Acts chapter 8, we'll be dealing
with verses 38 and following as your outline would have it.
The end of Philip and the beginning of Saul, we will get into chapter
9 verse 1 today. I do want to close out with the
last couple of verses because they are a bookend and a bow
tied on a present or a gift given to us in the remarkable ministry
of Philip, who will disappear in a moment. from the scriptures
in terms of his ministry, he will be mentioned again in the
book of Acts, but not in terms of his ministry. He will disappear. And I want us to consider and
reflect a few things about the closing words of Philip as we
read them, starting in verse 36 through verse 40. And then we'll take up our first
and second point in our outline, confirming the gospel. and then
taken up by the Spirit of God. Two very rich and very significant
portions of true to reflect upon. Verse 36. And as they went on
their way, they came upon a certain water and the eunuch said, see,
here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, if you believe
with all your heart, you mayest. And he answered and said, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the son of God. And he commanded the
chariot to stand still, and they went down both into the water,
both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they
were come 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. But Philip was found at Azotus,
and passing through, preached in all the cities till he came
to Caesarea. Thus is the reading of God's
word. If you have been with us in the lengthy study of chapter
eight, you and I see the triumphant nature of the gospel as it reaches
out to the Ethiopian people represented in this Ethiopian man who has
been tutored now for some hours by the messenger that was sent
to him by God And that man is Philip. And what we did at length
was to understand what it means to walk in the spirit, to be
led by the spirit, to serve God by means of the spirit and in
the context of evangelism and the ministry of the word. And
we saw at length Philip as an example of the minister of the
gospel, able to take the word of God Open up the scriptures
and plainly teach this Ethiopian eunuch that the centrality of
all the Bible is summed up in the person of Jesus Christ. What
we saw was the efficacy of the Spirit of God as Jesus had taught
in John 16. And when he, the Spirit of truth
has come, he will lead you into all the truth, definite article,
and he will take the things of mind and he will show them unto
you. So this Ethiopian had an experience of the expository
work of the Spirit of God in the development of biblical truth
by the servant, Philip, who was an able minister of the Word.
And we dealt with all of the implications of that. I don't
want to do it again tonight. But what you and I might mark
is this, that when once we have properly taught men and women
the gospel, and the Spirit of God is working through that effort
That's the key term. The result of properly teaching
men and women the gospel and the spirit of God working through
that effort will be the obedience of faith on the part of the person
who hears the word of God. So you might as well mark that
because what we're looking at in the last couple of verses
is what Christ had prescribed when he told his disciples to
go into all the world and preach the gospel. You guys make disciples. Now, these disciples were not
disciples of the apostles. They were disciples of Christ.
Now, we make disciples properly. We are making disciples of Christ.
We're not called upon to make disciples of ourselves. We are
not right when we make disciples of ourselves. You will make proselytes
of yourselves. The only thing you and I can
make is proselytes. When you make a disciple, you
already have a model in view of which you are now influencing
them to conform to. That model is Christ. When you
and I make disciples, we are making men and women to conform
to the biblical teaching of who Christ is, what he did, and what
he demands of those who are followers of his. So when we say, follow
me, what we are saying is, follow me as I follow Christ. We're not saying follow me. But
now Christ could say that as he did to his disciples, follow
me and I will make you fishers of men. Follow me and you will
find eternal life. But me and you, you and I, we
cannot tell men and women to merely follow us. If they follow
us, they will go to hell for sure. So hurry up and get that. The advised Christian is not
making disciples unto themselves. Our job is not to do anything
from a willful fashion of, uh, self motivation. We're not driven
to teach and preach in order to get a following after ourselves.
So now the believer is to echo by virtue of mimicking Jesus
Christ who came not to do his own will, but the will of him
that sent him, right? So then the true child of God
is going to do the same thing. I'm not here to do my own will,
but the will of him that sent me, the will of Christ who sent
me. That's what it means to be an
apostle, a sent one. And so we are not building kingdoms
to ourselves and we're not making disciples of ourselves. That
will be a tragic end for any eternity bound soul. So when
Philip expounded the scriptures, Isaiah 53, He explained to the
Ethiopian that the net consequence of being born again is that you
would submit to the crown rights of Jesus Christ. And that would
be recognized by your submission to the waters of baptism. That
is the mandate in Matthew chapter 28, right? Look at it again,
Matthew 28, 19 and 20, just so that we can know that what Philip
is doing is what the apostles taught him. Philip is not doing
anything different than what he was told by the apostles.
And the apostles are not doing anything different than what
they were told by Christ. Listen to what he says over in
verse 19 and 20. Go ye therefore and do what? Teach. That's right. Methodes. nations baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost teaching
them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you and lo I am
with you always to the end of the world and as we have always
taught baptism must be preceded by teaching baptism must always
be seated by preaching teaching never baptized before you teach
if you baptize before you teach you are not baptizing To baptize
before you teach is to impose upon people rituals, empty rituals
that have no meaning. To teach before you baptize is
to confirm a teaching in the soul of that man, woman or people
by virtue of an emblem or a symbol or an ordinance that conforms
to the teaching. When you baptize after you have
taught people, what people are submitting to is an ordinance
that represents what they have consented to in the teaching
that they have received. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? When you baptize properly, people are simply consenting
to an ordinance that corresponds to the doctrine that they are
now adhering to consciously and willingly. where there is not
teaching baptism is not proper. It is only properly baptism when
once that individual voluntarily submits to that ordinance on
the grounds of the gospel being clearly taught to them. That's
why in our tax, go back to our tax. When the request was made
by the Ethiopian, what Philip said over in verse 37 was, if
you believe with all your heart, you may.
Do you guys see that? See, the request was what does
hinder me to be baptized? The assumption is they had a
conversation about it. And now what Philip says is you
would be hindered from baptism if you did not have faith in
Christ, right? Now, faith in Christ requires
the man or the woman or the people to have been taught the gospel
because you can't believe what you don't know. You can't believe
who you don't know. So you must be taught the gospel
and all of its major saving tenets for you to be able to consent
conscientiously and with integrity to the waters of baptism. Am
I making some sense? I'm driving that home because
we have stripped again in the church, the gospel from every
precious ordinance that the Lord has given us, particularly the
waters of baptism as a farce today in most of our churches.
because it's done so quickly and so ignorantly, so rashly,
so superficially that it is mostly ritual and not doctrine. This
is why so many of the folks that come under our ministry have
to be baptized properly because they were never taught the gospel.
They don't know why they got wet. The Ethiopian eunuch knows
why he got wet. And now what Philip said was,
if you believe with all your heart, now what he was saying
was not that you have to examine to the depths of your being and
discover whether or not you actually truly believe at the core of
every aspect of your conscious awareness. What he was saying
is when you think through the propositions of the biblical
doctrine of the gospel that I have shared with you out of Isaiah
53, Do you recognize within yourself that you have found a complete
dependence upon Christ as your only savior? When you have been
taught that Christ's death was a death that was substitutionary,
that it was vicarious, that it was penal in its nature, that
it dealt with the wrath of God, that it satisfied his justice,
that it was a transaction between the father and the son, and that
he did that. as an intercession for sinners,
and that apart from that death, no man can have a relationship
with God. When you consent to the propositions of the gospel
from a place of believing, then you are lawful to enter into
the waters. You are now entering into the
water with a conscience that says, I believe that Christ died
for my sins. Rose again from the dead, ascended
on high. And my conscience is free from
the guilt of my sin, based upon a knowledge of the gospel and
the justifying grace of God in Christ. Am I making some sense?
My conscience is clear from the guilt of my sin, based upon a
knowledge of the justifying work of Christ on the cross in my
place. My conscience is clear. First
Peter chapter three, verse 21, two, three, and four. My conscience
is clear based upon the resurrection of Christ from the dead. His
resurrection affirms the fact that the father had accepted
his sacrifice on my behalf. And because he rose again from
the dead, I am certain that I will not have to stand before God
and pay for my sins. I know that Christ has become
for me sin that I might become the righteousness of God in him.
Why? Because I believe that he was my substitute when he died.
And so what we are dealing with as we are reiterating fundamentals
is the crucial, crucial nexus upon which your salvation hangs. If you play with baptism, you
are playing with your salvation. And a lot of people do. If you
play with baptism, you're playing with your salvation. Literally
in the Greek, What Philip said was if you believe the gospel,
then it is lawful for you to be baptized. That's literally
what it means. What he's saying is it is not
lawful for you to be baptized if you really do not know nor
believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. He is the only
one who could have met all of the conditions of God, the father,
to save a guilty hell bound sinner like you. That's good, isn't
it? So what he's saying is, in order for you to be lawfully
baptized before God, you have to understand this and find or
discover within your heart that you trust that as your only hope
for glory. Now you may get in and then your
act of entering into the water will correspond to the claims
of the gospel we preach everywhere. I'm the way, the truth and the
life. No one comes into the Father but by me. See it. Do you see
it in the water? All right. And so this is what
we're dealing with here. So confirming the gospel is what baptism is
designed to do. And this is what the Ethiopian
is doing. He's confirming the gospel, is he not? And let me
just reassert by the two points underneath that confirming the
gospel quickly. John's baptism. And we still
have this today remarkably in our present church. You will
find people who want to call themselves Christians, but they
want to extricate themselves or separate themselves from every
external form of obedience. You'll meet Christians who want
to, uh, persons who want to call themselves Christians, but will
not go to church. They will not identify with the
local church. You'll meet folks who want to
call themselves Christians, but they will never submit to the
waters of baptism. Are you hearing me? You got all
these kinds of people who talk about, I got a personal relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, when you actually rightly
divide the word of God, your relationship might be personal,
but it's never private. It's never private. Christ came
to save a people, not just you, a people for himself. It's never
private. It's never personal exclusively. It's always a matter of public
testimony. And so this area of baptism is
a pushback area for people. who don't want to demonstrate,
um, outward obedience or submission to Christ. And you need to let
them know that when you guys are talking, because think this
through for a moment, isn't it illogical to say you believe
in someone you never saw. You only are corresponding to
what you have been told by the Bible. And then you are responding
to others by the almost effortless expression. I believe which carries
with it hardly any sacrificial components to affirm that credo
statement, I believe. But you want us all to believe
you believe without any kind of affirmation of that credo
statement, especially the initiatory response of belief, which is
submitting to the waters of baptism. But you want me to say you're
a believer. Well, actually, the way you are functioning is as
an unbeliever. though you say you believe. That's
what the word credo means. I believe. So you say you're
a believer, but you are either repulsed by or ashamed of or
negligent of or ambivalent of the public identification with
Christ in the humility of baptism. But you want me to say that you
are a believer. What I would say to you is your
faith is no better than the devil's. Right? But the devil believes
you, but he dare not get baptized. So your faith is the faith of
a devil. When once you are saying, Jesus is my Lord, Jesus is my
savior, but you won't stand before people to acknowledge that in
the waters of baptism and become identified with the local church
for when the spirit of God baptizes an individual, he baptizes him
or her or them into the body of Christ. Well, you see, you get a lot
of these Christians who want to be a disjointed member of the body,
right? A disjointed member of the body.
This is where those of you who are teachers of the word of God,
you best be careful to make sure you hold the healthy tension
between the head and the body. Because we live in a culture
where people don't mind decapitating the body of Christ and identifying
with the head, but let the body become a cadaver, a rotting corpse. Well, no, you listen at best,
you might be a toenail at best. And and Mr. Tonio, Mr. Tonio, you need to
tell and the Tony's the foot and the foot needs the ankle.
OK, so you might be a toenail. You better hold on. So now what
our Lord did was to challenge the rulers in Israel around this. I want you to see two verses,
Matthew 21, 25 is the first verse. This is around the doctrine of
baptism itself. You will find in the churches
and some churches are in some circles where they will tell
you, we no longer need to be water baptized because that was
merely an act of Old Testament practice exclusive to John the
Baptist. Well, that completely destroys
the imperative of Matthew 28, 19 and 20, which we just read,
right? completely destroys that imperative.
One of the reasons why we have to learn how to read is because
we have to be able to tell people your conclusion is militating
against an imperative of Christ given to the disciples after
his resurrection, which means we are in the New Testament,
right? We are in the New Testament after
the resurrection of Christ. And if he gives the imperative
to baptize, then we must baptize. because we're in the New Testament.
It'd be another thing if Christ told them to baptize while they
were in a pre-cross scenario before the crucifixion. You might
argue that point. We certainly can argue that John's
baptism was Old Testament baptism. We could argue that. But you
cannot argue that the command given to the apostles was a Old
Testament command that was negated upon the resurrection of Christ.
I'm sharing that with you because some do hold it. Here is what
our Lord said in Matthew chapter 21, 25 as he was dealing with
the Pharisees who, as you know, they pretended to come to John's
baptism, right? And John said to them, you know,
who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come, go and bring
forth fruits of repentance so that your baptism will not be
a personal self condemnation, but an affirmation of God's grace
in your heart, which allows you then to be baptized. He's talking
to the same group here in verse 23. And when he was coming to
the temple, the chief priest and the elders of the people
came unto him as he was teaching and said, by what authority are
you doing these things? What teaching? And who gave you
this authority? That's an interesting insight
into the leadership, isn't it? Because they thought because
he didn't come through them, he had no authority. And Jesus
answered and said to them, I also will ask you one thing. This
is, you know, a tit for tat. answering a question with a question,
which if you tell me, and likewise, will I tell you by what authority
I do these things? Verse 25, the baptism of John,
where did it come from? Heaven or men? See what he did? He took an inquiry
of theirs and turned it around because they actually now set
the context for the debate. They set the context for the
debate. All he did was approve of the context and steered it
in a direction that if they're gonna respond to it, they're
gonna be condemned either way. There's no way for them to win
this particular argument. It's framed by them, but directed
by Christ. And when you learn how to argue
with people, you can easily do that. Understand the vulnerability
of their proposition, direct it in a way that demands that
they answer that proposition for themselves. A lot of times,
this is an aside, I shouldn't even do this. But for those of
you who discuss doctrine with people, a lot of times you are
wasting your time trying to explain things to people when what you
should do is frame the discussion to get them to answer the question
for themselves first. Especially when they're trying
to push you in a corner over a doctrinal issue. Demonstrate
the ability to actually turn that inquiry around and get them
to answer it. Because if they have an ill motive,
their ill motive will be the answer to that question that
needs to be discovered. As it was here. Now watch this.
Watch this. In verse 25, and they reasoned
within themselves, that is among themselves, saying, if we shall
say from heaven, he will say unto us, why did you not then
believe John? Do you see it? Stay with me now,
because I'm connecting baptism with believing even as our master
just did. Did you guys get that? So what
our master is teaching is you cannot be baptized if you don't
what? You see it? That's point number
one. Now watch this. If we shall say from heaven,
he will say unto us, why did you not then believe him? But
if we shall say of men, we fear the people. For all whole John
as a prophet, we dare not say that John was just merely of
men. This is what you call your political
preachers. Stick their finger in the air, see which way the
wind blows. On this occasion, there was no door out. And they
answered Jesus and said, we cannot tell, they just lie. Talking
to God, lying to God. You got that? People do that
a lot. Lie to God. They could tell. They wouldn't tell. Because for
them to tell the truth, is to admit their guilt. And he said
to them, okay, then I'm not telling you what authority I do these
by. I want you to go now with me in your Bible to Luke chapter
seven and look at the other portion of scripture on this. Luke addresses
this same subject matter and from a different angle of which
is going to affirm my basic contemplation around the subject of baptism
right now. Do not play the Lord's ordinances down. Church of Jesus
Christ, don't play the Lord's ordinances down. When you do,
you fail to understand where they came from and why they were
given. We can play anything down, but that which God gave us. We
can never play down what God gave us. If God gave it to you,
it should hold in our heart and in our mind and in our conduct,
the highest order. I don't care what it is. If God
gave it to us, it must hold first place in our life. We must never
play down what God gave us. Never play it down. To do so
is to diminish his authority in your life and to veil the
significance of the gift that he gave you. Cause it's a gift. It's a gift. Now listen to what
he does in Luke chapter seven around this same subject. I'm
going to start then at the verse. Uh, let me see here. I'll start
at verse 28. Um, we are dealing with, yes,
our Lord commending John the Baptist, his cousin for his ministry.
And it says over in verse 27, this is he of whom it is written,
behold, I send my messenger before your face, which shall prepare
your way before thee, for I send to you among those that are born
of women, there's not a greater prophet than John the Baptist,
but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than John.
A lot of people struggle with that last line, the he that is
least here is Christ. and all the people that heard
him and the publicans did what? Justified God. Now, now watch
this. They justified God being baptized
with the baptism of John. That's remarkable. So now watch
this child of God, watch it, watch this. There is a justification
of God on the part of the people of God when the people of God
respond to God in obedience. Did you get that? So, you know,
again, I try to help people understand the brevity of scriptural truth
and the inferences of doctrinal teachings, like the doctrine
of justification doesn't have its life merely within the context
of soteriology. The doctrine of justification
is not merely a soteriological concept. The doctrine of justification
is also a doctrine where in the character of God is on trial
before men. And God will prove himself to
have been right all along. In other words, do you know God
has to justify himself before this game saying world in which
we live? God has to constantly prove that
he's right. God has to affirm to this broken
world that he is the true the living God all of his works are
done in truth And that God is right that thou mightest overcome
when you speak This is Romans chapter 3. You know what? That
means the whole world is basically putting God on trial and Judgment
day is the day when God will put the world on trial Are you
hearing me? Watch this and guess who's sitting
in synods with God against the world the people of God and guess
what? God is bringing to the table
as a grounds of justification that God is both holy Righteous
just merciful patient kind long-suffering the people of God Because the
people of God that's going to justify God in his words are
the people who actually obey God Are you hearing me? So the
text is clear, its implications are this. If John is from God,
then John speaks for God. And when John speaks for God,
it's God speaking through John. And those who hear God speaking
through John, doing what God told them to do through John
will justify God. So that wisdom is justified of
her children. Am I making some sense? See,
God would be justified on that day because you are his witnesses
in the courtroom in heaven. When the copying adversaries
of God are preparing to build their case against God, God will
bring forth all of his witnesses and say he believed. Why didn't
you? She believed, why didn't you?
They believed, why didn't you? They suffered for my name, why
didn't you? You are my witnesses, saith the
Lord. You guys understand that? That's
the whole point of the gospel. Christ was the father's justification. The father sent his son into
the world that the world might be saved. The world rejected
him. God is justified. But the ones
who received Christ are now going to justify both Christ and the
father on the last day Lord Jesus says to them in verse 30 26 is
Verse 29 rather is and all the people that heard him that is
John and the publicans Justified God being baptized with the baptism
of what? Because the baptism of John was
in effect the baptism of who of God Watch this, but the Pharisees
and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves. Think about this with me. We
can really leave in a second, but think about this with me.
Why I'm saying do not play down God's ordinances. God's ordinances
are an extension of his will. His will is important to us.
The only people going to heaven are those who do the will of
God. Are you hearing me? And look how gracious God is. He gives us a few gospel ordinances,
doesn't he? You know how simple God's ordinances
are? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall be saved. You
know how simple they are? Get in the water and affirm to
the people you believe. How simple they are? Go around,
tell people about me. That's why John says, and the
commandments of the Lord are not burdensome or grievous, they're
joyful. What do you want me to do, God?
Tell people about you? Thank you. The rate of exchange,
between the death of Christ for my sins and me simply telling
people about Jesus is incomparable. There is no comparable equation
between me telling people about Christ and Christ assuming all
of the obligatory debt that I assumed and accrued against the Holy
God. Are you hearing me? And this
is why you got to tell people about Jesus. You got to tell
them. You got to, because you are a
debtor to grace. Why are you telling me about Jesus? Because
I'm paying my debt off. God took care of me. I'm paying
my debt back. Paul said, I'm a debtor to grace
and therefore I preach the gospel to the Jew and to the Gentile.
Now that might be oxymoronic to you, a debtor to grace, but
I like it. What it's talking about is relationship
language. It's the language of love. Love
will never owe a man anything. Owe no man anything but to love
one another. And so out of love, I am indebted
to a God who loved me and gave himself for me. Am I making some
sense? Because you have to explain so
much stuff to ignorant folks, you know? And the closer we get
to Judgment Day, the more ignorant people get. That's why you need
the help of the Spirit of God. Last line. But the Pharisees
and the lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves,
being not baptized by him. God has spoken 400. God has spoken
700 years before John showed up, didn't he? Isaiah 40, a voice
crying in the wilderness saying, make straight his path, prepare
ye a people for the Lord. 300 years later, another prophet
named Malachi says, and he shall send his messenger before you. Prepare ye the way for the Lord. 300 years later, that servant
shows up. That servant was called by God and the people rejected
God's counsel against him. This shows you how endemic and
aversion we have in our sinful nature to the instrumentality
of biblical truth. We will go to hell stumbling
at the instrument when the instrument is a necessary component to us
hearing the sound. How should the people be warned
except the trumpet be blown? Don't get upset with the trumpet.
Listen to the trumpet. Wake up, right? Why is he making all that noise?
Because you need to get up. You need to wake up. You are
in trouble. Judgment hangs over your head.
Point B, baptism symbolizes entering into the kingdom, does it not?
So people get an illustration of the entrance into the kingdom
of God by the symbolic, analogous nature of baptism. You sit there
and watch people get baptized. That's why I know most of my
people aren't even being taught right at grace. When we go to
do baptism, most of our members are ready to go eat lunch. Ignorant
of the privilege of seeing the symbol of what saves. Ignorant of their association
with that new member of the body. So we know we're jacked up. We
know we're jacked up. But this is this hyper, again,
narcissism that goes on with Christians today, where they
are disjointed from the process. Long ago, you would have never
had it. Not one member would have got up from the church until
everyone was baptized. Today, they're off and running.
I'm scared for most of them. I'm scared that most of them
don't even know God. Scared. Now let's go to work here. In
point number B, interest into the baptism, Jesus said in John
chapter three, verses one through eight, briefly, we'll have 30
minutes to work through the rest of our text. In John chapter
three, verses one through eight, you've heard this language, but
it will bear repeating again. And certainly here in our text,
we're speaking of the ministry of the spirit of God, but it's
also signified by the waters of baptism. Verse 1 through 3,
there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the
Jews. The same came to Jesus by night, said unto him, Rabbi,
we know that you're a teacher come from God, for no man can
do these miracles that you do, except God be with him. And he
said unto him, verily I say unto you, except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God, right? It's the work of
the spirit. Nicodemus said unto him, how can a man be born when
he is old? Can he enter the second time
into his mother's womb, be born? All of his categories were completely
demolished right there, right? as Christ was speaking on a whole
nother dimension, and Nicodemus didn't even know how to tie the
knots. His question was sincere, but what it teaches us is that
Nicodemus knew nothing about the rebirth. Verse five, Jesus
answered, verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born
of what? And of what? He cannot enter
into the kingdom of God. And then he goes on to develop
the distinction between flesh and spirit. And so we have this,
we have this, close connection in biblical truth between the
ministry of the spirit of God and the water that is used as
a consecrating element. We have a close connection in
the scriptures. Unfortunately, church history has proven that
often we have conflated them to the point where we have made
them synonymous. But go with me in your Bible
one more time to Titus chapter three, verse five. And let me
say this about that. The water only signifies what
the spirit does in substance. When we place people into the
water of baptism, into the waters of baptism, we are signifying
by that act, the spirit of God, placing them into Jesus Christ. So there is a one-to-one parallel
between the symbol and the substance, but we are not making the symbol
the substance as we do in Catholicism as we do in the churches of Christ.
And as we do in many churches that would teach that unless
you are water baptized, you cannot be safe. How many have been exposed
to these folks? So a number of you have been
exposed to the folks who say, except you be water baptized,
you can't be safe. And that's because they tie the symbol to
the substance instead of making a distinction. The substance
must be always separated from the symbol. The symbol is simply
teaching the reality of the substance. Now, if they had followed the
scriptures carefully in the book of Acts, as we are going through
Acts, you would know that folks could be baptized and be just
as lost as a goose in a snowstorm. Still headed to hell, not knowing
God, right? That's right. And that also God
could save you prior to water baptism very explicitly and clearly
in the book of Acts before you actually enter into the water.
Right? So what God does in the book of Acts is actually keeps
the ordinances in their proper place by demolishing patterns
that would justify any side, any side. He demolishes the patterns
that people would want to use to take an ordinance and make
it the substance. by showing in the book of Acts
that you cannot lock the work of the Spirit into some kind
of pattern. The Spirit is not given by laying
on of hands. The Spirit is not given by people
getting baptized. The Spirit is not given by any
other act other than the sovereign God through Christ bestowing
the Spirit. He bestows the Spirit sometimes
before baptism, sometimes after baptism, sometimes during baptism. Our Lord Jesus Christ, in a very
emblematic way, received the Spirit of God during baptism,
didn't he? To show that the pattern must
not be locked into some kind of formula by which we are demanding
that rebirth takes place by something we do. And so we read over in
Titus chapter 3, Verse five, these words, the close association
language between the work of the spirit of God and the water. Here's what we read over in Titus
chapter three, verse five, not by works of righteousness, which
we have done, but according to his mercy, who saved us? Now
watch the language, by the washing, see the symbol? By the washing
of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. Now, these
two lines are saying the same thing, but it's using water as
an analogy of cleansing out of a filthy state into a clean state,
as is the birth of a child in water. You see the analogy. The washing of regeneration and
renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through
Jesus Christ, our Lord. That being justified by his grace,
We should be heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
So this is the way the patristic fathers viewed baptism that was
closely associated with the work of the spirit of God and washing
the center. This is why acts around chapter
24 where Paul is recapping his conversion as we're going to
be getting into over the next several weeks. He recalls how
Ananias said, Saul, rise and be baptized, washing away your
sins. Well, yeah, rise and be baptized
and wash away your sins symbolically, right? Symbolically. And so the
language is used that way. And so we never want to play
down the language. Go back to Acts chapter eight. We never
want to play down the language. There are some people who are
so, um, um, hard pressed to want to have sort of an experiential
confirmation of their salvation that they get baptized frequently
all of their life. I know people who have been baptized
seven times. Yeah. Yeah. Seven times. And at the rate in which they're
being baptized, it'll probably be about 12 before they die.
Because a lot of times people fail to understand that faith
is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. But because of the weakness of the flesh, we often want to
have some kind of concrete evidence that we're actually saved. And
so we go back to the water, hoping that the Holy Ghost meets us
in the water. And that's a tragedy too. It
does happen. We've got one more wonderful
contemplation out of Acts chapter eight before we contemplate the
ninth chapter. I want you to think this one
through with me. Listen to what happens according to the author
Luke. After that, Philip actually baptizes the Ethiopian. The construction
is clear, verse 38. He commanded the chariot to stand
still. And they went down both into the water, both Philip and
the eunuch. And he went baptized. So we have plainly said that
baptism is the act of the person passively submitting to a process
by which he or she or they are placed in the water and then
brought out of the water. That baptism by virtue of execution
never can be taking the water and pouring it on the person.
You have to take the person and place them into the water for
it to be baptism. Bapto is our lexical term for
baptism, baptizo, baptismus, and it means to immerse or to
dip. This is why when you heard me
preach baptism using the two birds in Leviticus 14, we took
the living bird and we dipped him in the blood of the bird
that was dead. That was an act of baptism to immerse the person
into the blood. Thus, the person that was immersed
into the blood identified with the bird that was killed. They
became one. So baptism is a doctrine of union. It's our union with Christ in
His death, where we are placed into His death. Right? It's never He placed into us
or placed on us. So when you pour on a person,
you're not baptizing them. You place that person into the
element and bring them into identification with. That's the word baptism.
Uh, in his, in his root form is often translated to die. D Y E. So in the book of revelation,
chapter 19, he had a garment that was dipped in blood. That's
our word. Bapto. In the Septuagint version,
baptism is always translated that way. So when we died, the
garments read, who is this that comes up from Basra, Isaiah 63
in dyed garments? It's the man who actually entered
into the suffering and identified with the suffering. We're in
the blood sprinkled on his garments. He became one with the suffering.
And so the sinner, is brought into the blood of Christ, and
being brought into the blood of Christ, he is identified with
the sufferings of Christ, so that everything that Christ is,
he is in Christ. Am I making some sense? The baptism
becomes glorious in the doctrine of our union with Christ. So
Paul said in Romans chapter 6, verse 1, 2, and 3, No ye not,
as many of us as have been baptized, have been baptized into his what? Death. So it's the object passively
being placed into the element. of the subject possibly being
placed into the element. The element might be water. It's
analogous to the blood of Christ. And the net result is cleansing. And so now we come to the aftermath
of the baptism in Acts chapter 8, verse 38. He commanded the
chariot to stand still. They went down both into the
water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. Philip baptized
the eunuch, right? The eunuch didn't baptize Philip.
The river didn't baptize the eunuch. Philip, the subject,
baptized the verb, him, the object, the eunuch, right? The basic
grammar. Verse 39. And when they were
come up out of the water, who came up out of the water? Both
of them. The spirit of the Lord caught away Philip. That's the eunuch saw him no
more. And he went on his way rejoicing. This is actually fascinating,
because I thought about what God did in affirming this work
of ministry on the part of Philip. Philip is preaching to this man.
Philip is actually fulfilling scripture. As we learn, the Ethiopians
will now receive the gospel, right? Philip is a key component
to that. And in his joyful submission
to the Holy Ghost, to walk in the spirit and to minister in
the spirit, guess what the spirit does? He gives Philip an extra
measure of the dynamic of the Spirit of God in a miraculous
form, merely because Philip is in the way of obedience. Because
Philip is in the way of obedience, the Spirit of God now rewards
Philip with a precursor of a grand event that would correspond to
the finality of Christ's power in the life of the whole church.
I want us to consider that. Philip's obedience renders him
to be a partaker in league with Many of the Old Testament saints
who felt the power of God in a very unusual way What do you
mean? I mean Enoch walked with God
and was not for God took him That was an unusual Event we
call it an anomaly. But what was it? It was an act
of God Demonstrating a promise that's given to the people of
God that one day we shall not see death We will be taken up
in a glorious rapture to be with him who loved us and gave himself
for us now this goes all the way back to the pre diluvian
period where God is giving that promise and And so Enoch is walking
in obedience and he's blessed with that experience. So now
let me say this before I give you the other three or four examples
of this. People struggle with miracles.
And they struggle with miracles for one reason primarily. Unbelief. Now, their unbelief is rooted
not so much in a lack of empirical evidence or evidentialism or
the many testimonies of miracles in the world. We have miracles
by way of testimony legion. The Catholic Church is filled
with miracles. The patristic fathers are filled
with testimonies of miracles. Testimonies of miracles are all
over the place. That's not the issue. Testimonies
are not the issue. The issue is a lack of faith.
Now watch this. I'm not just talking about a
lack of faith in general. I'm not talking about a lack
of faith in the ability for God to do miracles. An unbelieving
pagan can accept the proposition that God can do a miracle. Read some of your rationalistic
philosophers. From a propositional standpoint,
they will admit that there is nothing fallacious in the proposition
that if there is a God, if he is all powerful, if he has the
ability, he can do a miracle. That proposition is not irrational.
That's very rational. In fact, I would not even conjure
up the notion that a miracle can be performed apart from God.
I wouldn't accept the premise that we can do miracles apart
from God. I don't accept the premise that the devil can do
miracles apart from God. I teach that God is the source
of all miracles, even if the instrumentality is specious.
Remember, there's a difference between the source and the instrumentality
of the miracle. Do you believe that? So now follow
this now. If God allows the devil to do
lying signs and wonders, the devil is doing that at the behestment
and permission of a sovereign God who is making him incapable
to do it. I can accept that premise. If
God wants to deceive a group of people who have rejected the
gospel for hundreds of years, he will give them over to the
spirit of Satan with lying signs and wonders that he might deceive
the masses of them because they did not have a love for the truth
that they might be saved. Do you believe that? I'm just
simply telling you, read your Bible, Ezekiel 13 and 14. It's
very clear. If the prophet be deceived, I,
the Lord, have deceived that prophet. If the person coming
to that false prophet is deceived, I have deceived both of them
to demonstrate that I am sovereign Lord. Are you hearing me? So we don't have a problem with
God necessarily utilizing specious means by which he would bring
about miracles for the purpose of deceiving people. This is
why Jesus said in Matthew 24, Beware of false prophets and
false teachers coming to you with lying signs and wonders,
because if they can, they will deceive even the very elect.
So God allows this in the economy of church life in order to test
us. Deuteronomy 13, if a prophet
come and show you a sign or wonder and it come to pass to lead you
away from the gospel, do not follow him. because the Lord
your God is testing you. Whether you are running after
signs and wonders or whether you are running after the true
and the living God. Are you hearing me? Deuteronomy
13, read it for yourself. If a prophet come and he does
a sign or wonder and it comes to pass, Well, how's it coming
to pass? God is energizing that prophet
to do it with the objective of deceiving the masses of people
who all alone wanted to believe a lie. That's Romans 1. He gave them over to a strong
delusion. That's 2 Thessalonians 2. I talked about this on Monday,
didn't I? If earthquakes come and calamities come and storms
come and and tsunamis come and all of these, these, these horrible,
horrible atrocities of an ecological natural level, level, uh, level
come. Well, who are we going to blame
it on the devil? The Christian churches, the last place ought
to be pagan like that. We blame everything on the devil.
We really build his resume. He almost ready to be president. Am I telling the truth? He almost
ready to be with the resume. We the church built for him The
devil can do this the devil can do that the devil here the devil
there the devil everywhere. No, he's not The devil's in one
place at one time and he's very limited in his powers and the
only thing he can do is that which God permits him to do Scripture
never gives us the option to believe that the devil runs willy-nilly
apart from the permission of God. Never! Never! Never! Scripture never gives
us the grounds to believe in dualism. I talked about that
on Monday. the worldview that the devil is some kind of rank
maverick power out there fighting against God and God's doing the
best he can to whip on him and God says, I promise you I'll
get him. They're wrestling, he's trying to get him in the headlock,
trying to get him in the hat, Nelson, not quite doing it yet,
but he will. He's going to wear the devil
out at one point and pin him. That's not our God. My God doesn't
sweat. He just doesn't sweat. And so
it's very clear that, um, what's taking place here is a miracle
of a phenomenal nature. And it's a foreshadow child of
God. I'm just going to run through these verses that are in your
outline. They're so, so marvelous taken up by the spirit of God.
What we saw in Acts chapter nine, that the spirit of God spoke
to Philip, didn't it? That the spirit of God directed Philip,
that the spirit of God used Philip. Now the spirit of God is about
to take Philip up. Don't you want that kind of relationship
with the spirit of God lead me Tell me what, listen, I wouldn't
get into half the trouble I'm in if the Holy Ghost was as explicit
to me as he was to Philip. Just plainly tell me, Holy Ghost,
what to do. Right? He spoke to him, go this
way. He guided him. He told him when
to stop, who to talk to. And then he opened scripture
up through Philip. And now he's taking Philip. away,
verse 39, and when they were come out of the water, the spirit
of the Lord caught away Philip. I love the language. This is
where understanding a little bit of language is critical,
because our English word caught there doesn't mean that somehow
Philip got the heebie-jeebies or the jerks and the shakes and
the jitters and just started running. Now, Philip's a runner.
That's what the word Philip means, horse. But the word caught there
is our Greek term for being snatched away, for being taken up. for being raptured. The word
raptured is an English translation of the Greek term taken up or
caught up. Are you guys hearing me? So when
we say, well, there's no word rapture in the Bible. Yeah, we
know that no word trinity in the Bible, whole bunch of words
that are not in the Bible, but the doctrine is there. Right? So our word harpejo, it's in
your text right there. And the root form is harpejion.
It's a verb. It's a verb. It's in what we
call the active indicative verb form, which says the spirit of
God actively took Philip and translated him out of that place
into the desert. And immediately he was in a Zotus
right near Caesarea. That's a long ways away. That's
a long ways away. Quickly moved him from one place
to another. And the amazing thing about this that I want you to
grasp is the practical implications. What God will do in your life
when you are joyfully obedient to his will. What God will do
in your life and mine when you are joyfully obedient to his
will. What God can do with the man
or the woman or the people of God who are willing to do the
will of God whenever God says it, wherever God says it. Now
think about this. Remember what we said? We said
that Philip had just come out of a burgeoning ministry in Samaria. where he was living large and
everybody was coming to him and ministry was just off the hook
and the Holy Ghost says, go to the desert. And that challenge
would have been enormous for you and me. I got a church that's
growing like this and folks getting saved and you want me to go to
the desert to minister to who? I'm not going to tell you yet. See, and so what we learned with
Philip was that he was submissive to the spirit of God, that Philip
was actually functioning out of the messianic spirit, which
really does not take into consideration the immediate circumstances or
numbers. Philip was not in the ministry for accolades or fame
or numbers. He wasn't in it for numbers.
Do you know how rare it is to meet a servant of God who's not
trying to do this for fame or numbers? He went from a whole
city to one man. Did you get that? So he's, he's
testing us. The word of God is testing us
as to our motive when it comes to ministry. Are you infatuated
with accolade? Do you need people to affirm
you or are you just happy as can be being led by the spirit
of God to do and say what the spirit of God wants you to do
because you enjoy fellowshipping with the spirit of God. And because
he executed this ministry of exalting Christ in the life of
this, this Ethiopian and therefore fulfilling scripture, the spirit
of God, again, without notice, just takes him up. Do you understand
how good Philip must've felt to be in one place and to go
blink and be in a whole nother place? Whoa, just, just being
a whole nother place and watch this. Look at what the text said.
This is, this is, This is phenomenal to me. The text says, verse 40,
and Philip was found at a Zodess. And passing through, what did
he do? He preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea. He says, man, this preaching
thing does something for a brother. Well, he loved to preach because
he loved to see souls saved because he loved the glory of God Because
the glory of God is exalted preeminently in preaching when you're gifted
to preach. Philip didn't miss a beat. He
was preaching in Acts chapter 8. Now he's preaching at the
end of Acts chapter 8. Now you could have asked him,
Philip, how'd you get here? He would have said, you wouldn't
believe me anyway. So let's get to the issue at
hand. Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? So what we're talking
about is not missing the opportunity to enjoy being used by God in
any way God wants to use you, because in a split second, he
could turn that into such a personal miraculous experience for you
that will launch you to the next level of confidence and joy and
happiness. Now, Philip has a secret between
him and God that is absolutely self-sustaining, he will now
be able to endure trials and temptations and persecution at
such a level because of what God has done for him. He knows
what God can do. In fact, what he knows that God
can do will probably require him to be humbled by persecutions
and difficulties because to whom much is given, much is required.
And when you have experienced that kind of insight into the
foreshadow of one of the promises of God given to all the people
of God, in order for you to stay humble, as Paul said in second
Corinthians chapter what, 13? He says, in order for me not
to be lifted or exalted above measure, God had to put a thorn
in my side. Because see, Paul was quickened
too. He was called out, same Greek verb, same verb form, Who
was caught up? Enoch was caught up. Who was
caught up? Elijah was caught up. Who was caught up? Philip
was caught up. Who was caught up? Paul was caught
up. Who was caught up? Christ was caught up. Who's going
to be caught up? The church standing on the last
day, waiting on Christ to come. Powerful, powerful, powerful. And all of these servants were
walking in obedience to the spirit of God. It's a foreshadow of
what's to come. Snatched away Snatched away it
speaks to the power of the Spirit of God taking the vessel Passively
and moving them in a miraculous way from one place to another
from one dimension to another dimension Of course, that's first
Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 17. It's also first Corinthians
chapter 15 We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in
a twinkling of an eye the last trump. That's a mystery, right?
It's a mystery. We believe that. Do you believe
that? Let me get back to one more point and then we'll open
up. We got 15 minutes to open up Romans Acts chapter 9. Now,
the reason why I have nurtured your thoughts around this act,
this unique act of a miracle, is because it actually proceeds
from a place that we ought to be completely aware of and knowledgeable
of and edified by. Miracles that are done in the
Bible that correspond to the will of God for his people are
always rooted in the work of Jesus Christ at Calvary Street. So let me say this again. The
reason why people struggle with miracles is because they do not
have faith. And the reason why their faith
is effete and weak and deficient is because they are ignorant
of the cross work of Jesus Christ. So let me, let me, let me develop
this a little bit because of what Christ did on Calvary street.
He merits for everyone for whom he died, every miracle that resides
within his own bosom and person, because now he is their surety
and substitute. Okay. Let's build on this. We've talked about this years
ago. Miracles are always designed to affirm the triumph and victory
of Jesus Christ at Calvary. You and I have just considered
the miracle of Philip being snatched away as a foreshadow of what? The resurrection and the transformation.
Is that true? Well, the resurrection and the
transformation of the church on the last day is directly connected
to the triumph of Christ at Calvary Street. You cannot separate the
two. No resurrection, no miracle. No resurrection, no miracle.
All miracles, all miracles have their roots in the atoning work
of Jesus Christ. The atoning work of Jesus Christ
before time, in time, and at the end of time. Pastor, what
are you saying? Enoch was saved by grace through
faith, just like I am. The grounds of his hope was in
Jesus Christ, just like mine is. Enoch believed God just like
I do and his faith was born of the finished work of Christ Just
like mine is only that finished work of Christ was residing in
the father's purpose For whom Christ was the lamb slain Before
the foundation of the world and the credit of Christ's atoning
work, which would be visible 2,000 years ago for us 1500 years after the call of the Jewish
people Some seven or eight thousand years after the Bible is written
the death of Christ on Calvary Street merely Affirms what God
the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Ghost always knew
since they are eternal in nature The work of Christ on Calvary
Street was never merely a possibility. It was a certainty Are you guys
hearing me? since God is eternal, since the
Son is eternal, since the Spirit of God is eternal. What they
agreed upon in eternity past may very well have effect in
time, even though it was prior to Christ appearing because God
can't lie, God can't change, God can't fail. So he can speak
those things that are not as if they are because with God
they actually are. And thus Christ being the lamb
slain from before the foundation of the world. Marriage got the
fathers right. to bestow upon his elect from
the beginning of time all the way up until the end of time
the merits of Christ's agreement to die for their sins. And thus
miracles take place As an assurance that Christ will come Christ
will pay our penalty Christ will rise again from the dead even
in the Old Testament Are you guys hearing me? That's why Joe
could say in the midst of his trial I know that my Redeemer
liveth and shall stand in the last days upon the earth and
I will see him with my own eyes the Holy Ghost said that said
it through him He said it through and so what we are saying is
that the foundation upon which all biblical miracles take place
is is the triumph of Christ on Calvary. You know what that means?
Can I say what that means? That means if God does not want
to, I don't have to die. Sorry. See, because the price
is paid. If God doesn't want me to die,
I can just disappear just like that. See, and that wouldn't
be a miracle without merit. It's a miracle because of merit.
Because of merit, Christ purchased eternal life for me. So I don't
have to die. I don't have to get sick. I don't
have to do anything but enjoy this new life that I have in
Christ because He has merited for me and it is mine permanently. Are you hearing me? Now, that
we do die is part of God's economy to teach us something about suffering
and identifying with a broken world. But we don't have to die.
We don't have to die. He that believeth on me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And he that liveth and believeth
on me shall never see death. Those are true principles. Those
are true principles. So now watch this. What makes
me any different than the brothers and sisters who won't see death
when Jesus comes? Nothing. But God's prerogative
in economy to use death as a lesson right now until that final day
when he decides, OK, death has served its purpose. See now right
now for the Christian, you gotta understand this. Death serves
a purpose. Doesn't it? Death serves a purpose.
That's why our master let Lazarus die. Oh Lord, had you been here,
Lazarus wouldn't have died. See, her theology just went left
through emotionalism right there. Didn't it go left? Just went
left. Just went left. She had just earlier said, we
know you can do anything, you're the Messiah. Oh Lord, it's four
days now, he's stinking. Her theology just went left,
right? Because she didn't understand
the redemptive nature of dying, the testimonial of that death,
and the fact that God was going to use that to glorify Christ.
So you and I are called upon, you know, again, this is a side,
I'm gonna make sure I open up chapter 9 here in a minute, but
you and I are called upon to live to the glory of God. And
we're called upon to die to the glory of God. I hear Christians
all the time talking about you can you can do whatever you want
to with my body when I die. No, you can't. No, you can't. Again, your theology now has
just melted down. You have just detached your thinking
from the word of God. Who are you? Do you own yourself? Do you have a right to do with
your body whatever you want to when you die? Oh, are you hearing
me? We're getting ready to have a
conference in October 24th through 26. And it's going to be our
fall preaching conference. I want everybody there. I'm instructing
our preachers because we really want to exalt Christ. This is
a very going to be a very rich crystal centric conference with
four preachers. Only one of them, you know, OK,
only one of you. The rest of them are going to
be men that you've never heard before. But they're under instructions
to exalt Christ. in a certain way this time so
we can have a wonderful, wonderful fall before the new year. And
my point is this, it's so critical that you and I understand that
we don't live for ourselves. And therefore we are not to die
for ourselves. When God saved you, he saved
you for himself. So that whether you live or whether
you die, you are the Lord's. That means child of God, if it's
in your power, Die for the glory of God. If it's in your power,
die for the glory of God. See, because your physical life
is a seed. That's all it is. And when you
die, that seed goes into the ground. Preach Christ when you
die. Preach Christ when you die. Don't you can do whatever you
want to with my body. No, God, that's God's body. Do
you know that you've been bought with a price you are not your
own? God owns you both body and soul. What should you do in life? You should glorify God with your
life. What should you do in death? Glorify God with your death.
Go home tonight after this Bible study, write out your living
will. When I die, Put a bible verse by that do this with my
body put a bible verse by that and when you do this with my
body Be sure that you exalt my savior who loved me and gave
himself for me after all he died for the glory of god, too My
body is a seed when you place me into the ground show men and
women a gospel truth in my death Are you guys hearing me? So that
men and women are compelled to think about eternity. Think about
judgment day. Think about the resurrection.
Think about glory. Instead of hurrying up and getting
out of that old cold, cold funeral parlor after watching your body
burn and hearing the machine back there burning up your body
in a cremation. That's for folks going to hell,
not for saints. Cremation for folks going to
hell. Pastor, we want to save a few
dollars. There you go with that ghetto thinking again. There you go with that ghetto
thinking again. It's unbiblical. You have detached yourself from
scripture. Preach to your kids when you
die. In fact, write out your sermon. Write it out. Write out what
you want to say. Because you're going to do a
better job than most preachers who are going to be preaching
your funeral. Write it out. Say, well, mom, uh, she would
have used the preacher, but she just wasn't sure he was going
to preach the gospel today because most of them have everybody saved
that die. You know that, right? Don't nobody
go to hell and funerals, the funeral parlors and funeral sermons
anymore. Nobody. Have you ever heard a preacher
at a funeral over the last 20, 30 years? Talk about folks going
to hell. No, everybody's in heaven. The
people in the pews who have never darkened the doors of the church,
this cat, who didn't, he ain't been in church for the last 50
years. Brother Joe, we, we know brother Joe's in heaven. He's
looking down on us right now. No, you don't. You don't know
that he has no testimony at all. I'm telling you the truth and
funerals are a farce and they are an offense to God because
people are on the brink of Jordan at the funeral and they ought
to be told the truth. But, but see, but see, in the
funeral parlor, you are told don't even cry today. No, no,
no. This is a celebration. Celebration. The man lived like hell. Celebration. We need to be weeping and crying
in this place. And we need to be sober. And
God needs to be speaking to us. Celebration. This cat lived like
hell. Tell the truth about him. He
can't do nothing to you now. Tell the truth about it. But it goes to show us that the
church does not own burials anymore. We've lost that territory. We've
lost the territorial of burials. The devil owns the complete business.
We've lost that territory. It's now hijacked by false prophets
and false teachers and religionists who are scared to tell the truth
as it is in Christ. And so the righteous go away
sad. They go away sad. They go, they, cause they know
they were just lied to. We make everybody saved. We make
them all say, well, he accepted Jesus when he was seven years
old at Mount Zion Baptist church back in Missouri, Kansas. He
didn't, he didn't, he didn't get Missouri. He didn't kill
the whole bunch of people up to now. He didn't killed up a
whole bunch of people. He is laying in a casket with
a legacy of crimes everywhere. And we said he got saved when
he was seven years old. I was talking about that boy,
Michael Brown, um, last Monday too. I just touched on it. So
sad. So they did his funeral. Of course
he was saved too. You know that, right? He was
saved too. We got him on camera with the
cigars and beating up people, marijuana in his system. go out
and tragically get killed. But he was saved a couple of
weeks earlier, right? Because he made a decision for
Jesus. See the problem? Y'all don't see the problem.
No, y'all don't. No, you don't see. See, because
you actually think just because you make a decision for Jesus,
you're saved. See, and mamas want to believe that about their
babies. So you want to believe that when he went to church two
weeks later, two weeks ago, that the preacher wooed him up to
the altar The preacher actually said the prayer for him. He didn't
even have to say it, because the preacher says it for you
now. If any of you want to believe,
just raise your hand and repeat after me. See, you don't even
have to say it yourself now. You don't even have to pray for
yourself now. The preacher get to pray for you. The preacher
get to save you. Nothing changed in your life.
You're still living like hell, acting like hell, functioning
like hell. You just got saved. Out the door you go, and then
reality hits you two weeks later. Are you hearing me? Are you hearing
me? And so now we are gripped with what in the heck is that
we call salvation. See, long ago, salvation would
have been he would have came to the altar weeping and crying
and left out saying, what must I do to be saved? We're going
to see in the next couple of studies and his life would have
been radically changed. And then he would have been taken
out and we would have been able to glorify God by a decisive,
concrete manifestation of a conversion in his life. Are you hearing
me? We have problems, don't we? A
lot of problems. A lot of problems. Verse one
of chapter nine. So I can get out of here. And Saul, yet breathing
out threatenings and slaughters against the disciples of the
Lord, went unto the high priest and desired of him letters to
Damascus, to the synagogues, that if he found any of this
way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound
unto Jerusalem. Stop right there. Acts chapter
9 verse 1 I call that according to the outline still Saul Remember what we learned Saul
is the parentheses He's a he's the Philip rather was a parentheses
Saul starts in Acts chapter 8 verse 1 Starts up again in Acts chapter
9 verse 1 Philip is in between What's all doing in Acts chapter
8 verse 1 look at it? And Saul, there he is again,
consenting unto his death. See it? And at that time, there
was great persecution against the church, which was at Jerusalem,
and they were all scattered and brought through the regions of
Judea, Samaria, except the apostles. Verse three, and Saul made havoc
of the church, entering into every house, hailing men and
women, and committed them to prison. Chapter eight, verse
one, chapter nine, verse one. What? Still Saul. You got it. Still Saul. Nothing changed.
He's just still, he's still the same unregenerate Pharisee, Christ
hating Pharisee, God hating Pharisee, seeking to kill Christians who
are walking by faith through grace in Christ alone. Still
Saul. This is what I meant by chapter eight being a parentheses.
What Luke is saying,