Well, I can honestly say that this has been a great treat
for me to be here with you all once again. I'm always amazed
when folks invite me to preach once, but then when they ask
me to do it again, I'm utterly dumbfounded. So the third time I begin to
question their sanity. But this place, this group of
people, the ones I haven't met yet, but the ones I've known
for some thirty years, it is like home to me. And I mean that
from the bottom of my heart. I have many wonderful memories
of this place. Debbie and I used to look forward
to June, even though after we had kids, every time we came
they would get ear infections, and Debbie would have to take
them to the doctor. That was almost every year that we came. But
you all are a blessing to me in more ways than you can imagine,
and you have been through the years, and I thank you for that.
Debbie and I are going to leave after the morning service. We
are going to see if we can find some snow between here and Cherokee.
on I-23, so you all remember us as we travel. Acts, Chapter 8. I appreciate our brother reading
this, because I would have had to get up and read it all. And
I was singing one of the songs, I got the words messed up, and
I thought, Boy, I'm glad he read, because my tongue is already
beginning to foul up this morning. This passage of Scripture is
one that causes a person to deliberate
on many things in God's great work of providence. It is a blessed
passage of scripture. It teaches us about a man before
he was converted who would later write most of the New Testament,
who would die for the cause of Christ, who would be imprisoned
It is about God's providence. And the more I read the Scriptures,
especially studying in the Old Testament Scriptures, I see that
it is all about God's providence. It is all about putting things
where they are supposed to be in order to get other things
done. And God controls all those things. This chapter begins with
the word ìandî. When they translated the King
James Version, they sometimes put chapters where they didn't
belong and separated things. And when you find the word and,
it's just part of what's preceded here. And this little conjunction
says that what follows in this chapter is directly connected
and is one of the results of a series of predestined or predetermined
events that will not only change men's lives, but will seemingly
alter the course of history. It is a very important section
of Scripture. Chapter 7 culminates in the record
of the stoning of Stephen, the first post-Pentecostal New Testament
martyr, for the gospel's sake. They killed him for what he said. And if you study the words of
our Lord Jesus Christ, he never got in trouble for what he did.
He never did. He'd heal people and raise people
from the dead and got accolades and applause and drew crowds
and then he opened his mouth and they wanted to throw him
off a cliff. That's the way it is. You know, we could get along
with everybody if we just didn't open our mouths. I've had people
actually tell me, well, I know we don't agree on doctrine, you
know, but if you don't mention it, we'll get along fine. Well,
I can't help myself. And those people that say that,
they can't help but mention in their doctrine. I've noticed
that. Have you noticed that about them? But this end in verse 1
is a connector. It's a comparative display of
the old and the new covenants right here in this passage of
Scripture. In these two men that are identified, Stephen, Stephen,
preaching the gospel worth dying for, and Saul, religiously having
the law and living by the law he felt was worth killing for,
two different people. Later, Paul would write that
what he was doing in this time was the exact purpose and design
of the law, to kill. He will write in 2 Corinthians
3, the letter killeth. And that is what it always does.
That is what it is designed to do. Here also we see a believer,
a preacher of the gospel dying in peace with a full heart, knowledge
and confidence that God has forgiven him all his sins. In verse 60
of chapter 7 of Stephen it says, cried with a loud voice, ìLord,
lay not this sin to their charge.î And when he had said this, he
just fell asleep. He just went to sleep. At the
same time, there is an unbeliever who lives in anger and turmoil,
wreaking havoc and persecuting the church, killing with the
letter of the law. Both of those things happen right
here in this chapter. And this is the wonder of sovereign
providence. This display of the grand scheme
of the salvation of the elect is before us in this passage.
Here a young Pharisee, sowing to the wind is what he
is doing, as he holds the garments of the men who hurled the stones
at Stephen, consenting to our brother Red, and agreeing with
their assessment that preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ is worthy of death. That's what he was consenting
to, to preach the gospel is worthy of death. Now later he will reap
the whirlwind. Here he's sowing the wind. Later
he will reap the whirlwind as other zealots hold the garments
of the stone chuckers, but they're not throwing it at Stephen anymore. At Lystra, they're throwing it
at a man named Paul, the same guy who's right here, Salt Lake.
Why is they throwing rocks at him? Because he's preaching the
gospel of God's grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. What happened
to this man that caused him to change from killing men who preached
the gospel to being himself ready to be offered up for the gospel's
sake? I remember old Bob Barton one
time said, ìI believe in election.î He said, ìBut I also believed
when my mama prayed for me back then that God would save me.î
Somehow that all worked in Godís plan. I believe that too. My
mother used to tell me that she prayed for us boys and our sister
like we were the elect even if she didnít know whether we was
or not. She just said, ìLord, save them. I think itís time
you all save them now.î She said that for a lot of years for me,
and I'm sure through a lot of tears. This is an answer to prayer.
Saul stood and held the garments of the men who stoned Stephen,
and the last words that Stephen said were these, Lord, lay not this sin to their
charge. That prayer was answered. Saul. became Paul the apostle. This sin is not laid to the charge
of Saul. And thus we know that no sin
was laid to his charge for to be guilty of the law in one point
is to be guilty of all. Our Lord said, If thou should
mark iniquities, O Lord, who should stand? So evidently this iniquity and
Paul's iniquity is not marked against him. We know it's by
the sovereign will and grace God's appointing him through
choosing him to salvation. But in the wonder of God's providence,
one of his servants on his deathbed cried out, that man out there
holding my clothes, holding clothes for folks to kill me, don't count
that against him. And God didn't. God didn't. How is it possible? By the suffering and death of
Jesus Christ alone. Paul said, Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather is risen again as he was sitting at the right hand of
the Father, living to make intercession for us. Here in this passage
we see Saul. as an unknowing and unwilling
participant, an instrument, if you will, in the hands of Almighty
God, with every bit of venom he spewed, with every threat
he made, with every believer that he had jailed or killed,
this man, this Saul, pushed the gospel further out into the world. That's what he was doing. He
didn't know he was doing that. He thought he was going to get
rid of the name of Christ. But every person he put in jail
just pushed the gospel further and further out into the world.
You see, at this time, the church and the preachers of the gospel
were still kind of hanging around Jerusalem. And that's like preachers
are, you know. We believe in the rest that we
have in Christ. We don't work that hard. Don't
think that we do. We are just preachers. And we
believe that when there is nothing to do, you are supposed to do
nothing. Isn't that right? A good lesson
to learn. And that is what they did. They
thought there was nothing to do. There wasn't nothing going on. So they were
just hanging around Jerusalem. But there was a world out there
to preach to. And as of yet, only Jerusalem
had been recipient of the gospel. But there is a prophecy to be
fulfilled which would not be fulfilled with these preachers
hanging around Jerusalem. Back in Acts chapter 1 and verse
8, our Lord said these to these folks. He said, But ye shall receive
power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be
witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria,
and to the uttermost parts of the earth. Well, how is that
going to take place? They just seem to be content
to be hanging around Jerusalem. Look back at our chapter here,
chapter 8, verses 3 and 4. And Saul, he made havoc of the
church, entering into every house and hailing them, and men and
women committing them to prison. Therefore, they were scattered
abroad. They were scattered abroad, and
they went everywhere preaching the Word of God. Paul was the
instrument for that. His name was Saul then. Their
lingering has come to an end. This firebrand, this theological
hothead named Saul is a scattering sword in the hands of Almighty
God, and because of his hatred for Jesus Christ, the rest of
the world is about to hear the gospel. Verse 5 says, Then Philip
went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ to them there.
Why did he go? It's kind of hot in Jerusalem.
Things are kind of tough up there. There's this little guy named
Saul, and he's given us a lot of trouble. He lets us leave
town. But they left with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God has ordained the gospel to preach into this world. This
man's life, Saul, whether he was in rebellion against or in
submission to the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, he
was ordained From the day he came forth from his mother's
womb, he was ordained for the furtherance of the gospel. Even
though at this time he was acting and doing what he wanted to do
in hatred for Jesus Christ. He is serving God, didn't even
know it. So are you, right now, with everything you do. He was used as an unbelieving
Evangelistic. He was being used as an unbelieving
evangelistic goad, a pointy stick to run the preachers out of town
with the message of the gospel. And his zeal for God was without
knowledge, but not without divine purpose. For the wrath of man
shall praise God, and the rest he will restrain. Whether in
hatred or in love, this man's existence on earth was always
about the business of getting the gospel to the entire world. That is Paul's and Saul's existence. That is why he is here. How could
it be said otherwise? Before I formed thee in the belly
I knew thee, and before thou camest forth out of the womb,
I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee to be a prophet unto the
nations." Paul says, When it pleased God to separate me from
my mother's womb, and call me by his gospel to reveal his Son
in me, I conferred not with flesh and blood. I went out to preach
the gospel. Unbeknownst to Saul, he by prevenient
grace was an instrument in God's hand, a good instrument in God's
hand. And in just a short while, this
man Saul is going to find out who he is when he meets Jesus
Christ and is apprehended on the road to Damascus. The direction
of his career will be forever changed from killing for the
gospel sake to dying for the gospel sake. But in both states,
his steps were ordered by the Lord. That is Saul's life. Isn't that wonderful? Providence
is an amazing and a wondrous thing. After Saul had completed
his first assignment for God, that is what we have here in
this chapter, we find Philip leaving town and headed down
to Samaria, and in verse 5 we see the singular message, the
only message of the Church, the reason the Church is in this
and they preached Christ unto them. Paul would later say, I
determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. That is what the gospel preacher
preaches. In that which follows, we are privileged to view two
conversions in this chapter of Acts. One is a true conversion. The other is a lie. But they
are real conversions. One is notable. It is notable. The man who is converted is a
very powerful man, an even famous man because of the visibility
and notoriety of who he is. This conversion is spread abroad. People know about this. And that
one is false. And one takes place in the middle
of the desert with just the convert and the preacher. No audience,
no congregation to jump up and down, just the preacher and the
gospel and the seeking sinner. And that conversion is real.
That's a true conversion. The first convert, though his
conversion is not spiritual, it was most assuredly religious
and most assuredly experienced. It was experientially real. You know, sometimes we get all
upset with folks because they talk about an experience they
had before they heard grace and things like that. And we ought
to realize that though that never is salvation before you hear
the truth of the gospel, that it is nonetheless an experience.
People have experiences. You can have a really life-changing
experience at a really good rock concert. You can. You can. You can see a movie
and it might change your life forever. That's an experience.
And it's an altering experience. Saul, when he was called to be
king, God said he became another man. He didn't become a spiritual
man. He didn't become a believer.
But he became another man. He became a political man. He
became a royal man. He became another man. And people's
experiences are real. I had a doctor who came to hear
me many years, well not many years, many months actually.
And one day I made the mistake of saying from the pulpit that
you don't come to grace, grace comes to you. That you aren't
converted under false religion where Christ is incapable of
saving anyone. And then suddenly, somewhere
down the line, change your mind and believe that he is capable
of saving someone. And this fellow cornered me on
the porch. He said, I believe the grace
of God. And I said, I'm glad you do.
He said, but I'm telling you, back when my mama was dying,
I sat by her bed and I accepted Jesus right there. He said, later
on I learned the gospel. I said, well, I don't know who
you accepted back then. I said, but let me tell you this,
and I won't doubt your experience. That was real to you. It happened.
You were there emotionally. You were there physically. You
experienced it. I didn't experience it. I don't
doubt that. But if your experience does not line up with what this
book says about how God saves sinners, then enjoy your experience,
but don't count it as salvation. Don't count it as salvation,
because it's not. So if you have an experience, That's fine. I've
seen people, well, I've had experiences myself. I've had many religious
experiences when I was young. They used to call me old Mr.
Redication. I was so guilty, I was always
up there crying. It was a sad thing. But it's
true. All of them were experiences
of real. None of them were salvation.
This fellow had an experience. This fellow had an experience.
It was real. And this conversion of this Simon
Magus, Simon the Magician, Simon the Sorcerer, was no small thing
in Samaria, because he was somebody in Samaria. He was an expert
at self-promotion. That's what it says in verse
9. But there was a certain man called Simon, which before time
in the same city used sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria,
giving out that he was some great someone. He was an expert at self-promotion. He had power and held powerful
sway over many people's lives. So much so that men said that
he was the great power of God. They didn't say that he had the
great power of God. They said he was the great power
of God. Look at verse 10, "...to whom they all gave heed." Everybody
listen to this fellow. "...from the least to the greatest,
saying, This man is the great power of God." Now this fellow
is somebody. This fellow is somebody. He had
the ear and the fear of the people because he kept them in line
with sorcery and magic. Look at verse 11. And to him
they had regard because of a long time he had bewitched them with
sorceries. He was a very powerful, very
persuasive, very charismatic man. And people listened to him. But in verse 12, our Lord records
for us a change in Simon's congregation. in his congregation. Before they
had regard for him, now they have regard for Jesus Christ.
And the difference being denoted by the word, but. When you see
the word, but, in Scripture, it means whatever has come before,
the other side of that little conjunction is opposite. There was an interpreter at the
U.N. and he was interpreting for one
of those High Muckety Muckfellows of the Mew, one of those ambassadors. And that ambassador said to him,
he said, when this guy is talking, he said, don't tell me anything
he says unless he uses the word but. He said, when he says but,
he says, you tell me what he said just before and what he
said just after, and I know where this guy is. Because what he
said just before and what he said just after is opposite. Simon held these people in fear
with magic and sorceries, but something opposite has happened.
Now something else has happened. But when they believed Philip,
preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God in the name
of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Now his congregation
has changed. He's lost that influence all
of a sudden. And the first hint we get of
Simon's true conversion, or the nature of Simon's conversion,
is found in verse 13. It says, Then Simon himself believed
also. And when he was baptized, he
continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs
which were done. It says, Then Simon believed also. He believed also. That's a portly little word.
That means something. The meat and taters of today's
so-called crusades rely heavily on the also aspect of public
professions. That is why before they come
to town, they send out teams to get counselors at churches.
Usually the number is two counselors per 100 members, so we'd have
to send somebody's leg, I reckon. These counselors are instructed
in the psychology of getting folks down front when the evangelist
is finishing up his message, and this is for evangelistic
photo ops and such, and record keeping. Well, how are these
counselors instructed? They are told that when the first
verse of the Invitational Hymn, normally just as I am, is sung,
They, the counselors, are to get up from their seats and go
down front to where they are supposed to go, and the psychological
effect will be that it will be easier for the other lemmings
to follow them and jump off the cliff with them, so others will
believe also. And that is what Simon did. He
believed also. Now, Simon was a stickler for
detail. Every good liar and conman knows
that the devil is in the detail. If you want to tell a good lie,
make sure you have a date in it. Don't just say, well, sometime,
one time. Say, April 16th, and they'll
start listening to you right there. It's part of a con. That's part of a cut. So the
devil is in the details. And Simon was watching what was
going on when all these people were converted, and his congregation
was diminished, and so he believed also. And so he mimicked everything
he saw that the believers did. This man was baptized. It says
he was baptized. This man hung around the preacher. And he was very enthusiastic
and really intrigued at the wonders that were wrought by God, especially
when the apostles came down from Jerusalem, and he began to see
this laying on of hands and giving of the Holy Ghost. And by all
appearance, and to the joy of all around here, this Simon is
a converted man. I mean, he's been baptized. He's
following right behind Philip, and he's watching people do things.
Then Peter and John come down from Jerusalem, and he sees these
fellows laying on their hands, these other people receiving
gifts, special gifts. He says, this is amazing. And
he was watching. A con man knows his business.
He knows his business. By every religious standard,
this fellow would be a candidate for a Sunday school teacher.
He would be a deacon. He'd be a good deacon. A real
cloud pleaser at the testimony meetings. We love him ex-people,
don't we? You're talking about Generation
X. Listen to these testimonies of these crusades. That's Generation
X. I'm an ex-prostitute. I'm an ex-drug user. I'm an ex-theist
and an ex-satan. That's what Simon was. He was
an ex-magician. Those people are talking about
reformation, not regeneration. For the account to end here,
Simon might be remembered as one of the early Saints, a great
example of the power of the gospel, even to take a magician and turn
him into a believer. Got to get that guy on the podium
this week. We'll get a lot of converts if we get him on the
podium this week. But it doesn't end here, does it? God does not
end the record in verse 13. Verses 14-17, Simon's heart and
his affection and thus his nature are revealed. He had done all
the right things, but he had no faith. He had made a decision,
but he had not received anything from God. He had accepted something
new. He was baptized, but did not
confess Christ. He didn't follow Christ. He followed
the preacher. And I say this forever, preacher
here, don't follow us. God help you if you do. We're just men. And we're not
even that much of men, are we? Old Scott Richards, he used to
tell me, he says, I pray nobody finds out what a fraud I am.
Don't you feel that way? Sitting in your study. Why in
the world would anybody come hear me? If they knew what I
was, they'd never listen to a thing I say. That's what every preacher
feels. Every preacher feels that. He followed Philip. He followed the gospel preacher.
He didn't follow Christ. He didn't follow Christ. He labored. He did everything
right. He labored in the fertile fields
of religion. He did it. There is no doubt
about that, but nothing spiritual was done to him or for him, and
nothing spiritual came from him. Now his true colors begin to
shine. As he always has, he sees a way
to make people follow him and regain control of people. He sees another way to rule people's
lives. I don't want to rule your life.
Bill don't want to rule your life. Gary don't want to rule
your life. We really don't. We want you to show up. We have
joy in preaching to you. But listen to me. If you don't
go fishing, go ahead. I'm serious. You might ask yourself, how come
I want to fish instead of hearing the gospel? But go ahead if you
want to go. Go ahead. This man wanted to rule people's
lives. And so he watched as these fellows
laid on hands. And he realized this, that if
he could give or withhold this gift, that he would have some
real power. So he said, let me buy some of
that. I want to buy some of that. And
everything that happens hereafter shows what Simon is. Simon's
repentance is false. Simon's Repentance is not toward
God. It is about Himself. His repentance
is so bad things don't happen to Him. Oh, pray these things
don't happen to me. And that is the tale of Simon.
We find these words concerning him. Simon Peter says, Thy money perish
with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God
may be purchased with money. You're not any part of this thing.
Can you imagine that? Wait a minute. I did what the
rest of them did. I was baptized. I believed. I followed the preacher. Peter
said, You ain't part of this. You ain't a part of this. Many
years ago, my dad asked the preacher where he was at. My dad had been looking at the
concept of election and scripture, and he went up to the preacher
and said, I see this here, and this just seems to say that God
chose people for the foundation of the world. That just seems
to be what the Bible says. There was a deacon standing beside
him, and that deacon said, you need to go somewhere else to
church. That's what he said. He said, we don't believe that
here. You need to go somewhere else. Peter said to Simon, you don't
believe. You ain't a part of this. Your
heart's wrong. Your heart's wrong before God. He said, I perceive that you're
in the gall of bitterness and the bond, you're bound, locked
up, chained up, handcuffed in iniquity. And that's his tale. That's his tale. That's how it
ends. That's how the life and the conversion
is this great man, this great sorcerer, this great man of the
people, not with a bang, but a whimper. There's no bemoaning this fellow
here. Nobody says, poor boy, I wish
we could get Simon back. He must be backslidden. There's
no philosophical discussion as to the nature of belief, nor
is there sickness and sorrow because a
church member in good standing no longer is coming. His name is probably on some
roll somewhere over there still. They never get rid of those.
But what he did and what happened to him changes nothing. Changes nothing. It affects nothing. Prostrates nothing. After this
religious debacle, the record is that believers just kept on
preaching the gospel. Sometimes an understatement,
and the Bible is full of understatements. It is just understated. This
is the way it went. Oh, well, we should have some kind of upheaval.
We should have some kind of counsel to decide how we can get this
fellow back, or whether his conversion was real, or blah, blah, blah.
What are we going to do? Well, I'm going out to St. Mary
and preach the gospel. How about you? That's what they
did. That's what we do. Sometimes
things shake us up. What do we do? Preach the gospel. I don't say, oh, that's the answer.
That's the hip, that's the comfort, that's the conviction, that's
all of it. The gospel of Jesus Christ. Well, what about Simon?
Oh, he's fine. He has pastored the Holy Ghost
full gospel church of the minutely missed magic miracle, got a big
congregation, a good time has had by all. And then we come
to a real conversion, a real conversion. Phillips sent out
a town, not to the big city, but to the desert, not to a crowd,
not to the happy hordes, but just to one fellow. A black man,
an Ethiopian eunuch, a man who had no possibility of a future
in this world. He was a eunuch. He had been
castrated to be a servant so he wouldn't be prone to chase
the ladies. He was a servant. He couldn't
have babies, couldn't give a woman a child. So he didn't have anything
going on. Didn't have a lot. Why? You know,
he couldn't have grandbabies for Jesus. Couldn't have no children to
raise up in the fear and admonition of the Lord. Nobody, this nobody,
this black man who was an emissary for Candace, Queen of Ethiopia. I know one thing for sure. If
it's just him out there, There is no possibility of him believing
also. He can't believe also. And this
is the gospel. First our Lord records for our
understanding the difference between following a preacher
and a preacher being sent to you. There is a difference. The difference is salvation. It's true. The difference is
true and false faith. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. But how shall they call on Him
in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe on
Him in whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? So
before you call, God's got to send. It's that simple. Trace it backwards. That's where
it goes. Secondly, there are no miracles, no laying on of
hands to receive the Holy Ghost. In fact, there is only one other
reference to the Holy Ghost concerning gifts in the book of Acts after
this one. The rest of the references have to do with preaching, praying,
being comforted, and being led by the Spirit. All we have here
is a preacher, the message, and a sinner. That's it. That's all we've got here this
morning, I tell you. A preacher, a message, and a sinner. This fellow, the pastor read
about him. Let's look over at Acts 8, verses
27-35. Philip arose and, Behold, a man
of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen
of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure. He
had come to Jerusalem for the worship, was returning and sitting
in his chariot. reading Isaiah the prophet. Now,
you can tell this guy's got some money because you didn't just
get a copy of anything. It took a scribe to sit down
and write something. You had to pay a lot of money.
You see, a book back then, or any book, if you had a book,
you were a rich man. Poor people didn't have books.
And so, like this book, books back then were written Like if
they were the only book that was ever going to be written.
Every author did this. If an author spent the time to
write a book, it was usually a very long book, it had thousands
and thousands of pages, and it was the kind of book filled with
metaphors and language and symbolism so that you could read that book
the rest of your life and never fully understand it. Never again,
it was just too big, too great. That's the way this book is.
It's a big book. But you know, I've been reading
it for 35, 40 years now, and I'll tell you what, I have not
touched the hem of the garment on this thing. And it just gets
better and better and better the more I read it. That's why
it was written the way it's written. By the Holy Ghost who knows our
minds and our understanding and gives us things. And this man
must have been rich. He paid some scribe to write
down Isaiah. Now, he may have only wrote the
53rd chapter of Isaiah, I don't know, but that's where he was
reading when he was in that chair. Can you imagine this old Ethiopian
reading about this one that came as a root out of dry ground?
A one who was the doctrine of God, and God had said, Who hath
believed our doctrine, and to whom is this doctrine of the
Word of the Lord to be revealed? This one who was Rejected by
men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. That word acquainted
me, and personally, it was his life. That's what that word acquainted
me. Look it up. It's not something
that just sort of, hey, grief is an acquaintance. He was acquainted with grief. It was his personal acquaintance.
This one who, it says, we esteemed him not. He was despised and rejected
of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with greed, and we
esteem him not." We thought God had done something bad to him.
For this kind of thing to happen to a fellow, God must have done
that. He must be punished by God. And yet, He bore our sorrows. With His stripes we are healed.
Oh, we have gone, like sheep have gone astray, and the Lord
has laid all our sin on Him. He was taken from this world.
And He was taken before His judges, and like a lamb, before the slaughter,
He opened not His mouth. And that's what this fellow's
reading. Now, who is this? What's he talking
about? He don't know. He don't have
a clue. And God says, Philip, see that
chariot? Go right there to that chariot. Talk to that fella. And so Philip
comes up beside him and says, you know what you're reading?
He says, how can I understand it unless somebody tells me?
Unless somebody tells me. And he says, from that place,
where the Ethiopian said, who's this talking about when he talks
about a lamb not opening his mouth? Is that talking about
the prophet or is he talking about somebody else? He said, somebody else. And he opened up the scriptures
and preached Jesus Christ to him, right from that place. And
that man was converted. And he wanted to be baptized.
He wanted to confess Jesus Christ in believer's baptism. Philip says, well, if you believe
with all your heart, you can. If you believe with all your
heart. I wonder if it was in his mind.
about Simon Magus, because he believed, but his heart was not
right with God. I wonder what was in his mind
when he said to this Ethiopian eunuch, with all your heart,
believe with all your heart. He said, I believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. That was not really the question.
That was really not the question. Some will say, well, everybody
believes that, and I say, probably most people do. Most people do. I did. I cut my eye teeth on
that, but without any other basis than what I was raised to do
as a fine young southern boy destined for gentlemanhood. You
had to believe Jesus Christ was the Son of God. I was raised
that way. I believed Jesus Christ was the Son of God since the
first time somebody told me Jesus Christ was the Son of God. I
didn't know Him. I believed the fact, didn't know
the person. But when he said this, when he said this, he knew
what he was talking about. When he said, I believe Jesus
Christ is the Son of God, how come you believe that? Because
the preacher just told me what Isaiah 53 means. The preacher
just took me to Isaiah and like those two disciples that were
called by one of them said to the other, come, isn't this the
Christ, the one Moses told us about? The gospel was preached
to this man, and he believed based on the gospel and based
on that one who saw of the travail of his soul and was satisfied
and by his skill and knowledge justified in any. For he bore
their iniquities, and God has raised him up and exalted him
and given him a portion with the grave. He said, that's the Son of God. Who else can that be? I believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Now, you may believe
that, too, and not know Him. But if you believe the Gospel,
you believe that and you do know Him. That's the difference. After hearing the Gospel from
a sent preacher, the eunuch desired to confess the Lord in baptism.
Was he confessing? You ever wonder what that baptism
thing is? Well, it's not a sacrament. It's not a sacrament. A sacrament
is something in the vision of the Roman Church whereby you
receive grace through doing something. Baptism ain't, you don't receive
nothing in baptism. You get wet. That's what you
get. But what are you doing? It's
a wonderful picture. First of all, you confession
that when Jesus Christ died, you died. And when He was buried,
you were buried with Him. When He arose, you arose with
Him. And when He ascended on high, you ascended to heavenly
places with Him. You're confessing all that in that thing. But the
picture is, you're showing yourself to have died. How do you do that? You're putting your life in the
hands of another person and allowing him to put you into an element
that you cannot live in. If He holds you down, you're
a goner. So you're trusting your life
to the man who's putting you into an element where you cannot
live, and trusting that person to bring you out of that element
again. So when you're baptized, it's not just a thing. You're
showing forth the fact that Jesus Christ died in your room instead.
Not only that, you're saying, I'm falling on Him. I'm in His hands. And He's told me that no matter
what the element, I will not die. That's what this fellow
was doing. Folks, so I don't know whether
I'll be baptized. I can't imagine the person I'm going to be. What
a thing to be able to tell the world. What a thing to be able
to tell the congregation of believers around you. Look what God did
for me. Look what I am in Jesus Christ.
I'm alive forevermore. I believe with all my heart,
he said. What does that mean? That means
you trust all that you are and ever shall be to the sovereign
will of Jesus Christ. You trust and believe that you
are saved by the merits of someone else. I ain't got nobody to blame
for my salvation but Jesus Christ. And one final thing. didn't make the headlines like Simon's did. There was no
oohing and aahing. There was no hanging on the preacher's
coattails because the preacher disappeared. He just took off. Well, preacher, don't you want
to stand around and counsel me and tell me how to get started?
No. He'd gone. There was no playing
off the crowd to see who was the best rejoicer. Who could
shout the loudest or wave their hands better than the next guy?
There were no tears on the Kleenex-stocked altar for it is just a sinner
there, all alone in the middle of the desert, saved by grace, no one to see, rejoicing in Christ Jesus. How
sweet is that? Would to God we could all see
the blessedness of a single sinner saved by grace. Without fanfare,
without the counsel to inspect his profession, a sinner having
heard the gospel, rejoicing in the person and work of Jesus
Christ his Lord. You can have a conversion experience, and it would be totally false
and of no value. But if you hear the gospel. in
your heart. If you see Christ with eyes of
faith, you can go on rejoicing. Or if there ain't nobody around,
just go ahead and rejoice anyway. That's what this fellow did.
All the way back to Ethiopia, this fellow went rejoicing. Thank
you for having me. Thank you for inviting me. God
bless you.