Brethren, let's look at that
passage that he just read. I think I'm going to preach my
message another time. Look here in Acts 8. The angel of the Lord is speaking
to Philip. Who's the angel of the Lord? It's the angel of the covenant. The angel, the messenger of the
covenant. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
head of the church. And he sends his preacher where
he'll have him to go. Because only Christ knows where
his lost sheep are. You know, how many times he was
walking through this earth and he said, I must need to go through
Samaria. Why did he have to go there?
He had an elect child there. He knew they were there. He came
through that crowd that day and everybody's thronged about Him
and He looks up. He walks right to a sycamore
tree and looked up. There was Ikeas. He went there
on purpose. He knows where His sheep are
wherever they are in this world. And He sent Philip on purpose
to preach Him. He said in Romans chapter 10, The Lord said this in Romans
chapter 10. He said, this is what the law
of faith says. It says, whosoever, verse 13,
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
You see, this whosoever, the reason that says it like that,
He said, verse 12, there's no difference between Jew and a
Greek. Paul has spent the first three chapters saying we've all
sinned and come short of the glory of God. So if we're going
to be saved, we're going to be saved the same way as everybody else
is going to be saved. How is that? Through faith in
Christ, trust in Christ to do the saving. And the same Lord
over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then
shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how
shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And
how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? That's what we witness in Acts
8. We see the Lord sending His preacher. Sending His preacher. I was so
afraid when the Lord first started using me to preach the gospel.
I was so afraid. of running on my own, of being
in a pulpit that He didn't put me in. That scared me to death.
I had the opportunity to pastor a church and the way it was going
to come about, I didn't want to be a pastor the way that was
going to come about. And the Lord used one of His preachers
to say to me, why don't you wait on the Lord? And the Lord made
me wait. He sends His preacher, and you
want to wait on Him to send His preacher. He's told him, He said,
Arise, go toward the south and to the way that goeth down from
Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. I want you to picture
this. This is not, from everything I've read about this, this is
not a main highway. This is a place off the beaten
path. The new highway was a straight
way. This was the old way. that went
down from Jerusalem to Gaza. And this eunuch, more than likely,
he's in his chariot, he has his entourage, and it's not just
him, it's a whole crowd of folks, and he tells them, pull off and
go this way, go this long way, because he was reading Isaiah,
he was reading the scripture, and he wanted to keep reading.
And he's out there on this back way, and that's where the Lord
sent Philip right to that place. The Lord knows where his sheep
are. He sent him there. And when he sends his preacher,
his preacher is going to go. He said, and he arose and went. Philip arose and went. It's not
a matter of convenience. It's not a matter of, well, you
know, I want to be with my family, so it's going to have to be somewhere
around my family, or I want to be in this region, and so it's
going to have to be in this region, and I want to wait until after
I made a good money at my secular job, then I'll do it, you know,
later in life. No, when the Lord calls you and
sends you, you go. You go, it's just like when he
calls you to faith in Christ, you don't mull it over. You don't
say, well let me think about it. No, when he calls, effectually
calls, you come into Christ. And it's the same when he sends
his preacher. And so Philip goes, and you notice there, the Lord
didn't tell him where he was going or who he was going to.
The Lord just sent him and told him where to go. And behold,
as he went, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under
Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her
treasure, and he come to Jerusalem for her worship. I can just picture,
you know, the Lord says go. He doesn't tell him who he's
being sent to. He just tells him to go. And that's with preaching
of the Word, the Lord doesn't tell you who you're sent to.
The Lord doesn't tell you who He's calling. He just says go.
He just says go. and you go preach, and you might
preach some place, and you might preach a while some place, and
you leave and you think, I don't know if anything came of that.
But the Lord's promised, He promised through Isaiah, He said, just
like the snow comes down and the rain comes down and it accomplished
my purpose, He said, so shall my word be. It shall not return
unto me void. And you look at Christ, the Word,
did He come down and accomplish God's purpose? He came down and
fulfilled everything written in the written Word of God, in
the Law and the Prophets. And so it is with the preaching
of the Gospel. When He sends the Word forth, it doesn't return
to Him void. It's accomplishing two things
every time it goes forth. Paul said we're a saver unto
God. We're a saver of life unto life
in some, and a saver of death unto death in others. But it's
not returning void. It's going to accomplish His
purpose. And you just preach, and you don't know who you sent
to, and you just preach. And so that's what Philip, he
just goes where the Lord sends him, and there's this Ethiopian
eunuch. He doesn't know if that's the man or not. You know what
this reminds me of? Look at it. He sees this man, and you remember
how whenever Abraham told his servant Eleazar, he said, you
go to my country, to my kindred, and you find me a bride for Isaac. That's what God the Father is
doing. He's sending forth his preachers
to call out a bride for Christ his son. And he loaded up Eleazar
with everything he needed to go preach. And that's where God's
promised his preacher, I'll make full provision for you. And that's
what he promised each of us. We're all serving the Lord in
the preaching of the gospel. We're in search of God's elect
Ethiopians. and his elect Americans, and
his elect New Jerseyans, and Pennsylvanians, and that's what
we're seeking. We're looking for his elect.
And he said, I'll make full provision for you. Abraham made full provision
for his servant. And he said, you go down there,
and he said, and you declare all the glory of my son. And he said, and if she won't
come with you, you're free. You just go declare my son. And
so when Eliezer went, he comes to a well. And he prays and he
asks the Lord, the Spirit of the Lord, to make it known to
him who it is that he's sent to. Make it known to him which
one of the women that he would encounter would be the one that's
supposed to be the bride for Isaac. And he goes to that well
and he says, Lord, whichever one comes out here and asks me
if I want a drink. He said, That'll be the one. You make it known to me." And
sure enough, here comes Rebecca. And he don't know her. He don't
know who she is. She comes and she draws some
water out of the well and she said, would you like a drink?
And she went over and gave water to his camels. And he knew that's
the one. And he went home to her house
and preached the gospel to her. That's what happened right here
with Philip. He goes there, he sees this Ethiopian,
he's retiring, he's sitting in his chair, he's reading Isaiah
the prophet. Then the Spirit said to Philip, go near, join
thyself to this chariot. The Spirit made it known. How's
the Spirit going to make it known? Philip ran to him and he heard
him read the prophet Isaiah and he said, understandeth thou what
thou readest? And listen to this man's answer. How can I accept
some man she got me? And he desired, Philip, that
he'd come up and sit with him. You know who did that? The Lord
did that. There's something that old preachers used to call, prevenient
grace. That's grace that goes before
grace. That's God giving you grace so that you can receive
His grace. And the Lord has to give a man
a teachable heart. He has to humble that man. And
that's what the Lord had done with him. He used vain religion
to humble this Ethiopian. He went up to Jerusalem and went
through all those ceremonies and all that vain show of religion.
Christ already fulfilled everything that that law pictured. And he
went up there trying to get a blessing from God, and he didn't get one.
And he's not satisfied and he comes back and he's reading the
Scriptures. Who gave him that heart to read these Scriptures?
The Lord gives that heart. Who was it that made this man,
when Philip, a stranger, comes up to him and says, do you understand
what you're reading? Who gave this man the heart to
say, how can I except some man guide me? Would you come teach
me? Oh, you talk about a rare thing
to find somebody that don't know it all about God, that somebody
that'll say, I don't know, would you teach me? That's a gift of
God. God has to make a man have that
heart. And so Philip, the place of the scripture he read, Philip
went upset with him. And the place of the Scripture
which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter, and like a lamb done before a shearer, so he opened
not his mouth. In his humiliation, his judgment
was taken away, and who should declare his generation? For his
life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip,
said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this, of himself
or some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth
and began to say in Scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.
You know this is Isaiah 53. This man is reading Isaiah 53
and he doesn't know. He doesn't know. He says, Isaiah
said this about himself? Was Isaiah led as a sheep to
the slaughter? Was Isaiah like a lamb done before
his shearer opening out his mouth? Is he talking about himself or
is he talking about some other man? Wouldn't you just love for
somebody to be reading Isaiah 53 and ask you that question? And want to actually know the
answer, want you to teach them the gospel. Wouldn't that just
thrill your soul? And Philip said, let me tell
you who he's talking about. He's talking about another man,
the God man. And I just want to think about
what that message might have been like. Let's just take what
he was reading right here, what's given to us right here. He was
led as a sheep to the slaughter. I hear Philip telling him, you
see, the Lord Jesus Christ came willingly. He came down from
glory, the Son of God, and took flesh willingly. And then when
it came time, when the hour had come, he willingly went to the
Garden of Gethsemane. And he willingly took the cup
that God gave him. And he willingly went and gave
himself to all this host of enemies, knowing what they were going
to do. Knowing what they were going to do to him. He willingly
did that. He wasn't driven. He didn't have to be forced.
He permitted them to lead Him. He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter. He knew He was going to the slaughter.
Our Lord Jesus knew He was going to be slaughtered that day. He
was slaughtered. He was slaughtered. Isaiah 52
says, His visage was marred more than any other man. And that's not even telling us
what was going on within his heart between him and God. That's
just what men did to him. Marred his appearance more than
any man had ever been marred. We just can't imagine what that
looked like. But that outward is just a picture
of an example of what he was bearing, bearing the wrath of
God for his people. He cried out from the cross in
Psalm 22, and he said, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? And he vindicated God. He said,
For thou art holy. That's why he went. And it says
here, And he opened not like a lamb done before his shearer,
so he opened not his mouth. I've seen videos, and I've read
about it, that you could take a lamb and shear a lamb, and
they just sat there quiet. And while you just shear the
wool off of them, they just sit there quiet. That's what our
Lord did. He wouldn't open His mouth. They were accusing Him. They were saying unjust things
about Him. Pilate made his big bold claim
and commanded Him to speak. And our Lord remained silent.
He didn't speak so as to justify himself. He didn't speak so as
to condemn those he was dying for or to condemn God. He was
silent because he promised the Father he would do this work
for his people. And that's what he did. He was
silent. He suffered it in silence. And
it says, in his humiliation, his judgment was taken away.
His humiliation. And when you think of his humiliation,
Don't think of as poor, pitiful Jesus. His humiliation is the
greatest glory that ever was on this earth. In His humiliation,
He came down and took flesh and He went down, down, down, down
to the cross. In His humiliation, He submitted
Himself to the judges and rulers of this world to do with Him
what they would. Now nothing that was being done
was out of His will and purpose. He's God Almighty and they were
doing what He had determined before to be done. What He purposed
from eternity to be done. That's what they were doing.
But our Lord Jesus gave Himself to them knowing what they would
do. He said in Isaiah 50, I gave my back to the spiders. I gave
my face to them that plucked off the hair of my beard. I gave
myself to shame and spitting, he said. Why did he do that? That humiliation, that meekness,
is the greatest example and the greatest act of faith there ever
has been, ever. He was trusting the Father. He
said, I know thou art near that justifieth me. Who is he that
hath condemned me? He knew when He had accomplished
the purpose of God and He had totally declared God just and
justified all His people from our sins, that God was going
to justify Him, and raise Him, and declare Him to be the righteous,
holy, faithful Son of God, and He would justify Him through
the preaching of this Word in the hearts of His people, and
that He would enter into His glory, and every knee would bow
and every tongue confess that He's the Lord of glory. But while
he was waiting on that to happen, and his humiliation, and his
meekness, true meekness is submitting to the Lord, and waiting on the
Lord, and trusting God to make good on His word. That's true
meekness, and that's what he was doing. And his judgment was
taken away. Those men that judged him, there
was no judgment in what they did, what they said, and how
they judged. They wanted Christ out of their
presence because they hated Him. They didn't want to hear His
gospel anymore because when He preached the gospel, He declared
to them that they had no righteousness by their works. He declared to
them they had not made themselves holy. He declared to them that
no man can be justified by the law. He declared to them they
were of their father the devil, the lust of their flesh they
would do because that's what their father did. He was a murderer
from the beginning. He abode not in the truth. That's
what the devil did. He would not have Christ reign
over him. And that's why these men wanted
to kill him. And that's why they had a trumped up charge against
him that was a half truth. It wasn't a full truth. And it
was all for this one purpose, to get him away from their charade
of religion so they could go back to their little play game
of religion. That's all it was. And who shall
declare his generation? For he was taken from the earth. His life is taken from the earth.
He's cut off out of the land of the living. Why? Why was he
cut off out of the land of the living? Because he is the scapegoat.
He is the scapegoat. He's the one, the scripture says,
all we like sheep have gone astray. That's so of everybody he came
to die for. That's so of everybody, but that's
so of all that he came to die for. All we like sheep have gone
astray and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. And just like that scapegoat,
the ceremony, they put the sins of the people on that scapegoat
and a fit man led him away into the wilderness. Christ is a scapegoat
and He's the fit man. He was doing what He did by His
own will, fulfilling the will of God. And He's the one bearing
the sin of His people. And they took that scapegoat
into a land not inhabited and they released Him and the sins
were gone for at least another year. And the other lamb that
was the lamb for the Lord, they put the sins of the people on
that lamb, and that lamb was slain. And that's why the Lord's
life is taken from the earth. If you're a believer, if you
trust Christ, He's your only hope, then look at it like this.
That was you. That's how God sees. He was representing
all His people. And He was the only one God looked
to from eternity. He was the only one God looked
to on the cross. And He's the only one God's looking
to now. And our Lord Jesus Christ bore everything you and me deserve. He bore the fierce fury of God's
wrath. What's the worst thing you ever
suffered in this life? I guarantee you it ain't even
an inkling compared to what the fish feed of God's wrath is.
That's what Christ bore for His people, that eternal second death,
that living death, that worm that never dies. He bore that
and He made the worm die for His people. He made the wrath
cease for His people. The fire came down to consume
the sacrifice and the sacrifice consumed the fire with Christ
on the cross. He satisfied justice. He put
away sin forever. That's what He accomplished.
And when it asked this rhetorical question, who shall declare His
generation? I tell you who's going to declare
it. The same one that laid down his life. That's who's going
to declare it. He didn't stay in the grave. He came out of
the grave. God declared that he was satisfied with his son.
It pleased God to bruise him. He declared it by raising him
from the dead. That's what Romans 1 says. Listen
to this. Romans chapter 1. The Gospel of verse 3 is concerning
His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of
David according to the flesh, and declared the Son of God with
power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection
from the dead. When He came out of that grave,
God declared, this is My Son, this is My Christ, this is My
Messiah, this is the salvation of My people. He's the one I've
been telling you about from the very beginning of the first word
I ever gave. And our Lord Jesus, who will
declare His generation? Christ will. He gives the preeminent
glory as the prophet that teaches His people. And how does He do
it? He calls His preacher like He did Philip. And He says, go
down this road, turn left right down here, go a little further,
about 15 miles, and get down there and take the side road.
I got somebody you need to preach to. And He sent him right to
Philip. And Philip declared his generation.
He preached Him. What's going to be the result?
What's the Lord going to work through that? As they went on their way, verse
36, Acts 8, verse 36. As they went on their way, they
came to a certain water. Now how did that happen? How
did that happen? They're in a desert. And they're
riding along and Philip's preaching the gospel. And not until the Spirit of our
Lord gave that eunuch faith to believe Christ, not until then
did they come to this certain water. And they came to this
certain water. And obviously, Philip had spoken
of baptism. I'm sure when he's talking about
Christ bearing our sin and He died, and He went in that grave,
and He came out of that grave, and He arose, I'm sure he told
them, and that's pictured in water baptism. They didn't take His body down
from that tomb, I mean from that cross. They didn't take His body
down from that cross and take Him out somewhere and just sprinkle
a little dirt on Him. They took Him and buried Him.
Why was that a necessity? To picture what Christ accomplished
for His people. Reckon ye yourselves to be dead
indeed unto sin. When He died, you went in the
tomb, and your old man was buried. And before God, your old man's
out of sight. And I'm sure Philip told him,
and when he came out of that grave, that's what we're picturing
when we come out of that water. When we come up out of it, we're
picturing resurrection of life, newness of life, And they get
to this certain water. And the eunuch said, see, here's
water. What does it hinder me to be
baptized? Philip just met this man. Philip
just met this man, preached the gospel to this man, and God gave
this man faith to believe. And he wanted to confess Christ
in baptism. What do you reckon Philip's going to tell him? Well,
if he had been trained up in the seminaries in this country,
I tell you what Philip would have told him. You are going
to have to do something to show me that you repent. You are going to have to do something
to show me that you believe. We're going to give you a program you've
got to go through. And you're going to have to sign
a pledge card. And you're going to have to commit to giving so
much money and being in church so much. And if you do this for
six months, eight months, a year, then we'll decide whether or
not you're a fit candidate for baptism. That's a bunch of garbage. I won't use strong language,
but I'll keep it toned down. That's just a bunch of garbage. Here's what Philip said. Philip
said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. If you believe with all your
heart, you may. Listen to this now. Go back over
to Romans 10 just a minute. He said there, Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. And
he said, the law says you've got to do this to live. But here's
what the law of faith says. Verse 8, it says, Deny thee,
even in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is the word of faith
which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised
him from the dead, Thou shalt be saved. For with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness. With the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. It's not with the hands that
he works unto righteousness. It's not with the feet he runs
to righteousness. It's man believeth unto righteousness. It's not of him that willeth
nor of him that runneth. It's of God that shows mercy.
Man believes unto righteousness. And that faith is given by the
grace of God. And that's what Philip said to him. He said,
In Acts 8, He said, If you believe with all your heart, you may. Is there anybody here that believes
Christ with all their heart? I pray I do. I think you do.
We believe He is the only righteousness I have. I've never ever brought
forth a righteousness. Never. He's my only righteousness, my
only acceptance with God. And that's what that eunuch answered.
He said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Everything we believe about our
gospel is declared in that statement. I believe Jesus Christ is the
Son of God. And Philip commanded the chariot
to stand still. Stand still. And they went down
both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized
him. And when they would come up out
of that water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip.
He went on. The Spirit of the Lord said,
I've got somebody else for you to preach to, Philip. Come on,
Philip. He took off down the road. And
the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing.
He went on his way rejoicing. Brethren, that's how God saves
sinners. That's all of the Lord. God the Father purposed it from
eternity. Who he would save. God purposed he was going to
save that Ethiopian. He predestinated the time on
that old Gaza road when he'd be called to faith in Christ.
And he chose the vessel that preached to him, and he sent
Philip, and Philip preached the gospel to him. Christ is the
message. He just declared how Christ accomplished
it all for his people. Suffered the cross silently in
submission to God. And now he's risen. I know he
preached Christ is risen because that eunuch knew something about
baptism. That's what's declared in baptism. He's risen. And that eunuch said, I believe
Him with all my heart. He's the Son of God. He confessed
Him and went on his way rejoicing. Remember I told you this, Brother
Scott Richardson, he said he had a tough life. He had a really
tough life. But he said, I hadn't heard any
bad news since I heard the good news. And I'm telling you, I
don't care how bad it is. For God's child, you have the
rejoicing of knowing I am His and He is mine. I am His and
He is mine. I pray, Lord, give you faith
to believe Him. If you believe with all your heart, you can
confess Him and believe His baptism. Anybody here? I pray, Lord, do
that. Father, we thank You for this
Word. We thank You for Your mercy, for Your grace. Thank You for
Christ Jesus. Thank You for the simplicity
and the singleness of the Gospel, Lord. You haven't given us a
great thing to do. And You even give us the faith
to do what You command. to simply believe on your Son
and trust Him. Thank you for this. Oh Lord,
for those you've called, we thank you for them. Pray you keep them,
keep them rejoicing in Christ alone. For your preachers that
you send everywhere, we pray Lord, you bless their work just
like you did Philip. Lord, we pray that You keep us
looking nowhere but Christ. And as we try to remember Him
now at His table, we pray, Lord, You make this a blessing to our
heart, and let us truly remember Him. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.