jews to get saved. But watch this. Some of them, some of these believers, were men
of Cyprus and Cyrene. So these guys, some of them were natives of these other places.
So because they had connections with that group, they had connections with the Gentiles,
it says when they were come to Antioch, they spake unto the Grecians. Okay, so they're
actually reaching out to a different group, preaching the Lord Jesus and verse 21 says
the hand of the Lord was with them and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord.
So basically you have this group going out and they're just trying to reach only the
Jews, only the Jews. You know the Bible doesn't really mention the results. It doesn't really
mention them having any great results with that. But then just these couple of guys say
well hey let's preach to the Grecians and all of a sudden they're just getting a ton
of Grecian saved. You know so that's why we shouldn't just limit ourselves and say oh
we're going to reach just this one group. Somebody, somebody, you know we have some,
some believers today that are still mixed up on this. We had a guy come here to our
church. He said he's a missionary to the Jews living in Tempe. That's literally what he
wants to do. He's like I want to come here and I want to be a missionary to the Jews
in Tempe. Why don't you just be a missionary to Tempe? You know why don't you just knock
every door in Tempe and preach the gospel to every creature? But you know good luck
with that by the way because we've knocked a lot of doors in Tempe and the people who
slammed the door the hardest was those that had the little scroll you know attached to
their front door and that were the Jews. And so if we're going to really see a great number
turn to the Lord, we just need to preach the gospel to everybody. Red and yellow, black
and white. Just preach it to everybody. That's where you're going to see the most results
according to this. So a great number believed and turned unto the Lord. Then tidings of
these things came unto the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem. Tidings of what? All
these Grecians getting saved in Antioch. All this great number of people being saved. It's
such a big turnout of people being saved that word of this gets back to Jerusalem. So they
sent forth Barnabas it says in verse 22 that he should go as far as Antioch who when he
came and had seen the grace of God was glad and exhorted them all that with purpose of
heart they would cleave unto the Lord. So basically they hear about all these Grecians
getting saved in Antioch and they say well hey let's send one of our you know top preachers
here. One of our head guys. Let's send one of the apostles. Let's send Barnabas because
Barnabas was an apostle according to the Bible. There were not just 12 apostles contrary to
popular belief. Barnabas called by the Bible an apostle was sent to basically just check
it out and just confirm him and strengthen him. Well when he gets there he says hey this
is great. You guys are doing great. And he pretty much just preached to them that they
should you know cleave unto the Lord. He just preached a motivational sermon just to try
to strengthen their faith there. And it says in verse 24 about Barnabas for he was a good
man and full of the Holy Ghost and faith and of faith and much people was added unto the
Lord then departed Barnabas to Tarsus for to seek Saul. So basically Barnabas is so
excited about what's going on in Antioch. You know first they sent for Barnabas. He
gets there. He thinks it's great. He preaches and tries to build their faith more. But then
he says wow this is so great I'm going to go get the apostle Paul. You know so he goes
and gets Saul and wants to bring him too. It says he departed to Tarsus verse 25 for
to seek Saul and when he had found him he brought him unto Antioch. So now he brings
him to Antioch just to show him and just have another great man there to reach more
people and to build this church even more. It says he brought him to Antioch latter part
of verse 26 and it came to pass that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church
and taught much people and the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. Now the
part that I really want to focus on in this verse is just these three words. It says and
it came to pass that a whole year they assembled themselves what? With the church. They assembled
themselves for a whole year with the church and taught much people and the disciples were
called Christians first in Antioch. You know what I want to point out here is that like
at the beginning of the chapter I said you know people will try to find fault with you
whenever you get a lot of people saved. You know they pointed out oh you shouldn't have
been with these Gentiles. God never said anything that was wrong to eat with Gentiles.
That was just their made up Pharisee doctrine that did not come from the Old Testament.
But here we see that they go to this town, preach the gospel, a bunch of people get saved
and then it says for a whole year they assembled themselves with the church and taught much
people and the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. One of the biggest criticisms
that you'll get today if you're a soul winning Christian because people who aren't soul winning
you know you'd think that they'd just be happy that somebody's out preaching the gospel and
getting people saved but they're not many times. Because it exposes their lack of service
for God. It exposes the fact that they're not winning anybody for Christ. It exposes
the fact that they are failing to preach the gospel to every creature and other people
are just you know the children of Belial who are just bad people who just want to try
to discourage you from going out and preaching the gospel and winning the loss. And so this
is what they'll inevitably say to criticize you today. Well how are you discipling these
people? How's your follow up? Who's heard something like that before? You've heard that
criticism. Now you'll hear that so many times over and over again. When you go out and get
a bunch of people saved they'll say to you, well are you following up with these people?
Are you discipling them? You know the Bible says make disciples blah blah blah. Now look
that is the most unscriptural garbage that there is in the world because first of all
the Bible never says go make disciples. Now here I've got the NIV here, the New International
Version and by the way you can tell where these fundamental Baptists are getting their
doctrine. They're getting it from the stinking NIV. That's the problem. Here you go brother
look that up Matthew 28 in the NIV and it's amazing how many King James only so called
Bible believing Christians will get up and say all these things from the NIV and quote
all this stuff from the NIV. I mean what are they reading a bunch of NIV books or are they
getting in their closet at night and pull out a flashlight in the NIV or something? Or
are they just listening to a bunch of ponies? I don't know where they're getting this stuff.
But in the King James Version of the Bible, let me read it for you in Matthew 28, let
me turn there myself. It says in verse 19, 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 there's three steps there isn't there? There's go out and
teach all nations, then baptize them, then teach them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you. Well the first thing you're teaching them is obviously the Gospel
because you teach them that, then you get them baptized, and then you teach them everything
else. He said that's your goal, that's your job. Go ahead and read that for me brother
Garrett verses 19 and 20 out of Matthew 28. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching
them to obey everything I have commanded you. Okay that's good. So here we have from
the NIV this phrase go out and make disciples, but you'll never find that phrase make disciples
in the Bible, in the King James Bible. Now here's the other thing that the NIV conveniently
does. It basically tells you that Mark 16 9 through 20 is not in the original manuscripts.
And that's the verse that says go ye therefore into all the world and preach the Gospel to
every preacher. See this verse that's up above my head right here, the NIV says that
this isn't part of the Bible. It says oh this is 11. Because they want to show you that
you know whoa we're not just supposed to go out and preach to everybody and just teach
everybody the Gospel. No no no it only tells us to make disciples. No it doesn't tell us
to make disciples. Now should we teach people after they get saved, wait hold on, after
people get saved should we baptize them? Yes. After we baptize them should we teach them
to observe everything that God has commanded us? Yes. But show me discipleship as in follow-up,
what they call going back to somebody who I've already won to Christ who refuses to
come to church and begging them to come to church. Show me that in the Bible. I'm all
for discipling somebody. Look around the room here. Do you see everybody around the room?
These are my disciples. And this is me discipling them right now. This is discipleship right
now. Now is it my fault if somebody that I went to Christ doesn't show up here to be
discipled? Am I supposed to drag them here? Or am I supposed to be like a Jehovah's Witness
and go do it in their house every week? I'm not a Jehovah's Witness. And look, if you
look in the Bible, turn if you would to Acts chapter 17, it's just not biblical. Yes, we
should teach people, but guess where we teach them? In the church. That's what they did
in Acts 11. He said they stayed there a year and he said this is where we taught them,
in the church. We assembled together in the church and taught much people. That's where
the teaching takes place. And you'll never show me in the Bible begging people to come
to church who won't come. And going back, going back the next week. I mean show me one
place in the Bible and yet people will attack us. We're going out preaching the gospel.
Are we not inviting them to church after we're done winning them to Christ? I mean who here
has ever seen me win somebody to Christ and just not invite them to church at all? No,
I try to tell them, hey you need to be in church, you need to do this. Usually when
we win somebody to Christ, we leave a Bible with them. That's why we have all those Bibles
out there. It's to give to people that we win to the Lord. We give them a Bible and
show them where to start reading. We tell them what time the services are. We try to
get them to come to church, but guess what? We are not going to go and hold their hand
and pick them up and carry them and bring them to church. If they're not coming to church,
that's their problem. You know? We can't sit there and force people. And look, Jesus
did it the same way we're doing it. The apostles did it the same way. I'll prove it to you.
We're going to have to turn to Acts 17. Look at Acts 17. Watch this. This is when Paul
is preaching the gospel to a bunch of people. He says in verse 32, he just finished preaching
to them and says, when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. They were Jehovah's
Witnesses. And others said, we will hear thee again of this matter. So there's two types
of people there. We see one mocked Paul when he preached the gospel. Others said, well,
we'll hear thee again of this matter. And it says, verse 33, so Paul departed from among
them. How be it? Certain men clave unto him and believed and among them, among them, I'm
sorry, among the which was Dionysius, the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and
others with them. Okay? So basically, Paul preached. Okay? And then people clave to him.
Did he clave to them? No. They clave unto him. Look at John. I'll read for you from
1 Samuel. Look at John 4. 1 Samuel 10, verse 26 is where I'm turning. This is when Saul
has just been anointed king, the Bible says, and Saul also went home to Gibeah, and there
went with him a band of men whose hearts God had touched. But the children of Belial said,
how shall this man save us? And they despised him and brought him no presents, but he held
his peace. So we see with Saul, when he's anointed king, there went with him a band
of men whose hearts God had touched. God basically provided him a group of followers there that
followed him. Other people didn't like him so much. Well, Jesus Christ said, thou art
Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. Jesus is the one who builds the church. It's Jesus' job to build the church.
It's not my job, and I'm not going to do it. I refuse to do it. It's God's job. And it's
people's job to get their carcass down here to listen to preaching, and if they don't
want to be discipled, then we'll go find somebody else and win them to Christ and disciple
them that wants to be discipled. We're not going to go out and force people to be a disciple.
Where did I return? John 4. This is one of many examples of Jesus Christ, because if
you look at Jesus and his apostles, the Bible says they went to all the towns and villages.
You'll see this over and over again. You'll see it in Matthew 9. You'll see it in Matthew
12. You'll see all these different places. It says Jesus went throughout all the cities
and villages preaching the gospel. Jesus went throughout all the towns and villages.
He sent his apostles two and two into all the villages, into all the towns, into all
places, and they preached the gospel. Look at John 4. This is the story about the woman
at the well. Of course, Jesus won her and the Lord, and a whole bunch of other people
end up getting saved. Well, it says in verse 39, many of the Samaritans of that city believed
on him for the saying of the woman which testified, he told me all that ever I did.
So when the Samaritans were coming to him, they besought him that he would tarry with
them. They're saying, please stay with us. Teach us more. Preach to us more. They're
begging him to stay. It says, he abode there two days, and many more believed because of
his own word, and said unto the woman, now we believe not because of this thy saying,
for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior
of the world. Now after two days, he departed thence, and went to Galilee, and guess what?
He never came back. Oh, but what about who's going to disciple all those people? What about
my favorite was a couple weeks ago. Philip in the Ethiopian eunuch. He wins the guy to
Christ. The guy says, well, he baptized me right here. He says, okay, if thou believeth
with all thy heart, thou mayest. He baptized him, and the moment he comes out of the water,
Philip disappears. Philip, the Spirit just whisks him away. He's like, wait, Holy Spirit,
I want to do fall along. I can't do the fall along. I wanted to go back and do Bible study
fall along. It's not biblical. What's biblical is them coming to the preacher. That's what's
biblical. What's biblical is going out and winning people to Christ, preaching the Word,
preaching the Gospel, and then people come to him. Jesus would be in a house, and a bunch
of people would come to the house and listen to him preach. Jesus would go out by the seaside.
People would be gathered together under him and preach. He didn't just say, well, every
person we've ever wanted to lure, we've got to keep going back every week. We've got to
keep a car catalog. You think Jesus was walking around with some kind of a planner or something?
You think he has some kind of a day planner, some kind of a palm pilot, where he's just
making sure, oh, I've got to go back every week and keep bugging him. You know what he
said? He said, hey, follow me. And if they didn't follow him, he said, all right, bye.
Find somebody else. He did. They said, oh, wait, I've got to go bury my dad. Nuts to your
dad. Follow me. See, he got into a ship and he's gone. If you've got to go bury dad on
Sunday morning at 1030, then you're not going to get discipled. If you can't be here, you're
not going to be here. Period. Bury your dad between the services. Bury him at 1230. Bury
him at 1 o'clock. Because we're not going to move our service so you can bury your dad.
Because we are the church right here, this group right here. And this is where we meet
and we're here three times a week and that's all the discipleship that anybody needs. And
look at all the people that keep getting taught and keep getting discipled. But you've got
to come to us. We can't just keep coming back. But we've let the Jehovah's Witnesses teach
us how to reach people. Keep going to their house and going to their house and going to
their house. I'm not going to do it. Go ahead and do your follow up. But you know these
people who want to talk so much about follow up, they don't do any soul winning. They don't
have anybody to follow up on. Because 99% of them don't even win any souls to Christ.
They're just trying to pick apart and find something wrong. People criticize our small
town soul winning all the time. You'll try to tell them, hey, we went down to this town,
it's hours away, it's out in the middle of the desert, we knocked every door, we had
this many people say, oh, now they're a bunch of sheep having no shepherd. And I said to
that person, I said, you know what, we should have just let them go to hell with it. Because
we'd hate to have a bunch of sheep running around with no shepherd, wouldn't we? I'd
rather have a bunch of sheeps running around with no shepherd that are going to go to heaven
than a bunch of goats running around that are going to go to hell. It's stupidity, it's
magic. And who are you going to follow up with if you're not winning souls? And Jesus
and his disciples won thousands of people to Christ. And John the Baptist won thousands
of people to Christ. And yet how many people really made up that early church? In Acts
1 it was only 120. Because you know what, a lot of people aren't even going to get saved.
And then a lot of the people who get saved, they're not going to stay with church. They're
not going to stay in for the long haul. They're not going to become a soul winner. They're
not going to bring forth much fruit. They're going to fall away. They're going to be offended.
They're going to drop off. And so don't let people brainwash you with this, oh, follow
up, follow up. And it seems like if you repeat something enough it'll just catch on. You
know, make disciples, make disciples, make disciples, make disciples. You know, follow
up, follow up, follow up, follow up. No! Soul winning! Just win souls and let God build
the church. And that's what Faithful Word Baptist Church has been about for the last
five years and that's what we're about right now. And by the way, I do plan to follow up
on every single door in this valley when we knock them all the second time. I mean,
you want to talk about follow up? Hey, last December we knocked, or last year, you know,
toward the end of the year, we knocked every door in Guadalupe. Okay, I'm thinking of 2009.
Yeah, 2009. The end of 2009 we knocked every door in Guadalupe. Then in December of 2010
we knocked every door in Guadalupe again. That's follow up. And we got a whole bunch
of different people saved. We got to see people that we've gotten saved and recognized
that we got saved the first time around and confirm them and talk to them and try to get
them in church, try to strengthen them. And that's follow up, my friend. Not going around
with your little Starbucks and your donut and you're going to spend your whole soul
winning day driving around. Oh, not home. Let's go hit Dunkin' Donuts. You know, we
knock two doors a day. You're wasting your time. Get on Jesus' method. Read Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John and be like Jesus. Just go, just blow in, man. Preach to a bunch of
people. Get a bunch of people saved and say, come follow me. If they don't, then nuts to
them. Find more. I mean, shouldn't everybody hear the gospel elites before we worry too
much about just following up with everybody and begging them to go to church? And you
know, I'm sick of people who don't want to go to church anyway. I'm sick of them. I don't
have any time for them. If I'm going to spend hours and hours preparing sermons and studying
my Bible and if we're going to pay money to have this building and do everything to have
this church, they need to come down here to church and I don't have time for people that
don't have time for church. I don't have time for them. I'm not going to go spend my time
with people who don't have time for church. I'm going to spend my time with people who
do have time for church. And if somebody doesn't have time for church, then I don't have time
for them. And I'm not going to follow up with them. They can follow up with me right
here and they know where to find me and this is where we've been at and nothing changed.
But anyway, let's get back into the sermon here. Where are we? Acts 11? 26, 27, somewhere
around there. Yeah, it says they came to pass that a whole year they assembled themselves
and did follow up and they kept going back and people wouldn't come but they just kept
bugging them until they finally came. It says they assembled themselves with the church
and taught much people and the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. Now I
want to talk quickly about the term Christians because the term Christians is only used,
you're going to have to believe this, three times in the Bible. Did you know that? Three
times in the whole Bible the word Christians is used. This is one of them. Let's go to
1 Peter chapter 2, I'll show you another one. 1 Peter chapter 2, there's three instances
in the Bible where the word Christian is used. It's used here where it says, hey, that's
where they were first called Christians was in Acts chapter 11. Go to 1 Peter chapter
2 and I'll show you another instance right here. I'm sorry, 1 Peter chapter 4. 1 Peter
chapter 4, it says in verse number 15, it says, but let none of you suffer as a murderer,
as a thief, or as an evil doer, or as a busybody in other men's matters. Yet if any man suffer
as a what? Christian, let him not be ashamed but let him glorify God on this behalf. And
then the other time that it's used is when Agrippa, what chapter is that word? Agrippa
is speaking in the book of Acts, I believe it is Acts chapter 26. Who knows what they're
talking about here? Acts 26, this is where Agrippa has just heard the Gospel from Paul
and he says unto him, Agrippa, verse 27, King Agrippa, believeth thou the prophets, I know
that thou believeth. Then Agrippa said unto Paul, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.
So we got three times in the Bible, right? We got where it just says, hey, if Antioch
was the place where they were first called Christians, then we got Agrippa saying, hey,
almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. He's the judge, you know, presiding over this
trial, as it were, and even the judge is about to get saved is basically what's going on
there. Because, you know, King Agrippa is kind of sitting in judgment of him. He says,
hey, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. Then in 1 Peter 4, he says, hey, if you suffer
as a Christian, rejoice. What do these three mentions all have in common? Think about it.
In the first mention, we saw someone that's not one of them is calling them Christians.
That's where they were first called Christians. Is this a term that Jesus coined? No. Some
that the apostles came up with? No. It's just something that they were called. The people
in Antioch called them Christians. Agrippa, a non-believer, basically says, hey, you've
almost persuaded me to be a Christian. And then we see in 1 Peter 4, they're talking
about being persecuted for being a Christian. So it's always something that they were called
by an outsider. Basically, I don't know, it could have been derogatory, I don't know,
but they basically are calling them, you're a Christian. We're going to persecute you
because you're a Christian. Or, hey, you're almost talking to me for being a Christian.
As crazy as that sounds. That's what King Agrippa was saying. But it's just amazing
to me how people really latch onto that term. And I'm not against that term. I mean, it
is a biblical term, right? Because God did use it really one time. In 1 Peter 4, that's
God speaking there. And God used the term Christian. I don't think that Christian is
a bad term. But it's funny how people have just really latched onto that one term. When
really, it's not the most biblical term. Really, if you want to get really biblical, you call
those that are saved, you call them brethren. Or you call them the saints. And that's really
probably the best term that's used over and over in the Bible. I think that's one of the
best terms, probably the most frequently used, I would say, is the saints. And then the other
term is believers. Now, I like the term believer. Because right away, it shows you what salvation
is. And I think we should bring that term back. And let's make that the big term, right?
Let's make believer the big term. Because if we say, well, he's an unbeliever, he's
a believer. Because that's a very biblical term used a lot more than Christian. If we
use the word believer, then we're emphasizing the fact that salvation is by faith, not by
works. Because we noticed we didn't say he's a worker. He's an un-worker. A non-worker.
No, it's a believer or an unbeliever. And I really like the term saint, too. Saint is
a great biblical term. Let's not reserve that for some Catholic weirdo, you know, the saints
so and so. But sometimes we just think, oh, saint, that's Catholic. We see a restaurant
that we're going to St. Francis. Sounds like some Catholic restaurant that we're going
to eat at on February 12th. But it probably is a Catholic restaurant. But the food there
is really good. That's why we're going to go eat there. But you know, saint this, saint
that. It's funny because we're driving down this priest road and I've heard people criticize
the name of priest road. And I say, well, wait a minute, I'm a priest. You know? And
I've had people ask me, are you a priest? And I always say, yes, my son. I didn't say
that, but hey, whenever anybody asks me if I'm a priest, like I was in a hospital or
something and they asked if I was a priest, I said yes. I am a priest. And if you're
saved, you're a priest, too. The Bible says he's made us a royal priesthood. We believe
in the priesthood of the believer. We're all priests. And so sometimes we're afraid
of terms that are biblical terms, you know, like, oh, priest road, was it some Catholic
area? No, it's a Baptist area. This is a Baptist area, right by our church. It's priest
road. It's talking about the high priest, Jesus Christ, and we're all the priesthood
of the believers, we're in the Bible. So I like that term, too, priest. But saints,
believers, try to use biblical words. I think it's good to just use biblical words when
you talk about things. Just yeah, believers, unbelievers, let's bring it back, you know?
And nothing wrong with the term Christian, but this isn't faithful word Christian church.
It's faithful word Baptist church. And I think Jesus came up with that name, didn't
he? Didn't he say among them that are born of women, they're not risen and greater than
John the Baptist, okay? And so that's a biblical word. The word Baptist is used a lot more
on the part of the word Christian. So what's wrong with saying I'm a Baptist? I mean, me
saying I'm a Baptist is actually more scriptural than saying I'm a Christian. But even more
scriptural than both of those would be to say I'm a believer, I'm a saint, right? And
so I just wanted to say a little bit about that term Christian. Not a bad term, don't
get me wrong, I'm not criticizing the term Christian. I'm just saying I'm going to emphasize
what God emphasizes. Whatever terms he uses the most, that's what I want to try to use
the most. And whichever ones were just more something that were called by other people,
hey, I don't mind picking that up and just wearing it as a banner. Yeah, I'm a Christian,
absolutely. If somebody asked me how I'm a Christian, I'd say absolutely I am. Because
God did use that term one time in 1 Peter chapter 4. Talking about being persecuted
for your beliefs. But let me finish up here quickly. It says in verse 27, after it says
they were called Christians first in Antioch, in these days came prophets from Jerusalem
unto Antioch, and there stood up one of them named Akathas, and signified by the Spirit
that there should be great dirk throughout all the world. Dirk means famine, it's basically
a time of dryness, no rain that causes food to be scarce. And he prophesizes there's
going to be this great dirk or famine throughout all the world, which came to pass through
the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined
to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judea, which also they did and sent it
to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. So basically there's a dirk, a lot of
people are on hard times, they don't have the food to eat. So the believers that are
in Antioch, they decide to be really generous and take up a collection, take up a lot of
food and money and everything, and they sent Saul and Barnabas unto Jerusalem with all
that food and everything to help out the people that were suffering in Jerusalem. Notice who
they helped out though. Who did they help out? Who did they send the relief to? Brethren.
And really, we ought to try to help everybody, but the Bible says that we should do good
to all men, especially them of the household of faith. God does teach giving priority.
If you're going to help out, help out those that are in the brethren first before you
help the outsider, I believe that. And that's why sometimes some of these organizations
that are asking me for money sometimes they'll call you up, especially when it's like the
police fraternity, that's my favorite church. They call up and they ask for money or maybe
outside. I always tell them the same thing. I just say, well, I do all my giving through
my local church. I do all my charitable donations through my local church. That's what I tell
them. Because a lot of these organizations, we don't believe in the gospel they promote.
You know, the Salvation Army? The Salvation Army, okay, it sounds great, except that they
have a church on University Avenue that's the Salvation Army Church where they preach
a false gospel. I don't want to throw my money in there. And you know, I'm sure they
feed a lot of people. I'm sure they help a lot of people. They're down on their luck.
But they also preach false doctrine and false teaching right here in Tempe at the Salvation
Army Church. I'm not going to give it down to that guy, okay? How many times he rings
that bell? I'm not throwing any money in because I'd rather give money where it's going to
go to preach the gospel to people. And if somebody needs to be fed of the brethren,
we'll feed them. We'll let the government feed everybody else. But we'll feed the brethren
right here. And we feed you often. But let's put our hands on that board of Britain. Father,
we thank you so much for your word, dear God. And thank you that it's so clear and it shows
us a picture of what we should be doing. Going out, winning souls, preaching the gospel,
going from town to town, city to city, spending our time in the church, the institution that
you set up for us, dear God. And thank you for giving us this church where we can assemble
together and grow and become better disciples for you, dear God. And please just bless these
words to our ears. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.