Acts chapter 8. Let me give you
just a brief summary as to what has taken place in the latter
part of this chapter. A man by the name of Philip has
been commanded by an angel to leave the place where he was
enjoying great blessing and preaching the gospel and told to go out
into a desert place called Gaza. Basic same area that this past
week, hidden in the midst of all the other news, there were
about 60 rockets fired into what is now Israel, Gaza. But he's
sent out into this desert place called Gaza, not himself knowing
why he's going there, but as he's there walking in that desert,
he's passed by a man of some esteem and place in this world,
a man who is a eunuch to the Queen of Ethiopia, And he is
the keeper of her treasury. He's riding along in his chariot. He has, no doubt, a driver. So he's reading a scroll of the
Scriptures. And so when Philip sees him,
he's led by the Spirit to join this man in this chariot And
noticing what he is reading, he speaks to him and asks him
a question. Look down in Acts chapter 8,
beginning in verse 29. Then the Spirit said unto Philip,
Go near and join thyself to this chariot. Here we have a clear
example of God making sure that His child hears the message of
the gospel. Those who He calls to truly preach
the gospel and sends them out, although it may appear to some
into obscurity, they are not on a fool's errand. They are
looking for the sheep. It says, "...and Philip ran thither
to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, or 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. Now, the question that
Philip is asked, or asks first of all, is simply this. He said, do you understand what
you are reading there in the Scriptures? And I could ask the
same question this very day after we have just heard the reading
of the Scriptures. Do we understand what is being
read? Do we understand what is being
preached? Sadly, there is in our day, by
some, a kind of mockery toward this business of knowledge. But the word that we have here
in our text, in the original, is the Greek word ginosko. And that is the word that is
used many times and many places to speak of knowledge. It means to know. It means to
know by experience. It means to acquire knowledge. It means to get to know the sense
of it. Do we know the sense of what
has just been read? Philip asked this man, do you
know the sense? That is, do you have understanding? And I'm told that in the original,
it senses in this man Philip a doubt that he does. He doubts that he really understands
what he has just been reading. And the truth was, he did not. By his own confession, he did
not, and neither do any of the sons of Adam, neither do any
of us of ourselves, because of our spiritual blindness, because
of our natural enmity against the true God, and our natural
desire for a God rather than God who is simply just an idol. We are, as Paul said, blinded
by the God of this world. And he gives us this condemnation,
this universal condemnation on all of our race. He says that
by nature, there is none that understands. None of us, of ourselves,
understands the things of God. Paul describes us in this way
in Ephesians 4. He says, having the understanding
darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in them because of the blindness of their hearts. because of the blindness of our
hearts, because we have not understanding of the things of God. So it remains,
if we ever do get understanding, God in grace, God by a work of
His own self, has to give it to us just like He did this eunuch. And God said this very thing,
the Apostle John said this very thing to those that he describes
as being the little children of God, and as those who had
been taught of God, listen to what he says. Turn over to 1
John and the 5th chapter. 1 John chapter 5. And look down at what John writes
as he closes out this first epistle of John. He writes to these who
are believers now in Christ, these who have heard the gospel,
these that are described as having been now born of God or born
from above, born of His Spirit, And look at what he says in verse
20. He says, "...and we know," that
is, distinguishing himself and these that he writes to from
a world that yet lies in wickedness and blindness, he says, "...and
we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us and understanding."
You see that? That which distinguishes these
people of God, these true believers, from false professors and from
a world that yet lies in wickedness, is that God has come to them
and given them in Christ an understanding. Now listen to what he continues,
"...and understanding that we may know him that is true." You
see, there is a true God and there are many false gods. And you in our blindness and
I in my blindness, all of us together, we cannot discern or
distinguish from the true because of our blindness and our lack
of understanding and our natural desire for that which is not
true. He says, "...that we may know
Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in
His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life." In other words, this understanding,
he says, is a gift of grace. It is given to some people. He has given this. We don't earn
it. We don't come by it by our natural
abilities or natural learning. He says He has given it to us,
and it is a gift of His distinguishing grace. He says God has given
this to us, not to everyone. And that's the only reason any
son of Adam, any sinner, ever has it. And it is not because
of their own intelligence or learning, because if you look
back in the Gospel, you find that these learned Pharisees,
they did not have it. And yet here were a few ragged
fishermen. and an old tax collector. And men such as this, these that
were low in this world, they had received of God this understanding
from God that they might know Him that is true. And that's what John says there.
He says that God had given them this understanding so that they
might know the true God and be able to distinguish Him from
every false god, and that is to know the true God in Jesus
Christ. We don't know the true God in
any way or through any person except Jesus Christ." And then
he goes on to tell us, this is eternal life. Let me read you what our Lord
prayed in John 17. He prayed this to the Father
and He says, and this is life eternal. You don't have to wonder, you
don't have to guess, you don't have to search. This is as clear
and as emphatic as it possibly could be made. He said, "...and
this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." In other words, we
don't possess life eternal. No matter what we feel, no matter
what we do, no matter what we profess, no matter what is thought
of us, we do not know or have eternal life except in the true
God through Jesus Christ. Do we understand that? This is
eternal life, that is, to know God in Jesus Christ. And to know God in Jesus Christ
is to know Him as the true Jehovah. He is, as he says, and as he
directs the apostles to say, God manifests in the flesh. Turn back over to the Gospel
of John. John chapter 1, and look at what
John is led by the Spirit of God to write. This is amazing. He says in John chapter 1 and
the very first verse, he begins where everything has to begin,
in the beginning with God, and in Him who is Himself described
as the beginning of the creation of God. Listen, in the beginning
was the Word. You see that? Capital letters. That distinguishes him as a person
or as a being. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. That's that amazing, glorious
God in three persons. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was
life, and the life was the light of men." Now, light is used so
many times in Scripture to speak of truth and knowledge and understanding. And so we only understand the
Scriptures in the proportion that we are enabled by God the
Spirit to see the Lord Jesus Christ in the Scriptures. Now we can sit back and we can
read it and try to take some comfort from the Scriptures or
something said in the Scriptures that does not really belong to
us. that we could never possess,
that we could never have, because everything in this book is said
to be in Christ Jesus, and if we are not in Christ Jesus, they
do not belong to us. How do we know God? Somebody
says, well, you can't know God. Well, you've just called the
Scriptures a lie. He said eternal life is to know
God. Listen, as he goes on in this
passage, look down in verse 14. He says, "...and the Word," this
same Word that was in the beginning, that was with God and that was
God, "...the Word was made flesh." and dwelt among us, and we beheld
His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth." Grace and truth. Those two inseparable
Siamese twins, if you want to call them that. You cannot know
grace without truth, and if you know truth, you'll know grace. Because grace and truth came
by Jesus Christ. Look at what it says in verse
17, "...for the law was given by or through Moses." But grace
and truth. grace and truth came. He who came in human flesh and
said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. He is the one in
whom all grace from God is given. And this understanding, therefore,
has to do with a knowledge of, and being brought to a confidence
in, Jesus Christ alone. Just Christ. The psalmist had
long before said this, "...the fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom, and a good understanding have all they that do His commandments."
Do you mean the Ten Commandments? No. I mean just exactly what
this same apostle John records in 1 John 3, when he says, "...and
this is His commandment, that we should believe on the name
of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as He gave us
commandment, that we might know Jesus Christ. And just as it
was with this eunuch, this understanding has to do with a revelation of
God the Spirit through the Word of God, through the gospel. Now you and I, in our day, in
God's wisdom and providence, we have even a greater revelation
of the Word than either Philip or this Enoch had. But it doesn't
matter whether it is here in the New Testament, where this
great mystery of godliness, Christ in human flesh, come to this
world to die and to suffer for the sins of His people. It doesn't
matter whether it's there or all the way back in Isaiah 53,
which is exactly where this eunuch was reading. It is the same gospel,
it is the same grace of God, it is the same salvation, that
is only through Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now, let me read you just a few
verses that are found in Psalm 119, which is a psalm that's
unique in this. Every verse is the longest psalm,
and every verse in that psalm has some reference to the Word
of God. Psalm 119 and verse 34, "...give
me understanding." and I shall keep thy law, I shall
observe it with my whole heart." Do you notice, as we'll look
at in a minute, when this Enoch was given understanding by God
of just exactly what it was that the apostle, or the prophet rather,
was talking about. The very first thing that stems
from that understanding is obedience. Listen to this verse, "...I have
more understanding than all my teachers, for thy testimonies
are my meditation." Here's a man over here or a woman over here
that has a PhD. And here's a man over here that
walks in a field, drives a tractor in a field by himself. He has
no formal education. And yet he has more understanding
than those who would teach him because his meditation is on
what God says. in His Word. Listen to this verse. Through thy precepts I get understanding,
therefore I hate every false way. You don't hate something. I hear people say stupid things
like this. Well, I don't hate anything.
Well, you don't have any understanding then. He says, through the Word
or the precepts of God, I get understanding, therefore, I hate
every false way. What did He mean by that? He
meant that He hated every false way that men would seek to go
to God? He hated every way set forth
by man or trusted in by man other than Him who is the way? I hate every false way. Listen
to this, "...thy testimonies are wonderful, therefore doth
my soul keep them. The righteousness of thy testimonies
is everlasting. Give understanding, and I'll
live." I'll live. You see, that's the only way
God will enable us to live. He enables us to live because
He gives us understanding, and only the Spirit of God can give
this understanding, but He does it through means of a human instrument. He does it through this preaching
of the gospel. Look at what it says in our text
in that 31st verse. Listen to what Philip, he asked
this man this question, do you understand what you're reading?
Listen to his response in verse 31. He said, how can I except
some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he
would come up and sit with him. Now I want you to just think
about this a minute. And that is the instrument that God used
whereby the Spirit directed Him to teach this man in order to
give him understanding. He had just left Jerusalem. He had just left a place, one
city, where there were enough religious scholars and teachers
and various persons who claimed to have some understanding of
God. He had just engaged in all these
rituals of religion and Judaism, and he had left that place with
no understanding. He didn't find this understanding
in somebody's big cathedral. He didn't find this understanding
through some Dr. Philip or some religious person
big in somebody's denomination. He did not get this understanding
there. He sent a man, God sent a man
on a collision course. I'll just confess it. I don't
think Philip was all that much different than somebody like
myself. He's out there sent out in the
desert, and he gets out there in the desert, and he's questioning
God maybe. He's wondering why he's not seeing
what he once saw somewhere, maybe in another place. He's wondering
why he now has been taken out of this fellowship with these
other preachers of the gospel and such as that. Why is he there? Because divine providence has
him on a course to meet with one of God's sheep in order to
preach to him the gospel whereby the Spirit will give him understanding. And that's always the case. God
will send His messenger and His sheep on this collision course. He will. He may get transferred
in the Marine Corps somewhere. He may get a job transferred
somewhere. But where he's going to be put
is where the gospel of Christ will be preached to him, and
God will open up his understanding. Paul said, we have this treasure. What was he talking about? He's
talking about the gospel. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels. That's just another term for
clay pots. We have this gospel, precious
treasure of the gospel, in the minds, in the hearts of men who
are just in themselves nothing that would attract you in any
way. They stutter and stumble, and
they have no recognition by the world, but they have this treasure
of the gospel, and it's for a reason. He said that your hope, that
your confidence might be of God and not of man. If I preach the
gospel to you, you can look at me and in about two minutes you
can sum up that there's no reason to have any confidence in this
fellow. If you're going to look in my mind, in my heart, I'm
sure on any given moment you'd say, definitely, there's no need
to have any confidence in this man, and I don't want you to.
I want you to have confidence in the one that this treasure
speaks of, the Lord Jesus Christ. He gives us an understanding
with regard to those things that we must know and would not know
any other way. He gives us an understanding
of who Jesus Christ is and of what God has given us in Him,
so that Paul says, for after that in the wisdom of God, the
world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them And when he writes that in 1 Corinthians
1, he's talking about two things. The first thing is, he's talking
about the preaching of the cross. No, give me the preaching of
positive thinking, or give me the preaching of family living,
or give me the preaching of encouragement in life, or give me the preaching
of health and education. Give me some... No, he said through
the preaching, the foolishness of preaching, the preaching of
a crucified Christ. That's the one thing. And then
the other thing he's talking about in the context, if you
read it all, he's talking about the method, that God would call
a sinner to preach this vital, essential message that is essential
to the glory of God and to the salvation of His people, that
He would do that through the preaching of a sinful preacher
like all preachers are. Turn over to Matthew 13. Matthew
13. Look down in this text where
we have the parable of the sower. You remember the sower that went
forth to sow? You don't have to wonder about
interpretation on this. He goes on in this text, he says,
the seed is the Word of God. It's the gospel. Now listen,
Matthew 13, he's talking about the two various groups of those
the seed is cast upon. Well, in verse 19 it says this,
"...when anyone heareth the word of the kingdom and understands
it not, then comes the wicked one and catches away that which
was sown in his heart. This is he which received the
seed by the wayside." He didn't understand the importance of
it. He didn't understand the glory
of it. He didn't understand that this
message was of God. He didn't understand that this
is the only way of salvation. He didn't understand that this
was that Word, this Gospel wherein the righteousness of God is revealed. Look down in verse 23. but he
that receives seed into the good ground." Good why? Why was it different than the
other man's ground? Speaking of his heart, because
the Spirit of God had prepared it. "...is he that hears the
word and understands." See that? He's made by God to understand
this is the message of God. She's made to understand that
this is where it is all at. It's in this crucified Christ. They're made to understand their
own desperate lostness and sinfulness. They're made to understand just
exactly what it is God is saying in this Word. They're made to
understand His glory and His holiness. Let me read you another
portion of Scripture. Paul, writing to the Corinthians,
he says this. He's writing to believers. He
says, "...but as it is written, I hath not seen nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man the things which
God hath prepared for them that love him, but God hath revealed
them unto us." by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knows the
things of a man save the Spirit of man which is in him? Even
so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God."
I don't know what's in you or you. You don't know what's in
me. You know in a measure what's
in you, your spirit. I know what's in me in the measure
of my Spirit." But he said, none of us could know the things of
God except the Spirit of God. And by the way, Christ said,
when the Spirit has come, He won't speak of Himself, He'll
speak of me. He'll take the things of Christ
and show them to you. Alright, now listen, he goes
on. He says, now we have received not the Spirit of the world,
but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things
that are freely given to us of God. I'll never forget the message
I heard Brother Henry Mahan preach on that very verse. When can
you tell if the Spirit of God is taking the gospel of God and
speaking to you." Somebody said, when He tells you what to do.
No. He says, when He takes and reveals
to us and gives us understanding that we might know the things
that are freely given to us of God. When He talks, when He speaks
through His Word and causes us to see in His Word the things
that are freely given us of God. Freely, that word means without
a cause in us. As a matter of fact, It says
in Scripture that they persecuted Christ, they despised Him, they
hated Him without a cause. There was no reason in Him for
them to hate Him. And that is simply the translation
of this Word, that He justifies us freely. without a cause, in
us, by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. Look over in Luke 24. I'll wear
you out this morning, but I want you to hear Him and not me. You see, when everything is said
and done, it's all going to boil down to this, what thus saith
the Lord. You may stand before God and
say, well, I thought. It won't matter one bit. Our
thoughts, he says, are not his thoughts, and our ways are not
his way. It isn't going to matter what
so-and-so's opinion was, or what this one's doctrine is, or what
this denominates. It just isn't going to matter.
Look here in Luke chapter 24. This is after the resurrection
of Christ, to show you how naturally blind Even those disciples were
that walked with Him. You stop and think about this.
God walked among men. They didn't know Him. Have you
ever heard this song, Let others see Jesus in you? They didn't
see Jesus in Jesus. Perfection. It wasn't good enough
for them. But listen to what it says here,
after the resurrection, when Christ came and presented Himself
to them. They didn't know who He was.
They didn't know what all this was that had happened. He'd been
taken, crucified, hung on a cross, put in a tomb. Now He's been
raised from the dead. It's obviously Him. Verse 44,
And He said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto
you while I was yet with you." He spoke them. They heard the
preacher of preachers. They sat under the teacher of
teachers. But they didn't understand. "...that
all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law
of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms concerning
me." The Old Testament, just like the New Testament, is a
book concerning Jesus Christ. Alright? Look at verse 45, "...then
opened He their understanding, that they might
understand the Scriptures. You ever been told something,
or the teacher in school sat there, or you sat there and she
or he tried to instruct you and you just couldn't get it somehow,
and then finally, all of a sudden it was like, I see. I see. This is the spiritual
of that. I see. I was a preacher, pastor
of a church. I didn't see. But one day God
opened my understanding to see what Jonah confessed from the
belly of the whale when he said, salvation is of the Lord. And so he opened this book, just
like we all must, but he has to open our understanding, understand
what we are, And it's in every place, and I've already said
too much. I've already got too far so that
I can't get to where I was going. But you read, and I may deal
with this next week also. You just turn to Isaiah 53 and
read it, like was read this morning. I remember years ago I read behind
an old commentator, and he said, you know, he said, it's almost
as if Isaiah is standing at the foot of the cross. What's Isaiah
doing? He's preaching Christ and Him
crucified, hanging on that cross in the place of His people, so
that God, as a just God, might punish their sins in him and
charge them with his righteousness. For the transgression of my people
was he stricken." Paul said, I delivered unto you, first of
all, that which I also received, now that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures. is on every page of this book.
Someone said you can't see it until you see it, but when you
see it, you see it everywhere. God, according to His own will,
to a people of His choice, showing mercy and being gracious through
sending His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die in their place
for their sin. You'll come back next Sunday
I'll show you exactly, Lord willing, what He had to say in Isaiah
53. If you understand it, Jeremiah
said, don't let any man glory in anything else except that
God has given him an understanding. And that's what I pray for you.
I can't beat it in your heads. I can't put it in your hearts.
I don't want you to believe it simply because I said it. I want
God to give you an understanding. I want Him to give you this knowledge,
which is to know God through Jesus Christ and Him crucified
as He is revealed in the Scriptures. I want you to know the things
that God has freely given you in Christ. I don't want to stand
up before you and tell you to bargain with God, and I'll say,
if you'll do this, God will bless you. God ever blesses you, He's
already blessed you. If God ever gives you anything
in His Son, He's already given you everything in His Son. He
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus, the
one in whom He chose us before the world began. You see, when
we get understanding from God, two things happen. We cast all
hope of self off. We cast off everything that we
ever thought we did to please God or to recommend ourselves
to God. And we cast ourselves on His
mercy in Christ. And then we give all glory. He
chose us. He loved us. He saved us. He redeemed us. He died for us. He gave us life. He gave us His
Spirit. He called us by His grace. He
arranged everything in our lives in His providence to get us to
this gospel, to get us this good news. That's what I want you
to know. You know, when you have some
good news to tell somebody, you can't hardly wait to tell them.
I've got some good news for somebody. And if God gives you understanding
to see it, to believe it, it's for you. Father, we ask this
day that you would exalt your own self in our midst, enthrone
yourself in every heart and mind as it pleases you. Call out your
sheep. Bring your people under yourself. Give them understanding. that
they might know you, the one true God, through the Lord Jesus
Christ." And may we take that warning that John gives there
in that 21st verse of 1 John 5, when he follows that with
saying, little children, keep yourselves from idols. How we do need you, how we are
totally dependent on you as God our Savior. We thank you. And we pray in Christ's name,
Amen.