(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

This man might have been set at liberty if he had not appealed unto Caesar. Let's pray, dear God, I just thank you for this opportunity to gather in your house for the preaching of your word. So that's what you would feel faster with your spirit now, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, we're in Acts chapter 26. This morning, look down at your Bibles at verse 27. Acts chapter 26 and verse 27, the Bible says here, King Agrippa, believeth thou the prophets? I know that thou believeth. In Agrippa's sentence of Paul, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian, and Paul said I would to God that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day were both almost and altogether such as I am except these bonds. And what I want to preach on this morning is how to be a Christian, how to be a Christian. Now, when we think of the title Christian, you know, we automatically, or people just automatically associate it with, you know, getting saved or being a believer. We talk to people, and if you're to knock on a door and someone who is saved but doesn't go to church, they don't really serve God, they'll say, they'll readily say, yeah, I'm a Christian, you know. But here's the thing is that the I-A-N in Christian is a suffix that basically turns the noun into an adjective. What it means is this, it's basically describing the person who has taken on the character qualities of the preceding word, which is Christ, okay? So a Christian is someone who we would say today is what? Christ-like, is someone who is being like Christ, is someone who is living like Jesus. Now, people actually use this term loosely today, don't they? I mean, you know, they also did in Paul's day. In fact, Paul is preaching the gospel to King Agrippa. He wants him to be saved. And what does King Agrippa say? That almost persuadest me to be a Christian. He didn't say that almost persuadest me to get saved, that almost persuadest me to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. He said that almost persuadest me to be a Christian, and proof of that is the response of the Apostle Paul. Look what he says in verse 29. And Paul said, I would to God that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day were both almost and all together such as I am, except these bonds, okay? Of course, he's referring to the fact that he is living out the Christian life. Now, the same can be said of people today. You know, it's one of the reasons that when we go out and we knock on doors, we go out sowing when we, you know, talk to someone and they say, oh, I'm a Christian. We don't automatically say, okay, well, thanks for your time. We'll see you later. Right? We're not going to automatically assume that someone is saved, that they believe on the gospel just because they say that they're a Christian, right? Because of the fact that that term has become very broad and unfortunately many false religions have adapted the name of Christian as a means to say, well, you know, we're Christians just like you. When you actually dig down deep on what they believe, you see what their views on biblical doctrines on Jesus Christ himself, and you come out thinking you're not a Christian. You don't believe in the Bible. You don't believe in the Godhead. You don't believe in the Trinity. You know, you don't actually believe the things that the Bible says are true. I mean, a couple examples of this would be what? The Jehovah's Witnesses. Now, I would say about 60 years ago, the Jehovah's Witnesses would not call themselves Christians at all. They didn't want to be associated with Christians. But today, you talk to a Jehovah's Witness, and they'll readily say, oh, yeah, we're Christians too. Now, why is that? Well, because of the fact that they're lying in wait to deceive. That's why. You know, they want to toss people to and fro, carry about with every wind of doctrine. They have the sleight of, they are the sleight of men. They have this cunning craftiness, and they want to speak in such a way that if someone is genuinely looking for the truth and they know that the truth is associated with Christianity, they want to be there to kind of pick up on that. Okay. So wait a minute. Jehovah's Witnesses are not Christian. No, they don't even believe in hell, folks. What do you have to be a Christian? You have to believe in how to be a Christian? Absolutely. Absolutely. Folks, Jesus Christ is the savior of all men, but especially of them that believe. But here's the question. What is he saving us from? Saving us from hell. And if there is no hell, then there's no purpose to having God or Jesus Christ because there is no penalty for our sin. There's a reason why he's referred to as the savior. He's saving us from hell. But Jehovah's Witnesses will readily say, yeah, I'm a Christian, but that's a false statement. Mormons will also say this, right? They'll claim to be Christian even though they believe that Jesus' brother is Lucifer, which is the devil. They believe all manner of weird doctrines that doesn't align with the word of God. They claim to be Christian even though they will completely disregard the word of God and go with their Book of Mormon. They just completely disregard what the Bible actually says about salvation. And in fact, they'll even go as far as to say, we believe in salvation by grace through faith as well. But when you actually dig down deep and examine and scrutinize what they actually mean by that, it's a workspace salvation. Catholics will say that they're Christian. Back in the day, you would run into some old school Catholics. They're like, no, I'm not a Christian. I am a Roman Catholic, right? And they would kind of get upset about that, if they were to associate with any kind of type of Christianity, because they knew. But now today, there's been a blending of the lines, right? Where now you have Catholics who say, well, I'm a Catholic Christian. We believe in the same Jesus, the same God. But when you look at what they believe about salvation, it's a complete workspace salvation. You have to keep the sacraments. They say there's no salvation outside of the Catholic Church. You have to believe in the Pope and pray to these saints and all this nonsense that the Bible doesn't talk about, folks. It's not Christianity. It's not in the Bible. They're not even saved. But how about this? How about just non-denominational type churches that speak Christianese? What do I mean by that? They have the same terminology that we would use. They speak Christianese. They may even have some of the same doctrines, like the Trinity. They will talk about the Word of God being the final authority. They believe in believer's baptism. They say all these things. But when you actually talk to them about salvation, they'll say, well, you have to repent of your sins to be saved. It's not by faith alone. It's by faith, but you also have to have the works to accompany that. You have to make sure you turn from your sin. Folks, that's a false doctrine that's not found in the Bible. But there's people out there parading as Christians, but they're not really Christians. They're not even saved to begin with. And look, folks, the Bible says, for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. So when we think about our salvation, the Bible represents it as a foundation for our life. When we get saved, we believe on Jesus Christ, that is the foundation. Then we begin to build thereupon. We begin to build additions to the house, a restroom, a living room, and a roof and windows. We begin to build thereupon. That's referring to the works that we do after salvation. But you know what? There's a lot of people out there who claim Christianity, who have built a big mansion, but they have a faulty foundation. Oh yeah, they have a mansion. Oh yeah, they have a yard, and it's a three-story building, but when you look at what they believe about salvation, it's completely false. That house is going to come crashing down. They're building their house upon the what? Sand, and not upon the rock. What should the prophet of man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? You have people in Matthew chapter seven who are saying, Lord, Lord, we prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out devils, and in thy name have done many wonderful works. What are they talking about? What they're building on top of their foundation? But what is the rude awakening that they get? I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Why? Because they didn't have the right foundation. And so when we talk about Christianity or being a Christian, that term has been loosely used to describe anything under the sun that has God or that has Jesus in it, and you know what? That's not right. We've got to see what the Bible actually says about these terms. Now when we want to describe a saved person, you know what the biblical term actually is? Believer. Just that baseline, base level, what is a person who gets saved? They are a believer. Believer. By the way, believer who exclusively believes on who? Jesus Christ. Plus nothing, minus nothing. It's not like, well, yeah, I believe in Jesus, but I also believe in the writings of Muhammad. I believe in Jesus, but I'm also a Buddhist. I believe in Jesus, but I kind of intermingle with all types of faith. Well, you're not exclusively believing in Jesus, therefore you're not a believer. Because to believe means to trust solely upon Jesus Christ, plus nothing, minus nothing. And look, it's to renounce any other belief that you may have in any other god, right? You know, if you're a Catholic and you believe in the Virgin Mary, that she's like the mediator between us and God, you have to not believe that in order to be saved. Because there's only one mediator between God and man, and that is Jesus Christ, according to the Bible. So when we want to describe the saved person, the Bible uses the word believer, but when describing a believer who serves Jesus Christ, we often see the term disciple being used. And this is actually synonymous with the word Christian. Now go to Acts chapter 11, if you will, Acts chapter number 11. When talking about saved people, you know, think about this. Every Christian is a believer, right? Every disciple is a believer, but get this, not every believer is necessarily a Christian, right? Because what did we just say in the beginning? To be a Christian is to be Christ-like, to follow Jesus Christ. To be saved, all you have to do is believe, and at that point, you are a believer. You are a son of God, right? But hold on a second, to be Christ-like means you have to adhere to the teachings and the commandments of the Bible. And there's a lot that goes with it, and we're going to get into it this morning. It means you're following Him, not according to your own standard, but rather according to His specifications. You know, a lot of people, you see churches are like, well, we're Christ followers, right? I'm a Jesus follower. And it sounds rad, it sounds dope, it sounds cool, you know, to say, well, I'm just a Jesus follower, you know, I just, I follow Christ, you know, and you have your cute little cliches that you want to use, but you know what, at the end of the day, if you're not believing on Jesus Christ for your salvation, number one, you're not, you're following the devil. You're following some false doctrine. But number two, if you are a believer, but you're not doing the things that Christians actually do, then you're actually just deceiving yourself. You're probably just a hero of the word and not a doer, deceiving your own selves, okay? That's why it's important that we don't allow unsafe people to define what Christianity is, right? You know, one of my pet peeves is when people, you know, they hear me preach some controversial sermon or some sermon on hatred or something like that, and they're like, that's not like Jesus. It's like, you don't even know who Jesus is. You're going to tell me who Jesus is? You're going to try to tell me what the Bible says when you haven't even read it cover to cover? You're going to tell me what Christianity is, even though you're not even saved? Don't let people like that intimidate you, folks, trying to punk you around and make you, and try to redefine what Christianity is according to their standard, you know? Well, you know, Jesus wouldn't do that. How do you know? Book chapter and verse. How do you know, folks? We have the mind of Christ. Look at Acts chapter 11. It's important that we find the definition to Christianity what it is to be a Christian from the Bible itself, not from movies, not from, you know, devotional books, not from TV shows or whatever it may be, you know? We need to make sure. Well, what's that famous movie? The Son of God. Isn't that a famous movie? Like, there's like a series of them, and it's literally everything opposite of what the Bible says that Jesus is and what he did. Look at Acts 11, verse 25. Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus to seek Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch, and it came to pass that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church and taught much people, and the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. Now notice that it doesn't say that they called themselves Christians. This is a name that other people gave them. Now did it give just any believer that name? No, and it specifically says the disciples were called Christians. Why? Because the disciples are people who are students of Jesus Christ. They're the ones who are behaving like Christ. Their conversation is likened unto Jesus Christ. They have Christ-like conduct, okay? So if not every believer is a Christian, and by the way, I'm going to continue to use that, obviously. We're all going to continue to use that. I'm a Christian. Even if you're not right with God, and you backslide or something like that, you're probably going to still say, I'm a Christian, right? That's just something that we commonly do. But we want to look at this from a biblical perspective, because if not every believer is necessarily a disciple or a Christian, the question is, what do we have to do in order to attain that title? How do we become Christians? Well, let's just look at what the disciples did, because they were the ones who were called Christians. So obviously, there are certain things that they're partaking of, certain things that they were doing, that the outside world, whether it was other believers or unsaved people, looked at them and said, these people are just like Jesus. Sometimes it was in a positive way. Sometimes it was a complete negative way. The Pharisees are just like, oh man, I remember Jesus from back in the day, and these guys are just acting just like him. We crucified him. Let's get rid of these people as well. Now go to Matthew chapter four. So let me give you a couple of things here on how to become a Christian. Why were the disciples called Christian according to the book of Acts? Number one is because they filled Jerusalem with their doctrine. They filled Jerusalem with their doctrine. You don't have to turn it, but Acts chapter five verse 28 says, saying, did not we straightly command you that ye should not teach in this name? And behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. Now, isn't it funny that God's enemies, anytime they want to insult us, we actually take it as a compliment? You filled Jerusalem with your doctrine. It's like, well, thanks. It basically shows that I'm doing right. Oh man, you hate all these bad people, and you hate all those things. Well, thanks. I'm glad you noticed. So what they consider to be an insult, we actually take it as a compliment. It actually confirms that what we're doing is right. But notice that's what they did. Ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine. Folks, that is a great accomplishment. Now, what does that mean? It means they were preaching the gospel everywhere. Verse 42 says, and daily in the temple and in every house, they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. So what were the disciples known for? What were these believers known for, soul winning? So in order to be a Christian, what do you have to do? I mean, first and foremost, by the way, this is no particular order, but I would put this in this order. You know, you have to be a soul winner. You have to actually go out there and preach the gospel to every creature, creature. This is the Christ-like thing to do, okay? What do I have you turn, Matthew chapter 4? Look at verse number 17. It says, from that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting an end to the sea, for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, follow me, and I will make you a great worship leader. That's what it says. Follow me, and I'll show you how to wear, you know, your hair like a queer, and then, you know, the jeans with the, you know, cutted knees and all that, and, you know, I'll show you how to be real soft and real weenie-like. Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. So what is the result of following Jesus? It's seeing people saved. Being a fisher of men means you're basically, you know, they were casting their nets inside the lake and pulling out fish, and now God's saying, hey, you need to cast your net in the lake of fire and pull them out of the fire, right? Some have compassion making a difference, others saved with fear, pulling them out of the fire. And they straightway left their nets and followed him. And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. And they immediately left the ship and their father and followed him. Now people actually have a misconception that sometimes if you read this, you might think, well, this is the first time that Peter ever encountered Jesus, right? It's just like, wow, I was like right off the bat. He just meets Jesus, and man, Jesus just says, follow me, and he starts following him, becomes a fisher of men. That's not necessarily the case. In fact, we can surmise that Andrew, which is Simon Peter's brother, and potentially Peter as well, they were saved for a while now, even prior to Christ coming on the scene. And the reason we know that is because Andrew was one of John the Baptist's disciples. And John the Baptist was preaching the baptism of repentance, which is to believe on Jesus Christ. He was following John the Baptist. John the Baptist can behold the Lamb of God who should take away the sins of the world. And one of those two disciples was Andrew. Andrew went to Jesus, and then Andrew brought his brother, Simon Peter, and he said, look, we found the Messiahs. We found the Christs. He didn't say believe on him. I believed that these guys were probably already saved. So it wasn't until later on that they began to serve, and they actually began to go soul winning, et cetera. But we see there that he tells them, you need to follow me. So people who say, well, I'm a Christ follower, the question I have for them is, so do you go soul winning? Do you know how to preach the gospel? Do you know how to open your mouth boldly to make known the mysteries of the gospel? You go soul winning on a regular basis, on a weekly basis, monthly basis. If not, then you're not a follower. Because those who follow Christ will be constructed into a preacher of the gospel. That's what God wants us to do. Go with me, if you would, to go to Matthew chapter 9. Actually, I'm sorry. Go to Luke chapter 13. I'm going to read to you from Matthew chapter 9. It's only one verse here. 935 says, and Jesus went about all the cities and villages. So first and foremost, we see them in the book of Acts. They're going out, and they're filling Jerusalem with their doctrine. And why are people saying, hey, you guys are just like Jesus? Because that's exactly what Jesus did. In his day, he was going about all the cities and villages, preaching the kingdom of God. And no, that's not a different gospel. It's the same gospel. Teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people, the Bible says. So Jesus was going about preaching the word of God. So anybody who is Christ-like is doing likewise. Look what it says in Luke chapter 13, verse 20. Look at this parable here. It says in verse number 20, and he said again, where unto shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. Now, what is he saying? Well, leaven, often in the Bible, has different properties as far as the symbolic meaning behind it. The meaning that we are most familiar with is sin, right? Sin will permeate a church if you allow leaven in the church. But really, what he's trying to describe here is the fact that when leaven is placed into bread, it only requires just a little bit, and what does it do? It just permeates the bread. And then he goes into verse 22, and he went through the cities and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. So what is he saying? He's like the leaven that's placed there, and what is he doing? He's going through all the towns and villages just spreading the gospel. The good leaven, okay? So when it comes to us, how can we say that we're Christians? Well, we need to make sure that we're doing the same thing, right? We're preaching the gospel here in Omani. We're going to different cities. We're going to different countries, different parts of the world. We want to go just like Jesus in cities and villages, preaching the gospel. You know, nothing wrong with bringing visitors here and getting them saved. I mean, we do that as well, but that's not our primary means of evangelizing, right? We believe that the local New Testament church is a home base for those who want to learn how to go sowing and are sent out by the authority, with the authority of the church here, to go out and preach the gospel to every creature. Go to John chapter 20, John chapter 20. So as I mentioned, it's like to be a Christian, you have to know how to preach the gospel. And look, if you're in here like, well, I got everything else down, I'm just not really big on the whole sowing thing. Well, you better get big on it. It's pretty important to the Lord to know how to give the gospel to others. And look, I know it's different for everyone. And I'm not saying you have to be here every Sunday going out with everyone or Thursday or Saturday. You can do it on your own time. But here's the thing. You should be soul conscious no matter where you're at, no matter what designated time there is, if you don't have time to, there should be a time when you are a conscience of people and you're actually willing to give them the gospel, whether that's your neighbor, your friends, family, et cetera. Look what it says in verse 21, then said Jesus to them again, peace be unto you as my Father had sent me, even so send I you. So the reason that the apostles were Christ-like, they were Christian, was because of the fact that they were being sent out by Christ just as God sent Jesus Christ himself. Soul winning is a Christ-like thing to do. And let me just make myself very clear. Street preaching is not a Christ-like thing to do. Street preaching is not Christ-like at all. Well, hold on a second, doesn't the Bible say, you know, shatter from the house? What you hear in the ear that shout ye upon the housetops? You find me a person who's actually on the roof shouting God's word from the housetops. Come on folks, discern what that means. It basically means be open about it. You know, we shouldn't put our light under our candle under a bushel. We shouldn't hide the things that we believe. We should be open about these things. Street preaching is not even found in the Bible. You know, I ran into a guy who specifically said he thought he was impressing me because he was like, he's trying to be a missionary and he was just like, yeah, you know, I go street preaching and I'm like, well, you're not getting support from me anymore. Like in my mind, I'm telling him, I'm saying this. And he's like, I saw this lady and I started just rebuking her on the street. And I'm just like, but no mention of getting them saved. No mention of preaching them the gospel. Folks, that's nonsense. That's some Gene Kim stuff. It's not in the Bible. You know, with the blow horn and a big sign that says turn to burn, doesn't work. You sound like a jack in the box drive-through when you do something like that. No one's paying attention to you. He said, well, didn't Jesus preach to the multitudes? Yeah. They came to listen to him though. He didn't have a building to necessarily meet in. There's so many people following him. There's 5,000 people that were listening to him, just men. So close to 15,000 people with women and children, approximately, he didn't have a building to facilitate all those people. And he's preaching the word of God into them. Yeah. But you know what? Most of these street preachers, no one's listening to them. I mean, if you don't believe me, go to Gene Kim's, I encourage you go to Gene Kim's, you know, YouTube channel, you will see him. He's this hyper dispensationalist who promotes, you know, street preaching. And he's just like, look at all these people right here. And all these cars are like lined up at the light. And all of them have their windows rolled up. No one's listening. He's like, well, we're getting someone, like you're getting someone annoyed at what you're doing. It's not fruitful. And it's not Christ-like. You will not find street preaching in the Bible. Hey, evangelistic concerts are not Christ-like. Right? Where you have this evangelistic concert with some Lecrae, you know, hip hop Christian rapper, Christian rock artists, Christian R&B artists or something. And he's like, man, if we just could get this guy, we'd get so many people to come and then we'd give him the gospel. Folks, that's not Christ-like. Well, Jesus used the bread and the fish. Yeah, there's a big difference between bread and fish and some wicked reprobate singing up here who probably doesn't even believe in Christ. He's just trying to make merchandise off of the flock. How about outreach? Now look, if there's a church out there that claims to do outreach and they're preaching the gospel, I can't hate on that. Right? If they say we do outreach and you go see what they do and it's just like they're preaching the gospel. All right. Kudos, man. But let's be honest, let's be realistic here. You're not going to really find that. Most outreach programs are what? Feeding the poor. Okay. And you know what? A lot of these churches feeding the poor has taken the place of actually evangelizing and preaching the gospel. And let me just let you in on a little secret, okay? You will never see the commandment to feed the poor in the Bible. No. What? There's no commandment to do that. That may shock some of you, but it's true. Now I didn't say that there's no commandment on how to deal with the poor in the Bible. But there's actually no commandment that says, hey, the gospel is feeding the poor. In fact, you'll find the exact opposite. The Bible actually says that the poor had the gospel preached unto them. Think about that. Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk. And they preach the word of God unto them. The only thing you see in the Bible is, for example, Leviticus 19, where God specifically said, hey, make sure that you don't gather every grape of the vineyard, because you want the poor to glean the corners of the field, because God wants poor people to work. You know, he's not like the government, where he's just like, just sit on your rear end all day, and you just get a paycheck for doing that. If a man does not work, neither should he eat, according to the Bible. So God says, he recognized the poor. And by the way, the poor of then is way different than the so-called poor of today. They didn't have drug addicts with an Obama phone, with a $500 tent over in the LA River. Folks, some of those tents are nice. They have like compounds in those places. Have you seen those tents? You know, I drive by the tent, it's like, oh man, these people are like, whoa, hold on a second, that tent looks nice. Is that a TV in there? Is that a plasma screen? That guy got a MacBook in there? What in the world? Is there a yacht in there or something? They're living it up. That's not the poor of the Bible. The poor of the Bible were those who were like literally maimed, you know, they lost their foot, their hand, they cannot work. Or they had some sort of disease or for whatever reason. These were people who literally could not work, you understand? And God even then gave them a very easy job. It's like, here, here's your job, pick up food and eat it. That was their job. It would go to the corners of the field, glean the grapes and eat them. And that's how God took care of the poor. But today you have these like, you know, these outreach food drives where they bring in a bunch of poor people from downtown LA, you know, a bunch of drug addicts, some of them even sodomites, okay, who go in there, and by the way, they can care less of the message of the gospel. And I'll be honest with you, some of them even care less of the food quality you have. It's just like, this is what you're going to give me? Because they're used to making so much money, you know, asking for it right here on the corner or something with their sign that they could buy themselves more better food than what we can give them. But somehow, you know, there's this book out there, it's called The Hole in Our Gospel. And the hole is this, we're not feeding the poor. I don't have a hole in my gospel. The only hole I get in my gospel is under my shoe when I wear out my shoes too much from going somewhere. The holes that he's referring to is, oh, we're not feeding the poor, we need to go out there and feed the poor. Folks, it's not in the Bible, because here's the thing, you know, whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, right? If we give someone bread and water to fill their stomachs, they shall hunger again. But if we give them the water of the word of God, if we give them the bread of life, they shall never hunger. Now, we're not talking about the physical hunger. We're talking about they'll never die. Yeah, but what about food? Well then we get them into church, we make them a Christian, and then they become a worker. Then they earn a paycheck. And then they can buy themselves food. They can be a responsible member of society. See how Christianity just makes people better? But what I'm saying is that should never take the place of actually evangelizing, okay? I don't agree with that, I think we should just feed people, then you do that, me and my church, we're not partaking in that. And too many people try to impose practices upon local New Testament churches that they don't even attend. You guys should be doing this. Who are you to tell me what I should be doing? What church do you go to? Silence. How can we be Christians? Well, why were the disciples called Christians? Because they were soul winners. And we see that throughout the book of Acts, they're constantly preaching the word of God. Constantly seeing people saved. They're preaching Christ and Him crucified. So not only that, go to John chapter 8, if you would. Why were the disciples called Christians? Because they filled Jerusalem with their doctrine. Now we finished Omani, but we're going to continue to hit Omani every single year because this is where the church is located. And actually, we're redoing it this year. And I think it's been probably a year and a half since we did some of the areas around here. And you know what? It's great because a lot of people move, new people move in. John and I were just on Thursday preaching the gospel right down the street here, a guy got saved. And he's just like, how did you guys find this place? And he's like, well, we do this area all the time. I mean, the goal is to do it all the time, but obviously we're trying to hit all of Omani. We're just redoing it. And so, you know, he got saved. So thank God for that. You know, we want to fill Jerusalem with their doctrine, but not only that, the disciples were called Christians because the Bible was their sole authority. Let me read to you from Acts chapter 2, verse 41. Then they that gladly received His word were baptized. And the same day they were added unto them about 3,000 souls, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and breaking of bread and prayers. So what we see is that these believers became disciples, did they not? Why? Because then they continued steadfastly in doctrine. When it says the apostles' doctrine, it's not referring to the apostles' creed. It's referring to just the word of God. Jesus' doctrine is biblical doctrine, right? You know, your doctrine, Brother Hagg's doctrine, is biblical doctrine. This is what this is referring to, the apostles' doctrine they're teaching, the word of God. Look what it says in John chapter 8, verse 30. As He spake these words, many believed on Him. Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him, If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed. So what do we learn here? What we're learning is that you can't really be a true Christian or a disciple if you're not in the Bible. This actually should be an essential aspect of your life right here as a Christian. That's why we, I mean, where do we learn how to be Christlike? From the Bible. Where do we learn how to live our lives like unto Christ? From the Bible. The word of God has everything that we need that pertains to life and godliness, the Bible says. The Bible tells us in John 15, verse 14, go to 1 Corinthians chapter 2 if you would, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, John 15, 14 says this, Ye are my friends. If you post things on Instagram saying, you know, verses and all that. Ye are my friends if you put on your biography follower of Christ, He is greater than I. Ye are my friends if you do those things wrong. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you. Powerful. So those who want to say, well, you know, Jesus is like my friend, to them I say, so that means you're living a Christlike life, you're just obeying everything that he tells you to do. Well, no, I'm just, you know, you know, me and him got something going on. Him and I, we got a special relationship. That seems one sided actually. Because here it says that if you want to be the friend of God, you have to keep his commandments. In fact, he says, if you love me, keep my commandments. He goes on to say, henceforth, I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth. But I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my father, I have made known unto you. Powerful. He's like, you want to be my friend, then you do exactly what I tell you to do. Now here's the thing, folks, how are we to know what he wants us to do if we're not in the Bible? Right? Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Brother, can you give me some water, please? Look at 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 12. Now when we talk about, you know, the word of God, to us it's the canonized Bible. Right? To them, the word of God was not yet canonized. But they still had some of the word of God. They had the Old Testament. They were penning down the word of God, you know, in the New Testament. We're reading the words that they were penning down. But when we think about the word of God, we're simply talking about, for us today in 2020, excuse me, thank you, we're referring to the word of God itself. Now in America, it's the King James Bible. It is the King James Bible. And look, folks, a lot of people are touching on this, and not in our church, but a lot of people in Christianity get touchy about this. Folks, there is only one Bible in America. Or any English-speaking, or in the English language, should I say. And that is the King James Bible. Not the NIV, not the ESV, not the NASB. These are versions that go out of their way to corrupt God's Word, where they remove whole verses. They, you know, minimize the blood of Christ and the deity of Jesus Christ. They are a corruption of God's Word. So someone who says that they're a Christian, they're Christ-like, they're a disciple, but they're quoting ESV verses? Like yeah, disciple of who? Not of Jesus. Or you say Jesus, you know, was he King James only? Folks, if Jesus was here today, he'd be King James only in the English language. And I'm not saying that the King James Bible is the only word of God in any language, it's just the word of God in the English language. You understand? When it comes to Spanish, you know, it's the 1569, you have the 1602, you have the Gomez, not the 1960, okay? In other languages, they have, some of them have their versions, but when it comes to the English language, the King James Bible is the word of God. And look, we can go back and forth all day on that to show you the errors of the NIV and the fact that they omit verses, the fact that they change things on there, the corruption that's actually found within these books, and you can't look at them and say, well, it's still the Bible. Actually the Bible says there's a curse upon people who actually remove anything from God's Word. So every single editor of the NIV who has either died or will die, they're gonna split the hell wide open no matter what happens, because they're tampering with God's Word. Look what it says in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 12, now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. So God wants us to know what He has given to us, right? Verse 13, which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual, but the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned. So the person who listens to what I just said and says, that's a stupid statement of King James Bible, well, he's a natural man. The person who actually has the Spirit of God, the one within him, says, hey, amen, that's correct. They're spiritually discerned, verse 15, but he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man, for who hath known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him. I like what that says. You know, these people who want to correct God's word or correct what Christianity actually teaches, who hath known the mind of the Lord that he should instruct him? Who are you to teach God is what he's saying. When someone comes to you and says, well, that's not like Jesus, that's not Christlike, who are you to instruct God? Who are you to stand in judgment of God's word? You don't have the mind of the Lord. The Bible says, who hath known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ. So what's the insinuation there? We know what the Bible says. We know what the instruction is. We have the mind of Christ. Oh, that's so prideful and just so arrogant, I'm just going to say that. He put it right here, says we have the mind of Christ. Folks, why is he saying that? Because it's in tandem with God's word. If we have God's word, we have the mind of Christ. So someone who comes to you and says, hey, those things that you believe, that's not like Jesus, Jesus wouldn't do that. Just tell them, who are you to instruct God? Who are you to stand in judgment of God's word? I have the mind of Christ. How dare you say that? I have it right here. I can send you a picture. It's called the King James Bible. I have it. I'm not saying that I have the mind of Christ because of some divine intervention where God is just miraculously coming through the clouds and blessing me with new revelation. I'm saying I have the mind of Christ because I have the Bible. You know, I like what the apostles said. By the way, the reason they're called Christians is because they specifically said, we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard, and what were they saying? The gospel, preaching the word of God. I mean, look at Stephen's sermon. He just schooled all the Pharisees in the history of Israel for like an entire chapter, just ripping their faces off. It cost them his life. So let me teach you something this morning, something else, hopefully you learned something already. You know, we have to have a good grip on the Bible, do we not? In order to be a Christian, we should have a good grip on the Bible. Now when you think from a physical perspective, you know, we don't hold our Bible like two fingers or something, right? When you hold your Bible, you hold it like this. We're talking about men, women, you know, they kind of do this thing or whatever. Us, we kind of, we just hold it like this, you know? Or you can, you know, go like this. But either way, you use all fingers when you are holding the Bible to get a good grip, to hold your Bible, right? Well, I'm going to give a spiritual application to that because in order to be a Christian, you have to have a firm grasp of the word of God, and I'm not talking about physically. I'm talking about from a spiritual perspective. Because how do we know if we're in the Bible? How do we know that we are actually adhering to God's word? Well here are five things, the five fingers, okay? To know that you, to confirm that you have a firm grasp of the word of God. The thumb would be here in the Bible. What does that mean? You're coming to church and you're hearing and preaching, right? You're coming to church, you hear the preaching of God's word, bam, you got that right there. But you know what, if that's all you got, you're not holding anything, okay? Hearing the Bible, that's why it's important that you're in church, to hear preaching, to hear the teaching of God's word, et cetera. The second finger is you read the Bible. What does that mean? That's your daily walk with God. Now at that point, you know, you've got something, very flimsy, but you got somewhat of a grip. Daily devotions, what does that mean? You actually read the Bible yourself when you're home, okay? Not just when you're in church, means every morning or evening or whatever time you have, you crack open the Bible and you're reading it. Go grab a calendar in the back, a Bible calendar, so you can read the Bible throughout the year, okay? Read the entire Bible from cover to cover. God wants us to read the word of God. Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. So the first finger is you got to hear the Bible. The second finger is you got to read the Bible. The third one is you have to apply the Bible. So the things that you're listening to in church and the things you're reading from in the Bible doesn't really mean much if you don't apply it, right? You know, you hear about getting right with God, getting sin out of your life, and you go home and you get right with God. You hear about this and you say, you know what, I want to be a Christian. I need to do more soul-winning. I need to start soul-winning, period. I need to read the word of God. This is the application. Don't be a hearer of the word, only be a doer, because if not, you're just deceiving yourself. Don't behold your natural face in the glass, you go your way and you forget what manner of man you were. God says in order to have a fairly good grip, you got to hear it, you got to read it, you got to apply it. Number four, I will say this, you should memorize it. Memorize the word of God. Now, you know, I'm not saying you have to memorize entire chapters. I would definitely recommend for you to do so, but you know what you can start with is just memorizing the Romans road. That way you hit two birds with one stone. You memorize the Romans road and you use it when you go out soul-winning, right? Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. Hiding God's word in our heart is important, and one of the ways to do that aside from flashcards is just reading the Bible over and over again, because it gets embedded into your brain. It gets embedded into your heart and in your soul. So that's four. That's really good. Okay. But we don't want like a pinky kind of a thing going on here, right? Who walks like that, you know, with my pinky out? We want a firm grasp. So what's the fifth one? We have to preach the Bible. That's soul-winning and discipleship, because when we go out and preach the gospel, we're preaching the word of God. But you know what, ladies, when you're teaching your children, you're discipling your children. Men, team leaders, when you're spending time with your team and you're teaching them the word of God, that's discipleship. When you are regurgitating that which you have learned, you're teaching the word of God. So in order for us to be a good Christian, we need a firm grasp of the word of God. In order to have a firm grasp, all five fingers should be on point. So today you should look at it and say, well, which finger am I missing? You know, am I just a palm Christian, you know? I'm just kind of like, you know, I just bring my Bible and I'm just kind of like one of those people who just brings my Bible so people can see that I have a Bible? Or do you have a firm grasp of the Bible? And look, not doing these things perfectly because no one's perfect, but fight for that balance to have these in your life. So how can we become Christians? Well, why were the disciples called Christians? Because they filled Jerusalem with their doctrine. Their sole authority was the Bible. And number three, go to 1 John chapter three, if you would, 1 John chapter three. It's because they obey the new commandment. Go to 1 John chapter three, I'm going to read to you from John 13, verse 34 says, a new commandment I've given to you, that ye love one another as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another. So what is he saying? Hey, you need to make sure that you guys love each other fervently, okay? Now get this, check this out. The word love is actually never found in the book of Acts. Not once. Love, love, loveth never found. But you know what is found is the action of love. You constantly see the act of love being portrayed in the book of Acts. It's the book of Acts, right? So they don't love in word, but rather in deed and in truth. Because they're seeing people saved, but at the same time, what are they doing? They're sending relief to the brethren. They're selling their possessions in order for the brethren to have things in common. They're caring for people. They're giving people a second chance. The apostle Paul, who prior to that was not an apostle, he wasn't even saved. When he gets saved, Barnabas is there to console him and to bring him into the fold. You know, he's showing him love. So in order to be a disciple, a Christian, you should have love one toward another. Not just in word. Don't go, hey bro, I love you, bro. I'm good for the day. But you should express your love in actions as well, right? We should be able to love our people. And look, here's a practical way, let me show you a practical way to love the people in our church. And I have to bring this up every couple of months because every couple of months there's pregnant ladies in our church, which, amen. Hey, when people, when ladies have their children, here's a good way to express your love is you send them a meal. You make them a meal and you send it to them. That's showing a lot of love, I promise you. Why can't drive that far? Then we have the internet, we have the new world order and stuff. We can just kind of like send money or gift card or whatever, just make it happen. I'm telling you, because when someone, when a family, they have a baby, that baby man just takes up a lot. And you know, it's hard for the, obviously the lady, the wife, she's recovering, she's trying to get better, she's not going to be able to cook every single day. So it would be a blessing if the people from the church just kind of cover that every single day for at least a week. We have enough people to cover people for at least a week. That's a great way to express love. By the way, that's not original with me. I learned that at my old church. That was just a part of the church culture was that when someone had a baby, we would express our love to them and our support by sending them meals, meals that they liked. You know, and look, you say, well, you know, you're not showing any love if you don't feed the poor. Folks, the Bible says to do good unto all men, but especially they of the household of faith. God actually favors God's people with God's people more than anybody else outside of these doors. We're the brotherhood. Okay. So love one another fervently. Okay. And lastly, go to 1 Peter chapter four and I'm done. This is the last point. How to be a Christian. Why were the disciples called Christian? Because they filled Jerusalem with their doctrine, because the Bible was their sole authority, because they obeyed the new commandment. Brother, Brother Mark, you can take them to go get ready for the baptisms because I know they got to go soon. So you guys can go right now to go get changed. We got to get these baptisms in, amen. Number four, they just won't be able to apply this last part. Sorry, they can't be Christian. I'm just kidding. Number four, because they suffered reproach for Christ's sake. Okay. One thing you see over and over again with the disciples in the book of Acts, they're constantly getting persecuted. They're getting beat, they're getting killed, they're getting criticized, they're being mocked. This is persecution. Okay. The Bible tells us it is enough for the disciple that he be as his master. I'm in Matthew chapter 10. You don't have to turn there. And the servant as his Lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? Folks, a believer receives no persecution, because a believer just believes, but is not living out the Christian life. The person who gets persecuted is the person who's living out the Christian life, right? Is the person who's expressing what they believe, is the person who when asked what they believe, they say it unashamed, and they get persecuted for that, okay? If you follow Jesus, you will be persecuted. Now look, I'm not saying that you're just going to be stoned to death or something. Persecution comes in all different levels. And don't think, well, I don't have any, we don't have people protesting outside of our church. I don't have people, you know, threatening to kill me, but that's not persecution for you. Persecution can come from your family when they just are not approving of what you're doing. I can't believe you went to that church and listened to that Muslim looking guy, and you know, you believe all these weird stuff now, and you're just like, well, I believe this is the Bible, and it's like, you're not my son, you're not my daughter, I can't believe, and look, it's out there. That's persecution. When people criticize you for what you believe, that's persecution. And look, all of us should have some form of persecution as a Christian. Seasons of it. We're not going to be persecuted every single Sunday, every single week, but there's going to be times when we are. And it should be, why? Because the Bible says, yea, all that would live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Look at 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 13 says, but rejoice in as much as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye, for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. On their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters. You know when people are like, oh I'm being persecuted, because they're like fellowshipping with railers and stuff like that? That's not persecution folks. People are rebuking you because you are fellowshipping with wicked people. Verse 16 says, yet if any man suffer as a Christian, notice that, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf. What does he say? If you're suffering because you're being Christ-like, you're living out the Christian life, then man, you know what, don't be ashamed. It's okay. You know, if you're criticized for being a Baptist, you're criticized because you wear long dresses, because of your modesty, because you're appropriate, hey, rejoice and be exceedingly glad. For great is your reward in heaven. So what did we learn today? We learned this is that we're believers, but not everyone who's a believer is actually a Christian, because a Christian is a person who is Christ-like. In order to be Christ-like, you should have these five things. You should be able to, you should have the word of God, you should be a soul winner, you should be able to suffer some persecution, you should love the brethren. So if you get anything from that, just get this, hey, let's work on being Christian. Amen? Spire heads in our word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, and Lord, thank you for the example of the apostles and the disciples. What a great book. It was the book of Acts, and the fact that they were called Christ-like, even in the book of Acts, because of their nature, their conversation, their conduct. I pray that it would be said the same of us today, Lord, that we would be Christ-like as well. And may we not get a definition from some worldly individual, some person who's not even saved, who claims that we're not Christ-like because we adhere to the doctrines of the Bible. We want you to be able to recognize us as Christians, as those who are following Jesus. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.