In verse number 1, we pick up right after the story of Stephen being stoned in Acts
chapter 7. He preached that great sermon, it was just those last three verses that got
him into trouble. They all ran on him with one accord, they stoned him to death, and
they laid down their coats at the feet of a young man named Stephen. And so we start
Acts chapter 8 with this phrase, and Saul was consenting unto his death. Now, God holds
us accountable for the things that we consent to. You know, Saul didn't even pick up a stone,
he didn't really participate actively in this, but the Bible says he was consenting
to his death. We ought to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but
rather approve them. The Bible says, lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of
other men's sins, keep thyself pure. We ought not participate in the sins of others, we
ought to have nothing to do with what bad people are doing, we need to stay away from
it. Look at 2 John, keep your finger there in Acts chapter 8, we'll be right back there.
Let's go to 2 John. When you stand there and hold the coats while one of God's people
is being stoned, you're held accountable by God, you're guilty of consenting to his death.
Look at 2 John verse number 7, it says, for many deceivers are entered into the world,
who confess not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
Look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we
receive a full reward. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ,
have not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, be that both the Father and the
Son. Watch this in verse 10. If they're coming unto you and bring not this doctrine, receive
him not into your house, neither bid him God speed, for he that biddeth him God speed is
partaker of his evil deeds. This is talking about somebody coming to you, preaching another
gospel even, comes to your house, he says, don't invite them into the house, and don't
bid them God speed. Bidding them God speed will be like, hey, have a nice day, good luck,
God bless you. And he says if you do so, if you help them, if you bless them, he said
you're a partaker of their evil deeds. And so we ought to voice our opinions against
wickedness and not just consent unto it. We ought to voice our opinions against murder
and abortion, and not just consent unto abortion by voting for candidates that promote abortion
and just sitting back and saying, well, you know, it's their choice or whatever. I'm not
going to consent to that. It's going to happen with or without my consent, but let me tell
you something, it's without my consent. And I'm going to stand against it and make my
position known. I'm not going to be just standing there, Ivy by, while wicked things go on.
I'm going to cry aloud against sin and murder and wickedness. But in Acts chapter 8 here,
it says Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time, there was a great persecution
against the church which was at Jerusalem. And they were all scattered abroad throughout
the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. So basically there's all this persecution.
Well the apostles are standing their ground. They're not leaving town. They're just sticking
it out. They're still preaching. They keep getting thrown in jail. They keep getting
beaten as we've seen. But they are just staying there and preaching. But a lot of other people,
they don't want to go through the persecution. They don't want to handle that. And so they
actually get scattered abroad throughout the whole nation and even into other nations.
Well here's the thing. It was actually a good thing that they got scattered around because
it says they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the
apostles. And if you go down a little bit to verse 4, it says therefore they that were
scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. Now Jesus Christ, when he ascended
up to heaven, he said you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea
and in Samaria and under the outermost part of the earth. And in Matthew 28 he said go
ye therefore and teach all nations. He said go, baptize them in the name of the Father
and Son and the Lord God. So really they should have been reaching out further anyway than
just Jerusalem. And so God basically used this persecution to get them scattered abroad
preaching the gospel everywhere. Now was God the one orchestrating the persecution? No.
But God can take bad things that people do and use them for his good purpose. For example,
Joseph's brethren were jealous of him, beat him, threw him in a pit and sold him into
slavery. That wasn't right. But Joseph later said to them, you meant it for evil but God
meant it for good to save much people alive as it is in this day. So God can take bad
things and bad situations and turn them into something good and use them for his glory.
This is a bad thing that people are getting thrown in jail and persecuted and so forth
but God turned it into something good by allowing them to be scattered abroad and preach
the gospel in more places than just Jerusalem and get the gospel out to more people. And
so the Bible says we know that all things work together for good and then they'll love
God and then we're called according to his purpose. So they're scattered all around except
the apostles they stay there. It says in verse 2, devout men carried Stephen to his burial
and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church entering
into every house and hailing. Men and women committed them to prison, therefore they that
were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. That's pretty bad. I'm going house
to house. Basically he's going house to house in Jerusalem hunting and not just him but
a lot of the other Jewish leadership. They're hunting down to see if people are Christians
and if they are, they're throwing them into prison. So they're trying to fight them but
the more they persecuted them, the more they multiply. The more they grew, the more people
got saved. And so it says in verse number 5, you can't defeat the Bible. How many different
rulers are trying to burn the Bible and banning the Bible, make the Bible illegal? God's word
is always going to prevail. It's always going to exist. But it says in verse 5, then Philip
went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them. And the people with one
accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which
he did. Now if you remember Samaria, remember in the Old Testament, after the reign of Solomon,
the kingdom of Israel was divided into a northern kingdom called Israel and a southern kingdom
called Judah. Well the southern kingdom of Judah, the capital was Jerusalem. The northern
kingdom, the capital was Samaria. Well in that capital city of Samaria, okay, the people
who lived up in that area, they all went captive to the Assyrians long before the children
of Judah went captive to the Babylonians. Well they were brought captive to the Assyrians
and then the Assyrians put a whole bunch of their people in that land and it was a way
of making it their empire. And they would basically inbreed themselves into the population
by just mixing the Assyrians in with the Israelites that were left behind, thereby obliterating
the identity of them as a nation of their own individual people. So basically the people
in Samaria, because we're in the New Testament now in Acts chapter 8, Samaria has become
the name of the Roman province that basically includes a portion of that northern kingdom.
And the bottom part that was called Judah in the Old Testament is called Judea, okay.
So it goes up into Samaria which is this area where the people are kind of half Israelite
and half Assyrian mixed in. And if you remember from the book of John, these are the people
that the Jews despised because they looked at them as not being purely Israelite, pure
Hebrews because they were mixed in with the Assyrians. They didn't consider them, you
know, as good. Which obviously that was wrong. I mean, you know, human beings are human beings.
We're all, God's made all nations of the earth of one blood. You should look down on somebody
because of their genealogy. And God even told people in the New Testament so many times
to avoid genealogies because so many people were just trying to take pride in their lineage
but he said it's unprofitable in vain. It doesn't matter whether you're Jew or Gentile
or Greek or barbarian or bond or freak. He just said if you're in Christ, it's the only
thing that matters. So basically, Philip goes up to these kind of despised people and
he preaches the gospel to them and the whole city basically just receives Philip and listens
to him. A bunch of people are getting saved. A whole bunch of people are getting baptized.
It says, for unclean spirits, these are some of the miracles that Philip did, unclean spirits
crying the loud voice came out of many that were possessed with them and many were taken
with palsies and that were lame were healed. And there was great joy in that city. But
there was a certain man called Simon which before time in the same city used sorcery
and bewitched the people of Samaria giving out to themself with some great one. So this
guy is like an occult practitioner, some kind of a soothsayer, sorcerer claiming to have
the power of God but it's really through demonic things. And it says there in verse 10 to him,
they all gave heed. So before Philip came along, they thought this guy was great, this
false prophet. And they gave heed to him from the least to the greatest saying, this man
is the great power of God. And to him they had regard because of a long time he had bewitched
them with sorceries. But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the
kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized both men and women. Now
look at verse 13 here. It says, then Simon himself believed also and when he was baptized,
he continued with Philip and wondered beholding the miracles and signs which were done. Now
is this guy saved? Simon? Absolutely. Because what do you have to do to be saved? Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. You know, verily, verily I say to you,
he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. So we know for a fact this guy was saved because
God is telling us when everybody else believed God's word when it was preached, this guy
believed also. He got saved, then he got baptized, then he's continuing with Philip.
So he's staying with Philip, trying to learn as much as he can, he's becoming a disciple
of Philip here. Now here's the thing, this guy's heart was obviously not rotten to the
core. You know, there are some false prophets and false teachers that the Bible tells us
about that purposely are liars that are just rotten to the core and this is where you get
a lot of pastors and priests that are pedophiles and weirdos because they're just rotten to
the core and they're just purposely preaching a lie, just damning people and that definitely
exists. But then there are other people like the Apostle Paul who he said, how be it I
obtained mercy, he said I was a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious but he said
I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and unbelieved. Paul thought that he was doing
the right thing. He thought he was serving God. He was sincere but he was sincerely wrong
and there are a lot of people today that are very sincere in their religion and it's not
that they're bad people but they're still not saved, they're still going to hell, they
need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's a guy who, you know, practiced sorcery.
He did not know the gospel, he had not heard the truth and so he's basically into occultic
stuff but when he hears the truth, he turns to the truth and believes on Christ and gets
saved. So this guy's not just a horrible guy here. You know, he was doing bad stuff but
then now he got saved, then he followed the Lord in baptism so he's obedient, he's staying
with Philip, he's doing all the right things. And so it says in verse 14, now when the apostles
which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto
them Peter and John. So basically tidings get back to Jerusalem. Hey, Philip went up
to Samaria and he's having a ton of people saved, a ton of people baptized, the whole
city's rejoicing. Let's send Peter and John up there just to get these guys grounded,
just to see how they're doing. So they're sending out basically some more senior preachers,
some greater preachers here, the guys who were just right there with Jesus, his right-hand
man, just to send them up there. And so when they get up there, it says in verse number
15, who when they were come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost.
For as yet he was fallen upon none of them, only they were baptized in the name of the
Lord Jesus, then laid they their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost. Now
this is not talking about the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The moment that you get saved,
you're indwelled by the Holy Spirit. But there's no outward manifestation of that. I mean the
moment that I got saved, nothing changed where somebody could look at me and say, oh wow,
this guy has the Holy Spirit living inside of him now. You get saved, the Holy Spirit
dwells within you, he lives inside of you. But that does not always manifest an outward
change at all. But what they're talking about here is if you remember, the disciples were
indwelled by the Holy Ghost ever since Jesus was glorified, after that he was risen from
the dead. But Jesus told them, even after they were already indwelled by the Holy Spirit,
he said, wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he, he have heard of me. For John
truly baptized with water, but Jesus shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many
days hence. And they were supposed to wait at Jerusalem until they received basically
the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit upon them in mighty power, like he came upon
the prophets in the Old Testament and the judges in the Old Testament. So that's what
they're talking about here, basically being filled with the Spirit, having the Holy Ghost
upon you. Notice how he says that the Holy Ghost had not fallen upon any of them, it
says in verse 16. So that's the same thing as what happened in Acts chapter 2, when they
had prayed, remember in Acts chapter 4, when they had prayed, the place was shaken where
they were assembled together, they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, they spake the
word of God with boldness. So there was an outward manifestation. You knew they were
filled with the Holy Ghost because they preached with boldness. You knew in Acts chapter 2
that they were filled with the Holy Ghost, because remember God allowed them miraculously
to speak in a foreign language to people that had come there from other countries. So this
outward manifestation, and it's not something that happens one time, because if you remember,
the apostles were filled with the Holy Ghost in Acts chapter 2 when he fell upon them,
but then in Acts 4 he came upon them again in mighty power when they prayed and asked
God in Acts chapter 4. So it says, as yet he was fallen upon none of them, only they
were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. So they were baptized in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, but the power of God had not come upon them yet, they did not have the
Holy Ghost resting upon them. And so it says they laid hands on them, they laid their hands
on them and they received the Holy Ghost in verse 17. Then verse 18 says, and when Simon
saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered
them money, saying, give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands he may receive
the Holy Ghost. So basically what's going on is Peter and John come down and they're
basically laying hands on them, praying for these believers that they'd be filled with
the Holy Spirit, that God's power would come upon them. And he noticed that when they did
that, something changed right away in these people and they were filled with the Holy
Ghost. And he said, wow, I want to have that too. Now remember, this guy before he got
saved was kind of this charlatan, this fraudulent sorcerer. He was kind of a crook, he was bewitching
them with sorceries and all this stuff that was not biblical, that was not God's word.
But once he heard the true gospel, he turned away from that stuff and got saved. But he
still maybe has a little bit of that mentality, just a business mentality of finances. And
so he basically says, well, here, I'm going to give you money, give me that power that
you have. If I give you this money, will you give me that power? But Peter said unto him,
thy money perish with thee. So Peter gets angry, right? He's just angered right away
by this question. He says, thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that
the gift of God may be purchased with money, because the Holy Ghost coming upon people
is referred to as the gift of the Holy Ghost. And he says, thou hast neither heart nor love
in this matter, for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this
thy wickedness and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee,
for I perceive that thou art in the goal of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. So
basically Peter just lays into this guy, because it was pretty bad, it was really wrong what
he asked, to be able to buy the power of God with money. Obviously, he's way out of
line here. And so Peter rightfully rebukes him pretty sharply and says, hey, you're not
right with God. You need to repent of this wickedness. You need to turn from this wicked
mentality that you have, thinking that the things of God can be purchased with money.
Look at Simon's reaction to the rebuke here. Does he get mad? Does he disobey? No. His
attitude is right. Then answered Simon and said, pray ye to the Lord for me that none
of these things which ye have spoken come upon me. So he says, oh man, I messed up.
I blew it. Can you pray for me that I don't make this mistake again or that I don't continue
in my wickedness? Can you pray for me? So is this guy just a horrible guy? He said no.
He did something wrong. He got a really harsh, stern rebuke. And then he got it right. And
he said, you know what? I'm sorry. And the fact that you prayed for me that I didn't
straighten up. Now, a lot of people try to twist this passage and say this guy wasn't
even saved. Now look, we know he was saved because it flat out tells the baby what he
believed. Then after that, he got baptized. He's following Philip. Peter didn't even know
this guy. Get your mind in the story here. Peter did not know this guy at all. He'd been
with Philip for a long time. Philip's teaching him all kinds of stuff. He's been continuing
with Philip and serving Philip. Peter just comes on the scene, doesn't know the situation.
I mean, Peter just comes on the scene, doesn't know this guy. And a guy walks up to him and
just says, hey, could you give me this copper? I want to have it. And look, it's not that
he wanted something bad. He's asking for something good. But it's just he was going about it
the wrong way by trying to buy it with money. And so Peter doesn't know this guy. Peter
just tells him off and lays into him. And people will try to say, this guy wasn't saved.
Well, it says he was saved because it says he believed. And the reason why they'll say
that, they have an agenda behind it, is because I've often challenged people, show me in the
Bible where it says, repent of your sins. Show me the phrase, repent of your sins in
the Bible. And they can't show it to you because it doesn't look good. And yet you hear it
over and over and over. Isn't it funny how things that are not in the Bible, just you
hear them repeated and repeated. We need to use biblical terminology. We need to speak
in the words, not which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing
spiritual things with spiritual. I like to use biblical terminology. Biblical terms like,
hey, I got saved. Not like, oh, I made a decision for Christ. Or I gave my life to Christ. Or
I asked Jesus to come into my life. No, why didn't we say, hey, I got saved. Hey, I believed
on Jesus Christ. People that are not saved, they're called unbelievers. We need to use
biblical terms. And if we would use the terms the Bible uses, we would have the right philosophy
about the things we see in this world. People that are not saved, they're called what? Unbelievers.
Okay? Because that's why they're not saved, because they don't believe on Jesus Christ.
They're unbelievers. People that are saved are called believers. They're called brethren.
They're called saints. Those are the words that are used over and over again. And so
let's try to use biblical terminology. And so when a preacher is in, ah, repent of your
sins, repent of your sins, ah, repent of your sins, just keep repeating that over and over
again, that doesn't make it biblical. Show me it in the Bible. And they can't say, so
they're looking in, they're looking up, and they can't fight, they can't fight. So here's
what they find. Okay, you know, repent of thy wickedness. That's the closest thing to
repent of your sins. But here's the thing. The guy was already saved. So is he telling
you, repent of your wickedness and then you'll be saved? No. He just tells the guy, look,
your heart is not right with God. Repent of your wickedness. Now look, we as Christians
can often have a time when our heart is not right with God. And there's wickedness in
our life that we need to repent from. But there's nothing here that says that this guy
was not saved. And when Peter, they'll try to take what Peter is revuking and where he
says, well I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.
That doesn't make you unsaved. Paul preached to the Hebrew believers and said to them,
lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled. Talking to
people that are already saved. Saying, hey, beware of bitterness, a root of bitterness
springing up in your heart. So this guy being in the gall of bitterness or in the bond of
iniquity, Jesus said to those disciples that believed on him in John 8. It says, when they
heard these words, many believed on Christ. And he said unto those that believed on him,
if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed and you shall know the truth
and the truth shall make you free. And they say, we're not in service to any man. And
he said, hey, he that committed sin is the servant of sin. Go to Romans chapter 6. See,
sin and iniquity will bring bondage to your life whether you're saved or unsaved. And
you tonight that are believers, you tonight that are saved, if you get into sin, it will
put you in bondage. And the fact that you're in bondage doesn't mean that you're not saved.
Look at Romans chapter 6. I'll show you what I'm talking about. The Bible says in verse
number, let's see here, how about we'll start in verse number 12. Let not sin therefore
reign in your mortal body that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. So he's talking to
people that are already saved and he's saying, don't let sin reign in your mortal body that
you should obey the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness
unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead. So we're
talking to people that are saved. And your members as instruments of righteousness unto
God, for sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under
grace. Verse 15, what then? And this is the question I'd like to ask the whole new evangelical
movement who just tries to say, we're under grace, we're not under, you know, you show
them commands of God and say, do this. And they'll say like, well, we're not under the
law. What then? Shall we sin because we're not under the law, but under grace? God forbid,
and here's why, know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants
ye are to whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness.
He says, look, you will become a servant of sin in your life just because you're under
grace, just because you're saved, you can still go back into sin and get in the bonds
of sin. You see, sin has bondage. It takes away your freedom. Like, for example, drinking.
It's an addiction. People are alcoholic. They can't quit drinking. They want to quit drinking.
That's a bondage. That's an addiction. Smoking, same thing. Many people do not want to spend
their $6 every single day or whatever. I don't know how much it is now. I was outside of
a gas station and it was a big sale. If you bought a whole bunch of packs or something,
you got them for $6 each. So I don't even know if it's even sometimes more than that.
So it's like $6 every day, $180 a month. That's like a car payment. I mean, $180 a month,
you really do a lot. But it's not that they just want to smoke. And here's the funny thing.
My wife said this to me recently. I hadn't really thought about this. My wife said, everybody
who smokes is going to quit in the future. And I didn't really know that. I was like,
really? She said, oh, yeah. She said, if you took a poll of people who smoke, are you ever
going to quit smoking? They'll say, yeah, eventually I'm going to quit. But they can't
because it's really hard to quit smoking, right? Because it gets you in bondage. And
then drugs, even more so. Alcohol, smoking, other sins that are just pornography. A lot
of people are addicted to gambling. You can be addicted to all manner of things. Sin puts
you into bondage. Freedom is basically choosing what you want to do. But the alcoholic doesn't
choose what he wants to drink today. He knows what he's going to drink. It's alcohol, whether
he wants to or not. I get up and I decide what I want to drink every day and I drink
it. Now, I don't drink alcohol because I don't want to drink alcohol, because I don't want
to break God's law, because I don't want to be punished by God. And I want to be blessed
by God. I want to have a clear mind. I want to be sober. But I drink what I want every
day. I wake up, I want to drink milk, I drink milk. I want to drink juice, I drink water,
I drink water. The alcoholic has to drink alcohol. He's in bondage. He doesn't have
freedom. And so forth. The smoker doesn't decide, should I smoke today? No, they must
smoke today. I decide every day, I don't want to smoke. So I'm doing what I want to do.
They're doing what they don't want to do. So who has freedom? The one who does what
he wants to do. And people who have zero character, they're not free. They're in bondage
to all the cravings of their flesh, and they're in bondage to all the appetites, and they're
in bondage to Satan in many cases, who has deceived them and ensnared them with all the
temptations that he offers. And so it's easy. You can become the servant of sin by living
a life of sin, even if you're saved. So this guy was not unsafe. There's nothing in the
passage that says he wasn't safe. And even if Peter said, I don't think you're saved,
that wouldn't have made the guy unsafe. Because Peter's not God, number one. But Peter didn't
even say that. He just said, your heart's not right with God, and you're living in iniquity,
you need to repent of this wickedness. And the guy says, you're right, I'm sorry. I was
out of line. People are going to get out of line. It doesn't make them not safe. People
try to twist the passage to make it say what they want it to say. But what it really is
talking about is a guy who's already saved, already been baptized, already been living
for God, he just messed up. Well, that's pretty normal. And so that's what's going on in the
story. So he gets rebuked, and there's a lot we can learn from the story. We ought never
to think that the things of God can be purchased with money, or the power of God can be purchased
with money. Many people think that if they put a large sum in the offering plate, somehow
they're going to be filled with the Spirit. Somehow they're going to be automatically
living for God, or doing great things for God. And that's just not the case. It's not
always just about money. And that's what a lot of churches seem to make it about. Money
has always been a really low priority at Big Four Baptist Church. When have you ever seen
us have a thermometer up here raising money? When have you ever seen me get up and say,
man, we're a little under budget, we need money. You know, you don't want to know how
our church operates. If the money's there, we use it. And if it's not there, we don't
use it. We don't get ourselves strung out and over our head financially. We just use
what comes in, and if we have to, I mean, if no money comes in, you know, then what
we'll do? We'll just have service outside, right? We'll just preach and sing and whistle.
I don't think it's ever going to get to that point, because we all need to live and survive,
and we pay our tithe 10%. That's going to do something. But the bottom line is, we're
not just all about money. If we just get more money, we can reach the city of Phoenix with
the gospel. We can just get the money. You know, you're laughing, but that's the kind
of stuff you hear. I mean, it's funny when we get in a group like this, right, where
everybody's got their heads screwed on straight. You know, we're in this group where everybody's
on the same page, and I'll say stuff and people laugh, but it's like, this is what I grew
up with. Every time I went to church, it's like, man, if you just get the money for this
building, we get all these people sick. Look, this building has never grew legs and walked
and given the gospel to somebody, and it never will. Oh, we can just support all these
missionaries. Why don't you be a missionary, right? You're in Phoenix, Arizona. You've
got people red, yellow, black and white all over this city. Go win them to Christ. And
I'm not against supporting a foreign missionary. Hey, if we have the money to send to a foreign
missionary and try to get somebody over and waste, great! But you know what? It's not
a money problem today. God owns the wealth in every mine and the cattle on a thousand
hills. He doesn't need money. God is the creator of all things. The streets of heaven are paid
with gold. Any time he wants to, he could rip up a piece of asphalt and drop it on our
church. You think God is unable to physically send the angel of the Lord to bring one tile
out of the streets of heaven and bring it down? How much is gold per ounce? One chunk
of that would be everything we need to build all kinds of palaces. But you know what? We
don't need those palaces. Because if we needed them, we'd have them. Because God said he
would provide all of our need, according to his rich saying, Lord, by Christ Jesus. So
here's a great philosophy. If we don't have it, we don't need it. Or we're not asking
for it. But if we ask God to provide the need and we don't have it, we must not need
it. So here we are. The building we have is the building we have. I love our building.
I thank God for it. It's a blessing. It's nice, beautiful, climate controlled, good
location. Everybody knows where it's at. Comfortable, plenty of parking, beautiful artwork. Hey,
we can't complain. But you know what? The things of God aren't purchased with money.
Spiritual things cannot be purchased with money. You can't buy Bible knowledge. You
can't buy the fullness of the Holy Spirit. You can't buy prayer. You can't buy soul winning.
You can't buy any of those things. They have nothing to do with money. And that's the lesson
that Simon the sorcerer needed to learn. And people call him Simon the sorcerer, but I
don't think it's really fair to actually call him that at this point. Because I don't see
him practicing any sorcery or anything like that. He quit doing that. He believed. He
got saved. And so he was Simon the sorcerer. And now he's Simon the believer who just was
mixed up on one thing. And he's never mentioned again.
Now there's a lot of heresy that you'll learn in seminaries and cemeteries and Bible schools.
And people will try to say, and there was a movie about this that we watched from when
I was a kid, where Simon the sorcerer started this other religion after this. Who's ever
heard of it? Who saw that movie? What's that movie called? There was a Bible movie. You
know what I'm talking about? I think it's called The Robe. But I might be mixing it
up. There was this movie. It was real big when I was a kid. It was a movie that was
made in the 60s or something. And it's like Simon the sorcerer goes on to preach all this
heresy and to teach all this stuff. You know what? I don't believe that for one second
because the Bible says that he believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he was not a
false prophet after that. He was just mixed up on this one thing. So be careful who you
listen to telling you stuff that's not in the Bible. Look at verse 26. Let's go ahead
and get off. Actually, I think I skipped a little bit. Let me go back. Verse 25. And
they, when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, that's Peter and John,
returned to Jerusalem and preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans. So there's
your small town soul waiting right there. You know, they're going to these villages
just like Jesus did, preaching the gospel, moving on to the next village, just trying
to get the gospel to everybody. Just trying to get everybody saved. And that's what we
do as well. Now, they didn't necessarily plan a church in every city. Now, ideally
in a perfect world, as Paul told Titus in chapter 1, verse 5, he said, you need to set
an order of the things that are wanting. Don't leave Crete. Remember, Crete's just a small
island. I believe it's 80 miles long and just maybe 10 or 20 wide. I don't remember exactly.
Forgive me if I'm wrong. But it's somewhere there about. It wasn't huge. But he said,
So there were a lot of believers that didn't really have a church with a pastor in their
area. But, you know, the first thing is to go out and just get a lot of people saved.
That's the first thing. Try to get them in church, but eventually you want to try to
plant more churches, obviously, and have elders in every city so that people aren't driving
an hour to church. You know, people aren't having to go really far to church or not even
have a good church in their area. So it says here that they preached the gospel in many
villages in the Samaritans. We as a church do the same thing because it's a biblical
example. It mentions scores of times in the gospels and the book of Acts. Verse 26,
Now you remember, Gaza is a city that was mentioned a lot in the Old Testament. It's
one of the five cities in the Philistines. The Philistines had five major cities, and
they had the five lords of the Philistines, you know, Ashkelon, Ekron, and Gaza, and all
these other places. Gaza was the one where Samson was there sleeping, you remember, and
basically he woke up in the middle of the night because they were laying weight for
him and they locked him in. They shut the gates of the city. So Samson got up at midnight
and just walked up to the gate and ripped the gate off its hinges and walked away with
the gate and took it with him. So they woke up, and not only was the door open, but where's
the door? You know, as they ripped the whole gate off its hinges through his superhuman
strength that God gave them in the book of Judges. And so that's Gaza. So this is along
that coast of the Mediterranean Sea, you know, right over here, where the Philistines were.
So he's heading just through the desert toward the land of the Philistines of the Old Testament.
He's heading toward Gaza, and God told him to head down there. So he doesn't really know
why he's heading down there, because he's just out in the middle of the desert. He's
just walking along and he's thinking, okay, I guess God wants me to go to Gaza. But before
he gets there, he runs into somebody. And he says in verse 27, he arose and went, and
behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians,
who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for her worship, was
returning, and sitting in his chariot, read Isaiah as the prophet. So here's this Ethiopian
eunuch. A eunuch is a man who's been castrated so that he can serve around royal females
without anyone worrying about scandal. Is it right to castrate men? No. But it's something
that was done in Bible days by obviously ungodly people. They would castrate men that would
be around like a queen, you know, Candace. You know, if any man had to be around them,
they wanted to make sure that nobody started rumors or anything like that. And so they
had these castrated servants called eunuchs. They were slaves. But this guy is a very high-ranking
slave because he's in charge of all her treasure. This is a very important man. And he went
to Jerusalem to worship, and he's on his way back. So he basically is a sincere guy. He's
a religious guy, but he's not saved. He's looking for the truth. He's reading Isaiah's.
He's trying to understand it. He can't figure out what it means. And Philip comes upon him.
Now, have you ever heard people say this? Well, if somebody's looking for the truth,
God will make sure that somebody brings them the Gospel. Have you ever heard somebody say
that? If somebody's really looking for the truth, I think God will somehow get them the
Gospel or get somebody to go... You know, what's wrong with that statement is that I
do believe that if somebody's looking for the truth, God will send someone, but I don't
know if that person is necessarily always going to go. Because how many times is God
trying to send us places? How many places did God have in mind that we should go knock
that door? How many people are praying for their students, you know, their children,
their grandchildren, their nieces, their nephews that are at ASU from a distant state? And
maybe they're praying that they would be saved, you know, and God wants us to go answer that
prayer, but we've got to go. You know, when He is leading us, are we following? You know,
or maybe some young person is looking for the truth. You know, Brother Gary and I, we
were down in Soul winning in Maricopa a couple weeks ago, and we ran into these two teenage
girls, and they were really looking for the truth, and they had said that they had been
talking about... They said it was really weird that we talked to them, because they said
we were just talking about this stuff, and we were talking about it, and we didn't really
understand salvation and everything, and then you showed up and showed us the truth.
God sent us to those girls because of the fact that they were looking for the truth,
and God wanted to show them the truth. Even if we went to a city that was, you know, 25
minutes away, we just happened to be doing Soul winning down there. And so God led us
there, but hold on, what if we had just decided not to go Soul winning? What if we just didn't
go that day? Then we wouldn't have preached the gospel to those people. I mean, when we
go Soul winning, we get people saved, or most of the time we do, or many times we do. But
if we don't go, we're going to get no one saved. And so how many people is God trying
to lead? How many people are looking for the truth, and God is saying go, and the Spirit
of the Lord is trying to direct us to those people, but we're too busy, choked out with
the cares of this world. Those people aren't going to get the truth. And a lot of times
the way I hear that preached, it's almost like, oh, don't worry about it. If somebody's
really looking for the truth, God would know. He wants to send you to go talk to the people
who are really looking for the truth. He wants to send you. Don't just sit back and
say, well, that guy in that other country, if he's looking for the truth, God will reveal
it to him. Yeah, God will use you to reveal it to him, and he will use me and other believers,
but if we don't go, if we don't go, he said, if our gospel be hid, it's hid unto them that
are lost, in whom the Godless world has blinded the eyes of them that believe not, lest the
light of the glorious gospel should shine in. And so we need to be willing to go. Yes,
God's leading, but are you bold? And so don't get this Calvinist attitude that, oh, you
know, God will make sure everything is fit. No, he'll send you. So go. And so Philip goes,
and he meets this man who is sincere, not saved, but he's looking for the truth, and
he's reading the prophet his eyes. So Philip runs thither to him and heard him read the
prophet his eyes. So he's reading it out loud. Philip walks up and says, wow, here
I am walking in the desert. I come across this guy that God led me to, and he's reading
the Bible out loud. So he walks up to the guy and he asks him this question, understandest
thou what thou readest? And he said, how can I, except some man should guide me. So does
he understand? No. Can he understand? No. That's because it says in First Corinthians
2.14, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
of him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. It talks about
the book of Galatians, that people who are not saved when they read the Old Testament,
it's like they have a veil over their eyes, and the meaning is mass to them, and when
their heart turns to Christ, it says the veil is removed. And God opens their understanding
and they understand the scriptures. This man is not saved, therefore he can't understand
the Bible. Now, unsaved people, how many times do you run into them and they'll say,
oh, I read the Bible cover to cover when I was in jail. But they're not saved. I read
it three times in jail. Read it 300 times, you'll never get saved unless someone preaches
to you the Gospel. The Bible says, how shall they hear without a preacher? Faith cometh
by hearing and hearing by the word of God. The natural, unregenerate, unsaved man cannot
just, let me give you this example. If we went to some other country somewhere and found
somebody who was just pretty much never exposed to the word of God, they might have a vague
notion of Jesus in the Bible, pretty much Jesus is known all over the world. That name
at least is definitely known in basics. But let's say we find the person in this world
who has the least knowledge, and in fact they've never heard a verse of scripture. They've
heard a little bit about Jesus perhaps, but they've never heard a verse of scripture,
they've never heard God's word, they've never heard the Gospel preached, no, they've never
had a saved person give them the Gospel or anything. And let's say we just handed that
verse in the Bible and had them read it, it would be impossible for that person to get
saved unless someone preaches the Gospel. Because it takes a few elements to get someone
saved. It takes the word of God. You must have the word of God, the so or so with the
word. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God. I already ran through my
list of verses on that on Sunday, on Sunday night I believe. But not only that, it takes
the Holy Spirit to get somebody saved. And I don't think the Spirit is the one who regenerates.
And not only that, it's the soul winner. It takes the human being, the human instrument.
The Bible says who is Paul, who is a Paulist, but ministers by whom he believed, even as
the Lord gave to every man. So God gave every man who saved someone who preached unto them
the Gospel. Paul said, I've begotten Onesimus and my father. He said, you know, you have
many teachers, but you have not many fathers. He said, I've forgotten you in Christ. He
said, I'm your spiritual dad. I begat you because I want you to Christ. The Bible tells
us to bring forth fruit. Just like my wife and I have our physical fruit back there,
the fruit basket that's lined up back there, the robe of fruit back there. The spiritual
fruit is when you win somebody to Christ. My wife and I are multiplying physically.
I'm multiplying spiritually by going out and winning souls to Christ. And so this guy needed
someone to come preach to him. And by the way, he didn't need a tract. So Philip said,
okay, well here's a tract. See you later. I'm on my way to Gaza. Here's a tract. No.
Here's what he did. He preached. It says right here, how can I submit somebody to guide me?
And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with them. The place of the scripture
which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the shearer, and like a lamb done before
his shearer, so opened he gnawed his mouth. Now, keep your finger there and turn back
to Isaiah 53. This has nothing to do with the sermon, but I just want to expound to
you the verse that says, prove all things, hold fast to that which is good. Look at Isaiah
53. It says in verse number 6, it says, all we like sheep have gone astray, and we have
turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He
was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb
to the slaughter. And watch this, as a sheep before what? Her. Is that masculine or feminine?
As a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. Now go back to Acts
chapter 8. Acts chapter 8 says in, where were we? Verse number 32. The place of the scripture
which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb done before
masculine or feminine? Masculine. Sheep before. His shearer so opened not his mouth. Notice
I've heard preachers get up and it's funny how preachers are always looking for some
new cute doctrine. We need to just get back to what the Bible actually says and just preach
it. Instead of always looking to some history book or some cute doctrine, everybody's looking
for some new little thing. Hey, there's plenty of new things in the Bible that you haven't
preached, so preach them. There's plenty of new things for you to read this year in
your Bible. I don't care how many times. Let's say you sit in this room and you've read the
Bible 20 times, 50 times, 100 times. 2011, read the Bible and you'll learn more. Don't
just read books about the Bible. But I've heard so many preachers get up and say, you
know, oh man, God really knew in Isaiah 53, he said a sheep before her shearers is dumb.
Because they said, you know, when you slaughter a sheep, the male sheep makes noise. But the
female sheep is dumb. It doesn't make noise. It's what God was showing us. Shut up. You
know what I mean? They're just trying to make something up, but did they study to show themselves
proof? No, because in the Old Testament it said the sheep before her shearers is dumb
and the New Testament said the sheep before his shearers is dumb. So is it only the female
sheep that doesn't make, you know, it's just the lamb led to the slaughter, male, female,
doesn't matter. Now you say, well, why does it use the word her in the Old Testament?
Well, it uses the word her because it's an inanimate object. Okay? And different languages
are different. Hebrew is different than Greek. That's why you're going to have a little bit
different in the way things are stated in the New Testament versus the Old Testament
because one of them was translated from Hebrew into English. One was translated from Greek
into English, but they're both saying the same thing. They both mean the same thing.
It's just two different languages. Okay? Now look, have you ever heard somebody say that,
you know, she about a car or a boat or a ship? That's very common to refer to inanimate objects
in the feminine. Okay? You know, oh yeah, she's a pretty good whatever. You know, talking
about the car, we don't really talk that much, as much as Margaret. Who's heard people talk
that, you know, tons of hands are going up, you know. Some Beach Boys song about a classic
car calling a she or something just popped into my mind, but I'm not going to preach
that tonight. The bottom line is she is just referring to it because a she before her shearers
is like a she before its shearers. It's just a she. It doesn't matter whether it's male
or female because it's just talking about the fact that it's an animal, it's a she,
it's being sheared. But you see how people can preach things and they sound good, don't
they? I mean, it sounds good, oh yeah, God knew here, you know, just say her shearers
because, you know, the female lamb is the one that doesn't cry out, the male lamb, you
know, does that hold water? No. So don't believe everything you hear. And preach what the Bible
actually says instead of some cute meaning. That guy never slaughtered a sheep, that preacher
that I heard say that and all the other preachers that I heard say that. You think that they've
tried it out? You think they got a Bighorn Arizona sheep and they got a male and a female
and they stood it in front of them and they got ready to shear it? No, they're just reading
it in some book somewhere, you know, and that's why we need to read what's in this book. Because
anything you preach and believe out of this book will never be proved wrong. But see,
I just proved that wrong. That cute little illustration or cute little doctrine from
a history book about, you know, Palestine sheeps and how they squeal and when they don't
squeal. And so let's just stick with the Bible. I mean, isn't there enough in the Bible
to preach and to have to go to stuff like that? And a lot of sermons you'll hear are
all based on like farming and all these illustrations like when you farm, this happens, this happens.
And it's like a guy who's like never even set foot on a farm that's preaching. And look,
I'll tell you right now, I'm not a farmer. The closest thing I ever did to farming was
when I used to take popcorn kernels and plant the popcorn kernels in the backyard and grow
stocks of corn but the corn was never edible. It was real small that came out of here because
I don't think that farmers who plant corn plant popcorn kernels that are bought at the
grocery store. But no, grow big stocks of corn. I'm not a farmer. I've never lived in
a city with less than 2 million people in it. That's the smallest town I've ever lived
in. Had 2 million people in it, Sacramento, California. The surrounding area is 2 million.
So I'm not going to get up here and preach to you about ranching and farming. Let's preach
the Bible and it's fine. If you're a rancher, then use a ranching illustration. But don't
just get all these stories and doctrines of man and history books guiding you. The only
thing we can really trust is the Bible. And the Bible says her shears, his shears. So
stick with the Bible. It doesn't matter whether the lamb is male or female. You say how did
that edify me? Look, because you need to just beware and approve all things. And when
you hear stuff, when you hear me preach things, don't just blindly accept everything I say.
When you're reading your Bible, see if it asserts the scriptures daily whether these
things are so that I'm preaching. So it says in verse 32, I just thought that was interesting
to point out that it says his shearer, whereas in 53 of Isaiah it says her shearer. In his
creation, his judgment was taken away and who shall declare his generation, for his
life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I pray thee, of
whom speaketh the prophet this? Of himself or of some other man? So he's wondering, was
the prophet as his sheep before his shearers? And no, he wasn't. He was speaking of another
man. He was speaking of Christ prophetically. Then Philip opened his mouth and began at
the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came unto
a certain water and the eunuch said, see, here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized?
Now, to hinder someone is to stop someone from doing something. So he's saying, what's
stopping me from getting baptized? Now, so far, he's just been listening. It's been a
one-way exchange as far as we see it. Philip opened his mouth and preached unto him Jesus.
You say, why is that mentioned? I mean, we know he's not a ventriloquist. Because today
we've got a bunch of ventriloquist soul winners today who want to go soul in him with their
mouth shut. That's not soul in him. And the reason God emphasizes over and over, he says,
open your mouth. He says that I'm going to open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery
of the gospel. Because unless you're a ventriloquist, you cannot preach the gospel without opening
your mouth. And that's what we need to see here. He didn't hand him a track. He opened
his mouth and preached in the gospel. That's how you get people saved. You open your mouth.
You open the Bible, then you open your mouth, and then they get saved. Those are the two
things that need to be opened. And so he hears the gospel preached from Philip, and he just
jumps right to baptism. He just says, OK, well, hey, there's some water. Why don't I
get baptized right now? But Philip stops him and says, if thou believeth with all thine
heart, thou mayest in verse 37. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the
Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still, and he taught a six-week baptism
course. He made him get a haircut. He made him promise not to have a living girlfriend.
Oh, yeah, he's a eunuch. He made him promise to quit drinking and promise. No. What is
the prerequisite for baptism? One thing. He said, if thou believeth with all thine heart,
thou mayest. I wonder, how many churches, if you went and asked the pastor and said,
I want to get baptized, would he say, well, if you believe, you can be baptized if you
believe. Isn't that the right answer? But here's the answer. Oh, OK, well, sign up for
this class. Well, you've got to take that earring out and get a haircut. And I'm all
for you taking out the earring and getting a haircut, my friend. And I'll preach on that
until I'm blue in the face. But do you have to take off the earring and get a haircut
before you get baptized? No. And I've heard people say that if you have the earring in
the left ear, that's OK. But if you have the earring just in the right ear, it means that
you're a homo. That's what I'm talking about. Is that still the way it is? When I was a
kid, it was like, the earring in the right ear means you're a homo. What's that? Either
ear. Yeah. And if it's in the left ear, you're straight. But here's what I say. Well, then
you're this close to being a homo. That's why I don't want to have an earring just in
the right ear. And plus, hey, I don't want somebody to see me in the mirror or something.
You know how in the mirror, everything gets reversed? Or I don't want the people developing
the photos at Walgreens, and they're looking at the reverse image, so wait a minute. So
I don't want to even be this close. So the point is, you only have to do one thing to
before you get baptized. Just believe. And I'm just going to give the same answer that
Phillip gave. If you believe, you may. But you've got to believe first. So should we
baptize babies? No. You may not. And he said, I believe. And that was the right answer.
And he said, okay. And he commanded the charity to stand still, and they went down both into
the water. Both Phillip and the unity sprinkled him. They got all the way down into the water
up to their necks so that he could just sprinkle. They went down into the water because he
dumped him under the water. Because baptism is by immersion. The Bible says that Jesus,
when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water. Now, in order to come out
of the water, you have to be in the water. So in order to get baptized, you have to be
in the water. And people say, well, God doesn't care how you get baptized. I was talking to
a Catholic that I was trying to get saved out door to door. And they say, God doesn't care
how you get baptized. It's just the water that's important. It's the holy water. It
doesn't matter whether you're dumped in it, sprinkled, poured. And I said, well, if it
doesn't matter, why don't you guys just do it the way the Bible says, if it doesn't matter.
You know, we don't need a rain bird up here, you know, baptizing it. And then it comes
back. Baptism is by immersion. Now, that's why John the Baptist was baptizing an anon
near the Salem because there was much water there. He had to go to maybe even an inconvenient
location. You know, I wish we had water here to baptize people because it's very inconvenient.
And that's one of the reasons why we don't baptize near as many people as we should be
as a church because we don't have a baptistry. So we do baptize people at my house and we
do that all the time. Whenever somebody says they need to be baptized, we go to my house,
baptize them in the swimming pool. But obviously it would be more convenient if we had a baptistry
here and we could just instantly baptize anybody who needs to be baptized, right? And so we
go through the inconvenience of all getting in our cars and driving to my house, which
is only a quarter mile away, and baptizing people because it's important. We don't just
say, okay, well, you know, we're not going to drive all the way over there, right? Actually,
I don't even have a couple of hours. That's slowly right there. And so that's not baptism.
Now, because this is such an important verse, Acts 8-37, it's completely removed from all
the modern versions, pretty much. Now, somebody will inevitably email me and say, that's not
true. This one version has it. Okay, but it's not in the NIV. It's not in the New American
Standard. It's not in the ESP. You know, the best-selling mainstream translations. Somebody
literally, I get the stupidest emails from somebody. I got an email from somebody saying,
you know, you said in your sermon that all the modern translations changed this one verse.
And it was a verse that is changed in like the New American Standard, the NIV, the ESP.
It was like 10 versions I checked all changed it. And they named some obscure version, but
I checked this one, and it wasn't changed. And they said, now I'm just wondering if I
can even believe anything that you preach. Because if you're wrong about this, what else
are you arguing about? That's literally what it said. And I'm like, wait, you think I'm
just the walking, talking Holy Bible? Like I never make a mistake? And you shouldn't
be blindly believing me anyway. Go check all 500 versions. If you really want to know whether
it's changed in all the versions. But I got the NIV right here. It's gone. I got the New
American Standard. I got the recovery version. I've got the ESP now. I just bought it a couple
weeks ago, you know, so I can preach against it. I've got the Living Bible. Acts 8, 37
is gone in those. And it's been removed because the Catholic Church has removed this passage
in the past. Because of the fact that all the little Protestant children of the Catholic
Church don't like this verse. All the little Protestant baby baptizers don't like this
verse. Because it says that you've got to believe before you get baptized. That's why
the Calvinist Reformed Reformation Protestant version, the ESV, leaves out Acts 8, 37. Because
they want to sell that version to a bunch of baby baptizers. That's why. And this one
says you've got to believe first, and then you get baptized. And he commanded the chariot
to stand still. And by the way, if you got baptized before you were saved, you should
get baptized again. Now, why are we got baptized? Well, if you weren't saved, you didn't get
baptized. You just took a bath. And I've taken many baths, and I've jumped in many pools,
but that doesn't mean I was being baptized. You're only baptized after you're saved. When
I may not have got baptized is after you're saved. And it says he commanded the chariot
to stand still, and they went down both into the water, both Philip and Eunuch. And isn't
that interesting that he tells us they went both down into the water? I mean, there's
no question here what they're doing. It's not sprinkling. And when they were come up
out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the Eunuch saw him no more,
and he went on his way with George. So God performs a miracle here, that when Philip
goes down to the water, Philip baptizes the Eunuch, and they get up and walk out of the
water, and the Ethiopians kind of, you know, getting the water out of his ear. And all
of a sudden it's just, where's Philip? He's just gone. He just disappeared. And the Spirit
of the Lord caught away Philip. He was caught up, and that happened other times in the Bible,
but it says that the Eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing. Now, where
is the discipleship there, Philip? Why did the Spirit of the Lord catch him away before
he could teach him the classes and stuff? Where is the five-week Bible study in the
home? You know, the guy had the Bible, and the guy had the Holy Spirit, and Philip moved
on to the next door to go solo, whether he liked it or not. He was warped, okay? He was
actually warped from the desert here unto Azotus. And he was found at Azotus, and passing
through, he preached in all the cities until he came to Caesarea. And so, you know, soul
winning is so biblical, isn't it? I mean, just read Acts 8. It's just like, they go
to the city, they get people saved, and then they go to the next city, and they go to all
these villages, they're getting these people saved, they're preaching God through here,
they're getting them there, you know, and then they're just warped out of there. Like,
right when somebody gets saved, baptized, warped out. Beam me up, Scotty. You know,
why? Because soul winning is biblical, and I'm sick of people saying, well, you can't
just go out and get all these people saved, you're not training every single one of them.
And somebody said, you know, you're neglecting, it's like you gave birth to a child and then
just left him in. That's not true. You left him with the Holy Ghost, you left him with
the Bible, and they can come to church anytime they want to. Wow, you don't have to cycle
enough. We've got discipleship classes Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. Why
should I sit there and go and preach a church service? I'm not Friar stinking Tuck. You
know, I'm not going to travel around like a Catholic Friar bringing church to you. Come
here to church is here. You come here. You get in your car and drive down here. You get
on the bus, you get on your bike, you walk down here because we're gathered together
right here. I'm not some traveling, you know, I don't do house calls. I'm not, you know,
Dr. Anderson with like a black bag that's going to come to your house and bring it to
you. You better come here. And so it doesn't make any sense. I mean, look how many people
are in this building right now. Am I just going to go to each person and give this message
in your house? I wouldn't even have time to do any soul winning if I did that. I can't
disciple everybody who's too lazy to even come to church. I mean, if somebody can't
even have what it takes to come down here, when we offer church three times a week and
all this Bible preaching, there's probably nothing I can do for that person, no matter
how many Jehovah's Witness Bible studies I have at their house. You know what I mean?
If they're not going to even take the initiative to even take one step to come down here, you
know what? I might just have to be warped to the next house, you know? And I'm all for
following up with people and discipling people, but you know what? It's just not always possible.
Sometimes you're just on your way to Caesarea and you're just getting people saved everywhere
the whole way there. Every village you stop in, you're just preaching to everybody and
you just move on. Now, ideally in a perfect world, yeah, every single person who gets
saved, gets baptized, gets trained, gets discipled, and we try to do that, but sometimes it's
not possible. And our best discipleship program is that we knock every door again. You know,
we just knocked every door in Guadalupe for a second time. We're done with it and we're
planning on doing that every December. And when we went down there, we ran into people
that we'd won to the Lord before when we were down there. And we were able to confirm them
and talk to them and try to encourage them more to get in church. That was our follow-up
call right there. You know, but to sit there and attack so late, where's the follow-up?
Where's your follow-up? Where's your discipleship? Okay, well where was Jesus' follow-up in discipleship?
His discipleship was, follow me. And he walks away. It wasn't like, okay guys, I'll be back
at this time for a Bible study next morning. You guys are going to be here? You know? Peter
and John? No, it's like, drop everything and follow me right now. It's 10.30, it's Sunday
morning, you're coming with me. And a lot of people didn't follow him. Some people are
like, oh, I've got to go bury my father. He's like, follow me, let the dead bury their
dead. See ya, next door. Okay? It's true. So give biblical philosophy. And I'm not saying
don't train people, don't follow up. Look, if you work with somebody or you have a family
member and you win them to Christ, yeah, try to train them, try to get them up. And you
know, the people when you knock doors and get them safe, before you get warped to the
next place, you should try to get them baptized and try to get them to come to church. But
if they're not going to get baptized and they're not going to come to church, you just
move on. That's life. And so it says, Philip was found in the Zotus and passing through,
he preached in all the cities until he came to Caesarea. So a great chapter on soul winning,
a great chapter on baptism, a great chapter on the power of God. And so let's bow our
heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, dear God,
and the things that we can learn from it. And Father, I pray that we would be great
soul winners like Philip was, Philip the Evangelist, as he's known. Help us to be like
Stephen and Philip and preach the gospel everywhere we go. Lend people to Christ and to follow
your leading, that you would lead us to people who are interested in the gospel and that
are interested in the Bible and the things of God. And God, help us not to be so deceived
as to think that everybody who's sitting and reading Isaiah, the prophet, is actually
saved because this guy wasn't saved. Help us to just preach the gospel to everybody,
whether they call themselves a Christian or not. Help us to ask them if they know for
sure if they died today they'd go to heaven and try to win them for Christ. In Jesus'
name we pray, amen.