It was going to be in the Psalms,
but I don't like to preach on current events or anything like
that, but we have a baptism this morning, so I don't know. If you will, turn to Matthew
28. I don't, on my notes I always
have a title, text, date, and location. That way when I can
go back and see what I preached where and when and all those
things. And so the title is Command of Baptism. The Command of Baptism. And my text is the New Testament.
I didn't know what to put there. We'll turn a lot. It's a topical
message. I think I got today's date right.
Matthew 28. We quote things, as I've been
bringing up lately, the context, the context. The Lord said, lo,
I am with you always. That doesn't mean the Lord saves
somebody and they move off to a tropical island somewhere and
they don't serve him and they don't do anything ever again.
We gotta look at the context of what he says. There's some
concerns we have. Matthew 28, verse 18, here's
the church's marching orders. Jesus came and spake unto them,
saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. He's reminding them he's God. God's speaking to them. Verse
19 says, Go ye therefore and teach all nations. Now, if you've
got a marginal reference Bible, that word teach means make disciples. Go ye therefore and make disciples
in all nations, baptizing them. In the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all
things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, how we gonna do
that, Lord? Who's sufficient for these things
to serve you? And to go into all the world and
to preach. That's how disciples are made.
God, the Holy Spirit makes them through the preaching of truth.
How am I going to do that? How am I going to teach him anything?
What's he command? What's the law? What's Lord's
law? Every word come out of his mouth. Every word. How am I going? That's a lot. Where do I start? How do I go
through these things? And he said, don't worry about
that. I'm with you always. How long? Until the end of the world.
We don't go and teach people things and then baptize them,
and then they become disciples. They become believers. No. That's
not what he said. That's not what we do. We preach
the word. We preach the gospel. And I don't
know who the Holy Ghost has plowed their ground. I just broadcast
seed. Throw it out there. Cast it in
the net. And as he sees fit, he'll cover
it up, make it grow. Holy Ghost makes disciples, they
believe. Then when they believe, we baptize
them. We're gonna see why, what that
means. And then we teach them. Like the Lord saved somebody
through the preaching of the truth, the preaching of the gospel.
They profess him in believer's baptism. These words are specific.
Believer's baptism. And then, teach him. Teach him
what the Lord said. As he teaches us, teach them.
The Holy Ghost makes disciples through the preaching of the
gospel. He sends a man after his own heart and knits his heart
to the sheep that he oversees. A pastor is somebody you hire
or vote on. That's a gift of God to knit
the hearts together. to knit them together. But what
about this baptizing? We know what teaching is. We
go to school for that. We know what preaching is. Thousands
and thousands of good messages we can listen to and people around.
What's this baptism? Baptism is a public declaration
of something that's already taken place. You get that? It's a declaration publicly of
something that's already taken place. It's an outward expression
of an inward work. Mankind does this. Mankind understands
this. We get this. People mock it,
but we get it. We understand it. There's a public
declaration of love when you have a wedding. You don't get
married and then you fall in love. Hold on. You're in love,
and then you have a public ceremony, a public declaration of a love
that's already there. We understand that. Property.
You buy a piece of property. There is a public record, isn't
it? Do you get a deed for a property
and then, well, you can pay for it in 10 years if you feel like
it? No. It's a transaction that's already
took place. Now give me my record of deed, my public deed. Record
of deed. We understand that. Some places,
I don't know here, they used to have it in newspapers. The
transaction, when real estate's bought or sold, it's in the newspaper.
There's a public declaration of it. degree-granting institutions,
colleges. Kimberly's working through college
right now. When she graduates, she's going to get a degree from
that institution. They will confess her. They'll
say she has met all the requirements previously. She now has a master's
in this field of study. It's something that you'll declare
to them. You'll be there and say, I did it. I walk a stage.
We get that, don't we? You don't walk a stage and graduate
and you ain't been to school yet. It happens after. How is this done? Baptism is
this public confession. How is it done? What's the mode?
of baptism. I gave you that book of Don's.
It's chapter 10's baptism. I'm not following it too close
this time. I've preached from this twice already, but I loved what
he said. He goes, immersion is not a mode
of baptism. Immersion is baptism. Immersion
is baptism. That ought not to have to be
said in this day, but it needs said in 1600 when these scriptures
were written by people that believed in sprinkling. Church of England
translated this to the King James Bible, and I'll give them credit.
They wrote down what it said. They didn't believe it, but they
wrote it down. They were accurate, weren't they? I'll give them
that. Baptismo. It's a transliteration, not a
translation. They didn't know how to say it.
It means immersion. You're submerged. Turn over Romans
6. Romans 6 verse 3, know ye not that so many of us
as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death,
into his death. Therefore we are buried with
him by baptism unto death. That like as Christ was raised
up from the dead by the glory of the father, even so we also
should walk in newness of life. We're buried. With him, by baptism
into death. That's what this is showing.
When we bury someone, I hope this is plain and simple and
we understand what words mean. We have to define our terms.
What's buried mean? Well, if somebody dies, do you just put
a little bit of dirt on their head? That's ridiculous, isn't
it? When they die, do you just sprinkle
a little bit of dirt on their feet? No, you bury them. Why? Because they stink. They're
gonna start stinking. Because we're sin, isn't it?
That's why we had to get in that grave. Sin's gotta be dealt with. And that's what I am. And I can't
bear it, somebody else had to. I had to be saved by the life
of another, didn't I? We bury him. Totally bury him. In that
Lord's table. We show his death until he come. Don't we? That's the first ordinance. What's the other ordinance? Baptism.
In baptism, we show our death in him. We show our death in
him. Why be baptized? Why would you
do such a thing? People's gonna make fun of us,
isn't it? The Greeks will think this is foolish. We're grown-ups
and we're getting in the water and what's all this about? Why
do it? Why? Why would you be baptized? Turn
over Matthew chapter 3. At 30 years of age, not a baby,
not a two-year-old, at 30 years of age, God Almighty was baptized. Our Lord was baptized. Look here, Matthew 3, verse 13.
Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized
of him. But John forbade him, saying,
and here he didn't rebuke him, did he? And he declared his need. John declared his need. I have
need to be baptized of thee. And that comes to me. I'm a worm. I ain't nothing but a voice.
You're the lamb. You're God. I need you to baptize
me. And Jesus answering said unto
him, Suffer it to be so now. Shut up and do it. Shut up and
do it. For thus it becometh us. to fulfill all righteousness.
He said, John, this is necessary to fulfill righteousness in the
unity of me and my people, you being one of them. Then he suffered
him. He bowed to it. He bowed to that Savior's substitution,
the life that he lived for us on our behalf, and the death
he was going to die. That baptism of the Holy Spirit
he had to endure. Can you be baptized with the
baptism I'm gonna be baptized of? And ignorantly, they said,
yeah, we can. He said, yeah, you're going to. You're gonna
be one with me. And Jesus, when he was baptized,
verse 16, went straightway out of the water, and lo, the heavens
were opened into him. And they saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove and lighting upon him, and lo, a voice from
heaven saying, this is my beloved Son, whom I'm well pleased. Why do we do it? He did. So many things are ruined by
religion, and that stuff back in the 90s. What would Jesus
do? I think it's kind of flippant. What would the Lord do? How are
we to love one another, care for one another, whatever, you
know? We see his love for us, right? Well, what about baptism? Well, he was baptized. If it's
good enough for him, you reckon it's good enough for us? He did
it. What's the second thing? He commanded it. He commanded
it. In Mark 16, it says, he said, go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature. I don't mean birds and cats.
That means bond or free, no matter what country they're from. And
most of them is going to be beasts. You get that? Wild beasts, young
coats, wild asses, isn't it? Had to come riding in. They cried,
Hosanna. He said, go in all the world, preach gospel to every
creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but
he that believeth not shall be damned. If you believe, you'll
be baptized. If God gives faith, to believe
is to have faith. And if he gives it, where'd it
come from? It's a gift. He gives faith. What's the object
of faith? Well, it's how good my, no, object
of faith's a person. It's the one who gave it to you.
And what does that faith do? It believes him, and that means
there's obedience with it. Faith and obedience go hand in
hand. If the Lord God Almighty came right now to us and said,
go out in that parking lot. I want you to stand, stand out
there in one of the parking spaces. I stood in parking spaces before,
I don't need to now. You'd do it, wouldn't you? Why? You love him. He said so. He
said, go into all the world, preach the gospel. He that believeth
and baptize shall be saved. Baptize him. Our Lord gave us
the example to follow. He was baptized. That ought to
be enough. He plainly and clearly commands his disciples to go
to those that believe and baptize them. That ought to be enough.
But you know what? We have a lot of examples. in the scriptures
of the apostles baptized and believers. They baptized believers. That's who they baptized. We're
going to turn a little bit, but let's look there at Acts 2. Acts chapter 2. Peter preached in Acts 2, 41.
Then they, Acts 2 41, then they that gladly received
his word were baptized. Do you gladly receive bad news?
You might take the bad news first, but you'll flinch, won't you?
I don't want your bad news. Do you? I don't want your bad
news. They gladly received, what? The good news. They gladly received
the gospel. They believed. They received
his word and were baptized. And the same day, there were
added unto them about 3,000 souls. And I've never considered this
till this morning. I thought, no, that was a miracle, wasn't
it? God saved 3,000 people. There's another miracle there
for Peter. He had to baptize 3,000 people, hadn't he? Arm
cramp, I put. 3,000 curls. Turn over to chapter eight. Acts
chapter 8, verse 4. After Saul had held those coats,
they stoned Stephen, and Stephen prayed for him. Said, Lord, forgive
him. And you know what he did? Saved
Paul, didn't he? As our Lord hung on that cross,
he said, Father, forgive him. Which one? All of them? No. Whichever
one he was praying for? I don't know. That's who Peter
was preaching to. Men of Israel, hear me. And Lord
pierced their hearts, didn't he? But anyway, Philip had got
scattered, and he went down to Samaria in Acts 8, verse 4. Be ready in season, out of season. That means on the good days and
bad days. And no matter what state I'm
in, or country I'm in, if the Lord be with me, that's what I'm gonna
preach. Ain't got nothing else to preach. Preach the word, preach
the gospel, and preach Christ. Verse 5, and when Philip went
down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them, No
other message, just him. Verse 12, Acts 8, 12. But when
they believed, Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom
of God and the name of Jesus Christ. When they believed, they
were baptized. Both men and women. You think
that's idle words? You know, there's a denomination
that believes in a variation of that family covenant stuff.
I don't even know what they call it. I don't have time to Google
it. But it's like a husband covenant. If a woman's married to a believing
man, that means she's saved. What's God's word say? They were
baptized both men and women. Men and women, isn't it? The
truth was preached, Christ was preached, and when they believed,
they were baptized. Look down at chapter 8, verse
35. Philip opened his mouth. Philip had it comfy there in
Samaria. And you think, boy, it saved a lot of people here
and everything's going good. We ought to build the church
and remodel some and get the rolls built up some and start
handing out pamphlets and tracts. No, he was comfy. The Lord put
thorns in his comfy little nest and sent him packing. He gave
him marching orders. He said, you go down to the wilderness.
I've used you here. Now you're going to go someplace
unpleasant, a long way away. Verse 35, then Philip opened
his mouth and began at the same scripture, went by Ethiopian
eunuch. And he preached unto that eunuch, Jesus. He preached
Christ to him. And as they went on their way,
they came unto a certain water. And the eunuch said, see, here's
water. What does hinder me to be baptized?
They wait until they found water. My preacher said, you know that
you travel from Ethiopia to Jerusalem, you're going to keep a canteen
with you. He didn't say, here, throw this in my head. He said,
there's water. We both get down in it. And Philip
said, if thou believest. with all thine heart, thou mayest." He wouldn't let
him any other way. And he answered, said, I believe that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot
to stand still. And they went down, both, into
the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.
Turn over to Acts 10. Peter went down and preached
to the people at Cornelius' houses and that whole family, too. How
did they believe? Paul says, for whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Call on his name. How shall they call on him and
who they've not believed? How you gonna call somebody you
don't even believe in? And how shall they believe on him who
they've not heard? You can't believe somebody you've never
heard of. And how shall they hear without a preacher? And
how shall they preach except they be sent? The people were
sent, weren't they? Acts 10, 47. It says, can any man forbid water
that these should not be baptized which have received the Holy
Ghost as well as we? Same as us. I live through this. Anybody got a reason they can't
do it? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of
the Lord. How could he do that? The Lord commanded it. He said,
be baptized. And I don't ever want to influence
someone into being baptized, and I don't ever want to restrict
someone from being baptized. And I ain't the kind of fellow
that rides the fence, is it? What am I going to do? Just tell
you what the Lord said. Believe, be baptized. Command
it. Makes it easy on me, doesn't
it? Chapter 16, Acts 16. Acts 16, 14. And a certain
woman, verse 14, a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple,
of the city of Thyreta, which worship God heard, she heard,
whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended under the things
which were spoken of by Paul. What's the first thing she did
after heard? Lord opened her heart, gave her ears to hear.
She heard what was spoken. Verse 15, and when she was baptized,
and her whole household, she besought us saying, if we have
judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and
abide here. And she constrained us. If I'm a true sister, I'm
gonna feed you some dinner. You can stay at my house. We'll
make a bed for you. Verse 30, Paul preached that
Philippian jailer. Acts 1630, and brought them out and said,
sirs, what must I do to be saved? That jailer said. And they said,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in our
house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord. They preached
the gospel to him. How's it? What do you want me
to believe? Preach the gospel to him and to all that were in
his house. And he took them that same hour of the night and washed
their stripes. Oh, didn't that break your heart? He was whipping
them a couple hours before that earthquake came. He put it up,
so sorry. He was sitting there wiping.
I love you. I didn't know no better. I won't do it again.
He washed their stripes, didn't he? And was baptized. He in all
his straight way. Lord saved the whole house of
them. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat
before them and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house. There's
all kinds of churches. They follow the instruction of
the Lord's table, don't they? They have wine and bread, not
grape juice. They have wine and bread. God
commanded it. And they conduct their services
in a way that's according to scriptures. And they compare
scriptures with scriptures sometimes. And they govern the church as
God says to. There's pastors, and then there's
elders that preach, and there's deacons that take care of business.
They structure these things. And they adhere to God's word,
and they govern their homes well. and then they ignore baptism.
Why? They don't believe. They don't
know him. How can they? They never heard
about him, have they? Nowhere in the scriptures is
an infant baptized. Nowhere is someone saved because
of whose earthly child they are, and nowhere in this Bible is
anyone sprinkled or has a kitchen ladle poured over top of their
heads. It hadn't been so, and I don't
care what's published out of what country right now in our
day, it ain't so now. It ain't so. That's man's opinion,
and it's wrong. It's wrong. A side note, too, that I always
say, people don't believe that. They say they do if they don't.
If they truly believed it, they'd get squirt guns and go to a family
reunion and squirt everybody they love, doesn't they? They
don't believe that. Who's baptized? Believers are
baptized. Believers are baptized. They're
immersed. I don't care if they're eight years old or they're 80
years old. Believers are the ones that do it. If they believe
with all their heart, they will demand to be baptized. They will. They'll obey their Lord and you
ain't gonna get in their way of doing it. I've experienced
that. I called my pastor. I told y'all
this before, I'll tell you again. I called my pastor and I said,
I need to be baptized. He said, why? I told him best
I could. We talked for a little while
and he said, Kevin, I ain't going to do it. Oh man, I could have crawled through
that phone and died. I want to go hide. Oh, he said,
I'm getting too old. I'm going to have Tom Harding
do it. I said, I don't care. Who does it? That pause there felt like three
years, wasn't it? I know some other believers called
their pastor and said, it's time for me to be baptized. It wasn't
a, well, what do you think about this? Can you make me give, can
you give me a warm fuzzy about this? They come say, I need to
be baptized. It's time. It's time. You all that I've
baptized, you come to me and you say, this needs to happen.
It does, doesn't it? You might, I mean, be forceful
or rude about it, but this needs to happen, doesn't it? Philip
told that Ethiopian, he said, if, if thou believest with all
thine heart, thou mayest. You couldn't get one of those
disciples or one of those apostles to baptize an unbeliever. You
couldn't pay him. You couldn't bribe him to do
it. Philip says, I'll refuse to baptize you unless you tell
me one thing. Do you believe wholeheartedly
that Jesus Christ is the son of God? Do you believe him? He's
a person, not a doctrine, not a London Baptist confessional
or whatever. Do you believe him? He said, I believe he's a son
of God. He's Lord. He's Lord. He bowed, he surrendered,
and adored him. That goes with it. The Lordship
of Christ. He's my God and my Lord. I'm
gonna profess him. I'm gonna profess him. As Henry
said, if I've lost you, pick back up with me now. Pay attention
just for a little bit. What if you were baptized under
a denomination? What if you were baptized because
you had a feeling one day, What if you were baptized because
it was something to do? Baptism is not a sacrament. A
sacrament is something, the means by which you receive grace. That's
not it. I think we've established that.
We don't do nothing. It's a profession of what's already
happening. What if you were baptized even under a correct doctrine,
but you didn't know Him? And then the Lord saved you.
I know all kinds of people and it's the same around the world.
They say that church was wrong. They're not preaching the truth.
They're not preaching the truth. They're not preaching the truth. And
then finally, one day God will do something for them and they'll
say, I'm the one that's wrong. I need saved. Not that church
needs to be saved. I need a savior. I need him. What happens if I've
went through that, and I was baptized years ago, and I didn't
know him, and then the Lord saved me? Turn to Acts 19, pay attention. Acts 19. Acts 19, verse 1. And
it came to pass that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having
passed through the upper coast, came to Ephesus. and finding
certain disciples, churchgoers, he said unto them, have you received
the Holy Ghost since you believed? And they said unto him, we've
not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. What
are you talking about? What's that? They didn't know nothing. That
eunuch didn't know nothing. We'll see it in a minute. That's
a good place to be, not knowing nothing. And he said unto them,
unto what then were you baptized? He was baptized. What in the
world did you get baptized to? And they said unto John's baptism. They didn't say John baptized
him. They said, we just did what John was doing without knowledge.
That's what everybody else was doing. We got baptized. You go
through a discipleship program and at the end of three years,
this is what happens or whatever, whatever it was. They was baptized
unto John's baptism. They'd had a religious ceremony,
but they weren't believers. That's what we read in Romans
10, wasn't it? How can you call on him you never
heard? They didn't know him. They hadn't heard about that,
had they? Verse 4. Then said Paul. He said it audibly. If somebody says something, do
you hear it? They said it. John verily baptized with the
baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should
believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ
Jesus." He preached Christ to them. Paul bumped into these
people in religion and he asked them plainly, do you have a Holy
Spirit? And they said, what in the world did you talk about?
And Paul said, what was you baptized to? And they said, John's baptism.
And Paul says, you don't know what John was preaching. I hear
it coming out of your mouth, like this is playing, right?
You don't know what you're talking about. And so he preached Christ
to him because that's the answer to everything. Verse five. When they heard this, when they
heard what baptism truly signified, when they heard that those you
repented from yourself and you believed on Christ and you beheld
the lamb, when they heard this, they were baptized in the name
of the Lord Jesus, not in the name of some man. Here's what
I'm saying. If you were as a child or as
an adult, if you've gone through the ceremony of baptism years
ago and you did not know the gospel, but you did it because
of the denomination of feeling to get grace or because you aligned
yourself with accurate theology, you are not obeying the Lord
in baptism. You have not been baptized scripturally. That's so. This is believer's
baptism. Well, I was baptized then. Then
I came to know the doctrines of grace. And you ain't confessed
him yet. You must believe to be baptized
according to the scriptures. The man does not matter. The
message does. What's Paul saying? Could you
go sit underneath where that unto John stuff was? Well, not
now that I've heard Christ. I couldn't sit there. Well, then
you need to profess him in believer's baptism. Judas preached the truth,
didn't he? He fell away. Those that are
saved under the preaching of the truth of Judas, they're saved. And to be baptized, folks, they've
professed Christ. They've professed the truth.
The man doesn't matter. I may baptize 100 people in San
Diego County, and the Lord might take his hand off of me. I pray
he doesn't. I pray daily he doesn't. But
that wouldn't make one change of difference to you all, would
it? I may not be here. Philip baptized that eunuch,
and then poof, Philip went away. And that unit just kept on going,
he's happy. I mean, he'd probably miss Phillip some, like I liked
him, that's who preached the gospel to me, but I got the gospel
now, that man don't matter. We find that out a lot when a
man dies, doesn't it? And you see who sticks around
for what, who's there for a name. And that's a sad thing, and those
men know it before they die. Paul did not tell these men,
well, it doesn't really matter, you've already been through a
ceremony and that'll be sufficient. He preached Christ to them, and
he did not say, well, you didn't get baptized under the knowledge
of Christ, of his life, of his death, his burial, his resurrection,
and our unity with him, how necessary that is. Professing him, that's
what you're professing. But it's okay, we'll just count
that. No, he didn't, did he? That ought to be our answer.
He preached the gospel, and when they heard it, they believed
it, and they were baptized. I can just keep going on. Acts
18 at Christmas, he was a chief ruler of the synagogue. Well,
he's a big preacher. He was steeped in religion for
a long time, then God saved him. He believed on the Lord with
all his house, and many of the Corinth here believed, and they
all were baptized. There's a preacher down in Taylor, Arkansas years
ago. He preached and preached and preached and preached, and
there wasn't no gospel in it, and then God saved him, and he
got baptized. And you know that town, they
run an ad in the paper, he had to move. He had to sell his house
and move. They said, what's a preacher
getting baptized? He said, God saved me. Don't matter if I was a preacher,
or a Republican, or a pornographer, or whatever. I was a sinner is
what I was, and God saved me. That whole town got mad at him.
That ruffles their feathers of their organized religion, and
they were moved to do it. He got words for it. Only question
I have. I don't have a series of questions. I don't have a program you gotta
go through. We ain't gonna wait a long time. Every one of these
believers was baptized the same day. I got one question. Do you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ? You believe his word. Believe
him. That means he says something and you say, that's right. You're
a sinner. That's all you are. That's right.
You can't save yourself. That's right. He did it all and
it's plum done and ain't nothing you can add to it. That's right
too. You believe him. I'll answer this. Is baptism
required for salvation? No, it's not. Can I give you
a biblical? I don't want to set you up, knock
you down. Lord will do it. Can I give you
a biblical example in the New Testament of someone that the
Lord saved and was not baptized? I sure can. Thief on a cross.
You know that one, don't you? Can I give you an Old Testament
example of someone that believed on Christ that wasn't baptized?
Yes, every person in the Old Testament that believed on Christ.
People say, well, he wasn't saved by the blood. Yes, they were.
They're saved the same way we are, the blood of Christ, isn't
it? The Lord hadn't given baptism yet. When were they baptized?
When was David? When was Abraham? When the Lord
said, it becometh us. That's when he was baptized,
wasn't it? What's the attitude of those that believe? Back to
Acts chapter eight. I'll try to go through this swiftly
and bear with me. This is precious. Acts 8, 26. An angel of the Lord spake unto
Philip saying, Arise and go toward the south and to the way that
goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. Bear and
wilderness ain't nothing out there. He was so comfy there.
He wasn't going to stay comfy, was he? He's on trail of God's
sheep. Verse 27, he rose and went, and
behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace,
queen of the Ethiopians, this is the secretary of the treasury,
who had charge of all her treasure, had come to Jerusalem to worship.
You know people that drive a long way to worship? Do you know that? Do you know how far this man
went to worship? 2,480 miles one way, at the speed
of walking, because Philip was walking and caught up with him.
You think he's committed? A person who values their own soul.
He was a proselyte, wasn't he? He knew that the true God was
with Israel. He just didn't know what that
meant. So he just blindly walked around in darkness, trying something
on him. But he went to worship, and he
left confused. He left searching more, and there
was no comfort there. He wasn't rejoicing. Verse 28. And he was returning and sitting
in his chair, and he read Isaiah the prophet. He's still reading
out loud. And the Spirit said unto Philip,
go near and join thyself to this chariot. Did he say send him
an email? Did he say Zoom? That's our modern
vernacular. Did he say Zoom? Facebook it
or something? No. He said, you go join him. Eye to eye. Look him in the eye.
And with your mouth, you say something, and his ears gonna
hear it if I see fit to make it happen. And Philip didn't
know what was going on. He just did it. Well, he believed God,
didn't he? He was returning and sitting
in his chariot, reading Isaiah the prophet, when the Spirit said unto Philip,
go near and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran. That
obedient, profitable servant obeyed God, didn't he? He ran
thither to him and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and
said, understandest thou what thou readest? Do you know, if
there's anything you could have read and you'd have, man could
figure out his own, you'd have figured it out there. He didn't.
Here's honesty. Here's a character of those that
believe. And he said, how can I? inability. There was a need, and now there's
inability. And how can I, except some man should guide me? And
he desired Philip that he would come up, sit down with. If you
know what this is, come tell me. Come tell me. That's a humble
spirit, isn't it? That's a person that's made willing
to learn, not to teach. That's a person that's honest,
and that's a person that doesn't know what he's reading. He just
said it plainly, didn't he? I know a man, he's got five men
underneath him that preach. They can fill in for him. And
somebody said, boy, that's got to be a friend of mine from the army.
He said, that must be a terrible burden for him. He's got to supervise,
you know, these five wild cards out there preaching. I said,
no, no, no. If the Lord made them, laborers in the harvest,
they're teachable. They'll come to him after, and
they'll seek instruction. I did that. I went to my pastor.
I preached. I said, I can't ever do that again. Don't let me do
that. Is there some way I can do this better? How do you study?
Can you show me how to do that? How does this happen? And I got
in his hip pocket and wore him out. And those men are doing
the same thing to my brother that's my fellow labor. That's
easy on him. They're teachable. They seek
input. They want to be taught. Because
they know God's going to teach them. They know he sent that
man to teach them. They seek wisdom and understanding from
the one that God sent to them. They believed, they were baptized,
and now they're eager to be taught. You see that? Verse 32, 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 his shears, so he
opened not his mouth. Something's got to die. And he
bore our guilt. I'm the guilty one. He bore the
guilt. And in his humiliation, his judgment was taken away.
And who shall declare his generation? For his life is taken from earth."
And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I pray thee, of whom
speaketh the prophet this? Of himself or some other man?
Well, there's true interest. Now he's on the right track,
isn't he? He doesn't care what a London
confessional says. He doesn't care what church history
says. He doesn't care what Smelt says or John Gill or whatever.
He wants to hear about a person. You get that? A person. Then Philip opened his mouth
and began at the same scripture and preached to him, Jesus. What
did that faithful servant do? Preach Jesus to him, preach Christ
to him. Verse 36, and they went on their
way and came to a certain water and the eunuch said, see here,
there's water. What doth hinder me to be baptized?
What did Philip preach? Christ. How then did baptism
come up? Well, that's a long ride. We
established that, isn't it? 2,500 miles back home. How long
was he going to stay there? Long as it took. Keep preaching
till they run me off, wouldn't it? Unity with Christ came up, didn't
it? We died with him. Substitution. He bore my wrath.
He stood in my stead. We died with him. I lived with
him. I died with him. When his body was broken, that
was my body being broken. When his blood was shed, that's
what covered me. That's what the father accepted. And he was
buried. Plum underground, I was buried
with him. And when he rose, I rose with him. Whenever this life's over, I'm
gonna rise with him then. Looking face to face. Isaiah
preached about a person. Philip preached about a person.
And that eunuch asked Philip. Philip did not chase him down
the parking lot. He didn't beg him. He didn't persuade him.
He didn't reassure him. It's okay. No, you're fine. You're fine.
No, he declared what God said. He commanded it like Peter. Is
he believed? Be baptized. Observe the Lord's
table. I thought that too. People always say, how many people
you baptized? Well, you don't ask me how many people I gave
the Lord's table to. Man's silly, ain't he? We're
just a mess. The eunuch did the asking. Peter
just commanded, and he come to him. Every child of God, they
have a need to be baptized. Why? Our Lord did it. He commanded
it. And the attitude is a question
of humility, isn't it? Would you let me in the church?
You think people down there, they'd let me worship with them? That's what sinners do, isn't
it? Are you going to let me come to church with you? You think
the Lord would have me? Do you know what I am? No, I
heard a man say one time, he said, you know, I better, there's
another place, I better this church to the tune of X number
of dollars a year, and you know what, I could bring a lot of
stuff to the, what'd that Philip say, you'd
have me? That's good, that's too good to be true, isn't it?
No, it's true. That man, he receives sinners
and he eats with them. It ain't just they're allowed
in the house and you stay on that corner. I'll sit down and eat with you,
break bread with you. That's what all them other ones, Liddy
and all them, sit down and eat with us. We got donuts in the back. Our kids made brownies and cookies
for everybody today. We got coffee. Sit down and eat
together, won't we? Attitude of humility. Verse 37,
Philip said, if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.
And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son
of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still. Which
one? I don't know, probably both of them. I'd say the eunuch. You stop this thing. And they
went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and
he was baptized. And when they were come up out
of the water, the spirit of the Lord caught away Philip. Poof.
Oh, what a blessing that was. That way there wasn't man worship. The way there wasn't man worship.
That's a blessing to that eunuch. Blessing to Philip, too. The
Lord called Philip away, had the sheep he had to get on the
trail of. And that eunuch saw him no more. Oh, and he cried. No, he went on his way rejoicing. That wasn't how he left Jerusalem,
was it? He's contemplating and confused. Oh, that's good news
now. That's good news. I died when
he died. That life that's required, holy living, he lived every bit
of it holy for me. He paid it all, all to him I
owe. Sin, that left a crimson stain,
but he's washed it white as snow. I took waters, he did. He said,
I publicly professed him. Just like a wedding. Just like
getting a degree at a college or something. I proclaim that. Well, people laugh at you. I
don't care. He missed Philip, but it wasn't the man. It was
the message that made him go on his way rejoicing, wasn't
it? Now, people say, well, no, I've done this. I've done that.
We'll excuse anything. I don't have to do this. Well, those
people, the Old Testament people, they weren't baptized. Well,
now that thief on the cross, no, they weren't baptized, so
I'm fine. Love does not see what's the least it can get away with.
True love doesn't look for what's the least it can get away with.
It's willing to do all it can. It doesn't distinguish what's
essential and what's not. It just does. It just does. Our Lord said in John 14, if
any man love me, he will keep my words. He'll keep my words. And my father will love him and
we will come unto him and make our abode with him. How can I keep his word? He's
got to do that too. I hope that was a blessing to
you. We're going to have a few songs, and at least you can go
get changed. And then we're just going to
obey what the Lord told us to do, isn't it? That's a privilege. He sins as he's with us. Let's
pray together first. Father, thank you for this power.
Thank you for your word. Thank you for allowing us to
witness, be eyewitness of your hand working, of your will being accomplished.
Lord, who's sufficient for these things? Christ is. We're thankful. Thank you for
the heart that you give your people. Thank you for adding
to the churches you see fit in your time and your power. Allow
us to be a comfort for those, Lord. Allow us to be loving and
long-suffering and gentle and meek and kind to our brethren
and those that aren't yet our brethren. Allow us to have a
kind countenance, Lord, and be merciful as you've been merciful
to us. Allow us to love as Christ has
loved us. Make us do these things. Keep us as you promised you would.
Thank you for this day.