["Pomp and Circumstance"]
All right, good morning everyone. Welcome to First Works Baptist Church.
Let's all find our seats. As you find your seat, go ahead and grab a songbook.
Turn to song number 65.
Song number 65 for our first song here this morning,
Just Over in the Gloryland. And let's all stand together for this first song if you are able.
Song number 65, Just Over in the Gloryland. All together nice and strong on that first verse.
I've a home prepared where the saints abide. Just over in the gloryland.
And I long to be by my Savior's side. Just over in the gloryland.
Just over in the gloryland. I'll join the happy angel band. Just over in the gloryland.
Just over in the gloryland. There with the mighty host I'll stand. Just over in the gloryland.
I am on my way to those mansions fair. Just over in the gloryland.
There to sing God's praise and His glory share. Just over in the gloryland.
Just over in the gloryland. The happy angel band. Just over in the gloryland.
Just over in the gloryland. There with the mighty host I'll stand. Just over in the gloryland.
Just over in the gloryland. What a joyful God that my Lord I'll see. Just over in the gloryland.
And with kindreds say, Wherefore ever be? Just over in the gloryland.
Just over in the gloryland. There with the mighty host I'll stand. Just over in the gloryland.
Just over in the gloryland.
Just over in the gloryland. With the blood washed wrong I will shout and sing. Just over in the
gloryland. Level zenas to Christ the Lord and King. Just over in the gloryland. Just over in
the gloryland. I'll join the happy angel band. Just over in the gloryland. Just over in the gloryland.
With the mighty host I'll stand. Just over in the gloryland.
Amen. Wonderful singing. Let's start off our service with the word of prayer.
Dear Lord God, Heavenly Father, we just thank you so much, Lord, for giving us another day
that you can come here to your house and hear the preaching of your word and fellowship with
all our brothers and sisters in Christ here this morning. And I thank you, Lord, for everyone
that's here in the building this morning. I ask that you please just bless our service.
Every aspect of it, the singing, Lord, and most of all, please fill past me here with your spirit
as he preaches your word unto us and give us also your spirit, Lord, and attentiveness
that we may leave here edified. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated.
Please turn your song books to song number 308. Song number 308, I Surrender All.
Song number 308, all together on that first verse.
All to Jesus I surrender. All to him I freely give. I will ever love and trust him in his presence.
I surrender all. I surrender all.
All to thee my blessed Savior. I surrender all.
All to Jesus I surrender. Humbly at his feet I bow.
Worldly pleasures all forsaken. Take me, Jesus, take me now.
I surrender all. I surrender all.
All to thee my blessed Savior. I surrender all.
All to Jesus I surrender. Make me Savior, Holy Thine.
Let me feel the Holy Spirit. Truly know that thou art mine.
I surrender all. I surrender all.
All to thee my blessed Savior. I surrender all.
All to Jesus I surrender. Lord, I give myself to thee.
Fill me with thy love and power. Led by blessing fall on me.
I surrender all. I surrender all.
All to thee my blessed Savior. I surrender all.
All right, great singing. Thank you so much for being here this morning. Welcome to First
Works Baptist Church. Just a few announcements here before we sing our next song, which will
be 281, Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior. If you want to get that ready in your songbooks,
281. If you did not get a bulletin, go ahead and raise your hand and one of the ushers can get one
for you. Important information on there. Of course, our Sunday morning service is at 10 30,
Sunday evening at 5 p.m., and then we have our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock.
Currently going through the book of Matthew and so hope to see you on Thursdays for that.
You see there we are a family integrated church and so infants and children are always
welcome in the service, but for your convenience, the mother baby room is located in the back of the
building should your child need some diversion. Changing table speakers and screens are available
there so you can still tune into the preaching and come in at your discretion. And then you see
there the soul winning times and teams. If you'd like to learn how to soul win, you can see me
after the service to be placed on a team. We can teach you how to share your faith, how to preach
the gospel, how to soul win, how to lead your family and friends to the Lord. And then you see
the list of expecting mothers there at the bottom. Please continue to pray for them. And then the
important reminders there. Look up look on the right there. Our men's prayer night is this Friday,
September 1st. It'll be at 7 p.m. at the church building. Dinner will be provided for all the men
who come. Want to encourage the men to bring your sons to pray with you. Of course, we'll have a
list of prayer requests. And so hope to see you then. And then the T.J. soul winning is on Monday,
September 11th. Want to encourage all Spanish speakers who can preach the gospel in Spanish
to participate in that. It's a very fruitful area. And so you do need your passport.
And if you need details on that, you can see brother Ulysses. But we'll be leaving
approximately around nine o'clock on that Monday. And we're looking forward to a great
day there and T.J. preaching the gospel there. And there we're just going to go to the park. And so
we might go to some apartments, but it's been really fruitful in the park there. And so we
spent about three hours the last time we went there. And we had four soul winners. So we got
a lot of people saved. So hope to see some soul winners there. And then on Sunday, September 17th
is our sixth year anniversary service. We'll give you more details as we approach that date.
No food or drink allowed in the main auditorium except for water and coffee. Please make sure
that you are not loitering in the four year fellowship hall during the preaching service.
Of course, quiet time is this afternoon from 3 p.m. to 4 15. And that'll be throughout the
whole building. The lights will be turned off. Want to encourage you to get some rest before
Sunday night. And then lastly, please make sure you silence your phones during the preaching
so as to not be a distraction during the service. And that is it. Let's go and sing our next song.
281.
Song number 281, Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior.
All together on that first verse.
Pass me not, O gentle Savior. Hear my humble cry.
While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by.
Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry.
While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by.
Let me at a throne of mercy find a sweet relief.
Kneeling there in deep contrition, help my unbelief.
Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry.
While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by.
Trusting only in Thy merit, would I seek Thy face.
Heal my wounded, broken spirit. Save me by Thy grace.
Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry.
While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by.
Thou the spring of all my comfort, whom have I on earth beside Thee,
whom in heaven but Thee.
Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry.
While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by.
Amen. Wonderful singing at this time. The ushers will come forth to receive the
offering. You can turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter 28.
Matthew chapter number 28.
The Bible reads,
In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary
Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher. Behold, there was a great earthquake, for the
angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat
upon it. And his countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow. For fear of him,
the keepers did shake and became his dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women,
Fear not ye, for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here, for he is risen,
as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell his disciples that
he is risen from the dead. Behold, he goeth before you into Galilee. There you shall see him. Lo,
I have told you. And they departed quickly from the sepulcher with fear and great joy, and did
run to bring his disciples word. And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them,
saying, All hail! And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him. Then said Jesus
unto them, Be not afraid, go, tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they
see me. Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and showed unto the
chief priests all things that were done. And when they were assembled with the elders, and taking
counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, saying, Say ye his disciples came by night, and
stole him away while we slept. And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him,
and secure you. So they took the money, and did as they were taught. And this saying is commonly
reported among the Jews until this day. Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee,
into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him,
but some doubted. 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.
The Lord God, we thank you for this day, for this opportunity to assemble here,
to hear your word preached. Just ask that you would fill a pastime here with your Holy Spirit
now. And please just prepare our hearts to take you to the message that he's prepared,
and in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Amen. Okay, we're in Matthew chapter 28 this morning,
and the title of my sermon is evangelize, baptize, discipleize, evangelize, baptize,
discipleize. And this is actually, this title is taken straight from one of our soul-willing
lessons that we give throughout the year when we are teaching our people how to preach the gospel
and training them how to share their faith. This morning's sermon is evangelize, baptize,
and discipleize. And I'm getting to hear from Matthew chapter 28, where it says 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 always, even into the end of the world. Amen. Now this is what we would
commonly refer to as the Great Commission, okay. And it's great in the sense that the task is
considerably large. If you think about it, Jesus Christ is telling his disciples,
go and teach all nations. And this is back in the first century AD, where there's no airplanes,
there's no Instagram or Facebook or internet by which you can preach the gospel to someone
across the world. All of this has to be done on foot. And so obviously it's a considerably
large task for the disciples that they have to go into all the world. These 12 disciples go into
all the world and evangelize, preach the gospel and get people saved. And so obviously it was a
difficult task for them initially. But hey, here we are now, right? So obviously the disciples did
a fantastic job. And they proved to us today that this task is possible to accomplish. And the proof
is this is that we're here, a bunch of Gentiles who got saved. And obviously it's because of the
work of many people throughout the centuries leading back all the way to these Jews who got
saved and obeyed the Lord in this Great Commission. And so the work is colossal. And let me just say
this is that although Jesus Christ is telling the disciples this, he's saying go ye into all the
world and preach the gospel to every creature. This is applicable to us. We never want to take
this interpretation where it's just like, well, this is only written to the disciples. We need
to make sure that we interpret this in the correct way and realize who this is actually speaking to.
Well, newsflash, we're disciples. And so whatever is said unto the disciples, obviously save,
you know, the enabling of the casting out of devils and healing and whatnot, you know,
whatever else is said to the disciples, we can apply to ourselves today. You say, well, you know,
I think I'm gonna also apply some of that healing and casting out of devils. Well, let's see if you
can do that. You know, let me go ahead and throw a black mama at you and see how well you fare with
that, right? Obviously, that proves that we do not have those apostolic abilities, you know, in that,
you know, it's interesting that people out there want to believe that that still exists,
but, you know, they often weigh in heavily on the healing of it because, you know, that's easy to
kind of fake, right? But when it comes to actually, you know, picking up some random rattlesnake or
something like that or drinking something that's deadly, you know, they don't necessarily partake
of that because obviously that would prove that they're phonies and fakes. Now go with me if you
went to Mark 16, then we're going to go to Luke 24. Mark 16 and then Luke 24. We're going to cover
some of these commissions that God gave because here in Matthew 28 is just one instance in which
Jesus Christ commissioned his disciples. This is not just one isolated incident where it's just
like well he said it once and that was it. There's multiple times where after the resurrection he
came to the disciples and said go and evangelize, go and preach the gospel, go and teach all nations.
Look at Mark 16 and verse 15 it says, and he said unto them go ye into all the world and preach the
gospel to every creature. He that believeth in his baptize shall be saved but he that believeth
not shall be damned. So obviously we see somewhat of a a consolidated version of Matthew 28
here in Mark 16 and he says there to preach the gospel to every creature. This isn't referring to
like preaching the gospel to animals or something. Creature just means creation and specifically it's
referring to man. The creation of man that they need the gospel. Go to Luke 24 if you would.
Luke chapter 24. Luke 24 and verse 46 he says something similar. It says in verse 46 and he
said unto them thus it is written verse 46 and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise
from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his
name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem and you are witnesses of these things. Now I want you
to notice in verse 47 it doesn't say repentance of sins should be preached but rather repentance
and remission of sins should be preached. Why? Because the repentance here in this particular
context when dealing with the gospel is simply referring to someone changing their mind about
what they're trusting in for salvation and placing it on Jesus Christ which in turn results in what?
The remission of sins. So repentance of you know turning from your dead works your faith
in your dead works and placing your faith in Jesus Christ will result in you being forgiven
of all sins past present and future. This is essentially the great commission that's being
preached here. He says that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name
again among all nations. He says beginning at Jerusalem. Go to Acts chapter one if you would.
Acts chapter one. So one common denominator that we see with all of these particular passages
dealing with the great commission is that he wants us to go into all nations and he specifies
where to begin in Luke 24. He says start in Jerusalem okay and then he kind of reiterates
this in Acts chapter one because Luke is the writer of the book of Acts as well the human
author of the book of Acts is Luke and it's kind of essentially you know like like a follow-up to
the book of Luke it says there in verse number seven and he said unto them it is not for you
to know the times or the seasons which the father hath put in his own power but ye shall receive
power after that the holy ghost has come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem
and in all Judea and in Samaria and into the uttermost parts of the earth. So he says here
that once they're endowed with power of the holy ghost once they're spirit filled
at that point they are enabled to go and be a witness in other words to be a soul winner
a preacher of the gospel in these particular areas and he says there start off in Jerusalem
which is pretty obvious right start off where you live start off where you grew up start off
where your where your base is and then essentially work your way out he says in Jerusalem and all
Judea and Samaria and then of course ultimately the uttermost parts of the earth. Now as I
mentioned in the beginning of the sermon go to John 21 if you would John chapter 21
that the great commission is something that was given to the disciples but it's also for us
and here we see the very clear distinction and instruction to evangelize then you baptize
and then you discipleize now I know that that's not a word okay I don't need anybody coming to
me after the service a pastor I don't know if you know this you know I'm trying to like make it so
that you'll remember it okay so you evangelize in other words you teach all nations you preach
the gospel to every creature and what do you do after that you just that's it is that the work
done no you baptize them okay and after you baptize them then you disciple them meaning you
teach them all things whatsoever God has commanded them this is a great task for us to accomplish
and here's a perfect place to do which is in your local new testament church now look at John 21
because we looked at all the gospels in which the great commission is being put forth and he's and
where Jesus Christ is talking about it but the book of John doesn't necessarily have a really
clear you know great commission statement per se okay however what he tells Peter here is
essentially part of that great commission because he says there in verse 15 so when they had dined
Jesus saith to Simon Peter Simon son of Jonas loveth thou me more than these he saith unto him
Lord thou knowest that I love thee he saith unto him feed my lambs now Jesus didn't he wasn't like
an animal lover or something like that he didn't have like a bunch of pet lambs like hey I'm going
to heaven I need someone to care for my lambs while I'm gone he's literally referring to what
believers okay he says feed my sheep feed my lambs he's referring to people who are saved okay and
the reason he's telling Peter this is because we'll see later on that or later on in the new
testament that Peter becomes a pastor and the job of a pastor part of a job of a pastor is to feed
the flock of God which are among them feed them with what feed them with the word of God don't
feed them with devotionals don't feed them with the quote of the day don't feed them with a bunch
of stories and illustrations feed them with the word of God man shall not live by bread alone
but by every word that proceed out of the mouth of God right so that's why he tells them hey if
you love me I need you to feed my lambs feed my sheep this is essentially the third aspect of
that great commission which means to disciple them okay to teach them all things whatsoever
Christ has commanded us now go back to Matthew 28 if you would Matthew 28 because this is where
we're going to focus on mainly now here's a mistake that Christians make when interpreting
Matthew 28 okay here's a few mistakes that they make one of the mistakes that people make when
looking at Matthew 28 the great commission and how it applies to us is that they think the great
commission is only about preaching the gospel when that's actually not true okay it's a big part of
the gospel and in fact it's the first part of the god excuse me it's a big part of the commission
and it's the first part of the commission but it's not the only aspect of the great commission
you know we obviously want to preach the gospel and get people saved that's the most important
thing but folks we can't stop there okay it's not like we can just preach the gospel and just ignore
the other aspects of the great commission you know he's commanded us to baptize them
he's commanded us to teach them to disciple them to show them what the word of God says to teach
them the ways of the lord and and and move on from there but we can't just preach the gospel
and that's it we should obviously put in a considerable effort to move to those next steps
this is why when someone gets saved in our church we automatically follow up with all right now it's
time for you to get baptized a lot of people they get a little or christians they can get a little
iffy about that they're just like i don't know you know asking people to get baptized and being
so aggressive about it it's just that you know what if they don't want to then they don't want
to i mean what's what's the what's the hurt and you hearing no okay but here's what i've learned
is that you always want to strike while the iron is hot and what i mean by that when someone gets
saved and they believe on the lord jesus christ and they get converted they're often in a very
emotional state of mind because they're happy that they just got saved they learned this brand
new truth so it's important to strike while the iron is hot and ask them right then and there
you know god has commanded you after this to get baptized we want to capitalize on that okay
and you say well you know but what if they start thinking that that has something to do with
salvation well then you didn't do a good enough job preaching the gospel to them now did you
okay because obviously if you're thorough in your gospel presentation they're going to understand
that baptism does not say okay we have plenty of ways to show and plenty of phrases to teach
on how you know baptism doesn't save and that you know that's that would be considered a work
you said then why would you baptize them if you're not if it doesn't save because god commanded us to
and we clearly have to make the distinction and explain to people this has nothing to do with
salvation etc but you know in our church once someone gets saved we automatically follow up with
hey get baptized you say what happens when they get baptized we record their information
and then we encourage them to come back to church because here's the thing when it comes to
discipling people a lot of churches have this thing where they just want to do a one-on-one
discipleship where literally a service will start and then the discipleship class leaves the main
service okay like on a wednesday or thursday evening they'll have discipleship class and what
they'll do is that everyone comes to church and then the discipleship group is dismissed during
the service to go through a book of discipleship where there's doctrines and philosophies of the
church and obviously you know the book as long as it's not teaching any false doctrine it's not bad
but you know it's kind of weird that you would want someone to come to church
and then leave the church service to go be discipled when they can get the discipleship
right here i mean the main tool that god uses or should i say that god instituted
for the spiritual growth of a believer is the local new testament church
it's the pillar and ground of truth the bible says okay and in fact the bible specifically
tells us that he gave some apostles and some prophets and some pastors and teachers for the
perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of christ
that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of
doctrine by the slight of men in cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive
so it sounds to me according to the bible that god places a heavy emphasis on a church and its
responsibility to disciple people now obviously this is not exclude discipleship one-on-one
right it's important that and we'll get into this in just a bit that christians take another
christian under their wing and teach them the ways of the lord because of the fact that i
can't answer all your questions in one hour right sometimes you'll have a question and you can ask a
brother or sister in christ and sometimes a brother or sister in christ in church
will tell you some things that you need to hear you know but regarding personal things sometimes
you know to kind of help you along the way but i don't want to get ahead of myself in that area
you know a lot of christians they just make the mistake that the great commission is only about
preaching the gospel that's the most important one that's the first step but it's not the only aspect
of the great commission here's another mistake that i see actually more commonly amongst churches
and that's this that they think that the great commission listen to this is only about making
disciples this is a huge thing amongst churches where they will look at the great commission
and say well you know it's not about sowing it's about making disciples okay
and let me explain to you why this is not correct okay it's one aspect of the great commission but
let me say this is that churches out there will make it their only commission and the problem with
that is that when you overly emphasize discipleship in the great commission you begin to convolute the
gospel and people begin to mix in getting saved with serving god and obeying god you understand
and obeying god you understand because discipleship is serving god
discipleship requires your sacrifice discipleship requires your obedience salvation does not
what does it require the sacrifice of jesus christ salvation does not require your obedience it
requires the obedience of jesus christ according to philippines chapter 2. salvation does not require
you serving God okay salvation is something that is freely given to us by
God through the blood of Jesus Christ the Bible says for by grace are you
saved through faith and that not of yourselves but hold on a second
discipleship is of yourself so you can't mix the two so when churches emphasize
the Great Commission and they emphasize it in a way where it's just only about
discipleship then you got an issue you're gonna have a church that is
filled with unsafe people and people that are confused about salvation and
people that are mixing salvation with discipleship and you're just gonna get a
whole lot of false doctrine out of them now why do people get confused regarding
this well let me tell you the number one reason why churches overly emphasize
discipleship in their Great Commission the number one reason listen to this
don't miss it is the modern versions of the Bible that's the main reason why now
our church is King James only and it's not something that we just say because
it sounds cool although it does it's not something that we just believe in because
you know we're just fundamental Baptists although that's part of being a
fundamental Baptist it's something that we actually believe to the core and we
have evidence as to why we believe that it's the inspired and preserved Word of
God for the English-speaking people it's inerrant it's infallible it's
without error you know it's evident that it's written by God through the
instrument of human authors throughout the span of many hundreds of years and
when you compare the King James Bible to these modern versions of the Bible you
see that they are inferior versions they have all types of mistakes in them they
have all types of false doctrines that they preach but this is not a sermon on
the modern versions although I'd like to just segue into that let's just talk
about the Great Commission in the modern versions of the Bible let me read to you
from the ESV which is probably one of the most popular versions for Christians
to use non-denom churches and even some quote Baptist churches will use these
this version okay the English standard version claiming that they are the
standard for the Bible in English right it says in verse 19 in the ESV go
therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that
I've commanded you and behold I am with you always to the end of the world the
NASB which is a favorite of a lot of a lot of Calvinists says go therefore and
make disciples of all nations the NIV which is the most commonly bought Bible
by Christians not read but bought says in verse 19 go therefore go they
changed it a little bit there therefore go now go ye therefore go there therefore
go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit now go go to Luke chapter 14 if you
would Luke chapter 14 you see folks teaching all nations and making
disciples of all nations are two different things they're not the same my
friends you say well isn't that the ultimate goal though is to make a
disciple out of a person isn't that really the ultimate goal actually the
ultimate goal is to get them saved and then along with that to disciple them in
all the ways of the Lord okay but here's the problem folks if we get because
here here's the argument well you just get people saving just leave them you
know you know where are all those people you got saved well they live
somewhere here I mean I don't know all their addresses but they're around here
somewhere but here's the thing if I get someone saved but I do not disciple them
which I don't agree with obviously we need to put in an effort to baptize them
and disciple them but if I get someone saved and I don't do those last two
things they're still going to heaven however if I do not get them saved but I
baptize them and then I disciple them then I lead them to believe that they
are saved and then they start serving God so they go through their entire life
reading the Bible serving God doing all these works but then they split hell
wide open when they die and my friends what shall it profit a man if he shall
gain the whole world and lose his own soul so here's the thing folks if I have
to choose one over the other I choose preaching the gospel getting them saved
now luckily we don't necessarily have to choose we can do all three the problem
is the people out there who overly emphasize discipleship they exclude the
soul winning part and let me say this is that most of these churches even if they
were to include the salvation aspect of preaching the gospel probably have a bad
gospel anyways not all of them but some of them do okay and so teaching all
nations and making disciples are not the same thing look at Luke 14 and verse
26 it says here verse 26 if any man come to me and hate not his father and mother
and wife and children and brethren and sisters yea his own life also he cannot
be saved is that what it says no he cannot be my disciple because loyalty
as far as obedience to God's commands is not required for salvation and let me
prove it to you therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without
the deeds of the law not by works of righteousness which we have done but
according to his mercy he saved us that's what the Bible says but here it
says that 100% loyalty is required of God to be his disciple even to the point
that you have to be willing to forsake your family who is against the Bible
who's against Jesus Christ who mocks Christianity you know you got to choose
your family over that if you want to be a disciple of Jesus Christ he says in
verse 27 and whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my
disciple so here we see that the disciple has to bear his cross to follow
Jesus but for salvation Jesus Christ had to bear the cross for us you see how
mixing those up can lead to a lot of confusion and this is why a lot of
churches out there are always doubting their salvation this is a very common
thing in churches and these types of churches that they're always doubting
whether they're saved they're just like man I don't know if I'm saved or not and
why because when it comes to the discipleship you can never do enough you
see we as Christians who are following the Lord we never get to a point where
we feel like all right I've arrived you know I'm really a disciple Peter ain't
got nothing on me I've never denied the Lord you know we never get to that point
it's like an ongoing process and in fact we would often refer to it as the
process of sanctification right discipleship is an ongoing process
because of the fact that it requires us to love the Lord our God with all our
heart soul mind and strength and let me tell you this no no Christian in this
world has ever loved the Lord with all their heart soul mind and strength 24
hours a day and if they say they did they're lying because it doesn't work
that way my friends you know I would say you know a lot of Christians on Monday
morning probably don't love the Lord as much as they should because it's just
Monday morning you know Mondays are it's a difficult day okay well you know
thank God that that's not required for salvation you know discipleship requires
bearing our cross and what is the picture that's being given there is
dying to self well we don't have to die to self for salvation because Jesus
Christ died for us you see how it's like the antithesis discipleship is the
antithesis of salvation and has nothing to do with it okay look at verse 33
so likewise whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath he cannot
be my disciple go to John chapter 8 if you would John chapter number 8 John
chapter 8 we're looking at verses dealing with being a disciple and if you
take the interpretation of the modern versions of the Bible of Matthew 28 you
got a big problem on your hands because this is everything you have to do to be
saved he said well when it says go and make disciples of all nations it
includes salvation yeah but no it doesn't though because the vast majority
of people who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation do not serve God
the vast majority of them I would say like 85 to 90 percent of people who get
saved do not serve the Lord they don't and that's fact okay you say how do you
know because if if because it's not easy to serve God and if it was easy everyone
would be doing it feels easy we would have hordes and hordes of soul owners
out every single Sunday every single week we'd have people just serving God
non-stop I mean we I mean because there's a lot of safe people out there
okay look at John chapter 8 verse 31 then said Jesus to those Jews which
believed on him if you continue in my word then are you my disciples indeed so
what's another thing that is included with being a disciple of Jesus Christ
it's actually continuing in his word meaning you're reading the Bible you're
obeying the Word of God you're making it the centerpiece of your life right it
requires you reading the Word of God daily and let's just let's just be
honest the vast majority of Christians do not read the Bible every single day I
would even say that maybe there's people here who probably didn't read their
Bibles this morning no amens no amens everyone's all next point please in fact
probably the only verse you've read this morning are the verses we're looking at
in the sermon I wouldn't put it past some people because it's probably true
okay I'm not saying it's right I'm just saying this is the reality of it okay so
people are trying to tell me that when it says make disciples of all nations
it includes this folks the vast majority of Christians don't even read the Word
of God every day they don't know what the Bible says they don't obey the Word
of God and so no that's not required for salvation okay go to John chapter 15
John chapter 15 when the Bible talks about teaching all nations we know based
upon comparing Scripture with Scripture the teaching means to evangelize them
teaching means to preach the gospel to them we know that when we compare the
great commissions in all the Gospels but just outside of the Gospels you can
see based upon other scriptures that the Bible commonly used or teach in
reference or in context of teaching someone how to get saved because when
you're preaching the Gospels with someone it's not like you need to get
saved you're not like yelling at them you know teaching is just like showing
them from the scriptures that they are sinners and deserving of hell that Jesus
Christ paid for their sins on the cross and resurrected the third day that if
they believe on him for their salvation they can be saved and then they can
never lose their salvation but we have to teach them these things especially if
they never heard it to begin with look at John 15 verse 7 it says if you abide
in me and my words abide in you you shall ask what you will and it shall be
done unto you here in is my father glorified that ye bear much fruit so
shall ye be my disciples so according to the Bible part of being a disciples what
bearing fruit which means getting other people saved discipling other people
now let me ask you do you think the majority of Christians know how to get
people saved they don't even know how to share their faith I'm not slamming them
because we were all there at one point right that's completely normal there's
nothing wrong about that what's wrong is if you just decide to stay there knowing
that you should be preaching the gospel right but none of that just bearing
fruit in general okay being a fruitful Christian in a sense that you're
succeeding the Christian life and obeying the Lord's commands being a
blessing in your local New Testament Church being an asset in your church
doing good to your brethren obeying the Lord and and and abounding in the
virtues of God okay this is something that can be considered to be fruitful
but the vast majority of Christians don't do that so you see all these
requirements to be a disciples a lot requires a lot of it requires discipline
you know disciple it requires commitment it requires sacrifice it
requires reading the Bible daily it requires learning how to soul win it
requires for you to draw the line of loyalty between your friends your family
and God I mean it requires a lot and so when you look at these modern versions
that say go and make disciples of all nations and then you go to these verses
which you know the modern versions don't change these parts then you can see how
people can get confused with that and think to the end and wonder why you know
they might think to themselves man I wonder if I'm saved because I don't know
if I read enough today I don't know if I'm being fruitful enough I don't know
if I'm as loyal to Jesus Christ today as I was yesterday I don't know you know
it's just like where does it end so that's why when you go to these churches
you often run into people who don't know if they're saved you run into people who
can't tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that they're going to heaven and
if they do tell you oh yeah I'm saved for sure and you ask them what must I do
to be saved they're like be a disciple follow God obey his word they give you
all these works that you have to do and then you can obviously delve in and say
well how much work as much as you how much Bible as much as you read how much
do you love the Lord okay so you know it's there's never a definitive answer
to that whereas when it comes to salvation is definitive believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved how much do you believe in him
just the Bible says with your heart that's it whatever belief you have just
place it on Jesus Christ as long as you're not placing your faith in
anything else outside of that and you're exclusively trusting in Christ for
salvation you're saved yeah but how much are you trusting in him that's
navel-gazing okay the Bible talks about the simplicity which is in Christ which
means don't make it complicated God says trust in Jesus for your salvation and
then here's the thing is that sometimes churches and specifically fundamental
Baptist churches unfortunately they'll buy into this little false doctrine and
philosophy because they get really discouraged over the fact that they get
a lot of people saved but not a lot of people come to their church and so
people start infiltrating and telling them well you know maybe brother those
people weren't even safe to begin with they went out from us for they were not
of us for if they had been of us they would have no doubt continued with us
but that's not referring to salvation that's not excuse me that's not
referring to a Christian who got saved and then backslid it's referring to
someone who went apostate more specifically in context is actually
referring to Judas who was a fake believer okay he believed in vain
meaning he never actually believed to begin with and then of course he you
know became he betrayed the Lord and sometimes people come to church and they
play the part but then they go and become a Mormon like you're not saved
you were never saved to begin with you know they come to our church and they
get baptized they claim to profess Christ as their Savior and they claim to
believe all these right doctrines but then they go to the Catholic Church and
they're just like you know my beliefs are more in line with the Catholic
Church than this church okay so you're just not saved then you just you never
got saved you went apostate doesn't mean you lost your salvation it means you
never say you never got saved to begin with that's obviously a different
situation but just because someone gets saved and then they come to church and
then they backslide they go into the world doesn't mean they're not saved you
know what it means it means that they're a weak Christian it means that they gave
themselves over to their carnality to the fleshly desires of their heart
that's what it means it means that they're not reading the Word of God as
much as they should they're not feeding the spirit they're not walking in the
spirits and not fulfill the lust of the flesh and therefore they're back out in
the world doing whatever okay and so we see here that it's important that we
understand what teach all nations means which means to evangelize mean means to
soul one you see you keep saying so and what does that mean so one means you win
souls to Christ it's a biblical term found in Proverbs chapter 11 verse 30
the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he that win its souls is wise
okay when we go on and preach the gospel the reason we say we're so winning
because that's literally what we're doing we're winning souls to Christ
right by getting them saved and so forth and so what came first the chicken or
the egg the chicken you know the these modern versions places the egg at the
beginning of the Great Commission it's like oh we gotta make disciples no we
need the chicken first we got to get a chicken first then the chicken can lay
the egg so teach all nations meaning our job is to essentially and you can
you can interpret this to say teach all nations in that you know go to the
utmost parts of the world or teach all ethnicities right teach people of
different nations meaning the gospel should not be you should not be a
respecter of people when it comes to the gospel preach to everyone red and yellow
black and white they are all precious in his sight never have this idea well
I only want to reach one people group I only want to reach white people you know
I only want to reach Mexicans I only want to reach black people them's is my
people I only want to reach Asians I only want to reach Chinese and Vietnamese
and I only want my people group no according to the Bible we should be
reaching everyone because in God's eyes he doesn't care what skin color you are
because you still bleed red like everyone else does and you have a soul
that will die and go to hell if you don't get saved regardless of your of
your skin color you know and so you know we live in a world where they overly
emphasize skin color and really if you look at our church I mean we have a
pretty mixed group here okay all types of people from different backgrounds and
you say what do you guys have in common because you guys got Asians in here you
got a bunch of Mexicans in here you got you got the minorities in here you got
the white people you know they're in here what do you guys have in common I'll
tell you what we have in common Christ we have Christ in common that's why we
get along so well and so teach all nations this is a command to us to go
and preach the gospel you know and here's the thing is that our church we
could either tell you all right go preach the gospel your responsibility
but really the church is supposed to send you out to go preach the gospel
this is why our church heavily emphasizes soul winning times we're
called first works Baptist Church because the first works is solely okay
doesn't mean we don't emphasize anything else we obviously talk about the family
and and we go into you know systematic doctrine in our church but as far as
practical living is concerned the responsibility of a Christian we're out
there we're supposed to go out there and preach the gospel we have so many times
throughout the week where we equip believers on how to preach the gospel
and don't get this misconception is just like man that seems so scary though you
guys go to complete strangers and tell them that they're sinners and deserving
of hell and all yeah we do now you don't have to do that off the bat though in
fact we don't encourage that at all because someone who's not equipped and
preaching the gospel they might you know they might mess up they might say
something weird you know and so it's better what we have we have a system
here as the Bible would say we have an administration an operation where we
have different groups in our church different teams that we place you on and
the leader of that particular team literally disciples you in becoming a
soul winner for months so you go with them you listen to how they do it they
knock on the door they get cussed out at they you he you get to you get to watch
it all life like whoa that guy let you have it you get to see him get
embarrassed and all you know get the door slammed in his face doesn't happen
very often but you know you get to see him preach the gospel and get people
saved you get to see how it's done and then at the end of a couple months when
you've learned you've memorized the verses you got your soul winning Bible
then you start getting the the itch we're just like you know I think I can
do this I think I can do this and then you start weaning yourself on to preach
in the gospel and before you know it within a year's time maybe even less you
can actually become a bona fide soul winner where you're not only winning
strangers to the Lord at the door boldly but guess what now you can win your
friends to the Lord now you can win your family members to the Lord now when you
go home and you talk to your brother and sister it's not like you're fumbling
over what to say on how to get them saved now it's just like let me show you
what the Bible says on how you can get saved at this moment right now you know
what there's nothing more that people like who are unsaved than a confident
soul winner my friends someone who knows beyond a shadow of a doubt you know when
they went into people and they're just kind of like fumbling they don't really
know it's just like this guy what are you Jehovah's Witness or what whereas an
actual soul winner who knows what they're talking about we have something
that no one else has who's not saved and that is what the Holy Spirit we can
open our mouths boldly to make known the mysteries of the gospel okay in other
words we can literally just go there open up our Bibles and it's just like I
can show you give me 10 minutes give me 15 minutes and I can show you beyond a
shadow of a doubt that you're saved today people like that type of
confidence because then they're just like okay this guy sounds like he
actually knows what he's talking about you know and so let's teach our nations
let's reach people with the gospel join one of our teams in our church stop
being so scared it's gonna be okay it's a lot of fun okay it's there's a lot of
joy involved and you know what the greatest thing about it is aside from
the fact that people get saved is that you get rewarded for it not for me we
don't give her words here for that okay but you get eternal rewards for it
though and then you look back a year in a year spent you're like wow I've won so
many people to Christ I was able to give my mom the gospel I was able to give my
my uncle the gospel my cousin got saved and then it's just like the salvation
is just start piling up and then you know what happens you just become better
at preaching the gospel you become a better soul winner you become apt to
teach okay one of the greatest joys of a Christian is to get someone saved I've
been saved I'm going on 17 years of being saved and you know what I still
haven't gone over it when I go out and preach the gospel sometimes it's just
like it's out of duty because I've done it for so long but when I get into it
and I'm warming up and then the person is getting it just like there's a
swelling joy that comes up in my heart over the fact that this person got saved
because the gospel never gets old getting people saved never gets old and
I've learned that when you are sizzling out in the Christian life you're burning
on a little bit one of the best things to do to reignite that flame for Christ
and for the service of Christ is to go soul winning you go there start getting
people say then you're reminded of what your true purpose is in this life hey
let me just remind you your true purpose is not to be a Christian Instagram
influencer it's not your true purpose in life you know your true purpose is to
get a bunch of people saved you know one of the greatest ways you can
glorify God is to bear much fruit by getting people saved it's a great thing
so the first one there is to evangelize go to 2nd Timothy chapter 2 2nd Timothy
chapter 2 and then we're gonna go to Acts chapter 8 2nd Timothy chapter 2
then Acts chapter 8 you say you said it so many but you also say evangelize why
do you say evangelize well in Spanish the way you say the gospel is evangelismo
okay and you think of the biblical office of an evangelist it's a person
who goes on and preaches the gospel and so when we talk about evangelizing that's
what we're doing we're going out and giving the gospel that is essentially
what the word means look at 2nd Timothy 2 24 it says in the servant of the Lord
must not strive but be gentle to all men apt to teach patient so this rules
out the street preacher by the way which by the way when we say we're going out
there and preaching the gospel we're not talking about street preaching so leave
your blowhorns at home and your huge signs of turn or burn we don't use that
stuff here okay you're like why don't you put a sign over you and and you
know the little what was that called the sandwich sign you can hold folks you
know what the Bible says ye are our epistles written in our hearts known in
red of all men you know we don't need signs to show what we believe we are the
sign right we are the epistles of Christ going out to preach the gospel and so
you know these street preachers they just all they do is just tick people
off you know you just kind of like don't want to look at them when you're in the
car you're like at the corner he's like his light just turned green already
because it's just a young at you know and then man I mean what if you get like
a Pentecostal one too oh hey here's something worse a Spanish Pentecostal
and you're just like what is this an auction or is this a jack-in-the-box
drive-through you know anything like or a blend of both that gets nothing done
my friends yeah and in fact it says that you shouldn't strive street
preachers what they do is they strive with people they want to debate people
they want to argue with people they want to fight with people the Bible says to
be gentle to all men so when we approach people at the door face to face you know
what we do we are gentle among them we are kind with them you're like well
you're not very gentle right now well right now I'm not preaching the gospel
right now I'm preaching to believers and and this is nothing compared to some of
my other sermons like nothing okay this is very a very kind sermon this is what
we call an extra tative sermon where I'm edifying the brethren okay there's other
sermons that yeah the Bible doesn't require for us to be gentle when we're
preaching here behind the pulpit because the Bible says to cry out loud and spare
not and show my people their transgression since the rebuke to to
the Bible says preach the word be instant in season out of season were
approved rebuke and exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine however when
we're out there preaching the gospel we need to be gentle because they're
unsaved I'm assuming everyone here is a safe person okay they're a believer and
you came to church so you have you have to expect to hear the Word of God being
preached okay so he says be gentle unto all men apt to teach in meekness and
instructing those that oppose themselves if God prayer adventure will
give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and that they
may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taking captive by
him at his will so again verse 24 tells us that we need to be apt to teach apt
to teach what the gospel and part of that is helping them to overcome false
ideologies you know when you're at the door you're giving the gospel people
are gonna ask questions and you know sometimes you'll get a question you're
just like I don't know actually which is good because if you don't know you go
back and you learn and you study and then you go back you're like well when
someone hits me with that question again I'm gonna know what to answer them I'm
gonna know what verse to go to so you see how sowing actually makes you wiser
that's why the Bible says he that win its souls is wise because the more you
go out there the more scenarios people are gonna give you the more false
doctrines you're gonna hear that you've never heard before and it's gonna cause
you to go back and study the Word of God and you'll just become more wiser
because of it okay now go to Acts chapter 8 Acts chapter 8 so the first
part of the Great Commission is to evangelize we have that after church
this morning we have it on Tuesdays Wednesdays Thursdays Saturdays just
different days where people and groups go out and preach the gospel that's
literally what they do is they go out and get people saved that's our main
responsibility okay now the next one is to baptize now obviously it's kind of
difficult when you're at the door to encourage someone to get baptized
because first and foremost according to the Bible only an ordained person should
baptize okay so it's not just anybody can baptize it's just like don't worry
I'm a soul winner I know what I've done this before and I know what I'm doing
obviously an ordained minister has to be the one instituting the baptism which
would require for people to actually come to church okay and so you say well
you know what if I'm at the door and they want to get baptized call me up
we'll fill up the tub and we'll get them baptized right then and there I mean
that rarely happens but we've had instances where that has taken place I
think brother Marcus and I don't remember who it was who else it was but
we're in Omani and we got a group of teenagers saved I think it was like
three or four teenagers they got saved it was like a Saturday they're really
open to the gospel they got saved and they were like yeah you have to get
baptized and they're like all right let's do it we're like oh man they
called our bluff and we're just like all right so we had we walked all the way
back to the church and we told them like we're good we have to fill it up
still so you know you mind hanging out they're like we don't mind so we filled
up the the the horse trough no heater okay back in those days there was no
heater in the and now we have the heater for this bougie church okay back then it
was just ice cold water how many got baptized in the ice cold water okay many
of you did okay you know we had the ice cold water and you know and they all got
baptized so then we filled it up they all got baptized and then we had pizza
afterwards I'm like let's just hang out with the believers I guess you know
they're new Christians you know so it's happened and you know what if I'm in
close proximity I have no problem with baptizing someone but you know a better
way to do is just bring them to church on Sunday because if you bring them to
church on Sunday to get baptized and then they can meet other believers make
friends at church and you know live happily ever after okay look at verse 26
we have an example here it says in the angel the Lord spake unto Philip saying
arise go to excuse me and go toward the south unto the way that goes down to
Jerusalem unto Gaza which is desert and he rose and went to behold a man of
Ethiopia and eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians
who had the charge of all her treasure and had come to Jerusalem for to worship
so this Ethiopian man has for whatever reason somehow have he's heard of the
God of Israel right and he wants to come to worship but he's not saved so he's a
person who obviously is looking for the truth
says in verse 28 was returning and sitting in his chariot read as I is the
prophet so he comes and I guess no one in Jerusalem witnessed him you know he's
just there and no one gave him the gospel so he probably just purchased
himself a copy of the book of his eyes I don't know if they had it they had
multiple copies there or something but he came back with a copy of a portion of
the book of his eyes okay it's like as if you know maybe he got a track or
something verse 29 says then the spirit said unto Philip go near and join
thyself to this chariot and Philip ran thither to him and heard him read the
prophet his eyes and said understand us without read us and he said how can I
accept some man should guide me now what's interesting here is that he reads
the we'll call it the gospel track okay and he didn't get saved why because the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God neither can you know
them for their spiritually discerned you see that's the important role that you
play in this world because unsaved people can't get themselves saved by
just reading the Bible because they don't have the Holy Spirit of truth
abiding within them what's needed is you which is why he says like how can I
understand if except some man should guide me he says in verse number 31 and
he said how can I accept some man should guide me and he desired Philip that he
would come up and sit with him in the place of the scripture which he read was
this he was led as the sheep to the slaughter and like a lamb done before
her shearer so he opened out his mouth and in this humiliation 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 speak at
the Prophet this of himself or of some other man 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 into a certain water and the eunuch said see here's
water what doth hinder me to be baptized so I'm assuming that when the Ethiopian
eunuch went to Jerusalem he probably saw people getting baptized because somehow
he knew about baptism but he didn't know why they were getting baptized he
probably just saw it's something that believers do so he's like well here's
water like what's gonna hinder me from being baptized like these believers who
were in Jerusalem verse 37 and Philip said if thou believeth with all thine
heart thou mayest and he answered and said I believe that Jesus Christ is the
Son of God he commanded the chariot to stand still and they went down both into
the water both Philip and the eunuch and he baptized him now back to the modern
versions of the Bible verse 37 is removed from the modern versions of the
Bible which is to believe with all thine heart so the modern versions and some of
them might leave them in but then they'll have a footnote and say that
this is not necessarily authoritative or this wasn't in the originals so what the
modern versions do is what does it mean to be baptized and then he goes
and he baptizes him whereas the King James shows us scripturally compared
with other scriptures that he has to believe first and then he can be
baptized so what do we learn here salvation precedes baptism okay and
secondly baptism can't save you believing on Jesus Christ saves you okay
you're like well you know I think it's important to get baptized so do we yeah
but I think it has maybe something to do with salvation has nothing to do with
salvation all it does all it is is a symbol first and foremost and here's the
thing folks is that it's ridiculous to think that baptism can save you because
it's just water it can't cleanse the soul it barely even cleans the body
right but not only that we have portions of scripture that clearly distinctly
tell us that the gospel is what saves us and in the same statement he says the
Apostle Paul saying speaking of baptism he says I thank God that I baptized
none of you and then he talks about preaching the gospel he says Christ sent
me not to baptize but to preach the gospel so if the gospel saves us and
he's thanking God that God didn't send them to baptize then obviously baptism
and getting someone saved are two separate things understand so baptism
cannot save you it does nothing for you spiritually it's our first step of
obedience okay it's supposed to picture the death burial and resurrection of
Jesus Christ which by the way is the reason why when we baptize someone we
don't just sprinkle water over their head you know Jesus head wasn't the only
thing that went into the grave he went fully into the sepulcher and fully out
so when we baptize baptism literally means immersion to immerse someone in
the water and bring them completely out buried it in the likeness of his death
as we say raised in the likeness of his resurrection okay and let me say this
regarding baptism if you've if you've gotten saved and have not yet been
baptized you need to get baptized today there's no reason why people wait on
getting baptized like well shouldn't I take a class there's no you know the
Ethiopian eunuch the Ethiopian eunuch did not take any class he didn't take an
eight-week class and it's just like you know the temperature of the water and
you have to learn these doctrines before he just says the only requirement is for
you to be saved and that's it so if you've believed on the Lord Jesus
Christ if you have been saved if you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ
as your Savior your next step is baptism that's what should be done and honestly
there should be no reason why people don't get baptized you know it's not
gonna kill you you know I mean because people often wonder like what's people's
deal with baptism you know but really what it is is in the minds of a lot of
people it's like a commitment that they're making because it is the first
step of obedience it's saying you know what I want to obey the Lord in
believers baptism I want to identify with this death barrow and resurrection
and so that does say a lot but folks just do it you know when I got saved I
made the mistake of waiting like a couple weeks before I got baptized and
the only reason I waited a couple weeks is because you know my family kept
saying well we need to be there when you get baptized so I was just like well I
kind of want to get baptized already so this Sunday but then it didn't come on
Sunday and then it's just like well we have a work we gotta wait for your
brother and your sister to come and everyone has to because to them it was
just like like a Catholic thing you know like the Catholics is like all the
family has to be there or something and I regret that I mean I ended up getting
baptized but honestly I regret it because at the end of the day you know I
should have gotten baptized as soon as I got saved okay and so it's important
that if you've already been saved that you follow the Lord and believers
baptism do not stunt your spiritual growth because you refuse to be
baptized and that happens to Christians I've noticed that sometimes Christians
because they don't get baptized they're kind of stunted in their knowledge of
God's Word because how much further can you move into the Christian life when
you're just not willing to obey the Lord and the first commandment that he gives
you after salvation I mean what does that say about your Christian life think
about that for a minute and it's just like well I'm a little embarrassed you
know or I just want so-and-so to be here folks throw that out the window just get
baptized that's what God commanded you to do and don't be this type of person
that says you know well I still think obey the Lord in other areas and still
grow on my knowledge of God's Word and not be baptized but then you're gonna
read some other things in the Bible that require more of a commitment from you so
how are you gonna keep the greater commitments in the Bible when you can't
even keep the most basic of commitment which is just to get baptized it doesn't
even require any sacrifice on your end you're just that's it sit down in that
jacuzzi water you tell me your name you plug your nose you go in the water you
come out of the water we all clap for you dry off and you go on your merry way
it's not hard my friends and it's weird to go to a Baptist Church and not want
to be baptized I mean that's basically why we call ourselves Baptists it's
because we emphasize baptism after salvation and we fully immerse people
okay and here's the thing if you don't want to be baptized are you really a
Baptist or do you just like coming to a Baptist Church because of the preaching
well part of being a Baptist is getting baptized it's crazy I have to even like
emphasize that but hey it's fact I know there's people who just don't want to
get baptized sometimes and and I get it but I don't get it because it's a very
easy commandment it's not like God starting you off on something hard it's
like all right after salvation read this in one day he didn't give us some
insurmountable task immediately after salvation what do you tell us just get
baptized identify with Christ his death baron resurrection all right go to 2nd
Timothy chapter 2 so we evangelize here's the mission of our church we
evangelize how do we do this by going door-to-door in our Jerusalem going out
to Judea we go to Samaria TJ we go to the uttermost parts of the earth which
is what Belize that's what our church is focusing on right September 11th we're
going to Tijuana you know we typically saw one in Anaheim which is would
consider our Jerusalem Judea would be maybe Santa Ana Los Angeles Samaria
would be TJ and the uttermost parts of the world can be Belize which we're
gonna go to in November to go witness to people get people say possibly start a
church there you know however the Lord leads this is how we fulfill this
command to evangelize and teach all nations okay and by the way in November
when we go to Belize I want to baptize a bunch of people there so we need to make
plans brother Ulysses to have a tub there you know to baptize all those
Belizeans for that service you know because that's part of the Commission
he said why are you having a service there so we can teach them all things
whatsoever God has commanded them we're trying to still follow through with this
great Commission but after that you know we baptized and then we got to
teach them which is the second the third point disciple eyes meaning teach him to
observe all things this is everything under the canopy of Christianity this is
why it's important that we get them here Sunday morning Sunday night Thursday
night because there's a lot we got to go over we got to preach on doctrine we
have to preach on the family we have to preach on marriage we have to preach on
child rearing we have to preach on how to be a good employee we got to preach
on how to be a good boss we have to preach on the practicalities of the
Christian life and we have to teach on and preach on different people in the
Bible so to grow in your knowledge of the Bible and then on Thursday nights
what do we have we have Bible study where we study the book of Matthew we go
first by verse I mean this church is a discipling church this is what we do and
even outside of that you have people working with you one-on-one teaching you
the Bible if you have questions you can ask them this is what discipleship is
look at second Timothy chapter 2 verse number 1 thou therefore my son be strong
in the grace that is in Christ Jesus and the things that thou has heard of me
among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able
to teach others also and here's the thing this is why I'm not really for
those discipleship booklets that these churches often promote because a lot of
it is just real surface stuff and you're not really going to learn a whole lot
you'll learn more in an hour of preaching here than you will in 20
minutes of that discipleship booklet by Paul Chapel that's just true it's fact
okay because a lot of that stuff that's being taught in the discipleship
booklets is just made to just kind of kill time because here's the thing you
know these churches who who promote discipleship you know a major aspect of
their discipleship is important which is the relationship aspect because in their
minds it's just like well it's important to develop relationships which
is true I agree with that 100% you know I think the reason people stay in church
is because they develop friendships they get their BFFs here and all their
friends and then they they come back they come for the preaching but they
stay because of the friends they made so I believe that's a hundred percent true
but often they promote that at the exclusion of doctrine so the stuff
to learn about is like parking ministry and building program and things that are
just nonsensical that just doesn't it's not gonna help you spiritually you need
to learn about the Trinity you need to learn about salvation you need to learn
about the term justification and sanctification you need to learn about
the ministry of the Holy Spirit you need to learn about the different biblical
characters in the Bible you say well how am I gonna learn all that by coming to
church faithfully because we will cover all that I mean it'll take a long time
for sure well like I said discipleship is a lifelong process okay and so the
goal is for us to equip ourselves to be soul winners win people to Christ and
then we bring the people that we went to Christ to church why so they can be
baptized and then once they get baptized we get them integrated and become
faithful to church so they can learn the Bible and then when they learn the
Bible they hear a sermon on evangelized baptized the cycle eyes and then that
person realizes I need to learn how to preach the gospel then we get them on a
team to learn how to preach the gospel and then six months from now they learn
how to preach the gospel and then they go and win their family to Christ they
start going with their team soul winning and then what happens they end up
winning someone who they could breathe the church baptized and disciple and the
process continues over and over and over and over again now look folks if
all we do is evangelize I'm happy with that that's the most important thing get
a bunch of people saved but let's get them baptized and disciple them we have
the truth we have the Word of God let's teach them and here's my last thing that
I want to say if you've never learned how to evangelize you should make the
decision today to start learning if you've never been baptized don't go
running out of the service I'm not gonna hunt you down by the way okay if
you see me approaching I'm just coming to shake your hand I want to shake his
hand you know I'm just coming to shake your hand and that's it I'm not coming
I might like throw you into the baptism I'm not coming to tell you to get
baptized but you should get baptized if you haven't all jokes aside let's get
serious here right you need to be baptized and if you've already learned
how to evangelize and you've already learned how to baptize people you should
do is take someone under your wing to teach them how to do those things as
well to teach others also let's pray father we thank you so much for your
word thank you for the Great Commission and it is a commandment that never runs
out of things to do Lord we can always work on this and I pray that you'd help
us as your people as your church may you empower us and fill us with your spirit
to continue to win many souls to Christ this year and I pray that we'd see a lot
of baptisms as well that people would follow the Lord and believers baptism
and that they would grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ by coming to church faithfully by getting a Bible and
learning how to read it from cover to cover in a year span and just increasing
in their knowledge of the Christian life and getting to know you Lord through
your word and also just just a fellowshipping with the believers Lord
there's so much to do in the Christian life and so I pray that you would bless
our church and help us to continue to be successful in this area we love you we
thank you pray these things in Jesus name amen
please turn your song books a song number 27
song number 27 the old rugged cross song number 27 altogether nice and strong on
that first verse on a hill far away stood in old rugged cross the
emblem of suffering and shame and I love that old cross where the dearest and
best for a world of lost sinners was slain so I'll cherish the old rugged
cross till my trophies and last I lay down I will clean to the old rugged
cross and exchange in some day for a crown
oh that old rugged cross so despised by the world as a wondrous attraction for
me
for the dear Lamb of God left his glory above to bear it to dark albary
so I'll share
ah
till my trophies at last I lay down I will clean to the old rugged cross and
exchange in some day for a crown in the old rugged cross stained with blood so
divine a wondrous beauty I see what was on that old cross
to pardon and sanctify me
so I'll cherish the old rugged cross till my trophies at last I lay down I will
clean to the old rugged cross and exchange in some day for a crown to the
old rugged cross I will ever be true its shame and reproach gladly bear then
he'll call me someday to my home far away where his glory forever I'll share
so I'll cherish the old rugged cross till my trophies at last I lay down I will
cling to the old rugged cross and exchange in some day for a crown
amen wonderful singing your artist missed