Once again, it's such a blessing to be here, to be with you, the fellowship, to hear the word of God brought and presented, the word read, songs to sing and honor and glorify Almighty God. It reminded me this morning of a man many years ago now that called me up and said, I want to talk to you about church. And I told my wife I don't want to go because I share things about the Lord and I've been asked to leave. Well, finally, she, being a very wonderful wife, says, just go. I got over there and a man by the name of Jim Williams said, my wife and I have been going to churches here in town. And we're hearing about a God that's in a wheelchair. What do you preach? And I says, oh my goodness. Pull my Bible out from under me and we open it up and two hours later I left. I'm thankful that we don't have a God in a wheelchair. We have almighty God. I read this passage of scripture last week before we went to the book of Acts. I'd like to do it again and it's found over in the book of Exodus chapter 14. Join me in the book of Exodus chapter 14 and I'd like to read verse 13 there. As the children of Israel are brought to a situation where it looks impossible. They have the Egyptian army behind them, they have the Red Sea in front of them and things They just looked like they could never be worse. And these are the words of Moses, their preacher, had to say about the situation. It says in the book of Exodus chapter 14, verse 13, Moses said unto the people, fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you today. For the Egyptians whom you have seen today, ye shall see them again no more forever. That's the words of Moses to the children of Israel, and Moses had received these words from Almighty God. Now stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. What does that say about our part in anybody else's salvation or even our own? There's only one thing we bring to the table. We've mentioned this many times and that's our sin. That's the only thing we bring to the table. Now there are two other verses I'd like to look at. One, both of them are found in the book of Genesis and would you join me there before we go to Acts chapter eight this morning. In the book of Genesis chapter three, we have these words recorded after God dealt with the fall of man. We deal with the fall of Adam every day of our life. I roll a little note to my sister. My youngest sister, she had her 38-year-old sister-in-law, who she just dearly loved, pass away of cancer this last week. And I said, our way, our adventure on this earth is many times ravaged by that old enemy death. Our friendships are broken up because of that old enemy that came as a result of Adam's fall. Well, here in the book of Genesis chapter three, after Adam fell and God was dealing with it, this is how he dealt with the fall and it's in a picture. He's telling us a picture here. We find unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them. What was their participation? They were clothed by God with coats of skins. Now it's symbolic about the clothing that God gives us in Christ Jesus and that's a robe of righteousness. And then again, in this book of Genesis chapter two, verse seven, would you read there with me? Genesis chapter two and verse seven, we have this statement made. Now, this verse of scripture is hardly believed among the academians. Very, very few, because they're smarter than the Bible. But my friend, this is the truth of the matter. This is how the first person on this earth was put on this earth. It did not come from an evolutionary process. It came by creation. And God is the creator. And notice the circumstances. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground. Never forget where you came from. We're dust of the ground. And you know, science will tell us of all of the elements that our body contains, and how much there is of each of those elements and it is nothing more than dirt put together and then mixed with water. All right, and then it goes on to say here, now this is what God did. He created man, he formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Mouth to mouth resuscitation. How God did this is his business, but it says he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and what happened? And man became a living soul. I have to ask again, what part did he participate in? He was the recipient. In every case, we are the recipient. All right, travel with me many, many years later into the book of Acts chapter eight, as we come to a most interesting passage of scripture that the Lord has left us on how he does his business. Now, this chapter is just before chapter nine, logically, isn't it? But in chapter nine, we are going to read about a man who was wrecking the church of the living God in Jerusalem. and how God saved him. And we're going to find out the same principle on how God created, the same principle on how he delivered Adam and Eve from the consequences of the fall, the same principle that God gave to Moses before crossing the Red Sea. stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. We're going to find that principle in the ninth chapter of the book of Acts when we read about Saul of Tarsus being saved by Almighty God on the road to Damascus. And you know every time Saul of Tarsus, later Paul the apostle, reflected on that. He reflected on how God had saved him by his grace. All right, the book of Acts, Acts chapter 8, and we're here in a very wonderful passage of scripture, Acts chapter 8, we have a man from Ethiopia that has traveled about 1,500 miles, probably most of it by chariot, maybe walked a little bit, I don't know, but he came from Ethiopia to Jerusalem for to worship. Now, he traveled all that way and did all that work in Jerusalem and all that worship and had no idea in this world what real salvation was about. He was religious. He had become a proselyte. He had adopted the Jewish religion, and adopting a religion changes nobody's heart. It takes the grace of God. It takes the new birth to change our heart. All right, book of Acts chapter eight, and I want to start with verse 35. Now this Ethiopian eunuch, he's rich, he has a lot of authority with the Queen of Ethiopia. He is in charge of the treasury. He's a trusted man. He has a lot of high qualities about him. And he is able to read, and he doesn't spend his time reading dime novels. He's spending his time reading the Bible, because he's religious. Now, whether it was this day that the card said read Isaiah 53 or not, I don't know. But he is reading in the book of Isaiah chapter 53, very providential to be in Isaiah 53 when God moves on him somebody who knew what Isaiah chapter 53 is about, who it's about. So here we have the acquaintance of Philip. The evangelist, he's called later in the book of Acts, Philip the evangelist is sent down from Samaria to Gaza to get up close to a man that's there from Ethiopia. Now, I cannot help but think that there's quite an entourage with him. Don't you feel that way? Quite a few servants, people to cook his food as he traveled, people to take care of him, wash his clothes, dress him maybe. So he has quite an entourage, but the only one that we get equated with is Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. almost as if they were alone out in the desert. Now in chapter nine, we will read about an entourage traveling with Saul of Tarsus, and they hear something, but they don't hear the word of God. It's just gibberish to them. It's misunderstood. All right, here, Acts chapter eight, and there in verse 35, The eunuch is reading from the book of Isaiah chapter 53. It's a very valuable book that he's reading. It's a very expensive book that he's reading. Not many people had a copy of the word of God at that time, even the book of Isaiah. It all had to be done by hand. So he has this, he's reading it. It's probably written in Hebrew. And so he's bilingual. Very smart man, but you know what? He doesn't know the first thing about the gospel. He needs to hear the instructions of someone who knows something. It's interesting that God always delivers salvation on the lips of another. Someone tells someone about someone who can save anyone. On the lips of someone else comes the message. Acts chapter eight, verse 35, then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture. Now it's so blessed that he didn't start with what church you should attend. He didn't say you should clean up your life before I talk to you. I remember hearing a preacher with my very ears tell a couple that they couldn't attend the church where he pastored until they cleaned up their life. My friends, we're looking for publicans and sinners. Because there's only one that can clean up their lives. Oh my goodness, throughout the scriptures, people were upset with the Lord Jesus Christ for preaching to publicans and sinners. The righteous need not a doctor, but they that are sick. All right, Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus. Now that scripture in the book of Isaiah chapter 53 talks about someone who is bearing the sins of someone else, Isaiah 53. It's a message. We know as Philip brings out, it's a message about Christ. It's a message of the Messiah. It's a message of someone who could deliver someone else from the problem that they're in. But this man looked at that and could see nothing about that. And Philip says, do you understand what you're reading? He says, how can I except some man show me? Is he talking about himself or is he talking about someone else? Well, Philip knows who it's about. So he begins at the same place and preached unto him Jesus. Now, the preaching of Jesus is so much different than most we hear today. I went to church from the time I was probably two weeks old until I was 35, and all I ever heard was a lie about what God had to say in his word. It was all mixed up with humanity. And you know, God does not save by humanity, he saves by grace. He saves not by a relationship that we have with someone else. He saves by who died for our sins on the cross. There is more preaching about Jesus than preaching Christ. You know, preaching about Christ tells Amiyah If I'm just going to preach about him, it tells me about an example that will help me with a better marriage, have a better balanced checkbook, and a happier life. But that's not the Christ of the Bible. Now, God may bless us with those things, but those things are not something that God gives us in the gospel. You know what God gives us in the gospel? Jesus Christ and him crucified. Someone who took care, takes care, and will forever take care of the sin problem that we have because of the fall. We are all descendants of Adam by one man centered in and to the world. And through him, everybody became a sinner before God. And that sin is an offense to God. He is a holy God. I was listening to a message the other day and it says, someone said to the preacher, why doesn't he just say, forgive him? Why didn't he just change his mind about it? Because God cannot change his mind about sin. Sin is an activity against God that roots to the very core of his holiness. And God will not allow anybody to go unpunished without sin being taken care of. And he will do that for eternity one way or the other. Preaching Christ is declaring a Savior that saves us from our sins, that takes care to put away sin. Most of us never want to hear that we're a sinner. Boy, when that Brother Mahan started preaching on that subject, someone who knew something about the real problem that we're in. And then the solution was not for me to be better or to work harder or to read more or to do all the things that religion tells me. The solution was a person, Jesus Christ, and that he will save his people from their sins because he wants to. They shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Yo, going natural man. Back raises up against God being in charge, but that's preaching Christ. Philip had no doubt about the messianic meaning, and he knew that Jesus was the Messiah. There are scholars who do not find Jesus in the Old Testament, but guess what? Jesus found himself there. We heard that this morning in the 24th chapter of the book of Luke. Jesus found himself in the Old Testament. All through the Old Testament did he find himself and pointed it out to his people. Turn with me as we think about this over to the book of John, chapter one. John chapter one brings out this wonderful statement about our Savior, the Lord Jesus, and it tells us here in John chapter one, verse 41, these words. We'd like to read verses 41 through 45 of the book of John chapter one. As we turn to our attention to preaching Jesus, preaching Christ, not about him, not that he was a good man, he was. We're not preaching about him, we wanna preach him. And this is the one that can deal with our sin. He's the one that went to the cross to die for sin. He's the one who went to the cross to die for sinners. He's the savior of sinners. That's preaching Christ. It's not to change the value of our checkbook, or it's not to change our attitude towards our wife, it will. All those things come along, but that's not the reason it is not a gospel of plenty this world. It is a gospel of plenty spiritually. All right, here in the book of John, John 1, verse 41, it says, he first findeth his own brother Simon. Now, these are two brothers, there's Andrew and Simon, Peter's brother, and he findeth his own brother Simon and said unto him, we have found the Messiah. Well, that's an Old Testament word. In the New Testament, we would find the word C-H-R-I-S-T. Messiah is the Old Testament word, Christ is the New Testament word. When we read about Jesus Christ, we're reading about the one born of a virgin in Bethlehem who is the Messiah. All right, we first, we found the Messiah, which is being interpreted the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus, and when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon, the son of Jonah. Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation a stone. The day following, Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and said unto him, Follow me." Now, this is a different Philip than we're reading about over in the book of Acts chapter 8. This is one of the apostles. He findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me. Who found who? Who was looking for who? Who came to who? Jesus Christ came to Philip. Jesus Christ comes to his lost sheep. If we are honest with the word of God, We will always come to the conclusion that natural man is so dead in trespasses and sin, they cannot raise a pinky towards Jesus Christ. We must be raised from the dead spiritually by him. All right, it says, now Philip was a Basidia, the city of Andrew and Peter, And Philip findeth Nathanael, and said unto him." Now notice this. This is what Philip is preaching to the Ethiopian eunuch out of Isaiah chapter 53. Just remember, they did not have the New Testament books at this time. They only had Genesis through Malachi. And this book of Isaiah chapter 53, that is a good place to be. But don't think you're not gonna find Christ in every chapter of the Old Testament. He's there. Go quickly and find him. Philip findeth Nathanael and saith unto him, we have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write. Moses in the law. And the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael said unto him, can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, come and see. The words of Philip to his brother, we have found him. whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Now he's the supposed son of Joseph. He's a stepson of Joseph, but don't think for a moment that there was any physical relationship here because that too is preaching Christ as we find that Philip did that very thing. Here we find, going back to the book of Acts chapter eight, In the book of Acts chapter 8, it tells us there that Philip began at the same place and preached unto him Jesus. He preached not about him, but he preached him from the 53rd chapter of the book of Isaiah. Philip declared that the true Messiah would come in a very special manner. Do you know the Old Testament says that the Messiah is going to come in a way that not any other human being is ever going to come? He's gonna become without natural man intervention. He's gonna be born of a virgin. He's not gonna have the problem that we have by nature. We're born into this family, this human family, and we have a terrible problem. We have a heart that is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? But Philip preached unto him about a Messiah that was not in that problem. He was a special one, born of a virgin. He was made under the law. This true Messiah yielded perfect obedience to the law. You know, he could ask that Ethiopian, have you obeyed every command that Candace the Queen has given you? Well, almost. Almost with God's not enough. Almost obeying all the law is not enough. We must have obeyed it completely. And you know what? We cannot do that. We may do as we do with January 1st and make some high recommendations about ourselves and what we are going to do, but we cannot keep the law. Our mind travels. Mike came out here about 9 o'clock, and I'm in my study, and he says, I hope your studies have gone well. And I says, well, they've gone real well until my mind wanders. We have a problem. We just cannot keep our mind all the time. Just drive in a little traffic and find out how close your mind is on the Lord. Maybe we're gonna meet him right away. We have a problem. Just think about where we are by nature. We have a problem. And we are commanded by God Almighty, there is a command, keep my word. And then we find out that's an impossibility. And then he shows us in the gospel when we hear the message of Christ preached, when we hear Jesus preached, he kept the law perfectly. And he has the ability of taking his own keeping of the law and imputing that to us or putting it to our account. He says, I will give you my righteousness. I will give you my ability to keep the law." Now, we don't keep it another second after we're given it. We're just made perfect by Jesus Christ the righteous, and we can stand before God perfect, knowing full well we still have that failure of the flesh. But the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin. We can meet him on his terms with favor. We have this Messiah, the Lord, he died for the sins of his people. This true Messiah brought in everlasting righteousness to justify his elect before God. He obtained eternal redemption for them. When complete satisfaction for sin was paid, this true Messiah was buried as the Old Testament scriptures declared. He will be buried in a borrowed tomb. He bore the sins of many and yet he never became a sinner. He became sin for us but it didn't change his nature. He was on the cross and what really took him was not the nail prints in his hands, the spirit aside. It wasn't the agony of going to that terrible way that the Romans had developed of executing what they called a criminal. It was God Almighty. in his justice poured out his wrath upon this one, his only begotten son, who was the only one that had ever walked this earth that could take that kind of punishment and come out the other side a victor. And he did. He was laid to rest in a borrowed tomb. And as the Old Testament declares, thou will not leave his soul in Hades. in the afterlife. What does that mean? Jesus Christ the Messiah was going to be the victorious Jesus Christ the Messiah over all the sin of all his people and that he was going to come out of that tomb victorious. a victor. He came out in victory that third day. We read this, yet the grave could not contain him, and the appointed time he awoke, raised, and 40 days later, because he had done everything that the father demanded, of anybody that wanted to have fellowship with him because he fulfilled every demand of the law and every demand of the Father on the behalf of his people. He ascended back to the Father and was welcomed with open arms. Why? He was successful in putting away sin. This great God. Oh, we may have put away a sin. We may even went to jail and paid for a sin. But my goodness, that doesn't change God's attitude towards it at all. Only his son could deal with sin in that way. He awoke, raised from the dead. 40 days later, he went back to glory, there to ever make intercession for his people, the transgressors, as they're called in the Old Testament. And at the appointed time, He will come the second time. Remember the words of Job? I know my Redeemer liveth, and on the earth again shall stand, and though the skin worms destroy this body, yet with my eyes I shall see him. My Redeemer liveth. He's not in a grave somewhere. My Redeemer liveth. He's at the throne, right hand of God the Father, successful in taking care of sin. As Philip brought these great subjects out, I had to ask myself, how much time did Philip spend with that Ethiopian eunuch? I was telling Mike this morning, I had a sister that was in a church in Hammond, Indiana about 50 years ago, and the pastor of that church had written a book on how to win souls. And he told you how, if you got on an elevator, the first floor, by the fifth floor to have the person that's in there, one to Jesus. Now how long does it take to get from the first floor to the fifth floor? If it's a minute, we're on a slow elevator. And you have the audacity, Mr. Jack Hiles, to say that someone can be saved that has no knowledge whatsoever of anything about God and you can win them to Jesus in five floors? Liar, liar, pants on fire. How long did Philip spend with this man? It doesn't tell us how long he did. But I know this, it was more than 15 minutes. He preached unto him Jesus, and because we know what the Ethiopian eunuchs' conversation got around to, we know that there was more said than just some words about the 53rd chapter of the book of Isaiah. He went on to say, this is what God's people do when they realize that they've been saved by grace. This is an ordinance that God has prescribed that everyone that he ever saves goes through, submits themselves to. Well, we're traveling along, let's just go over there. Well, before we get back to Acts chapter eight there and look at that, read with me in the book of Romans chapter 10, Romans chapter 10. I have a Bible my dad and mother gave me in 1959. I turned nine years old that year. And I was sitting in church one time, and as most kids do in church, I had to be told to sit still. And you know, my dad got me right over close to him, and he opened up my Bible to Romans chapter 10, and with his ballpoint pen, He underlined a verse of scripture in there and he says, you need to sit still and maybe someday you'll be saved. He never got down to the latter part of chapter 10. He never said a word about, oh, you've got to hear the word? And if you're in a church that's not preaching the word, how are you going to hear the word? Well, Romans chapter 10, verse 14, notice this with me. Romans chapter 10 verse 14, how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe on him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? How can they believe something they don't know? You see these big signs along the freeway? Trust Jesus. Who's that? I've been told not to trust politicians or preachers. You know, there is only one occupation that is mistrusted more than a used car salesman. That's a preacher. They're liars. How shall they hear without somebody who knows something about the gospel? I'm thankful for a Philip that traveled 3,000 miles from Kentucky to Oregon so I could hear for the first time something about the Jesus of the Bible. This great Christ that we have. All right, going back to the book of Acts, chapter 8, verse 29. Let's start there. Acts, chapter 8, verse 29. The Word says, Then the spirit said unto Philip, go near and join yourself to this chariot. Philip ran thither to him and heard him read the prophet Isaiah and said, understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, how can I except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. And the place of the scripture which he read was he was led as a sheep to the slaughter and like a lamb done before his shearer So opened he not his mouth. In his humiliation his judgment was taken away, and who shall declare his generation for his life is taken from the earth? And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I pray thee of whom speakest the prophet this, of himself or some other man? And Philip began at the same, opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way, how long did that take? They came under a certain water. How long did they travel? How many meals was Philip invited to enjoy with the Ethiopian eunuch? I don't know. It doesn't tell us. But this I do know. There was more than 15 minutes between the introduction of Philip to the Ethiopian eunuch and these words that the Ethiopian eunuch brings up. Don't ever say, this is just a very short amount of time, because the preaching of the gospel from the first time to the time that God uses it to touch hearts may be a year, two years, five years. Don't give up hope. Once the gospel goes out, don't give up hope. He said there, the eunuch answered Philip and said, well, let me get down here. Oh, verse 36, as they went on their way, what part of Isaiah 53 talks about baptism? Have you found it there? It wasn't an Old Testament ordinance. People in the Old Testament were not baptized. They went down to the temple or to the tabernacle and offered a sacrifice if they were religious. They went to a synagogue. They had those things to do, but Jesus Christ is the one that instituted this during his personal ministry. This is what Jesus Christ ordained to be done by everyone that had ever believed the message that Jesus Christ is the savior of his people. They will come to someone and say, I need to be baptized. Well, it goes on here, Philip. So as they went their way, they came to a certain water and the eunuch said, see, here's water, what does hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, if thou believest with all thine heart. Now there's a caveat there that most people overshadow, overlook. With all thy heart, how can anybody ever do that without having a new heart? You can't believe on Jesus with your whole heart if you've never been born again. And the only way we can then is we've been given a new heart. Then we can believe him with the whole heart. He allows, he permits, he gives us the grace to do that. Philip said, if thou believe us with all thine heart thou mayest. And he answered and he said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. Did he know that before Philip came up to him? No. He had no idea what the 53rd chapter of the book of Isaiah was. But as Philip preached unto him Jesus, he was brought to the attention by the Spirit of God that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He's the Messiah. He is more than just a man I heard about when I was down there in Jerusalem not that long ago. He's more than just some man. He's just more than someone from Nazareth. He is the Son of God. My goodness, God had given him some conviction about who God is in Christ Jesus. And then he commanded that the chariots to stand still and they went down both into the water. There is not much here. if you believe in the very value of the English language, there's not much here that would let us conclude that Philip sprinkled that man. He went down into the water, both of them, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized, and when they were come up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord caught away Philip. Are you kidding me? Who's gonna be the teacher for this man now? Philip, you're not going to go along with me? Now we find Paul spending three years in certain towns with the churches. But this man, Philip didn't go with him. Who went with him? The Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit went with him. It's the Spirit that teaches. The revelation from the Word of God, whose heart the Lord opened. It was the Spirit. The eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing. What a change came over this man. He went down back to Ethiopia. I could just see Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians, going out to meet him, or was sitting in her chair when he got in there, and she hadn't been around him five minutes. He says, what in the world happened to you? He says, what are you talking about? Well, you're so pleasant to be around. Well, let me tell you about a man who told me about the Messiah, the Lord Jesus. Then it tells us in verse 40, isn't this interesting? And Philip was found as Azotus and passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea. His ministry was not over. He still had some preaching to do as God moved in him. And you know he's going to deal with everyone he meets the same way. He's not going to ask him anything. He's going to preach Christ and him crucified. Now people will either say, you know what? I heard that message and I know what it's all about. I have sweet fellowship with this one Jesus Christ of Nazareth. You believe him too? Yeah. Oh, hallelujah. I found someone else. Or, you know what? I don't think I want to stick around here. There's just, it just doesn't fit me. I want something more pleasant in my religion. I want something easier in my religion. I wanna be able to do something in my religion and get some credit from God. Well, that's not a message Philip was ever gonna give. You know what his message was after people were saved? We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which he hath before ordained that we should walk in them. not for credit, not for righteousness, but for the glory of God Almighty, whom God's people love to the core. They love Him with all their heart. So here is the experience. Philip comes up, ordered by God, preaches according to God's word, leaves that man to go down to Ethiopia, goes over to another place and starts preaching. He goes and ends up in Caesarea. And the next chapter, we're introduced to Saul of Tarsus again. And one more time, God's gonna show us how he saves his people from their sins. And this guy's a mean guy. Probably most people will say, you know that Ethiopian eunuch, he's a pretty nice guy. Doesn't matter whether we're nice guys or mean guys, we all need to be saved by the same grace. Brother Mike, if you'll come, we'll close and pick up this chapter nine next time we get together.