I was reading there, a portion of Scripture just really was brought forth, and this is
something that God's preachers, we ask that you pray for us. There in verse 19, and for me
that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly
to make known the mystery of the gospel. In verse 20, for
which I am an ambassador in bonds that therein I may speak boldly
as I ought to speak. We who are preachers of God's
grace, we just pray that God would give us a door of utterance.
just to be able to preach and proclaim His gospel. And when
He does, we are so very thankful. We are so very thankful. Turn,
if you would, to Acts, Chapter 8. Acts, Chapter 8. And I said
this morning's message was Acts, Chapter 8, Part 1. And tonight's
message will be Acts, Chapter 8, Part 2. Now, this morning
we looked at Acts, Chapter 8, verses 1 to 8, and we saw in that portion of Scripture,
a brief historical narrative of the time in the early church. We saw the church enduring persecution
at the beginning of the chapter, and then we saw the rapid spread
of the gospel of Christ from Jerusalem to Samaria, and tonight
we'll continue our study in this chapter, knowing that the gospel
then spread after Philip preached to the Ethiopian eunuch and God
granted him faith to believe what he heard, we know that that
Ethiopian eunuch carried that truth back home. So then the
gospels now spread to Africa, all by the providential hand
of God. We looked at this morning how
the gospel of Christ is an offense to man. We saw that in verses
one to four and how Paul wreaked havoc upon the church. Then we
consider that God is a people that he will save, and that God
always causes a sinner that he has purpose to save to hear the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, always. We looked at how Philip
was sent to preach the gospel. That's why he was sent. He was
sent to preach the gospel to the lost sheep of God in Samaria. And we also saw that wherever
the saints of God went, they proclaimed Christ. They proclaimed
Christ. Now, something for us to consider
as we look at the scripture tonight is that all the supernatural
apostolic gifts ceased with the apostles. They ceased with them. We don't need apostolic power
to confirm the truths of the gospel. Why? Because we have
the scriptures. we have the Scriptures. All that God says to man, He
says through the Word of God, through the Lord Jesus Christ.
God has given us the Holy Scriptures, which contain the Old Testament
and the New Testament. And those Scriptures reveal Christ
and tell us who God is, tell us who God is. Now, keeping that
in mind, God will send a preacher to where God's sheep are. He'll
send a preacher to where God's sheep are. Wherever the gospel
is preached, both true believers and also there will be false
believers, false professors mixed in. Always. Always. With that in our minds, let us
consider Acts chapter 8 and we'll read verses 9 to 25. But let's look at this
verse 9 first of all. But there was a certain man called
Simeon, which before time in the same city used sorcery and
bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some
great one. Take heed, beloved. This man, a certain man the scripture
calls Simeon, was a false prophet. And we know this, he deceived
the people all by drawing attention to himself. He convinced them that he was
a great one. That he was a great one. He was
self-promoting. He was self-promoting. He made
himself out to be something that he was not. And we will see that
even further down as we read the scripture. Now the leaders of false religion
today, they do this too. They make men followers of themselves. And they promote false doctrines.
They bewitch their hearers. Speaking smooth things. And tickling
men's ears. And women's ears. And people
call these false preachers great. Sometimes they have buildings
with thousands of people in them. And people highly esteem them.
Call them great men of God. Surely they're great men of God.
We've got all these people. And also the majority of those
false preachers, they have a very high opinion of themselves. very
high opinion of themselves. They even declare, some of them
declare they got special knowledge from God that no one else has.
Sounds an awful lot like the Gnostics, doesn't it? That's
what they did too. They declare themselves great
because they are held in such high regard by their followers
and they boast of how many souls they have won to Jesus. That's what they boast in. I
remember hearing one of them one time, a young man who was at West, and
this is before I was even saved, I didn't know, and I'm sitting
there and this guy's telling me how he was, how many people
he got to pray a prayer. Oh, he won this one and he won
that one, and it makes the people that are hearing that feel like
shoe leather. Because this guy's telling you
all the great things he's done. And then, of course, to make
themselves feel better, he prays on him, because, well, shit,
this guy's winning souls. All the time. Deceiving those
who are listening. Giving men false assurance. Because,
oh, you prayed a prayer, and I've heard this, I cannot tell
you how many times I've heard false preachers say this. You
prayed a prayer, now you're going to hell. You know the only reason
I'm going to heaven? You know the only reason you
who are the blood-bought saints of God are going to heaven? Because
of what Christ done. Not because of anything we do,
including praying some prayer. Now do we cry out to God when
he saves us? Absolutely we do, don't we? Oh
yeah, because we've been made willing in the day of God's power. But trust me, these folks are
all over. nowadays, these false preachers. And they draw attention to themselves.
They boast even of spiritual gifts they have. All these spiritual
gifts that they have, the gift to healing, but I don't see them
down in the cancer wards. I don't see them in the children's
hospital. No, no, no, no. They can only
do this supposed supernatural gift where they have their meetings. False. False prophets. Deceiving people. Deceiving people. Let's just call them what they
are. Wolves in sheep's clothing. That's exactly what they are.
And you know what they're all about? Give me your seed money
and God will bless you. Well, God blesses me. God blesses
us to spite ourselves, doesn't he? His people, and we are blessed
in who? Christ. We're blessed in Christ. We have all spiritual riches
in Christ. So all the time these religious,
false religious preachers, they draw attention to themselves,
and they bewitch those who are listening. Turn, if you would, to 1 Corinthians
3. Now, we are to highly esteem
God's preachers. We are. But we're also to look
at them as sinners. Because we're all our sinners,
saved by the grace of God. The preacher is only an instrument.
We proclaim the report. And God is the one who gives
the increase. God's the one who gives the increase. God's the only one who can make
the gospel effectual. Look at this in 1 Corinthians
3, we'll read verses 4-7. For while one saith, I am of
Paul, and another saith, I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal? Who then is Paul? And who is
Apollos? But ministers by whom ye believed,
even as the Lord gave to every man. I have planted, Apollos
watered, but God gave the increase. That's so important right there,
because who gets the glory? You see? Gospel preacher can't
claim we won any souls to Christ. Because it's God who gives the
increase. We plant, we water, but God gives the increase. He
gives the increase. It's all Him. Salvation is all
the Lord. All the Lord. All His doing. So then it is neither He that
planteth anything, neither He that watereth, but God that giveth
the increase. Glory be to God. Glory be to
God. Let's go back to Acts. We'll
look at verses 10 and 11 here in Acts chapter 8. Now this Simon, he used sorcery. To bewitch the people of Samaria,
look at this, to whom they all gave heed from the least to the
greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. And to them, they had regard
because of the that that of a long time he had bewitched them with
sorceries. In verse 11 here, the scriptures
claim that Simon used sorcery to bewitch the people of Samaria. Now the Greek word for this means
to throw out of position, displace, to amaze, to astonish, to throw
into wonderment. To be amazed and astonished. And then listen to this last,
this latter phrase of the, Definition for bewitched, to
be out of one's mind. They weren't even thinking right. And he's called Simon Magnus
because he was a magician. John Gill said that Simon Magnus
had learned the diabolical arts and used enchantments and deviation.
And diabolic means characteristics of the devil. or so evil as to
be suggestive of the devil, the diabolical arts, deceptive. He was a deceiver. He was a deceiver. Again, bewitched means to be
put out of wits, to be astonished with, to be astonished with his
insane wonder. So these people were bewitched
by Simon, the magician. They were not in their right
minds. They were deceived with devilish deceptions through lying
wonders that had absolutely nothing to do with the Lord Jesus Christ
or with his glorious gospel. So think of this in light of
false religion. There are a lot of people who
are being deceived or they're bewitched by false teachers.
So therefore you have a lot of people who have made false professions.
False professions. And this has been true in the
day that we're reading of, and this is absolutely true today. Turn, if you would, to Galatians
chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3. We see Paul writing to the
saints in Galatia that they had been bewitched by false teachers.
They were mixing grace with works. We know that. They'd been bewitched. Galatians chapter 3 verses 1
to 6. O foolish Galatians, who hath
bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth,
before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth,
crucified among you. Now God's people can be deceived
for a while, but they will never be fully deceived, because they know the truth.
And look what Paul does, he just brings Christ before them. This
only would I learn of you. Received ye the Spirit by the
works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Remember the Judaizers
had come in and they had said you had to be circumcised to
be saved. So he's asking them, oh, did you receive the Spirit
by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? By your
doing? or by the hearing of faith. Well,
we saw this morning, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the
word of God. Are ye so foolish, having begun
in the spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? That's
the question for today even, isn't it? Can we be made perfect by our
works? Absolutely not. We are only made perfect in the
eyes of God, because we're justified by Christ and by His righteousness,
though we're still sinners while we live upon this earth, by the
righteousness of Christ, by what Christ has done. Have ye suffered so many things
in vain, if it be yet in vain? We know persecution had fallen
upon the church. He therefore that ministereth
to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, Doth he do
it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Even as Abraham believed God
and it was a calendar to him for righteousness. We believe
God. We look to Christ and it's a
calendar to us for righteousness. Oh my boy. That's the wonder
of the gospel. It's all about what Christ has
done. It's all about what Christ has done. Oh, now we know the Holy Spirit
must empower the words of the preacher. Let's turn back to
Acts chapter 8. We know that the Holy Spirit must empower
the words of the preacher to make it effectual. And we marvel
at how a preacher of God can proclaim the word of God and
believers in Christ are blessed by it. It's amazing. We proclaim a report, and God's
people are blessed by that report. It's absolutely amazing. And
we never grow tired of hearing it, do we? We hear it again and
again and again, the great things that Christ had done for us,
and that's all we want to hear. That's all we're satisfied with.
Don't preach to me smooth things. Don't tell me what I have to
do. Tell me about what's done, and tell me about who did the
work. Tell me about Christ. And we saw this morning, what
did they do? They just preach Christ. They
just preach Christ. Look at Acts chapter 8, verse
12. What did Philip preach again?
Well, we know earlier today, we looked at the first nine verses,
we know that he preaches Christ. Look at this. And 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. What did Philip do? He preached Christ. He preached
Christ. That same message that Philip
preached is the same message that Gospel preachers preach
today. It's the same message. They proclaim Christ and Him
crucified. That's what Gospel preachers
do today. And as God has delivered us from
the power of Satan And from the sorcery of his false preacher,
so God delivered his lost sheep to whom Philip was preaching
the gospel to here. Now we know that many who heard
Philip preach turned a deaf ear all the times that he was preached,
and many had turned a deaf ear. And many did not believe, but
some did believe. As many as were ordained to eternal
life, what? Believed. Believed. Why did some here that Philip
preached to, why did they believe? Why did they believe and others
did not? Because it was the appointed time by God for them to believe.
And they were granted faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. They were granted faith to believe
the truths that Philip proclaimed to them. And they believed. And they believed. Do you believe
the things that are proclaimed by gospel preachers? Oh, yeah. By God's grace, I believe. I believe. And if you don't,
our prayer is that God would grant you faith and give you
grace to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And the scripture
says, thou shalt be saved. Our great and glorious God has
ordained a particular people to be saved, and they are those
He chose in Christ before the foundation of the world. Now,
the gospel preacher has no idea who they are. Therefore, we preach
the gospel to all. And God does the same. He gives the increase, remember?
He gives the increase. My. He will save His sheep. They
will be born again by the Holy Spirit of God. They will be born
again by the almighty power of God. Because God has ordained
that they should receive eternal life. Always remember that our God
has a people whom He will save. Always remember that. And always remember that He causes
a sinner that He has purpose to save to hear the Gospel. And every one of us who believe
are a testimony to that truth. You ever think of that? You're
a testimony to that truth. Because the only reason you believe,
the only reason I believe, is because God ordained it to be
so. That He might get all the glory. By God's grace, we who believe
have received the Spirit. And He guides us. unto all truth. Who does the scriptures say that
the Holy Spirit points God's people to? Christ. He does not
speak of himself. No, he points us to Christ, the
only Savior and the only Redeemer. Now, we saw over there in Galatians
that God's people can be temporarily deceived by false preachers,
but the Word of God tells it's not impossible for God's enlightened
children to be deceived totally. Look at Matthew chapter 24. Matthew
chapter 24, verses 23 and 24. And this is where God's persevering
grace comes in, that He keeps us, beloved. He keeps us. And
as one grace preacher said, once you hear grace preaching, it
ruins you for everything else. You don't want to hear anything
else. You don't want to hear nothing else. All we want to
hear is about what Christ's done for us. All we want to hear is
a complete salvation that's already been accomplished by the Lord
Jesus Christ. Matthew chapter 24, verses 23
and 24, the scripture says this, then if any man shall say unto
you, lo, here is Christ, or there, believe it not. For there shall arise false Christ. Look at that. and false prophets. False Christ is a God who wants
to save you, but He can't. He needs your help. Let me tell you, my Savior and
you who are saved, your Savior, He needs no help from no one.
No one. He's God Almighty. He saves whomever
He wills. False preachers are those who
mix grace and works and tell you, it's not hard to figure
them out, because they always tell you what you've got to do
to gain merit and favor with God. And why do we grace preachers
keep trumpeting that? Because it's deception. Because you're either saved by
grace alone plus nothing, or you're not saved at all. That's
what the Scriptures say. Salvation is of the Lord, period. Nothing mixed in. So again, we see the importance
of being under the ministry of God's ordained preachers, where
the gospel is being preached. And why? So that God's people
grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's
continue in our text and we'll see what it appears that Simon
has been saved. It appears that way, but we'll
find out that this is a false profession of faith. Always remember
that wherever the gospel is preached, both true believers and those
who make false professions of faith will be found. And those
false professions will be brought to light over time. They will
be. Acts 8, verses 13 to 19. Then Simon himself believed also. And when he was baptized, he
continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs
which were done. Now when the apostles which were
at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God.
They sent unto them Peter and John. They were rejoicing. Let's
send more preachers down there. Oh my! Who, when they were come
down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost.
For as yet he was fallen upon none of them, only they were
baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then lay their hands on
them, and they received the Holy Ghost. And when Simon saw that,
through laying on of the apostles' hands, the Holy Ghost was given,
he offered them money. Oh, he wanted this. Why? Because
remember, he was a great man at one time. He had bewitched
all these people. He had all this. He had a following. Oh, he wants that again. He wants what they have. Saying, give me also this power. It's all about power, isn't it? My, oh my. That on whosoever
I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. He thought that the giving of
the Holy Spirit could be bought. He thought something he could
purchase. Now watch how Peter exposes this
false professors. False profession. When he proclaims
that Simon's heart is not right in the sight of God. But Peter
said unto him, thy money perish with thee. Now remember what
the scripture says, for what shall a profit a man if he gain
the whole world and lose his own soul? Because thou hast thought that
the gift of God may be purchased with money. Oh my, remember? Something that we gospel preachers
constantly proclaim. You can't earn it, and you can't
buy it. Salvation in Christ alone. That which is possible with God
is impossible with man. Man cannot save themselves. You
can't buy salvation, and you can't earn salvation by your
own works. It's a free gift. It comes from
God. It's a free gift. But Peter said
unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought
that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither
part nor lot in this matter." He just called him right out,
right there. He said, you're a false professor. You don't have any lot in this
matter. For thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Well,
how is our heart right in the sight of God, beloved? Because
God does a work on his people, doesn't he? We're born again
by the Holy Spirit of God, and then we're clothed in the perfect
spotless righteousness of Christ. But here, he's saying to this
man, but this man being baptized, this man made a profession. Oh my. Thou is neither part nor lot
in this matter, for thy heart is not right in the sight of
God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray, God,
if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. For
I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the
bond of iniquity.' Then answered Simon and said, Pray ye to the
Lord for me, that none of these things which ye have spoken come
upon me. And when they had testified and preached the word of the
Lord returned to Jerusalem and preached the gospel in many villages
of the Samaritans. What's one of Satan's desires?
It's to turn God's people's eyes from the Lord Jesus Christ. To
turn us away from the gospel truths. And the enemy has been around
for a long, long time, hasn't he? He's deceived people with
signs and wonders. He has false preachers. And one of the things he does
is rile people up, too, against each other. And then he raises
up false preachers who proclaim grace and works. Something you
gotta do. And it's no longer grace. It's
not grace at all. It's not grace at all. The devil knows the sinful desires
of the natural mind, and we're wired for works, as I said many
times, we're wired for works. And he plays upon that. And he
has throughout all the history of man, from Cain to this present
generation. You know, there's only two religions
in the world. Grace and works. Grace and works. All false religions
can be boiled down to works. And there's only one true. One
true religion, that's salvation through Christ alone. Abel, by God's grace, knew that.
He offered the proper sacrifice. Isaac, by God's grace, knew that.
Joseph, by God's grace, knew that. We saw, if you read on
in Acts chapter 9, Paul, by God's grace, finds that out too. Oh
my. And we found that out too, haven't
we? We who believe. So, here before us, right here,
we've seen... We've seen a picture of a false
profession. Now, Let's look at the latter
part of this scripture here. We'll look at verses 26 to 40
where we read of Philip being sent to preach to a man of Ethiopia
who was a eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. Now we've already established
with this morning's message and tonight's that Philip preached
the gospel of God's free grace. And we already established who
he preached. He preached Christ. We know that from the first portion
of this chapter. He preached Christ. That's what
he did. Everywhere he went, he preached Christ. And Christ alone. Now he sent, he sent the preach to this Ethiopian. And you know what message he
preaches? The same message that Paul preached. The same message
that Peter preached, the same message that John preached, which
is the same message that gospel preachers today preach. Salvation
is only in Christ, in Christ alone. By His work, by all that
He's done. And the only righteousness the
believer has is in and through Christ, in Christ alone. And
the fact that He died upon the cross as a substitute of His
people. And again, this has to be taught,
He was raised for our justification. We are justified by Christ. By Christ. My, it's wonderful.
Wonderful news to sinners. Look at this. Starting in verse
26, we'll read all the way to verse 40. And the angel of the
Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south,
into the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which
is the desert. And he arose and went, and behold,
a man of Ethiopia, and eunuch of great authority, under Candace
queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure,
had come to Jerusalem for to worship. Now, this Ethiopian
eunuch had no idea that he had a divine appointment with one
of God's preachers. He's one of God's lost sheep,
beloved. And remember what I said earlier? God will always send
a preacher to his lost sheep, to those he's ordained to save. He will always send a preacher.
He always will. He always will. With that in
mind, let's continue to read here. He was returning and sitting
in his chariot, read Isaiah the prophet. Then the Spirit said
unto Philip, Go near and join thyself to this chariot. And
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 men should guide me? And he desired Philip
that he would come up and sit with him. Let's read again over there in Romans chapter
10. with this in mind, look what
he says, and how can I accept some man should guide me? And
he declared, or he desired Phelps that he would come up and sit
with him. Let's go back over to Romans chapter 10. I know
we read this this morning, but I'd like to read it again here.
Romans chapter 10, look at verse 13, starting there. For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in
Him of whom they have not heard? So how shall anyone call on Christ
or believe on Christ if they've never heard of Him? See, this exposes the folly of
when you hear people say, well, that man went to heaven. And
you know how he was. You know that he didn't even
trust Christ and didn't even know Christ. And how shall they call on Him
in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in
Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? Well, a preacher just preaches Christ, right?
We proclaim Christ and Him crucified. And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. Philip was sent to this Ethiopian
eunuch to preach Christ to him. to preach the glad tidings of
Christ. Let's go back in our text then. The place of the scripture which
he read was this, he was led as a sheep to the slaughter,
and like a lamb dumbed before his shearer, so opened he not
his mouth. Well, we know that's a portion
where he is wounded for our transgressions. He is bruised for our iniquities.
In his humiliation, his judgment was taken away. And who shall
declare his generation for his life is taken from the earth?
Oh, my. And the eunuch answered Philip
and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of
himself or of some other man? Look at this. Then Philip opened
his mouth and began at the same scripture. And remember, this
is the Old Testament scripture. That's all they had. They did
not have the New Testament. And Philip opened his mouth and
began the same scripture and preached unto him, Jesus, the only savior of sinners, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He preached unto him, Jesus. And as they went on their way,
they came unto a certain water, and the eunuch said, See, here
is water, what doth hinder me to be baptized? Now, did Philip
say, well, now, you know, you need to bow your head and repeat
a prayer? Is that even in the text? Or you need to walk an
aisle? Or you gotta be baptized and
then you're saved? Is that even in the, that's not even in the
text, is it? It's not in the text. But what
does the text say? It says this. And Philip said,
if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. Do you believe? Do you believe with all thine
heart? Because the only way you can believe with all your heart
the things of Christ is if you're born again of the Holy Spirit
of God. It's not some people always looking for something to happen. Do you believe? I can tell you, I didn't believe
and now I believe. Is it so with you? And now that's
all I want to hear about. That's all I want to hear about.
Do you know, I like what Spurgeon say, the Lord can regenerate
a person just like that. Just like that. What I was looking for was some
people are always looking for an experience. God can save you without you
moving a muscle. You can be born again without you even moving
a muscle. Isn't that amazing? Because it's a work of God. It's
a work of God. So he asks him this. If thou
believest with all thine heart, he doesn't say, bow your head
and repeat this prayer, and now you're saved. No, no. No, he
asks them, do you believe what I preached? Do you believe what
I preach? A good test for us, isn't it?
Because you know there's a lot of people who hate what we preach. Who hate the preaching of God's
free and sovereign grace in Christ alone. A lot of people just don't
even want to hear about it. Why? Because it offends the pride
of men. It offends the pride of men.
Because man wants to do something. What must I do to be saved? Look
to Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Do you believe? Do you believe? May God give you grace to believe
if you don't. And if you do believe, rejoice. Rejoice. Oh, rejoice, beloved. said if thou believest with all
thine heart thou mayest and he answered look at this confession
I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God oh my is that
not what we proclaim as believers we believe what the preacher
saying and we confess that we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
in him alone and he commanded the chariot
to stand still And they went down both into the water, both
Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized them. Oh my. And when they came up out of
the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the
eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing. Why
is he rejoicing? Because he's saved from all his
sins. He's rejoicing, beloved. Do we
not rejoice over that? knowing that we are totally forgiven,
that we have a complete salvation in Christ. Oh, it makes you rejoice,
because you know that salvation is not dependent on anything
we do. All of it. And we know that the fact that
we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, God granted us faith
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He made us willing to
believe that, to flee to Christ. It's marvelous. It's absolutely
marvelous. So God's people rejoiced. And
this eunuch, he left rejoicing. And I can tell you, he told others
about this. Oh, he did. Oh, my. He did. Look at this. Now, where's Philip? But Philip was found at Azotas
and passing through. What's he doing? Philip was found
in this other city. What's he doing? He's preaching
Christ, beloved. He's preaching Christ. And passing
through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea.
And we know he preached Christ. Because he's sent to preach Christ.
That's what gospel preachers do. We go to where God sends
us and we preach Christ and Him crucified. It's wonderful. And
God's people, that's all we want to hear, isn't it? That's what
we want to hear. Now we saw in verse 12 that those
who believed what Philip preached, which is the things concerning
the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, that they were
baptized, both men and women. They made a public profession
of faith, and then they submitted to believers' baptism. And they
were filled with great joy. And we see, we see this eunuch. He hears the word of God. He's
born again by the Holy Spirit of God. Philip asked him, do
you believe? He says, I believe. I believe
that Jesus Christ is the son of God. Oh my. And then he submits the believers
baptism. My goodness. And God's people rejoice. We
rejoice in our Lord Jesus Christ. We rejoice in His perfect redeeming
work that made us acceptable in God's sight. We express great
joy all to our Savior for His glory. We confess Him before
all. And we submit to believers' baptism. We submit to believers' baptism.
Look at verse 35. Then Philip opened his mouth
and began the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus.
Then look at verse 36 and 37. And as they went on their way,
they came to a certain water, and Eunuch said, See, here is
water. What doth hinder me to be baptized?
And 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. Philip asked him, do you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ? And the eunuch quickly professes that he does. He believes Christ is the Son
of God, the only Redeemer for sinners. Look at that, and he answered
and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. My goodness. Now, if you profess
Christ and have not been baptized and I ask you the question, why
not? Why not? Have you ever wondered why we
call it believers baptism? Because when you hear the preaching
of the free grace of God in Christ and you believe you submit to
believers baptism. Now, if you were baptized under
the preaching of a false gospel, then that was not believer's
baptism. You just merely got wet. Because you didn't believe. If you were baptized as an infant,
or immersed, or sprinkled, that was not believer's baptism, because
at that time, no one knows Christ. It's nothing but the traditions
of man. If you were baptized just to
please your parents, or your spouse, or to please anyone,
That was not Believer's Baptism. And if you're trusting in that,
then you're perishing your sins. Believer's Baptism in no way
saves us. We are saved by Christ and Christ
alone. Believer's Baptism is merely
a public profession, publicly professing our faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Confessing that He is the true
and living God. who became a man, why? For the
purpose of saving his people from their sins. And God's people
believe that. And God's people marvel that
they are in that number. Believers, baptism is to be completely
immersed in water, which symbolizes the death, burial and resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We go down into the watery grave,
symbolizing that we died in Christ. We come out of the watery grave,
symbolizing that we were in Christ when He arose, testifying that
we have been raised to newness of life, with a sincere desire to follow
our Master and to live for His glory. So let us leave here considering
What a great honor our sovereign God has bestowed upon his people. The honor of being partakers
of his divine nature, the honor of being called his son or his
daughter, but we're all sons of God. The honor of calling the great
Jehovah God my father. What an honor. the honor of being in the living
union with the Lord Jesus Christ, because He's the head and we're
the body. Brethren, God has given us eternal
life for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, our risen Savior.
It is to Him that we ascribe all glory, honor, and praise. Heavenly Father, we thank Thee
for the scriptures we were able to look at tonight. Oh Lord,
we marvel as we've journeyed through this whole passage of
scripture at thy sovereign almighty providential hand and how you
send preachers to where your sheep are to comfort those who
are saved. And also Lord, that through the
preaching of your word and by thy almighty power, thou might
draw lost sinners to thee, your lost sheep, We marvel at the
wondrous grace and mercy that you have had upon we who are
your people. We marvel that we are included in the number that
you chose in eternity in Christ. To you be all glory, honor, and
praise. And again, we love you because you first loved us. In
Jesus' name, amen.