On Matthew 28, the part of the chapter that I'd like to focus on is actually the famous portion at the very end of the chapter known as the Great Commission
where Jesus said in verse 18,
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you,
and lo, I am with you all the way, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Now, this portion of scripture is often quoted and really it's teaching us what we need to do
as far as going out and getting people saved, reaching people.
And we often use this passage to talk about preaching the gospel to every creature as we should.
It says in Mark 16, 15, Go ye therefore into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
But in verse number 20 here, it says something else.
After we get them saved, after we teach them the gospel, after we baptize them,
it says in verse 20, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you,
and lo, I am with you all the way, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Really, in order to fulfill this command, and these are Jesus' last words before he ascends up to heaven.
I mean, these are his final instructions.
He's about to go up and we see in Acts chapter 1 that he goes up into a cloud
and they watch him as he's out of their sight.
These are the last instructions. Go teach all nations.
He's saying give them the gospel. Preach them the gospel. Preach the gospel to every creature.
Then baptize them. And then teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.
So really, we're not fulfilling this by just getting people saved.
And we're not fulfilling this by just getting people saved and then baptizing them.
We're fulfilling this when we get somebody saved, get them baptized, and then teach them the Bible.
Teach them God's commandments. Teach them the commandments of Jesus Christ.
What is right and what is wrong.
And teach them to observe all things whatsoever Christ has commanded us.
Now turn, if you would, to Acts chapter 14.
Look at Acts chapter 14 verse 21.
Acts 14, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts.
It says in Acts 14, 21, when they had preached the gospel to that city and had taught many.
Now there's the teaching where he said teach all nations.
So they went out, they preached the gospel, they taught many.
Basically, they taught them how to be saved.
He says they returned again to Lystra and to Iconium and Antioch.
So when they preached in this other city, they decided to go back through some of the cities they've already preached in.
And it says in verse 22, confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith
and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.
And when they had ordained them elders in every what? Church.
And had prayed with fasting and they commended them to the Lord on whom they believed.
Now this is the plan.
We go out and get people saved, but then we strive to get them to church so that they can be baptized.
Get them to church so that they can be confirmed in the faith, confirmed in what they believe.
And we get them to church so that we can teach them and preach to them that they observe all things whatsoever Christ has commanded.
Now, notice that it's done through the local church.
They said we're going to go back through these three towns and want to confirm the souls.
Now look, if we win somebody to Christ, whether or not they ever come to church, they're still saved.
You know, whether they ever come to church, whether we ever look at them and see,
oh wow, look how that person's changed.
Oh wow, they got baptized.
And if you believe that somebody's not saved unless they come to church and get baptized,
then just go join the church of Christ because that's what they believe.
But this is a Baptist church and we believe that it's possible for a person to believe on Christ
and never get baptized and they're still saved because you're saved by faith alone.
And so go join the church of Christ.
I'll find you a Pentecostal church if you want to believe that people only want to get baptized are really saved.
And this is what a lot of independent Baptists are teaching today.
Well, it's not baptism that saves you, but if you didn't get baptized, you're not really saved.
And if you didn't do this, you're not really saved.
If you didn't do this, you're not really saved.
Nope, to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifiably ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness.
Even as David also described the blessedness of the man unto whom God impudeth righteousness without works,
saying blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
And so salvation is by faith and through grace alone.
But I think here's the problem.
I think we go out sometimes and we knock doors and win people to Christ
and we're so zealous to teach them that it's not of works.
We're so zealous to teach them that it's not joining a church, which is important because people think it's works.
People think it's about what they do.
And we're so zealous to teach that that we forget and we forget to get them to church after they get saved.
You know, we go to them and we say,
Hi, how you doing? I'm from Faithful Word Baptist Church.
And this is just at the door, obviously, in your personal life, similar scenarios.
But we knock on the door and say,
Hi, how you doing? We're from Faithful Word Baptist Church.
We don't want to give you an invitation to church.
You go to church anywhere?
They name whatever church.
And I usually just say, well, hey, more important than going to church,
if you were to die today, do you know for sure you're going to heaven?
Now, it is more important than going to church, isn't it?
I mean, what does a man profit in if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
What do you profit in if you go to church every week and are not saved?
I knocked on the door recently. I asked a guy.
He was from a Methodist church.
And I said, do you know for sure if you died today, you go to heaven?
He said, no.
And I said, well, can I take a few minutes to show you?
He's like, oh, I already know the Bible.
You know nothing.
You know, I didn't tell him that, but it's true.
You know nothing.
You're not even saved.
You don't even know if you're saved.
And I just told him, I just said, well.
And he was very rude.
I was very friendly to him.
He just right away got rude with me.
And I just told him, I just said, well, I just said,
you know, I mean, you're going to church every week,
and you're not sure if you're going to heaven, you know, what's the point?
You know, I was very polite and tactful with him,
but he was mad right out of the gate anyway.
But the point is that, yes, it's more important to get them saved.
You know, whether they ever go to church or not, they want them saved.
Let me tell you something.
It is important to get them in church.
It is important to do like the Apostle Paul did and confirm the souls, okay?
Now, look, after that person gets saved,
is it ever possible for them to lose their salvation?
No.
Is there anything that you can say or do to get them unsaved?
Or that anybody can say?
I mean, look, if they truly believe on Christ in their heart,
I mean, if they truly realize that they're a sinner
and that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven
and they believe on Christ alone as their Savior
and call upon His name to be saved,
well, look, as soon as they've got that settled,
now it's time to recruit them to church.
I mean, think about it.
Why just win somebody to Christ and then just, all right, see you later?
We ought to be saying, hey, remember I invited you to church?
This is what time it's at, you know?
Do you need a ride?
Do you have a ride down there?
I can give you a ride.
Say, hey, my name's fill in the blank.
My name's Chris, my name's Dave, my name's Bill, my name's whatever,
and I'll be there, you know?
And so you know somebody there, I'll be there.
You can sit with me because I'm always there.
Come, you know, I'll be there.
Try to get people to come to church because without church,
they're not going to get confirmed in the faith.
I mean, think about it.
Do you think the TV is going to confirm them?
And what does confirmation mean?
And we're not talking about some kind of Roman Catholic ritual here,
but confirmation is a Bible word.
We just saw it once in the Bible,
and I'm going to show you a few other places in the Bible.
Confirmation comes from the root word, firm.
It's strengthening them in the faith.
It's getting them rooted and grounded in what they believe.
Do you remember the parable of the sower?
Where the sower sows the word, and you remember some of them believed.
Read Luke chapter 7 and compare it with Matthew 13
to get the two different views of the parable of the sower.
Basically, these people believed,
but what happens is persecution and tribulation came along, right?
And it says that by and by, they were offended.
They got out of church when the tribulation came and persecution.
Are you still in Acts 14?
Look down at your Bible.
It says, confirming the souls.
There is a parallel here, my friend.
Acts 14, 22.
Confirming the souls of the disciples
and exhorting them to continue in the faith
and that they must through much what?
Tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.
Keep your finger there.
Look at Matthew 13.
Keep your finger there.
Look at Matthew 13 and compare the two truths here.
In Matthew 13, it says in verse number...
Let me find my place here.
In Matthew 13, it says in verse number 20,
But he that received the seed into stony places,
the same as he that heareth the word,
and anon with joy receiveth it.
Yet hath he not root in himself,
but endureth for a while,
for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word,
by and by he's offended.
That's why Jesus taught his disciples and said,
These things have I spoken unto you,
that you not be offended.
And he said, look, people will cast you to prison.
People are going to persecute you.
He said, I don't want you to be offended.
He said, you know, in the world ye shall have tribulation,
but be of good cheer.
I've overcome the world.
He said in 1 Thessalonians chapter 3,
He said, Wherefore, when we could no longer forbear,
I thought it good to be left to Athens alone,
and sent Timotheus, our fellow minister and laborer,
he said, our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ,
to establish you and to comfort you concerning your faith,
the word comfort also means strength,
because the word fort, like a fortress,
to establish you and to comfort you concerning your faith,
that no man should be moved by these afflictions.
We're talking about being rooted, not being moved.
That no man should be moved by these afflictions,
for yourselves know that we're appointed there unto,
for verily when we were with you,
we told you before that we should suffer tribulation,
even as it came to pass, as ye know.
And ye know.
And so the Bible's clear that if we're going to get people saved,
and they're going to follow Christ,
and stay with serving God,
they're going to need to be in church,
and they're going to need to get confirmed,
and exhorted, and strengthened,
and rooted in the faith.
That's what the Great Commission is all about,
because, listen to me,
you can only get so many people saved in your lifetime yourself.
There are only 24 hours in a day.
You have to go to work.
You have to raise your family.
You have to take care of personal needs.
You have all these different things.
And you know, spend the hours out there.
Spend the long hours knocking on doors.
We all do it. We all love it.
But, we're going to get way more people saved
if we can get somebody saved and then teach them
to observe all things whatsoever Christ meant.
They will then go get other people saved,
and then they will get people saved,
and there will be a multiplication that takes place,
not just an addition of one saved here,
but a multiplying, and that's God's plan.
Look at Proverbs 11.30.
Proverbs 11.30.
You see, without confirmation,
without the strengthening of God's people,
instilling into the new convert, you know,
God's Word, getting him rooted,
he doesn't stand a chance in this world, practically.
You know, you wonder why, and people criticize it.
Oh, that guy's not really saved.
Look at the way he lives.
How do you expect him to live when he doesn't go to church?
When every day he drives down the road
and looks at a bunch of filthy billboards?
When every day a bunch of ungodly music
is pumping all kinds of wrong philosophy
into his mind all day?
At work, you know, on the construction site,
he's being blasted, he gets gas,
it's being blasted down his eardrum,
he gets home and might be playing on the TV or the radio,
whatever the case may be.
He's not getting God's Word.
The child in school, the teenager,
they're not getting God's Word ingrained in them
in the schoolhouse on Monday through Friday.
It's not happening.
We've got to be the instrument that God uses
as a local church to confirm.
And it can't be confirmed if we don't get them here,
because this is where confirmation takes place.
We can really just change it from a preaching service
to Sunday morning confirmation service at 10.30.
6.30 confirmation.
You know, we don't want people to think we're Catholic.
But anyway, Proverbs 11.30, famous verse on soul-winning.
This is the soul-winning verse.
I mean, this is where we derive the term,
winning souls, right?
Look at Proverbs 11.30, it says,
the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life,
and he that winneth souls is wise.
Now, think about this.
God tells us to bring forth fruit, doesn't he?
He said, if you're rooted, if you're grounded,
if you're in church, if you're serving God,
if you're filled with the Spirit, he said,
you will not be unfruitful.
He wrote to the saints, Peter did,
in 1 and 2 Peter, and said, look,
this is what you need in order to not be unfruitful.
You need all these different virtue, faith, you know,
charity, explain to them how they can bring forth fruit.
And he said, the one who is in the good ground,
the one who is planted and rooted,
he will bring forth fruit.
Some 30, some 60, some 100.
It's talking about multiplying, it's talking about,
I mean, think about it.
If we were to plant the orange, what will grow?
An orange tree.
If we plant the apple, what will grow?
An apple tree.
So if an apple brings forth fruit,
what kind of fruit does it bring forth?
Apples.
Yeah, okay, so if the Christian brings forth fruit,
what kind of fruit does it bring forth?
Christians.
Because Genesis 1 will teach you that.
Everything brings forth that, but it's okay.
Today people will teach, oh, the fruit is the fruit of the Spirit.
No, that's the fruit of the Spirit.
That's not the fruit of the righteous.
The fruit of the Spirit, God is love.
Therefore, He brings forth love.
He brings forth joy because He is joy.
He is the Prince of Peace.
He is all these things.
He is Spirit, the Holy Spirit.
But you are a human being who is a believer on Jesus Christ,
you're a child of God, and when you bring forth fruit,
you will bring forth other Christians.
Paul said to Onesimus that he had begotten him in the faith.
He had reproduced himself.
He had begotten Timothy.
He said Timothy is my son in the faith.
Titus is my son in the faith.
And so bringing forth fruit is a multiplication that takes place.
And the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life.
Not just a fruit, but a tree.
Now stop and think about this.
If we were to look at an apple tree in this world,
how many apples do you think grow on a tree at any given time?
Like let's say a fully developed, mature apple tree is ripe with apples.
Somebody just throw out a guess.
How many apples do you think are on a tree?
A hundred or more.
A hundred or more, right, exactly.
I mean, I know we have a big lemon tree in our backyard.
How many lemons would you say, Juja?
Three or four hundred.
Three or four hundred lemons we harvest off that thing.
I mean, I believe it's a lot of lemons.
You know, orange trees, apple trees, lemon trees.
Now, that's amazing, isn't it?
I mean, one tree came from a tiny little seed and produces three or four hundred fruits.
But hold on, now let me ask you this.
How many of the apples that grow on that tree that has maybe several hundred apples on it,
how many of those apples do you think become a tree?
Remember your typical apple tree?
One or two, right?
Stop and think about this.
One or two, not that many.
What's going to happen to most of them?
They're either going to be eaten by human beings, they're going to be eaten by animals,
or they're just going to rot, they're going to fall away, they're going to be used in apple pie, whatever.
But only the minority will become another apple tree.
Now, a lot of people will say, well, every Christian is going to bring forth fruit.
The Bible does not say that anywhere.
The Bible says if you look at a tree, you can know the tree by its fruit.
I mean, if you look at a tree that's covered in apples, if it looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck.
I mean, come on.
What kind of tree do you think it is?
It's an apple tree.
You don't say, well, let me examine the leaves.
What kind of tree is this?
It's covered in lemons.
Well, hold on, let me look at the bark.
You don't really look at that, do you?
You look at the lemons and say, okay, it's a lemon tree.
But it doesn't say that everybody who's saved is going to bring forth fruit.
That's why he commands us to bring forth fruit.
That's why he warns us, don't be unfruitful.
Because, look, if every Christian brought forth fruit, the whole world would be saved.
Because it would be multiplying, you know.
If everybody's getting everybody, if I'm getting somebody saved and they're getting somebody saved,
pretty soon the whole world will be saved in like 40 years if you just do the math or exponential growth.
And so, obviously, most Christians are not doing the job of being a tree of life, of winning souls to Christ,
of getting people saved.
But our goal when we win somebody to Christ is to get them saved, get them baptized,
teach them to observe all the things that we observe in order that they might become a soul winner like us.
And then the cycle is complete.
You know what thrills me more than anything?
Is when I hear about people that I've won to Christ, getting their first soul saved.
You know, that's a blessing to me.
You know, recently I heard about several people like that.
People that I've won to Christ like a long time ago or gotten them saved
and then I hear about them getting someone saved for the first time.
That's a blessing.
You know, or even just they're getting people saved all the time.
That is where the cycle is complete.
Where the fruit of the righteous becomes a tree of life.
Where I can win somebody to the Lord and then they win hundreds of people to the Lord.
Because I confirmed them.
You know, because I taught them more than just the Gospel.
And so we need to as a church be in the confirmation business.
We need to get people saved.
Look at Daniel chapter 12.
Daniel chapter 12.
Because winning souls is number one, but confirmation is a way of winning souls.
You know, confirmation is a way of getting more people saved.
And this is where the new evangelicals have missed the boat, my friend.
This is where they've missed the boat.
Who's ever heard the term new evangelical?
Put up your hand if you're kind of familiar with that genre of church.
The new evangelicals, and I spent five years as a teenager in new evangelical churches.
Their philosophy is that the only thing that matters is getting people saved.
That's it.
You know, they say put aside doctrine.
You know, we need to put aside our differences.
Don't preach on sin.
Don't preach things that will offend.
Make it seeker sensitive.
Make it what people want to hear.
Because let's just get them in here and get them saved.
And that's what they teach.
Well, look at Daniel chapter 12.
I'll get into that in a moment.
But Daniel chapter 12, too, it says this.
And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,
some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
And they that be wise, remember, he that win at souls is wise.
They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament.
But look at the next part here.
And they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.
Keep your finger there and turn to James 5.
You'll see almost the same thing at the end of the Bible,
close to the end of the New Testament, James chapter 5.
So we see here that, hey, you're not just going to be rewarded in heaven
for how many people you win to Christ.
That is a part of it.
That is scriptural, to be rewarded for getting someone saved.
But there's also a reward for turning many people to righteousness,
for getting people living a righteous life.
Look at James chapter 5.
Look what it says in James 5 verse 19, an often misunderstood verse.
Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth and one convert him.
So are we talking to saved people or unsaved people?
We're talking to the saved.
We're talking to the brethren.
He said, if any of you, brethren, do err from the truth and one convert him,
let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way
shall save a soul from debt and shall hide a multitude of sins.
This is talking about taking somebody who's saved that goes into sin,
getting them out of the sin, getting them out of the error of their way,
getting them to not live that kind of lifestyle,
getting them to live a Christian life.
He said you have accomplished something great for God.
Now look, we are in the business of not just getting people to say,
and don't get mad at the word business.
Jesus said I must be about my Father's business.
You know what I like about the word business?
The first four letters are busy.
We need to quit sitting around and doing nothing with our life.
We need to get busy and do something for God.
And that's with this shirt, the Busy Baptist Church.
Busy Baptist.
Because we don't want to sit around and do nothing.
When Jesus said occupy till I come, he didn't say occupy a chair.
Occupy the pew.
He meant occupy like you have an occupation, which is your job, which is work.
And so our business is not just to get people saved.
It's to confirm them.
It's to turn them to righteous.
It's to get them out of sin.
Because the New Evangelicals, it's all about getting people saved.
That's all that matters.
Put aside everything.
Turn to 1 Corinthians 2.
We'll deal with them.
Here's a scripture that they'll use,
and we don't want to ever let this philosophy creep into our church,
because it's not a scriptural philosophy.
This book that I hold in my hand, the Holy Bible, 66 books long,
1189 chapters long, 31,000-some-odd verses,
are not only about getting people saved.
There's more to it than that.
This is a big book, and it's not just about getting people saved.
It's about confirming them,
and it's about hundreds and hundreds and thousands of commandments of God.
That we should be putting into practice our lives and teaching to others.
There's more to it than just every Sunday morning being a salvation message,
than every Sunday night being a salvation message.
No!
We've got to preach everything, and we need to learn everything
and teach them to observe everything.
Look at 1 Corinthians 2.
Here's an often-abused verse.
It says in 1 Corinthians 2, in verse number 2, it says,
For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Now if I had a nickel for every time somebody showed me this verse,
or emailed me this verse, or left this verse on my answering machine,
or mailed me this verse,
Just preach Christ, Pastor Anderson.
Just preach Christ.
Well, why do I even have this whole book then?
Maybe we should just put it on a 3x5 card and carry it around.
Turn in your 3x5 card to Side B.
You know?
It's like, there's more to it than just preaching Christ.
You say, why does it say that?
Because He's talking to unsaved people.
He said, When I came,
He said, Brethren, look at verse 1.
Let's get to context.
And I, brethren, when I came to you,
this is before they're saved,
came not with excellency of speech or wisdom declaring unto you the testimony of God,
for I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Let's keep reading.
And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.
And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom,
but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men,
but in the power of God.
So much to preach about that.
Where do I begin?
And by the way, your faith ought to stand in the power of God, not in the wisdom of men.
We're not going to get people saved with a seminar on creation.
It's going to be the preaching of God's Word filled with the Spirit.
Because guess what?
People were going to hell long before evolution was even invented.
You know, it's not a seminar that we need.
It's not a logical, rational sit down and, you know,
we have to reach these atheists in a way that they can understand by, you know,
I carry a fossil with me in my pocket when I go bowling.
I pull out this fossil.
No! I pull out the Bible and preach it to them, God's Word.
But here it says in verse number 6,
Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect,
yet not the wisdom of this world nor of the princes of this world that come to naught,
but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery,
even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world under our glory.
Look, the wisdom of God to the unsaved man,
the natural man receiveth not for things of the Spirit of God.
The wisdom of God is hidden unto him.
He cannot comprehend it. He cannot understand it.
And so therefore, when we go out soul winning,
we shouldn't go out and preach to people about how they should live.
We shouldn't take some unsaved person and start preaching to them
all these commands of Christ and how they need to be baptized
and how they need to, you know, follow these men.
Really, what do they need just to get saved?
I mean, that's all they really, I mean, that's where it needs to start with people.
He said, I didn't preach some fancy thing.
It was all about Jesus Christ to get you saved. That's it.
But he says, but then once you're saved, we will preach wisdom to you.
We will teach you the rest of the Bible.
Preach the Word.
And Paul said, I'm not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
You know, he said, I've held back nothing that was profitable from you.
And so it's our job not just to win to Christ
and the New Evangelicals say, oh, it's just about getting people saved.
And so what do they do? They don't teach anything else.
They don't preach anything else. They don't need to stand on anything else.
And guess what? They end up not getting people saved.
Because I sat in these New Evangelical churches where it was all about getting people saved
and maybe one person a year would supposedly get saved.
Nobody was ever baptized. They didn't even have a baptistry.
And after like two or three years, and you say, well, you don't have a baptistry.
We have a swimming pool and that's all we need.
But anyway, as long as there's water.
But the point is, these churches literally would baptize somebody like every three years.
They'd have to go rent out a facility and they'd have to go somewhere and do this.
Because people weren't getting saved. Because guess what?
If you're not living a godly, clean, righteous, holy, separated life,
you're probably not much of a soul winner either.
It's true. I mean, the people who live as Christ lived to that degree
is what degree they're going to be effective at winning people to Christ.
Because it's not about anything but the power of God.
And you're going to have God's power resting upon you when you're in the Word,
when you're filled with the Spirit, when you're in prayer,
when you're walking in the light, not in the darkness,
when you're walking in the Spirit, not in the flesh.
And so it's vital that we teach people everything
and that we ourselves follow everything to the best of our ability
to be the best we can to get the most people saved.
That's what it's all about.
Look at John chapter 1.
While you're turning there, let me give you some scriptures
just to kind of reinforce the fact that confirmation is to strengthen the believer.
It says in Isaiah 35, 3,
Strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble needs.
You notice the synonym there.
Daniel chapter 11, verse 1,
Also I in the first year of Darius the Mede, even I stood to confirm and to strengthen him.
Notice how the Bible defines itself as you go.
Confirm is to strengthen.
Judas and Silas, being prophets also themselves, Acts 15, 32,
exhorted the brethren with many words and confirmed them.
You say, why do you preach so long, Pastor Anderson?
Because I'm trying to use many words to confirm you.
And so I measure my sermon by the word.
And so I want to use a lot of words.
And by the way, no, this isn't the little 15-minute sermon at Baptist Church
where you get your little vitamin pill to get you through the week.
No, you're here to get confirmed.
Church is where you get confirmed.
Look at John chapter 1, verse number 40.
It says, One of the two which heard John speak,
this is John the Baptist,
and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.
He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him,
We have found the Messiah, which is being interpreted the Christ.
So he finds Jesus Christ.
He was following John the Baptist.
He'd already been saved and baptized,
but then when Jesus comes by John the Baptist,
John the Baptist points at him and says,
Behold, the Lamb of God was taken away from the sins of the world.
And then they begin to follow Jesus.
They get in his church.
Then Andrew goes and finds Simon, who's later named Peter,
and says, we found Christ.
Look at verse 44.
Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him,
We have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write,
Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph,
and Nathanael said unto him,
Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?
I love what Philip saith unto him.
Come and see.
And that ought to be our motto.
Come and see, faith war Baptist church.
Come and see what's happening.
Come and see and hear God's word preached.
Like Jehu said unto Jonadab, the son of Recath,
where he reached down to Jonadab and said,
Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord.
Come with us and see what God is doing.
Come see our zeal for the Lord.
You see, we've already established that confirmation is important.
We see it's part of the Great Commission.
You see it's something that we need to be doing.
You see that after we get people saved,
we see our desire to strive to confirm them and to get them in church.
Or even if we just run into people that are already saved.
Okay? They're already saved.
But they're going to backslidden Baptists.
But they're going to water down Baptists.
They're going to First Church of the Deep Freeze.
They're going to some church that's using the NIB or the NASB or the HIV.
They're going to one of these churches that is so watered down
that never gets anybody saved or you don't learn anything
or it's just the same thing.
We've got to confirm those people.
I mean, look at some of the people in our church that are doing great things for God.
You know, I think of Amanda.
Amanda, how old were you when you got saved, Amanda?
Ten.
Ten years old.
And how old were you when you started coming to this church?
If you want to disclose that.
Okay.
So it was 15 years, approximately, from the time she got saved to the time she came to this church.
Now, how many people did you get saved during those 15 years?
Zero.
Zero, okay.
And how much Bible did you read? Did you read a lot of Bible?
Did you do a lot of soul winning?
You were really living for God during that time, right?
Like you were living to God?
No.
But hold on a second.
So here we found Amanda who was saved at age 10.
Did you know? You knew for sure you were going to Heaven.
But was she being used for God? Was she bringing forth any fruit?
Was she confirmed?
Did she even know what to look for in a church?
I mean, she was not confirmed whatsoever. She wasn't doing anything for God.
We confirmed her. Now she's doing great things for God.
I mean, she's gotten a multitude of people saved.
She's been used by God greatly in this church for years, all because we confirmed somebody.
Now look, that is just as good as winning somebody to Christ.
Because all the people that got saved as a result of Amanda are the result of confirming Amanda.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
You know, we can go through other people.
It's the same thing.
Brother Dave was saved like 9 years before he came to this church.
It wasn't even baptized.
You know, he didn't know the Bible. It wasn't winning silver.
We confirmed him and now God's using him.
This is a part of God's program for reaching the world with the Gospel and reaching Phoenix with the Gospel.
We need to get on God's program of confirming the souls.
Now, how are we going to do it?
We know it's necessary. We know it's important. We know it's a command of God. We know it's needed.
Now, everybody wants to jump in with their little discipleship program.
Now, discipleship is not a word that's really in my vocabulary.
I realize Jesus had 12 disciples.
I realize that Jesus said, if any man will be my disciple, he needs to deny himself and take up his cross and follow him.
But here's the part of the problem I have with the word discipleship.
We've got to make disciples.
Turn to Matthew 28 if you would.
Because a lot of times discipleship programs are unscriptural in the way that they're carried out.
And they're also taking away from soul winning and other things that suffer.
Now, I was a teenager and I'm sitting in one of these neo-evangelical, dead as a doornail, liberal churches in the youth group.
And I'm 16 years old.
And I'm sitting there and the teacher of the youth group, the youth pastor, gets up and says,
Did you know that there's no verse in the entire Bible that tells you to go out and preach the Gospel to every creature?
Did you know it doesn't say that anywhere in the Bible?
That's what he said. And I was mad.
But see, I didn't know the Bible very well.
This is before I'd read the Bible cover to cover.
I started that process late in my 16th year, finished it when I was 17.
But boy, that made me mad.
I sat there, I was mad.
If you heard that, wouldn't that make you mad?
You'd be like, what?
But see, I didn't know where to find it.
So I'm mad. I'm like, what are you talking about?
So I'm like, trying to find it.
But I didn't know my Bible that well.
But I was like, I know it's when Jesus is just finishing up.
It's when he said that.
So I'm like, I'm going to check the four Gospels until I find it.
So I get to Matthew.
And I get to Matthew and I get to the part where it says in Matthew 28,
it says, Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them.
And I said, well, wait a minute.
If you just teach all nations, baptizing them, isn't that preaching them the Gospel?
Isn't that what you're teaching them, how to be saved and baptizing them?
And he said, nope, that's not what it says.
What's it say in the NIV, Garrett? Read it.
Therefore go and make disciples.
See, he said, no, no. That says make disciples.
And his whole lesson was out.
It doesn't just tell you to preach to everybody.
It's just about making disciples.
You know, Jesus had a few disciples. He made those disciples.
So then I'm looking and I'm flipping through.
I'm like, no, there's another one that says, there's one that says every creature.
I remember that.
So I'm flipping through the Bible.
I'm like, okay, I've got to find this. You've got to find this.
I'm like, Mark 16, 15, you know.
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.
And he's got the NIV.
And you know what the NIV says?
It said unto them, Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.
So number one, he said, it doesn't say to every creature.
It's just to all creation.
And number two, it says right here that the most reliable early manuscripts
and other ancient witnesses do not have Mark 16, 9, or 20.
And every NIV says that, and they put it right in the text.
They don't put it down in the footnotes.
It says right when you get to verse 8, there's a big note that says,
hey, if you're smart, you'll quit reading here.
Because this other stuff's not in the reliable manuscripts.
So casting doubt, kind of like the devil did.
The devil didn't say to Adam and Eve, well, God didn't say that.
He said, Yea hath God said?
Is that really what God said that you were supposed to eat that tree?
As they say here, you know, most of the early manuscripts don't even have this.
They're most reliable.
And you 16-year-old little punk, what do you know?
If this is even supposed to be part of the Bible.
And by the way, it's funny, if you take out these verses,
and I've done this math with you in church.
If you take out verses 9 through 20 like the NIV tells you to,
you end up with a book of Mark with 666 verses in it.
Because there's 678 verses in the book of Mark.
And if you take out 9 through 20, you end up with Mark.
Now see if you can put the connection.
Mark, the book of Mark, with 666 verses in it.
Oh, that probably just points to this.
So you don't need this garbage.
I'll take this out of your hand and put it away.
Wasn't there something like the Mark of the Beast or something like that?
I'm not saying anything, but yeah.
And so basically, this is the buzz word.
Make disciples, discipleship.
Oh, you fundamental Baptist.
And I've heard people literally say this.
They said, when you win people to Christ,
and you don't disciple them, and you don't get them baptized,
and you don't get them preserved,
they compared it to giving birth to a baby and throwing it in a dumpster.
You know what I say to them every time they say that to me?
I say, well you're right, we should have just let them go to hell.
You're right.
We went and knocked every door in Gila Bend, Arizona.
We gave people the gospel.
We won people to Christ.
And somebody's like, oh, they're just like sheep having no shepherd now.
How are you going to confirm them?
They're an hour and a half away.
I'm like, you're right.
You should have just let them go to hell.
To hell with them.
Hey, I'd rather have somebody go to hell ignorant.
I'm sorry.
Let me start over.
I don't want people to go to hell ignorant.
I'd rather have somebody go to heaven ignorant
than to go to hell ignorant.
Because Jesus will teach them when they get there.
But you know what I'd rather have than that?
I'd rather get them to go to heaven, but I'd rather confirm them and get them saved.
But you know what?
You're not going to confirm everybody.
You're not going to do it.
You can take the horse to the water, but you can't make him drink.
So it's ridiculous to criticize somebody for winning somebody to Christ,
trying to get them to come to church, right?
Trying to get them baptized.
You can't force them to get confirmed.
You can't force them to come to church.
Look, Jesus Christ himself preached to thousands of people.
His 12 apostles and later 70 apostles went out and preached the gospel
and brought in thousands that they'd won to Christ.
But how many of them were in that early church in Acts 1?
Only 120.
Because a lot of them fell away, if you remember.
Oh, none of them were really saved.
Jesus and John the Baptist only got 120 people saved in their whole ministry?
It said they got multitudes saved.
They baptized multitudes, both of men and women.
But guess what?
You can't force people to live for God.
You can't force them.
So we do the best we can.
So how are we going to do it?
Are we going to start a discipleship program?
Oh, I know.
Let's do Bible studies in their house like the Jehovah's Witnesses.
You know what's funny is that Baptists think that they just came up with this
like it's some new idea?
These home Bible studies.
The Jehovah's Witnesses have been doing it for 100 years.
Learn not the way of the heathen.
And it's not biblical.
What's biblical is the church.
How did Paul confirm them?
We saw it in Acts 14.
It said they confirmed the souls by preaching to them.
And it says that they ordained elders in every church.
And then they got the people whom had believed.
And they basically got the people they believed in those churches
where they could give confirm.
You know, a lot of times when we're in these small towns solely,
we'll try to recommend them if there's a church that's somewhere close by.
We'll try to recommend them unto that church if we can.
But if we can't, we can't.
We'd rather get them saved, though, at least.
And they may end up in Phoenix anyway eventually
because this is the metropolis of Arizona.
But the bottom line is that we don't need cell groups
and small group Bible studies and in-home Bible studies
and discipleship program.
And then this other thing of just,
well, we've got to follow up on everybody who went into Christ.
You know, and we spend so much time.
And I tried this.
You spend time driving to some address 20 minutes away
and you get there and nobody's home.
You know, and it takes away from good soul.
It takes away from what we can be good.
Now let me ask you a question.
Why should I, Pastor Stephen L. Anderson,
go sit in somebody's house and teach them the Word of God
for one hour in a small group Bible study
or in a personal one-on-one Jehovah's Witness Bible study?
Why would I do that when I'm doing the same thing right here?
I can just bring them here and do it all at once.
Stop and think about that.
Oh, I'm going to spend an hour at this guy's house.
I'm going to spend an hour at this guy's house.
Because they're too lazy to get off their rear end
and come to church.
Why am I going to go to them and take it to them?
I've got an idea.
Why don't we get all of our discipleship candidates
and we'll take all of our candidates for discipleship
and we'll put them all in a building and we'll do it all at once.
Oh yeah, that's called church.
Oh yeah, that's what God invented.
Oh yeah, that's what's biblical.
And so we have the greatest discipleship program.
It's a two-pronged discipleship.
Prong number one is after we knock every door once,
we knock every door again.
That way we don't have to worry about people not being home,
gas money, time.
Have you seen our map out there that says do it the second time
and we just knock it all again?
So prong number one is every door,
you say, you guys don't follow up.
We follow up on everybody, even people who slam the door
and tell us to get the blank out of here, whatever.
I mean, we follow up with everybody.
Home, not home, saved, not saved, mad, happy, indifferent, black.
Hey, we follow up because we knock every door again.
And again and again and again.
And then prong number two is our discipleship classes,
which are held Sunday mornings at 10.30,
Sunday nights at 6.30 and Wednesday nights at 7.
So really, we have the two prongs
and then we get into the three pronged.
Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night attack.
And so therefore, you know,
if you are going to be confirming the souls,
it's great, you know.
I'm sure you want to knock all the home Bible studies
and knock all the Jehovah's Witness Baptists
and knock all this stuff.
But you know what?
Go ahead and knock it,
but why don't you promote the thing that God actually ordained?
You know, it's one thing to say,
yeah, we don't do cell.
We're not liberals.
We don't do these little cell groups
and we don't drive around doing home Bible studies
and we don't skip soul winning
so we can just drive around and get a Starbucks
and knock a door.
Oh, not home.
We're not like that.
But are you bringing people to church?
Let me ask you, are you bringing people to church?
Because that's where they're going to get the confirmation
and we can say all day long,
the discipleship takes place at church.
The confirmation takes place at church.
But if they're not getting to church,
they're not getting it, are they?
They're not getting that confirmation that they need.
And so we've got to make it our goal
to get people to come to church,
to bring them, to say to our friends and loved ones
and those we've won to Christ,
come and see.
Come with me.
Let me show you the Messiah.
And hey, we're not showing them physically Jesus Christ
but we're preaching God's Word.
You know, they'll hear the Word of Christ.
And so we've got to get this thing of confirmation right.
Number one, when we're out knocking doors and soul winning,
when somebody gets saved, try to get them to come to church.
Try to reach out to them.
Love that person and say, look, you know,
we'd love for you to come to church.
Here's the time.
Here's where it's located.
Do you need a ride?
Do you have transportation?
Can we help you with a ride?
Or we can say to them, you know, my name is so and so.
Here's my cell phone number.
You know, I'm always there.
I'll be there.
Come shake my hand.
You can sit with me.
Because most people are apprehensive.
And this is why it's so dumb to say, well,
if people don't come to church, they didn't really get saved.
It takes a lot of boldness to just, you don't know anybody,
just to walk into some random church.
Isn't that the truth?
I mean, I've been saved for years.
And I remember even just as a teenager and as a young adult
walking into a church for the first time where I've never been.
You're a little uncomfortable, you know,
because some churches are weird.
First of all, you know, you walk into most churches
and hopefully everybody's friendly.
Hi, how are you doing?
You know, good to see you.
And everybody just treats you normal.
But I've walked into some church where you walk in
and everybody's just like...
Like, they just stare at you.
Like, if they don't say hi to you or greet you,
it's just like...
And you're just like...
You know, and so a lot of people are...
Or maybe, think about it,
if somebody's only ever been to a Catholic church
and they're used to all this, you know,
oh, you know, kind of weird stuff,
some guy putting a cracker on their tongue
and then taking a swig of wine.
I mean, it was like, my wife grew up Catholic,
and the priest would give them the cracker
and then he'd drink the wine.
And then he'd give them another cracker
and he'd take another swig of wine.
And it's like, next, gives them the cracker.
Next.
Seriously.
Is that not the truth?
He kept drinking.
I don't care whether it's true.
It is true.
The priest would become drunk and make aid.
He would become inebriated.
He would become intoxicated,
to use a more civilized term
for his spiritual calling
of consuming alcohol
as a picture of Jesus Christ,
this garbage religion.
And so that's all you've been to,
some place where some guy in a dress
is sprinkling, he's like emptying out a dust buster
all over the platform
and people are singing weird songs
and lighting candles and doing all this stuff.
You know, you might think,
well, I don't know what's going to happen at a Baptist church.
Are they going to be handling snakes?
And speaking of tongues
and rolling in the aisles,
or maybe they think Baptist is like,
woo!
They don't even know what to expect.
So not everybody's going to come to church.
That's why you want to set their mind at ease
and say, hey, I'll be there.
You can sit with me.
This is what our church is like.
Tell them what it's like.
And look, if you go to this church
and you're out soul winning for this church,
you ought to tell people that this church is great
and if you don't think it's great,
why do you even come here?
You know what I mean?
If this church isn't great,
then go find one that you think is great
and go out and tell people it's great.
If you don't think this church is great,
then don't come here.
I think it's great. Who thinks this church is great?
Yeah, it's great.
We love it.
Come to church. We like it.
And don't tell people, well, you know,
our church is a little bit scary.
I'm sick of it.
Don't tell people that our church is scary.
It's not scary.
I'm serious.
You think I'm kidding, but I'm serious.
Like you tell people, oh man,
there's nothing radical about this church at all.
And I'm not kidding right now.
Do I look like I'm joking?
Look.
There's nothing radical about Faithful Word Baptist Church.
Let me teach you another word.
Biblical. Biblical.
Oh man, it's really crazy.
There's nothing crazy about it.
What's crazy is the church down the street.
What's crazy is the liberals.
What's crazy is that people would listen to Joyce Meyer
and Billy Graham and T.D.J.
That's crazy.
It's crazy that anybody goes to Joel Osteen's church.
It's crazy that people would actually believe in the NIV.
It's crazy that they'd go to church.
It's a rock concert.
Let me teach you another word.
Normal.
Biblical.
Sound doctrine.
These are the words that I would use
to describe Faithful Word Baptist Church.
And you know, I wouldn't tell people,
oh man, you know,
I don't know if you can handle this.
You're not ready for this.
I said, look, just tell them, hey, our church is great.
We love it.
I mean, do you love it?
Then tell them you love it.
Tell them, hey, you will learn the Bible.
You're going to get more Bible preaching at this church.
Boy, you're going to learn so much.
Boy, this church has changed my life.
Man, we love going there.
We look forward to it.
It's not a drudgery.
It's not something we check off.
We have so many great friends at church.
We get to be with other believers
and people that are Christians that are like us.
We enjoy fellowship with one another.
We have fun.
We learn the Bible.
We sing great songs.
We love it.
That's what we ought to be doing.
You know, and literally,
you guys that are dating girls,
you say, well, when should we bring them to church?
The first date.
Should be right here.
But you guys say, well, I've been dating this girl for a month.
Is she ready?
What?
You know what I mean?
And I'll tell you my motto when I was a teenager.
When I was in that dating phase,
and I'm not talking to you 12-year-olds
that think you're ready for dating or something.
I'm saying, when I say teenager,
I mean I was talking about 17, 18,
you know, actually getting into the age
of actually getting married.
And by the way, that's the only reason
you should ever date anyone,
and so when I was 16, 17, 18 years old,
uh-oh, whoops, 16, sorry.
You don't want to hear that.
17, 18, you know, and I said,
you know, I'm going to be looking at
different young ladies that I want to date.
You know, one of the first things I did was take them to church,
even before the first date sometimes,
just to see if they were date-worthy.
I mean, I would just, if I had a young lady
that I was interested in, I would invite her to church,
and I would bring her to church,
and Pastor Nichols would scream and foam at the mouth
at my church in Sacramento, California.
He'd yell and holler,
and he'd rip on the homos
and rip on every TV show
and every rock and roll band,
and he'd get up there and preach the Bible,
and you know what?
They liked it.
And if they didn't like it,
see ya.
And hey, this was my motto.
You know like church, I know like you.
And I basically just said, look,
if this girl doesn't like my church,
you know, how can I have a relationship with this girl
or be married to this girl?
I mean, if she doesn't like church,
you know, and look, Pastor Nichols' church was radical.
He was preaching against sin and ripping out stuff.
And look, I would bring girls to church,
and you know what?
The vast majority of them, though, did like it.
Even if, you know, even if things didn't work out between us,
the vast majority of them didn't like it.
The vast majority of the girls,
because I was bringing all kinds of,
even girls that I wasn't dating,
and I brought a lot of young men too,
just friends of mine that I worked with.
So I'd be bringing friends to church.
I always, I strove in the year 2003.
Okay, I strove to have a visitor in every service,
Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night,
either an adult or a teenage visitor in every service,
Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night,
and more than 50% of the time I accomplished that goal.
And I would literally, I would work,
I would trade shifts with people at work
if they would go to church with me.
I'd say, I'll work for you on Friday night
if you come to church with me on Sunday morning.
I mean, I did that probably 10 times.
You know, I had a goal, and we'd go out soloing,
and we'd try to get people to come,
and we'd beg people to come,
and we'd try to get people to come to church,
and we'd bring visitors and visit me and Roger E. Minutes.
Me and Roger E. Minutes were bringing
a ton of visitors in 2003,
because we had these goals,
and we were trying to outdo each other
and try to bring visitors, bring visitors, bring visitors.
And most of them liked it,
but you know why these girls liked it?
And you know why, literally,
maybe only one of them ever said to me,
hey, this is a little too radical,
this guy's a little too great,
is because I approached it to them like,
it's great, isn't it great?
And they're like, yeah, you know, it's great.
But I didn't say to them now, you know,
I gotta warn you.
You know, there's no safety label
on the front door of our church.
Consult a physician before attending
Faith War Baptist Church if you have heart problems,
if you're easily excitable, if you're pregnant,
you know, you need to talk to your physician
to see if Faith War Baptist Church is right for you.
No, there's no warning label.
We brought them to church and they liked it.
And you know what?
We just had a group of how many unbelievers
show up on Wednesday night?
And they liked it.
You know, and guess what?
It was a face-ripping, hard preaching sermon.
But you know what?
That's what people need.
And we need to quit mollycoddling people,
acting like, oh, you can't,
I don't know if you can handle this, you know.
Hey, they need to handle it.
It's God's word.
And you know what?
The reason I yell when I preach
is because Jesus yelled and John the Baptist yelled
and every preacher in the Bible yelled
and he even says to yell,
cry aloud, spare not,
lift up thy voice like a trumpet,
smite with the hand, stomp with the foot.
I mean, it's all biblical things about preaching.
We need to quit apologizing for the truth
and apologizing for being a fundamentalist Baptist church.
We need to get off the defense and go on the offense
and say, hey, wait a minute, this is the right church.
What are you doing going to a sissified,
queer little sissy Baptist?
Getting a real church.
That's what we ought to be doing.
And you know, we'll be tactful and kind and loving about it,
but you know what?
We ought to get people in church
because you know what, that's the hope for America,
the local church, not the commando,
not Mr. Solo Mission to win the world to Christ.
No, it's the church.
I thank God for my best friend, Roger Jimenez,
who's starting a church in Sacramento, California
on September 5th, 2010,
because he is starting a church
and that is the hope for America.
Church is like the church he's going to start.
That's the hope for America.
This church, other churches like it across America,
get in church, bring people to church,
get involved in church.
Yes, soul winning, but hey, why do you win souls?
Because you go to this church.
And before you went to this church, you didn't win souls.
And when you quit the church, you'll probably quit winning souls.
I mean, it's true.
I mean, hopefully you go somewhere else and win souls.
But it's the truth.
Win souls through the local church.
Church, church, church.
Let's pray our hands and have a word of prayer.
Father, help us to confirm the souls, dear God.
Not just win them to Christ.
That's great.
And help us never to lose that.
And help us never to listen to the scoffers and the naysayers
and the liberals who criticize us
and tell us that, you know,
oh, you know, you won somebody to Christ
and didn't get a disciple.
Help us never to listen to that garbage, dear God,
because I just praise you and thank you
for every person I've won to Christ,
whether they ever showed up or not.
Thank you, Lord, for the privilege of just getting people saved.
Even in distant cities and even in foreign languages
and people that will win to Christ in Spanish
that will never come to church.
But, God, I just pray that you would help us as a church
to get a vision for confirmation.
Salvation, yes, but also confirmation, dear God.
Help us to get that down.
And help every single person that's here
to digest this sermon and understand it
and put it into practice, not just at the door either,
but also just with their friends and loved ones,
to get them in church where they can get the training they need.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.