STEPS FOR NEW BELIEVERS

All right. Well, we’re there in Acts chapter number two. Last week I actually spent a little bit of time dealing with the first part of this chapter, so we’re not going to deal with that this morning. I want to deal with the end of Acts chapter two. Acts chapter two is a pretty long chapter. There’s that middle section there where Peter is preaching. There’s a lot of doctrine and great things we could go into there. I want to focus starting in verse number forty-one this morning. The Bible says this, “Then they that gladly received his word.” Now this is the day of Pentecost. If you remember the one-hundred and twenty members of the church there have gone out and with the power of the Holy Spirit have preached the gospel. They have seen many, many people saved. That’s what is being referred to here in verse forty-one when it says, “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized the same day they were added onto them about three-thousand souls.” That phrase, “Then they that gladly received his word”, is referring to the fact that these people had received the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior they had gotten saved. 

Now keep your finger there in Acts chapter two. That’s going to be the text for this morning. Go with me just real quickly to the book of John. Just real quickly if you go backwards past the book of Acts there, the very next book is the book of John. Before the book of Acts you got the book of John. Go to John chapter number one just real quickly, John chapter number one, and look at verse number twelve. John chapter number one and verse number twelve the Bible says this, “But as many as received him”, now the “him” is referring to the Lord Jesus Christ. It says, “But as many as received him to them he gave ye power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name.” The Bible tells us here that those who received Christ are the ones who get the power to become the sons of God. 

Now, in Acts two you said, “Well, it says that they received his word”, but if you’re there in John chapter one if you notice look at verse number one of John chapter number one it says, “In the beginning was the word.” You see that? It says, “The word was with God”, meaning he was separate from God because it says he was with God, “and the word was God”, meaning he was the same God. You say, “Well, how does not work? How do you have someone who is God and then is separate from God?” Well, that’s the Trinity. You got God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit all three are one, all three are God, but yet there’re separate persons there. It says, “In the beginning was the word. The word was with God. The word was God. The same was in the beginning with God all things were made by him.” By who? By the word. He’s the creator, and without him was not anything made that was made. Skip down to verse number fourteen, and look at what it says. It says, “And the word.” 

Now, verse one says the word was with God. The word was God. Then the Bible tells us here in verse fourteen, “And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. We beheld his glory as the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth.” Now we know that the only begotten of the Father is Jesus Christ. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.” Here we’re told the word became flesh. When someone receives the word, what they’re receiving is Christ. The message of the gospel should be preached through the word. We don’t preach the gospel by giving people our little jokes or anecdotes or illustrations. We present the word of God to them. We explain the gospel to them. I want you to understand. If you make your way back to the book of Acts chapter number two, it says, “Then they that gladly received his word.” 

The church at Jerusalem was in the business of winning souls to Christ, was in the business of preaching the gospel, was in the business of seeing people saved. I want you to understand that salvation is just the first step. In this text, and we’re going to look at it closely this morning, you begin to see the steps that a new believer ought to take after they are saved. Now, maybe you are here this morning and you would say, “I am a brand new Christian. I got saved not that long ago”, or maybe you have been saved for a long time physically speaking as far as the amount of time that you’ve been saved but you haven’t grown much because see spiritual maturity is not dependent on the amount of time that you’ve been saved. Spiritual maturity has to do with growing in the Lord. It has to do with the way your life changes and becoming a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe you’re here you say, “I’ve been saved for a long time, but I haven’t grown a lot spiritually.” 

I want to teach you this morning the steps that you ought to be taking as a brand new Christian or as a Christian that may be hasn’t grown a lot and hasn’t really taken those steps of growth. Maybe you’re here this morning and you would say, “Well, I have stepped out in that following Christ mode. I have began to grow. I have began to become a disciple of Christ.” Well, your job is to then make other disciples. Your job is to reach other people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. What you can do with this sermon this morning is it can give you an idea of what should I be doing? If I get a convert, if I have someone saved, maybe it’s a family member, maybe it’s a coworker, maybe it’s someone I knocked on their door and they got saved, what should I be doing with that new convert? What are the steps that I should be taking a new believer through? Maybe this morning you are a mom in this room or you are a dad in this room, and God has blessed you with a child. Well, guess what that child was placed in your home to be discipled by you. You ought to be instructing them. You ought to get them saved. You ought to be bringing them in these same steps. 

These are the steps that a new believer ought to be taking. Everything begins, in the Christian life, with salvation. You’re there in Acts chapter two. We went to John, but I want to show you just another verse on the subject of salvation. Go to the book of First John towards the end of the New Testament. If you start at the very end in the book of Revelation and you go backwards, you’re going to go past the book of Jude, which is one chapter, and then you’ll come to First, Second, and Third John. Go to First John chapter number five. I want you to see this verse First John chapter five and verse number thirteen. We will often ask people, “Do you know if you were to die today, if you would go to Heaven or Hell or maybe you’re not sure and never thought about it?” Sometimes people will attack us and talk badly about us for asking that question. 

I want you to notice in First John 5:13 the Bible says this … I want you to see it. I could’ve just read it or quoted it to you, but I want you to see it in the Bible. First John 5:13 the Bible says this, “These things have I written unto you.” Now, he’s talking about the word of God. He says, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God”, and he says this, “That ye may know that ye have eternal life and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” See the Bible tells us that the reason that God gave us the Bible is, one, so that we could believe on the name of the Son of God, but, two, that we may know that we have eternal life. The Bible says you can know for sure that if you died today you’d go to Heaven. That’s what eternal life means, you go live with God for eternity. It says you can know that you know that you’re saved. 

Maybe you’re here this morning and you would say, “I’m not sure. I’m not a 100% sure if I died today that I would go to Heaven. I think I might go. I hope I might go. We’ll see how things end.” The Bible says you can know for sure. By the way it’s not based on your works, not based on your religion, not based on how good of a person you are. Now, I’m not going to preach the gospel this morning because I believe the Bible teaches the best way to preach the gospel is in a one on one setting. Jesus preached the gospel to people one on one. We edify the church at a church service. We preach things to help and edify the church. I just want to say this if you’re here this morning and you say, “I don’t know if I died today I’d go to Heaven”, do not leave here this morning without talking to me. 

I can sit down and show you from the Bible how you can know for sure one on one. If you’re a lady, I can connect you with my wife or one of these other ladies that might be able to help you. If I’m busy or whatever, we have men that can take you aside and show you how you can know for sure. We’ve got people that have been trained to deal with you in that subject. We don’t want anyone to ever leave this church without knowing for sure. The Bible says, “That ye may know that ye have eternal life.” 

The Christian walk obviously begins at salvation. Go back to Acts chapter number two. When somebody is saved, when they receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior, when they know that they’re saved, the next step … I know this is a basic type sermon, but every once in a while we need basic type sermons. In verse number forty-one there I want you to notice … Acts chapter two verse forty-one notice what it says, “Then they that gladly received his word.” I want you to notice what it says. It says, “were baptized.” The first step that a brand new believer ought to take is the step of following Christ in believer’s baptism. 

I was saying maybe you’ve been saved for a long time, but you haven’t began to grow in the Lord. You haven’t began to take those steps of discipleship. You haven’t began to take those steps of following the Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe you didn’t know what that meant. You’re saying, “Well, I’m not sure if I’m taking those steps.” Here’s a very good way to know, “Am I taking the steps of becoming a follower, a disciple of Jesus Christ?”, by answering this question. Have you been scripturally baptized? Have you been biblically baptized? Have you ever even been baptized because the Bible tells us here that when they gladly received his word then the Bible says they were baptized. 

Now, I want you to keep your finger there in Acts two. Go back to the book of Matthew, the first book in the New Testament. I know we’re going to look at a lot of different passages this morning. I’ll trying to help you guide through there. Matthew is the very first book in the New Testament, so it should be fairly easy to find. Go to the last chapter of the book of Matthew, Matthew twenty-eight. Now, in Matthew twenty-eight we find what is commonly referred to as the, “Great Commission.” This is where Jesus basically told us what we were suppose to be doing. Why? Verity Baptist Church exists is found in Matthew chapter number twenty-eight. 

Now, we’re going to be flipping back and forth between Matthew twenty-eight and Acts two, so if you can put your bulletin or a ribbon or a bookmark or something there in Matthew twenty-eight, that might help you out. Matthew twenty-eight and verse nineteen says this, “Go ye therefore and teach all nations”, and that’s referring to the fact that we ought to preach the gospel. We ought to teach them the word of God. We ought to explain the gospel to people, but notice what step number two is. It says, “Go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.” See the plan that God has ordained is for us to get people saved, but then it’s for us to baptize those individuals in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. 

If you can go back to the book of Acts but not Acts chapter two go to Acts chapter number eight. Let me just quickly show you a few things about baptism because sometimes people don’t understand. We’ll make statements like, “Have you been scripturally baptized?”, or, “Have you been biblically baptized?” They don’t know what that means because you got to understand this baptism means a lot of things to a lot of people. It means different things to different people. At Verity Baptist Church we are biblicists and what that means is the Bible is our authority. Whatever the Bible says that’s what we’re going to believe. Whatever the Bible says that’s what we’re going to do. Whatever the biblical pattern is that’s what we’re going to try to follow to the best of our ability. We don’t just come up with doctrines. You say, “Well, you’re a Baptist church.” We’re not part of a denomination. We’re independent. There’s nobody above us telling us here’s what you do. Here’s how to do it. The Bible is the authority at Verity Baptist Church. 

When we look at how to be baptized or how someone should be baptized, what we do is we look at the word of God. We allow the word of God to tell us how someone should be baptized. Now there in Acts chapter number eight, if you’re there, you’ll find the story of the Ethiopian eunuch. If you look at verse number twenty-seven, Acts chapter eight and verse twenty-seven, the Bible says this, “He arose and went and behold.” Actually look at verse twenty-six so you get the context. “The Angel of the Lord spake unto Phillip.” You got Phillip, who’s the evangelist, who’s the soul winner. It says, “The Angel of the Lord spake unto Phillip saying, ‘Arise and go toward the south unto the way that goeth from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.’ He arose and went and behold a man of Ethiopia and eunuch of great authority under Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, who had a charge of all her treasure and had come to Jerusalem to worship.” 

You got the Ethiopian eunuch who’s a politician. He’s the treasure for this queen. He’s in Jerusalem to worship. He’s riding down the road in a chariot. Notice verse twenty-eight, “Was returning and sitting in his chariot read Isaiah the prophet.” He’s sitting in his chariot going down the road. He’s got the book of Isaiah the prophet. He’s reading it as he goes along. Verse thirty, “Phillip ran hither to him and heard him read the prophet Isaiah and said …” Now, notice what Phillip asked the Ethiopian eunuch. He says, “Understandeth thou what thou readest?” He said, “Do you understand what you’re reading?” Notice the answer in verse thirty-one he said, “How can I except some man should guide me?” He desired Phillip that he would come up and sit with him. 

You got to understand this. Brother Stucky made a statement on Friday night. I like the statement he made. No one can be saved without the King James Bible, without the word of God. The word of God is not going to … By itself this book is not going to get anybody saved. See it’s our job to then go because here you got a man reading the Bible and he’s asked “Do you understand what you’re reading?” He said, “How can I except some man should guide me?” See the unnatural man doesn’t understand spiritual things that’s why it’s our job to go and explain the gospel and preach the gospel. That’s why we have things like the soul winning seminar to then teach you how to explain the gospel in an effective and understandable way because here was a man he says, “Well, I need somebody to help me. I need somebody.” 

Look this guy was interested in the things of God. He wouldn’t have been going down the road reading the book of Isaiah if he wasn’t interested in the Bible and what God said. He was saying, “I need help. I need someone to help me. I need someone to teach me.” Verse thirty-one he said, “How can I except some man should guide me.” He desired Phillip that he would come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture which he read was this, “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter and like a lamb before his shearers so opened he not his mouth.” We’re not going to read all of the verses for the sake of time. He’s reading a prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ in the book of Isaiah. Notice he doesn’t understand the prophecy. It’s about the fact that Jesus is going to crucified and put to death and all those things. 

Now notice verse number thirty-five. Let’s just skip down to verse number thirty-five for the sake of time. Notice what it says, “Then Phillip opened his mouth and began.” I’m sorry verse thirty-four, “The eunuch answered Phillip and said, ‘I pray thee of whom speaketh the prophet this of himself or of some other man?'” Here’s what he’s asking. He’s reading the book of Isaiah. He’s learning about how this man is going of be put to death. He’s going to be sacrificed for our sins so that we can be saved. The eunuch asked, “Is Isaiah saying that this is going to happen to him, or is Isaiah saying that this is going to happen to some other man?” Notice the answer in verse thirty-five, “Then Phillip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus.” That’s soul winning. That’s the gospel. 

He began to explain. He began to preach. He opened his mouth. He took the Bible. He showed him what the Bible says. Then he explained it to him. I said all that just to get the context. Notice what happens in verse number thirty-six, “As they went on their way, they came unto a certain water. The eunuch said, ‘See here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized?'” He’s saying, “What is stopping me from getting baptized?” He said, “What is hindering from getting baptized?” Notice what the answer is giving. Verse thirty-seven, “Phillip said, ‘If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.’ He answered and said, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.'” 

Now notice in verse number thirty-seven the eunuch got saved because the Bible says that if we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus … That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Here he’s saying, “Hey, what’s stopping me from getting baptized?” Phillip says, “Well, as long as you believe in your heart. You can be baptized.” Then he confessed with his mouth. He said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 

Notice verse thirty-eight, “He commanded the chariot to stand still. They went down both into the water, both Phillip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.” You say, “What do we need to learn about baptism?” Here’s the first thing you need to learn about baptism is that baptism comes after salvation. He said, “What doth hinder me to be baptize?” He said, “If thou believest.” Here’s the thing if he didn’t believe, then he couldn’t be baptized. Some of you say, “Well, I’ve been baptized.” Yes. You were baptized as a baby. You were baptized as a child. You weren’t even saved yet. A two-month old doesn’t get saved because salvation comes through believing. 

By the way a two-month old is not condemned. The Bible teaches that if a baby dies, they go to Heaven. They’re not condemned. They don’t understand the law. They don’t understand the difference between good and evil and sin. They’re not condemned to Hell. See scriptural baptism is that you got saved. You believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. You realize that you were a sinner on your way to Hell, and you asked Jesus to save you placing your faith in him and then you get baptized because the Bible teaches that baptism comes after salvation. What doth hinder me to be baptized? He said, “Well, if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.” He answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” 

Now let me show you something else about baptism verse thirty-eight, “He commanded the chariot to stand still.” I want you to notice the wording here. It says, “They went down both into the water, both Phillip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.” Now in Acts chapter eight the Bible tells us they went down into the water.” Now go with me back to the book of Matthew. We were in Matthew twenty-eight. Maybe you kept your place there. I hope you did. Go to Matthew chapter number four. In Matthew chapter number four you will find … I’m sorry Matthew chapter three. We’ll find the baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I want you to notice what the Bible says. Matthew chapter number three and verse number sixteen the Bible says this about the baptism of Christ, “Jesus when he was baptized”, I want you to notice these words, “went up straightway out of the water.” Do you see that? 

Now, to come up out of the water means you went down into the water. Does that make sense? Jesus went down into the water then he came up out of the water. The eunuch in Acts eight went down into the water. Of course he didn’t stay there. He came up out of the water. See scriptural baptism is baptism by immersion, where you actually go down into the water. See maybe you were baptized and you had someone sprinkle you or you had someone pour water on you. That is not scriptural baptism. In fact, in the Bible I would challenge you to show me in Bible where anyone ever got baptized by having water poured on them or being sprinkled? The Bible teaches that scriptural baptism is going down into the water, it’s coming up out of the water, and the reason is because there’s a picture there of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

When somebody gets baptized and they are sitting there and they have the water crossing their body, that is a picture of the cross. As they go down into the water that picture is the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. As they come up out of the water that picture is the resurrection of Christ. When someone gets baptized, what they are saying is, “I believe that Jesus died on the cross, was buried, and rose from the grave to pay for my sins.” Do you see how pouring water messes up the picture? Do you see how sprinkling messes up the picture? Not only are they saying, “I believe that Jesus died on the cross, was buried, and rose from the grave”, but here’s what they’re saying, “I believe because I’m saved that one day when I die God will resurrect me”, and spiritually that, “I’ve died to my sins, and I’m a new man in Christ.” That’s with baptism. 

See that’s why the Bible teaches that the first thing we ought to do is to get baptized after salvation. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ didn’t need to be saved, but of course as the head of the church and as the leader, he gave us the example of baptism. Let me show you just one more thing about baptism. You’re there in Matthew chapter three look at verse number thirteen. Notice what the Bible says, “Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John.” Now, he’s coming to John the Baptist. Notice he comes to John to be baptized of him, but John forbade him saying, “I have need to be baptized of thee and comest thou to me?” John was a very humble man. Jesus comes to John and says, “Hey, I need you to baptize me.” John says, “If anybody should be baptizing anybody, you should be baptizing me. I have need to be baptized of thee and comest thou to me.” 

Look at verse fifteen, “Jesus answering said unto him, ‘Suffer it to be so now for thus have becometh us to fulfill all”, I want you to notice this word, “righteousness.” You see that word “righteousness”? See the first part of the word is “right”? Here’s what Jesus was saying, “If we’re going to do this right, John, if we’re going to do this in the right way, I need you to baptize me.” Now here’s what you got to understand. During the time of Christ there was many religious leaders. There was Pharisees. There were Sadducees. There were priests. There were Levites. There were lawyers. There were all sorts of religious leaders that could have baptized Jesus, but Jesus said, “If we’re going to do this right to fulfill all righteousness, I need you have to baptize me, John.”  Here’s why? Baptism identifies you not only with Christ, but it identifies you with the church or the ministry or the preacher or the pastor that is performing the baptism. 

See Jesus was saying I can’t be baptized by the Pharisees because I don’t agree with the Pharisees. I can’t be baptized by the Sadducees because I don’t agree with the Sadducees. He said, “John, I agree with you. I believe in what you’re preaching. You are preaching the way of righteousness. You’re preaching the truth. I need you to baptize me.” Sometimes people will come to me and they’ll say things like, “I was baptized at a church where they preached work salvation.”  I’ll say, “Well, do you believe in work salvation?” They’ll say, “No, I don’t believe in work salvation.” “Then you need to be baptized with a church that you agree with. You understand that?” People say, “I was baptized at a Jehovah’s Witness church.” “Are you a Jehovah’s Witness?” “No.” “Then get baptized at a church that you agree with.” If you don’t believe in speaking in tongues, then don’t get baptized at a church that speaks in tongues because Jesus said, “I got to get baptized by someone that I agree with.” 

By the way if you don’t agree with us, don’t get baptized here. We don’t just baptize. Some churches they’ll just baptize whoever, just anyone who says, “I want to be baptized”, they just put them in the tank. We don’t do that at Verity Baptist Church. If you want to get baptized, you got to go through somebody. You know who that is? Me. I’m going to talk to you. I’m going to make sure you’re saved. I’m going to make sure you’re solid on eternal security and solid on not being works based and solid on understanding that repenting of your sins is not part of salvation because you ought to be baptized by a church that you agree with. By the way a church shouldn’t be baptizing people that don’t agree with them that’s what baptism is. 

Now, some people say, “Well, I’m just shy. I don’t like to get baptized. I don’t want to do it publicly.” Here’s the whole purpose of baptism. The whole point of baptism is to publicly identify with Christ because see when you got saved it happened in your heart. I didn’t see the Holy Spirit come in. I didn’t see Jesus Christ wash away your sins. That’s something that happened between you and God. We might have heard you confess with your mouth, but we don’t even know if that was real. Only you and God truly know if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Only you and God truly know if you’re saved. When you get baptized, what you’re doing is you are publicly stating, you are publicly saying, “I am a believer in Jesus Christ. I am a follower of Jesus of Christ.” 

I’ll often illustrate baptism as a wedding ring. My wife and I got married eleven years ago. Can you believe that? Good night, eleven years ago. When we got married, you weren’t there. Well, some of you were there, but most of you weren’t there. You don’t know. You don’t know that we’re married. Here’s what happened on the day that we got married. I put a ring on her finger, and she put a ring on my finger. What’s the purpose of the wedding ring? To publicly show people we’re married. For me it’s not that big of a deal. I’m uglier than sin so it doesn’t really matter if I don’t have my ring on or not although I do wear my ring, but when my wife goes to that store, she better put that ring on. I mean when she goes out and about she better have that ring on her finger because what’s the purpose of the ring? To let people know she’s in a relationship. She’s been spoken for. She’s got a man that’s the purpose of the wedding ring. 

Now here is the wedding ring for me? Is the wedding ring there to show me that I’m married? Every morning I wake up and I’m like, “Man, I’m married look. I’ve got kids and a dog.” The wedding ring is to show other people that I’m married. Here’s the thing. If I take the wedding ring off, guess what? I’m still married. It doesn’t work like this. Now I’m married, now I’m not. That’s not how it works. The wedding ring shows other people that I’m married, but it doesn’t affect the fact that I’m married whether I wear it or not. By the way baptism if you never get baptized, you’re still saved. If you never get baptized, you’ll still go to Heaven. The thief on the cross never … Jesus said, “Today thou shalt be with me in paradise.” He never got off that cross. He never got baptized. He believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. He confessed with his mouth. The Bible says he went to Heaven. He never got baptized. If you never get baptized, you’re still saved. 

Wouldn’t you say if you got married and you had your bride there or you had your groom there and you went through the whole marriage ceremony and then after … Guys, how would you take it if after the marriage ceremony your new wife came to you and said, “Hey, listen I like you. In fact, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I think you’re a good guy, but I don’t want to put on this ring. I just don’t want people to know. I’m shy.” Wouldn’t you guys be like, “Wait a minute why are you embarrassed?” That’s the same way with baptism. People say to me like, “Well, I just don’t want to get baptized. I just don’t want people to see me baptized.” Are you embarrassed of the Lord Jesus Christ? I mean are you embarrassed of being identified with Jesus? When I got married, I put a wedding ring on to show, “Hey, I’ve got a wife.” She put a wedding ring on to show I’ve got a husband. When you get saved, you ought to get baptized to show I’m in a relationship. I’ve got the man, Christ Jesus. I’m saved. I identify myself publicly with Christ. 

I understand people are shy. I got that. Listen if the Lord Jesus Christ, who’s God in the flesh, was able to humble himself to come to this Earth to die on the cross for your sins and also get baptized to show you a pattern of what we should be doing, couldn’t you humble yourself a little bit to be baptized? I mean we could do it on a Sunday night. I could tell you on the calendar the services that are going to be the most empty services. We won’t baptize you on Easter when there’s two-hundred people here. We’ll do it on Labor Day weekend when everybody’s out of town. You’re supposed to do it publicly that’s the point. Here’s the thing can you really say that I’m a follower of Jesus Christ if you’re not following Jesus Christ? The first thing he did was he got baptized when he started his ministry to show us that we ought to be baptized. 

Go back to Acts chapter number two. You say, “What are the steps of a new believer? What should a new believer be doing?” The first thing a new believer should be doing is getting baptized. Acts chapter two verse forty-one says, “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day they were added unto them about three-thousand souls.” By the way they got added when they got baptized. They got added to the church through baptism. Sometimes I hear people say, “Baptism is not part of adding you to the church.” Well, that’s not what Acts chapter two says. You can’t be part of the church if you’re not saved. You can’t be part of the church if you’re not baptized. You got to be baptized to be part of the church. 

Notice that’s just step number two. Look at step three verse forty-two, “They continued steadfastly in the apostle’s doctrine.” I want you to key in on that word “doctrine” maybe underline that in your Bible. The word “doctrine” means teaching. See the next step for a new believer after baptism is that they should begin to be taught doctrine. They should begin to learn the Bible. They continued steadfastly in the apostle’s doctrine. Go to Matthew twenty-eight. Did you keep your place in Matthew twenty-eight? Go back to Matthew twenty-eight and look at verse number nineteen. Now we saw verse nineteen where it says, “Go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.” Notice verse twenty, “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” 

Jesus said, “Everything I’ve commanded you, everything I’ve showed you the job now is to teach those new converts to observe all things.” We see that the church in Acts is following that pattern because they received the word. They were baptized and then they continued steadfastly in the apostle’s doctrine. Now go with me to the book of First Timothy chapter number four. In your New Testament you’re going to find all the T books. They’re all clustered together. You’ve got First and Second Thessalonians, First/Second Timothy, and Titus. If you can find a book that starts with the letter T towards the end of the New Testament you’ll be close. Go to book of First Timothy. Do me a favor when you get to First Timothy, I know I’ve already said this but just do it again, put another bookmark or another finger or another ribbon in First Timothy because we’re going to leave it and come back to it. I just want you to be able to find it quickly all right. 

First Timothy chapter number four and look at verse number thirteen because the next step after baptism is to continue steadfastly in the apostle’s doctrine. Jesus said, “To observe all things whatsoever I’ve commanded you.” Now you say, “Well, how do I do that? Where do I get the doctrine from?” First Timothy chapter four notice verse number thirteen the Bible says this, “Till I come give attendance.” Now that phrase, “give attendance”, what that means is that I want you to give attention to. I want you to pay attention to. I want you to focus on this. Here’s what he said, “Till I come give attendance to reading.” Do you see that? See the first thing that a new believer ought to do … 

Those of you that are helping new believers and new converts grow the first thing you ought to be trying to encourage them to do … Those of you that are moms and dads and you’ve got children and your job is to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, you should be teaching your children to develop a habit of reading the Bible. The Bible says, “Give attendance to reading.” See you ought to start having a personal devotional time with God. Don’t answer out loud. Let me ask you how’s you devotional time? Do you even have one? Do you have a time set aside every day where you open up the word of God and you begin to read. You give attention to reading because the only way to grow … 

Remember Jesus is the what?  The word. You receive the word to be saved, but guess what? You got to read the word to begin to grow. He says to give attention to reading. I always advise brand new converts I advise them read the book of John, the Gospel According To John the fourth book in the New Testament. I mean the Gospel According To John has some of the most basic foundational truths. If you’ve never read your Bible, and you say, “Well, I want to start developing a devotional time”, start in the book of John. Maybe you used to read your Bible and you’ve gotten away from it. Get back to it. We’re going to talk about this next week. Here in January is Bible month at Verity Baptist Church where we challenge everyone to read the entire New Testament in the month of January, nine chapters a day in the month of January. We’ll talk more about that. Don’t get scared read, develop a time 

Look you take the time every day to eat. You take the time every day to go on Facebook. Some of you are on Facebook ten times a day. You take the time every day to watch TV or go on You Tube or play video games. Develop a system and a time where you say, “I will give attention to reading”, because see the next step in your growth is to read and learn the Bible is to continue in the apostle’s doctrine. There’s two sides to continuing in the apostle’s doctrine. Notice what it says there in First Timothy 4:13. He says, “Till I come give attendance to reading”, but that’s not just it. He also says, “to exhortation”, and then he says, “to doctrine.” 

Now, exhortation the word “exhortation” means to urge, advise, or warn. Exhortation is preaching. I mean when we preach the word of God, when we stand up and preach the Bible, what we’re doing is we’re exhorting you. We are warning you. We are urging you. We’re teaching you the Bible. I believe that there’s two parts to growing in knowledge. One is your personal devotional time at home. The other part is coming to church and hearing the Bible preached and learning from the word of God in the church services. You need both. Some people have this idea, “I’m not going to go to church. I’m just going to read the Bible on my own.” Well, you’re probably not going to grow very much because here’s the thing: You only know what you know. You may read the Bible and just be passing … 

So often people will come up to me after the service and say, “Man, I did not see that in that text.” “I’ve read that passage, but I’ve never seen it quite like that.” Here’s the thing you’re reading the Bible you’re just in your own head. You need someone outside of you, someones who’s maybe read more, memorized more, knows a little more to help you and guide you and say, “Here’s what the Bible says in here. Here’s what the Bible says”, but some people say, “I’m only going to get fed at church. Then I’m just not going to read the Bible at home.” Try that with eating. I’m only going to eat on Sundays. Sunday mornings is my day to eat. I’m just going to starve the rest of the week. Then you wonder why your Christianity is weak and anemic because the Bible is equated to eating. 

Spiritually you need to eat the word of God. See it’s a balance. You go home and you prepare a meal every day and you sit and you read and you feed the spiritual man, and then on Sunday morning and then on Sunday night and then Wednesday night you come to the restaurant of Verity Baptist Church. We serve you up a meal. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but around here we serve the Bible in heavy doses. We give you a lot of word. We give you a lot of Bible. We teach you a lot of doctrine. Guess what? The more faithful you are, the more consistent you are, the more you show up, the more you learn. People say to me, “Man, every time I come here I learn something.” It’s like, “Well, come more.” We have a service tonight. We have a service Wednesday night. What do you do? We preach the word of God. It helps you with your marriage. It helps you with your finances. It helps you with your child rearing. It helps you in life to learn the Bible. 

You ought to give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. There’s a connection there to the church or to the pastor. If you’re there in First Timothy four, go to First Timothy chapter five look at verse seventeen. First Timothy 5:17 notice what it says, “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor.” Now an elder is a pastor. You say, “Well, you’re not very old.” Well, thank you. I appreciate that. Elder there is not talking about physically being old. It’s talking about spiritual maturity. Paul said to Timothy, “Let no man despise thy youth.” That’s what I mean. You could be older. You say, “I’ve been saved.” People say, “I’ve been saved twenty years”, yet, you’ve never read your Bible once cover to cover. Then you have someone who’s only be saved three or four years, but they’ve read their Bibles three or four times. Guess what? They’re more spiritually mature than the other person because it has to do with spiritual maturity. 

Notice what he says, “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor especially they who labor in the word and doctrine.” See I work all week long writing sermons, preparing sermons to help you grow. What I want to encourage you, especially those of you that are brand new babies, make a priority of church. You’ve got to decide church is my priority. The Bible says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” The Bible says that, “In all things he should have the preeminence.” Here’s why some of you miss church all the time because you haven’t decided, “I will be in church on Sunday.” Here’s the thing if I woke up every Sunday morning and asked myself the question, “Am I going to go to church today?”, I’d probably make it half the time. People who are consistent to churches all the time they’ve already decided I will be in church. 

I’m so thankful that I was raised in the home with my mom and my dad where they just taught us to be faithful to church. In our home we missed church for nothing. I mean we would miss school before we missed church. We never missed school either. I never woke up and thought to myself, “I wonder if we’re going to go to church today?” A Wednesday never came by where I thought, “I wonder if my mom is going to go to church? I wonder if my dad’s going to go to church.” We just knew. I just knew if I’m not going to church, it’s because I’m dying. It’s because something really bad happened. Here’s the thing maybe you’re here and you say, “Well, I have developed a consistency of going to church on Sunday mornings”, add another service, add a Sunday night, add a Wednesday night. 

Even the liberal churches, even the liberal just shallow milk toast, rock concert, don’t give you any Bible churches will get their church people to come on Sunday morning and then go to some small group sometime during the week. I mean can you at least do what a faithful liberal does? Show up on a Wednesday night as faithful liberal does and show up on a Sunday night. Add a service. You know that there people in our church, there are lots of people in our church, that come to all three services? It’s good to be under the preaching of the word of God. The Bible says, “Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.” You ought to be growing. You ought to be learning. You ought to be maturing. How do you do that? By reading your Bible, developing a habit, teaching your children to read their Bible, teaching your children to pray, have devotional time at home. If you’re married, have devotional times together maybe, and that’ll be a good way to get started. 

First thing my wife and I do every morning we get up she makes coffee, and we just spend time in the word. Develop a habit of reading the Bible, getting in the word, and then develop a habit of being faithful to church. You see people think church is not that important. You know that Jesus died for the church? That’s what the Bible says. You know that Jesus is the head of the church? That’s what the Bible says. I mean the church is important to Jesus Christ. It ought to be important to you if you want to be a follower of Christ. Go back to Acts chapter two let me give you next step. Verse forty-two, “They continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine”, here’s the next step, “and fellowship.” It describes for us the best type of fellowship, “in breaking of bread and in prayers.” 

Good fellowship is just breaking bread together. Good fellowship is just having someone over for a meal. Good fellowship is just inviting someone out to eat after the service. We don’t usually associate this with discipleship, but discipleship and helping people grow is often just extending that right-hand of fellowship, is befriending people. Now, go to book of Proverbs in the Old Testament. If you open up your Bible, just right in the center you’ll more than likely will fall in the book of Psalms, and go to Proverbs chapter number eighteen. I referenced this verse last week, but I want you to see it. Proverbs chapter number eighteen and look at verse number twenty-four. Proverbs chapter eighteen and verse twenty-four says, “A man that hath friends must show himself friendly and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” One of the best things that you can do for your own growth and for the growth of others to help others … 

You say, “I want to help in the discipleship process.” Sometimes people say to me, “I want to help people grow, but I can’t preach a sermon.” “I don’t know how to preach.” “I can’t teach a discipleship class.” “I can’t do anything.”  Here’s how you can take place in discipleship is reaching out to people, especially people that are new, new Christians, and befriend them and fellowship with them and have them over. You don’t have to know a lot of Bible to have someone over for dinner. You don’t have to know a lot of Bible to invite someone out to lunch. You don’t have to know a lot of Bible to just be friendly and show up early and smile and shake people’s hands and remember their names and have time of fellowship with them. Here’s the thing what this usually means is we have to step out of our comfort zone. That’s why the Bible says, “A man that hath friends must show himself friendly.” 

For our first time guests it’s really hard for someone to come to a church where they don’t know anybody. They’ve already taken a huge step in just coming to a place where they don’t know anything. We shouldn’t force them to take another huge step in walking up to you to ask you your name when you’ve been here for years. You understand that? We need to get away from this click mentality where I’ve got my little friends. It’s my little group. It’s us four no more. This is the only people I’m interested in. We ought to be mindful of the fact that there are new believers, there are people. If you see somebody sitting off by themselves, walk up to them and talk to them and shake their hand and say, “Hey, my name is so and so. What’s your name? I’m so glad you’re here.” Invite them over for lunch. People that start coming to our church have them over for dinner befriend them because one of the biggest aspects of discipleship is fellowship. 

Often my wife and I will look at a couple or look at a family and we’ll think to ourselves, “They’re not going to last here very long.” It’s not because they’re bad people. It’s not because they’re not saved. It’s not because of any of that. It’s because there are sometimes we’ve noticed with people … My wife and I we try to talk to everybody. We try to befriend everybody. There’s only so much that we can do. After six weeks of somebody coming and the only people that have ever talked to them is the pastor and the pastor’s wife, it just becomes this thing where it’s like they’re probably not going to last because no one’s reaching out to them. They’re not getting to know anybody. A huge aspect of discipleship is developing relationships. 

By the way maybe you’re here and you say, “Man, I’ve been coming to this church and I don’t feel like I know a lot of people.” Yes, but maybe it’s because you show up once every six weeks. The people who show up the most consistently, the people who come to the Sunday night service, to the Wednesday night service guess what? They develop relationships even faster or stronger because the more we’re around when we have these activities, when we have this … See some of you are like, “I’m not going to go to that lady’s activity.” Some of the best thing that you ladies can do is just say, “I’m going to go to that lady’s activity”, because you’re going to go and you’re going to meet someone. You’re going to sit next to someone. You’re going to develop a friendship. You’re going to have a good time. It’s going to help you grow. 

The best thing that a church can do is develop friendships because here’s what happens. I am going to offend you I mean without a doubt. The book of James says it. It talks about, “Be not many masters.” It says you don’t want to be the leader. Why? Because we offend much, we offend a lot. I’m going to say something that you’re not going to like. I’m going to step on your toes at some point unless you just got it all put together, unless you’re just the Lord Jesus Christ. At some point if you preach the Bible I’m going to say something that you don’t like. Some people can’t handle that. They’re just going to say, “I can’t believe you said that.” They’re going to leave. Here’s the thing if that person has four or five friends here, they’re more likely to stay. 

Some people, in the early times of our church, there was people that came to our church they couldn’t stand me. They didn’t like me. They hated me, but they loved my wife. They were just like, “Why are you with him”, you know like, “Good night. You can do better.” People have literally told her that in my presence. No. There was that connection there. There was that fellowship there. I’m all right with that. I don’t care. I don’t like half of you. Anyway Acts chapter two … Go back to Acts chapter two. You ought to work. Here’s the great thing about fellowship is that anyone can take part in that. “I’m not a pastor.” You can fellowship with people. You can be friendly. Now listen to me don’t have people over to sell them Amway. Don’t have people over to sell them Mary Kay. Don’t have people over with an agenda. If you sell those thing, I’m not against you. Don’t have people over with an agenda. Have people over just with the idea that I want to be your friend. I want to fellowship with you. We are brothers and we are sisters in Christ. You are my spiritual brother. I want to develop a relationship with you. 

Are you there in Acts chapter number two?  Look at verse forty-one, “Then they that [inaudible 00:45:17] received his word were baptized”, step number one baptized. After salvation you ought to get baptized. “The same day they were added unto them about three-thousand souls. They continued steadfastly in the apostle’s doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers.” With your Bible time you ought to develop a time of prayer. I just want to focus in on one thing. If you look at verse forty-two, I want you to notice this word. It says, “They continued steadfastly.” The word “continue” or “continued” means to maintain without interruption, to endure for a long time. See the goal in Christianity is not for you to show up to church for a few weeks or a few months or a few years. It’s to continue. It’s to be able to end your life like the Apostle Paul and say, “You know I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course.” Good night I’m going to misquote it where he gets to the end there and he says I ran the race. He said, “I finished. I came to the finish line.” 

The goal is to continue, but not just continue or maintain for a long time but to continue steadfastly. The word “steadfastly” means firmly fixed not subject to change. Go down to verse forty-six notice what he says in verse forty-six, “They continued.” You see that word there? “They continued daily with one accord.” I don’t know if you kept your place in First Timothy. Go back to First Timothy. I want you to notice First Timothy chapter four. Look at verse number sixteen. We were in First Timothy earlier. I want you to notice First Timothy chapter four. Look at verse number sixteen notice what it says. First Timothy chapter four and verse sixteen. It says, “Take he’d unto thyself and unto the doctrine.” That’s what we’ve been talking about, right? Then notice what he says, “Continue in them for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee.” 

You’re there in First Timothy. Go to First Timothy chapter number three. First Timothy chapter number three look at verse number fourteen. I’m sorry not First Timothy Second Timothy chapter number three and look at verse number fourteen. It says, “Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and has been assured of knowing of whom thou has learned them.” You say, “Well, why do we want to get people saved and get them baptized and then get them to grow and get them to come to church and teach them and instruct them? What’s the point of that? Why there you having a discipleship class?” By the way if you’re a brand new Christian, I’d encourage you sign up for that discipleship class. It’s going to just take you from step number one, just teach you the basics of what you’re supposed to know as a Christian. You’ve gone through that discipleship class, you go through that one, go through the next one. We’ll go a little deeper into some other types of doctrines and things. 

We have these resources. We do these things for a reason because we want you to grow. I would encourage you come to that class. Just sign up for it. Just say, “I’ll go for eight weeks on a Sunday night. I’ll sit through. I’ll be taught the basic fundamental truth of the word of God.” You say, “Why do we do that?” We do that because we want you to continue. We want you to continue. We want you to continue steadfastly. We want you to be serving God ten years from now, serving God twenty years from now. Go back to Acts chapter two. Let me give you one last verse and we’ll finish up, or a couple of verses. Look at verse forty-six, “They continued daily with one accord in the temple and in breaking of bread from house to house and did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart.” 

Here’s what happens to a church that focuses on getting people saved, but doesn’t just focus on getting people saved also focuses on getting people baptized; but doesn’t just focus on getting people baptized also focuses on teaching people the doctrine; but doesn’t just focus on teaching people the doctrine also focuses on fellowship and developing relationships. By the way that’s why we have so many activities around here. That’s why we have cake and ice cream at the end of the service on Sunday nights. That’s why we have men’s preaching nights and lady’s activities. All the things that we do around here we do them why? Because we want to develop this idea of fellowship. What happens to a church that does that? Look at verse forty-seven. “Praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added the church daily such as should be saved.” 

God is an investor. If we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing, if we’re reaching people, we’re teaching people, we’re fellowshipping with people, God will bring us, God will direct the souls that need to be saved here. We just have to make sure that we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing. Go to the book of Philippians. I lied to you. I told you I was going to show you one verse. I’m on the third one now. Go to Philippians. This is the last one I promise Philippians chapter number one. Philippians chapter number one look at verse number twenty-seven. I love Philippians 1:27. This ought to be just the theme of our church. Philippians 1:27 if you’re there in First or Second Timothy if you go backwards, you’re going to go past the book of Colossians and into the book of Philippians. 

Philippians chapter one look at verse number twenty-seven. The Bible says this, “Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ that whether I come and see you or else be absent I may hear of your affairs that ye”, notice these words, “stand fast”, that’s the same as steadfast, “in one spirit with one mind”, I love these words, “striving together for the faith of the gospel.” That’s what a church is supposed to be like, standing together, standing fast in one faith, in one spirit striving together. For what? For the faith of the gospel. How do we do that?  Well, we get people saved, get people baptized, teach them what the Bible says, to observe all things, include them in fellowship, and we strive together. The book of Acts calls it in one accord. 

Maybe you’re here this morning you say, “I don’t know if I died today, I’d go to Heaven”, please don’t leave here without talking to me or someone and let us show you from the Bible how you can know for sure. Maybe you’re here this morning you say, “I haven’t been scripturally baptized. I know that I haven’t been baptized.” Talk to me. I’ll be standing back there after the service talk to me. We’d love to talk to you about baptism and getting you baptized. 

Maybe you say, “Well, I need to begin to grow in the apostle’s doctrine. I need to begin to learn a little more.” Maybe what that means for you is that you begin a Bible reading schedule. Maybe what that means for you is that you sign up for the discipleship class. Maybe what that means for you is that you say, “I’m going to show up to a Sunday night service. I’m going to show up to Wednesday night service.” Take that step of growing and continuing in the apostle’s doctrine. Maybe you just need to begin to connect with someone through fellowship. Maybe what that means for you is you sign up for that lady’s activity coming up. You come to that next men’s preaching night. You just go and meet someone or you just invite someone over and you just begin to develop those friendships because when we do that well, what we’ll be doing is we’ll be striving together for the faith of the gospel.