But to turn back to Acts chapter
eight, I have entitled the message for this morning, The Salvation
Story. Not a salvation story, but the
salvation story. If you and I are saved, this
will be our story. The story begins with God. Verse 26, and the angel of the
Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise and go toward the south
unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which
is desert. The Lord sends Philip to Gaza. This story begins with the Lord. Somebody once made this statement,
religion is man's search for God. You know, it always ends
in failure. Can't stay out by searching,
find out God. But the gospel is Christ saying,
the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. That's the gospel. The Lord sends
Philip to Gaza or Gaza. I don't know how to pronounce
it. I guess it's Gaza. It's got the long Gaza. You see, one of the Lord's sheep,
is in Gaza. The Lord has a people called
his sheep. You remember when he describes
judgment day, the sheep he'll set on his right hand and the
goats on his left. To the sheep, he'll say, come
ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world. To the goats, he'll say, depart,
ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his
angels, the sheep. The Lord said, I lay down my
life for the sheep. The sheep are those the father
gave him, the elect, He identifies them. My father, which gave them
me, is greater than all. And no man can pluck them out
of my father's hand. One of his sheep is there, somebody
for whom Christ died. Verse 27, and he arose in obedience to
the angel of the Lord. And he arose and went, and behold,
a man of Ethiopia, and eunuch of great authority, under Kandese,
queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charges of all her treasure,
had come to Jerusalem for to worship. Was returning and sitting
in his chariot, read Isaiah the prophet. Now, what I think is
interesting about this man is he had an interest in the things
of God before he understood the gospel, before he'd even heard
the gospel. You know, that's quite often
the case. You know, ever since I can remember, I've had an interest
in the things of God. I always had a fear of going
to hell, if that's what that is, when I was a kid. I was very
afraid of that. And this man had an interest
in the things of God. And he was from Ethiopia, and
he knew that his religion was no good. He knew something was
wrong with it. He couldn't tell you exactly
what it is, but he knew something was wrong with it. And he knew
that the living God was worshiped in Jerusalem. And he went to
Jerusalem for the Passover. He wanted to know who this God
is. He knew his was wrong. He knew
the God of the Bible was in Jerusalem. He came to worship him in the
Passover. And he's returning, feeling as empty as he did when
he came there. You know, he was doing something
good. He was reading the Bible. You see the gospel. is the religion
of this book called the Bible. This is God's revelation of himself. This is the inerrant word of
God. And he was reading Isaiah 53. Now the Lord has crossed this
man's path with a preacher. He sent Philip. preach the gospel
to him. Verse 29, 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 he said, do you understand
what you are reading? That's a good question, isn't
it? Do you understand what you're reading? Now, the average person
would have said yes. Or perhaps, here's what I think. Or maybe even, here's what it
means to me. But not this man. This man had
already had the Lord begin to work on him. And the only thing
he was sure of was he didn't know anything. That's where he
was at. And he said, how can I except
some man should guide me? Now that's the answer of humility.
How can I except some man would guide me And this enforces a
great principle, we can't figure this thing out. I can't, you
can't. We're shut up to revelation. We're shut up to God revealing
Himself to us. The only way me or you are going
to know the living God is if He makes Himself known to us. And he desired, Philip, that
he would come up and sit with him. Now the place he was reading,
verse 32, the place of the scripture which he read was this, and he
quotes the seventh and eighth verse of Isaiah chapter 53, he
was led as a sheep to the slaughter and a lamb before his shearers,
so opened he not his mouth. He didn't try to defend himself.
He's led like a sheep to the slaughter. In his humiliation,
his judgment was taken away, and who should declare his generation?
For his life is taken from the earth. Now this is that great
part of chapter 53 where the Lord is not answering for himself. He's not defending himself. Accusations
are brought against him, and he doesn't try to defend himself.
Now one wonders why. If I'm accused of something and
I didn't do it, you can bet I'm gonna try to defend myself. He
didn't try to defend himself. Why? Because he was guilty. Because he was guilty. That's
why. And we're gonna find out what
I mean by that as we consider this passage of scripture. But
he was reading Isaiah chapter 53. Now, Isaiah chapter 53 could
very well be said to be the high mark of scripture. That's the
great prophecy concerning the death of the Lord Jesus, 700
years before he died. And in that passage of scripture,
We're told why he died. I wanna know that, don't you?
I wanna know why he died. We're told who he died for. We're
told what he accomplished by that death. Now, look at verse 34. And the eunuch answered, Philip
and said, I pray thee, after he had read that passage from
Isaiah 53, where Christ didn't open his mouth. And Enoch answered
Philip and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet
this? Of himself or of some other man? Good question. Verse 35, then Philip opened
his mouth and began at that same scripture and preached unto him,
Jesus. Wouldn't you have loved to heard
that message? Well, if we just stick in Isaiah 53, we're going
to hear the same message he heard. Would you turn with me to Isaiah
chapter 53? This is the passage that he was reading from. Isaiah chapter 53. Now, let me say before reading
this passage of scripture, that all of my salvation is found
in this chapter. Every bit of it. Who hath believed our report,
our message? It seems like very few. Well, he answers this question
in the next statement, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? I'll tell you who's believed
the report. The ones to whom the arm of the Lord, that's the
Lord Jesus Christ, has been revealed. Salvation comes by revelation.
You can't figure this thing out. You are and I are totally dependent
upon the Lord to reveal himself. You can't know what's going on
in my mind unless I reveal it to you. Christ is the mind of
God and you will not know him unless he makes known his arm. Christ is the power of God, his
mighty arm to you. Now, The subject of Isaiah 53 is the
gospel. It's Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That passage from 1 Corinthians
chapter 2 that Rich just read, when Paul said, I determine not
to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified,
was that because he was choosing to ignore other subjects? No. This is the only subject of this
book. This is the only subject of this
book. Everything in this book points
to Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is the subject of the eternities.
This was before time began, Christ the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. When time is no more, the song
shall be worthy of the lamb that was slain. No doctrine is understood
apart from this, Jesus Christ and him crucified. Verse two. For he, the Lord Jesus Christ,
shall grow up before him as a tender plant and is a root out of dry ground. Now the picture is that of weakness,
a root coming up out of dry ground, a tender plant. He hath no form, nor comeliness,
And when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire. And you see, there's absolutely
nothing with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ and the gospel that
is appealing to the flesh. There's no beauty that we should
desire. There's not one thing about him that will ever be appealing
to the natural man. Of course, natural man is blind.
It's because he can't see his beauty. He can't see his glory.
He can't see his excellency. I can describe the excellencies
of Christ and no one will see unless God is pleased to make
it known. Because the natural man doesn't see any beauty in
Christ. Look at verse three. He's despised
and rejected of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. Now that's the description of
our Lord as He walked upon this earth. A man of sorrows, deeply
acquainted with grief. And let me tell you what those
sorrows were. This is something me and you can never understand.
We'll never understand this, and I'm thankful we won't. But
he knew the sorrow of being forsaken by God, of being separated from
God. He knew the sorrow of being made
sin. You and I can't understand this
because we're so used to sin. It doesn't bother us much. We
say it does, but it's just, it's our existence. But not him, he'd
never known sin. And for him to be made sin, what
sorrows he experienced on this earth. how acquainted he was
with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces
from him. He was despised, and we esteemed
him not. And what greater sin could there
be than to not esteem and regard and highly respect the Lord Jesus
Christ? And yet, that is what you and
I are guilty of. We esteemed him not. Verse four, surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Now here's why he opened not
his mouth. He bore our griefs and carried
our sorrows. Now that word carried in the
same Chapter in verse 11, it says, he shall bear, the last
phrase, he shall bear their iniquities. It's the same Hebrew word. He shall carry, he shall bear.
It's the word that is used with regard to bearing children. And
when a woman is carrying a child. Now, what that means is, and
of course, I don't completely understand this. But he became
so intimately acquainted with our sins that he bore them in
his own body on the tree. If you're a believer, every sin
you have ever committed, he was made to bear and to carry. Well, that's enough to make sin
hateful, isn't it? To think that he suffered, that
he bore our sins in his own body on the tree. Surely he hath borne
our griefs and carried our sorrows. This is talking about his substitutionary
death on the cross. Each individual sin of all the
elect became his and he bore those sins. Not just the punishment
of the sins, but the sins themselves. Yet, we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. That's what we thought. Now,
how is this? How is it that he can actually
bear my sins? Because God did this. He can do that. He can take my
sins and make Christ to bear them. God can do that. With God, nothing should be impossible.
This actually happened. And you know, Christ was completely
voluntary in this. He gave himself to this. He volunteered. He said, no man
taketh my life from me. I have power to lay it down.
I have power to take it up. This commandment have I received
with my father. You see, Christ was no victim here. He volunteered. He willingly did this. You know why? Because his sheep
is his bride and he's going to take his bride's debts and pay
them completely. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Everybody that he died for, verse
five, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised
for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him with his stripes were healed. You can bet Philip
spoke to V.T. Oaken unique about this. I guarantee
he started in verse one and went all the way through Isaiah 53,
speaking of substitution. He was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities. Now, it's very important to point
this out. Who's he our? Who is he wounded for? Who is
he bruised for? Everybody? Every man to ever
live? Well, if that's the case, then
either every man will be saved or he failed in his intention. Both of those things are wrong. Everybody he intended to save,
he saved. He put away their sins. Verse
five, he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised
for our iniquities. Matthew 121 says thou shall call
his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. The
chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes
we are healed. By whose stripes Peter said you
were healed. Verse six. all we, and this is Isaiah speaking,
and this is every believer can enter into this. All we like
sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way. Every believer feels like there's
something particular and peculiar about his sin that makes him
worse than everybody else. And only a believer understands
that. An unbeliever will hear this and they won't enter into
it, but the believer knows. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone, every
one of us to our own way. Our sin is all our fault. We
can't blame God's sovereignty. We don't blame God's sovereignty,
we're the problem. We've turned everyone to his
own way. And here's the only hope. The
Lord hath laid upon him, made to meet upon him the iniquity
of us all. Now, he experienced something The
believer will never experience and even the unbeliever in hell
will not experience it to his fullness because hell is eternal.
He experienced the complete forsaking of God and the complete wrath
of God, the complete separation of God when God made the sins
of his people to meet upon him. Verse seven, he was oppressed. He was afflicted, yet he opened
not his mouth to defend himself. He's brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shears is done, so openeth
he not his mouth. Now, the reason he didn't try
to defend himself, understand this, when Christ was dying on
Calvary's tree, it was not the innocent being punished, it was
the guilty. It was the guilty, the guilt
of my sin became his. That's why he didn't try to defend
himself. He knew he really was guilty.
My sin became his sin. He became guilty of the commission
of that sin. Verse eight. He was taken from
prison and from judgment. And who shall declare his generation?
For he was cut off out of the land of living. He was put to
death for the transgression of my people. Was he stricken? That's
why he died. Verse nine, he made his grave
with the wicked and with the rich in his death. Remember he
was, he was counted a wicked man and put in the grave of a
rich man, Joseph of Arimathea, because he'd done no violence,
neither was he deceit in his mouth. He never sinned in his
person. He never committed a sin. Yet, verse 10, yet. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. Now, why was he nailed to that
cross, suffering God's wrath? Because it pleased the Lord. This is why God made the universe. Everything relates to this, the
honor of Christ on Calvary's tree. It was God's purpose, Him
being delivered by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of
God. That's why He's there. Well,
He's there because men nailed Him there. All they were doing
is what God's hand and counsel determined before to be done.
That's why he was there. I love it the way when the Lord
was going to the cross and he said, daughter of Jerusalem,
don't weep for me. I don't need your pity. You weep
for yourselves. He was there to do God's will. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him, to crush him. He had put him to grief. He's the one who made him sin. When thou said make his soul
an offering for sin. Now that word offering for sin
is one word in the Hebrew. It's also translated sin and
guilt and guiltiness. When the Lord made him sin, made
him guilt, made him guiltiness. Now let me say this once again.
On the cross, the Lord wasn't punishing the innocent. He was
punishing the guilty. The sins of God's people became
his sins. That's why he died on Calvary
Street. This is, it was the justice of
God calling for his destruction because he took my sin. He took
what I deserve. He took what I earned. It became
his. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. That's the elect. He shall prolong his days. He's
gonna live eternally. He's gonna be raised from the
dead and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail of his
soul and shall be satisfied. Completely satisfied. He's so satisfied with what he
did. The Father is so satisfied with what he did. He's so satisfied
with everyone he did it for. Now, because of this, God could
look at this man looking at you and trying to preach to you right
now and say, I am completely satisfied with him. He doesn't need anything else.
He's perfect in my sight. all because of the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He shall see the travail of his
soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge. That's not talking
about somebody knowing him, by his knowledge. His complete perfect
knowledge. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many. There we have the glorious doctrine
of justification. If you're justified, that means
you have no guilt before God. And justification isn't something
God offers you. I'm gonna offer you justification.
Does a judge ever look at the person, well, I'm gonna offer
you justification. It's up to you to accept it. You're justified when God justifies
you. And if he justifies you, you
know what? You're justified. Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justified
them. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many. And here's how he did this, for
he shall bear their iniquities. And he put them away, therefore
will I divide him a portion with the great. All of God's people
are the great. In and of themselves, they're
nothing. But here's what happens because Christ died for them.
They're great to God. because he hath poured out his
soul unto death. He was numbered with the transgressors,
and he bare the sin of many, and he made intercession for
the transgressors. When he was raised from the dead,
listen to this. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died, yea, rather that's risen again, who's even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us, representing us. Now, back to Acts chapter 8. Verse 35. Then Philip opened
his mouth and began at that same scripture, Isaiah 53, and preached
unto him, Jesus. Now, let me say this. He didn't say anything different
than what you've heard this morning. He probably was a whole lot better
preacher than me. I have no doubt about that, but
this was the content of his message. Isaiah chapter 53, verse 36. And as they went on their way,
they came unto certain water. And the eunuch said, see, here
is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? Now from this we know that Philip
spoke to him of baptism. He talked about the act, going
under water, coming back up. and he let Philip know what this
means. I love baptism. I love the simplicity
of it. When Jesus Christ lived, I lived. That's my life before God, his
righteousness. His righteousness really is my
personal righteousness before God. His law keeping is my life
before God. When he died, When you're baptized,
you put somebody under the water signifying death. When he died,
I died. And when you're baptized, you
come back up out of the water. When he was raised, I was raised. Now this is all my salvation.
I wish I could describe this the way I ought to. This is all
my salvation. When he lived, I did. When he
died, I did. When he was raised, I was. That is all my salvation. And he explained to him baptism. He explained to him how this
is the believer's confession of Christ. And during the course
of this message, all of a sudden they come to a pool of water
and he says, see, here's water. Now you give me a reason why
I shouldn't be baptized. I appreciate that. Perhaps he
thought maybe I don't know enough. Maybe I shouldn't be baptized.
Maybe my experience is not sufficient to be baptized. Maybe I still
got too much sin in my life, and I probably shouldn't be baptized
until I become a better person. What hinders me? I want to know.
Is there any reason why I personally should not be baptized? Now,
I won't be. If you say no, tell me. What
hinders me from being baptized? And look at Philip's answer.
And Philip said, if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. Now, what is the requirement
for baptism? You believe the gospel. That's the only requirement.
You believe. And you believe with all your
heart. That means all your understanding. That means all your affections,
all your will. As far as you can, Jesus Christ
is the Son of God. Not that I understand that, but
any way I can understand it, I do. I do. I understand. He's
the Son of God. I'm glad He is. I wouldn't want
it to be any other way. This is the way I want. I want
to be saved by Him. Now, He said, I believe. He said,
if you believe with all your heart, you may. Now, I love the
way Philip answers this. And he answered and said, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the son of God. Now that lets us know
that during the course of this message from Isaiah 53, he was
saying Jesus Christ is the son of God. Now what in the world
does that mean? He's the uncreated, eternal,
second person of the blessed Trinity. In Him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, Colossians 2.9 says. That means every attribute
of God in its fullness is in Jesus Christ. Fullness of sovereignty,
fullness of power, fullness of holiness, fullness of wisdom,
every attribute God has is seen in its fullness in the person
of Jesus Christ. This Ethiopian eunuch didn't
say, I believe I'm saved. He didn't say, I believe Christ
died for my sins. He didn't say, I believe I'm
one of the elect. He didn't say, I believe I'm
regenerate. He said, I believe that Jesus
Christ is the son of God. Now faith doesn't have anything
to do with what you believe about yourself. It has wholly to do
with what you believe concerning Him. What think ye of Christ? Whose Son is He? Now if you believe He's the Son
of God, now I realize that if you would ask probably most of
you, do you believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God? They'd probably
say, yeah, yeah, I believe He's the Son of God. The only problem
is the God they believe is less than the God of the Bible, and
the Christ they believe is less than the Christ of the Bible.
It's really meaningless jargon. If you believe He's the Son of
God, that means you believe He controls everybody and everything. You believe He's equal with the
Father. You believe He's the creator of the universe. You
believe He controls everything. You believe He must be successful
in salvation. You believe all He died for must
be saved. You believe He cannot fail. You
believe He shall see the travail of His soul and be satisfied.
Everything He intended to do, that's what He did. That's what
you believe when you really believe He's the Son of God. This is
not about believing, well, I think I'm saved. Well, I hope you are,
but that doesn't mean you are. This is not about what you think
about yourself. What do you think concerning Him? That's the only
issue. The issue between you and God,
between me and God, is what I think concerning His Son, His only
begotten and well-beloved Son. And let me remind you, this begetting,
this day have I begotten thee, it says in Psalm 2. This begetting
is not an event of time. It's the glorious fact, irrespective
of time, the only begotten Son, the Son of His love. And here's what faith is. I believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 1 John 5 verse 5 says, Who is he
that overcometh the world? But he that believeth that Jesus
is the Son of God. Jesus. The Savior. That's what the name means. That's
why it's called the name Jesus. For he shall save his people
from their sins. Christ. God's prophet. The Word of God.
God's priest. Who can't fail. God's King. Who really is King. He's nobody
less. than the son of the living God. Verse 38, 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. He immersed 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. I don't know what
all took place. I don't know if he's visibly
lifted up and carried somewhere else. Could be that. I mean,
that's kind of what it sounds like, isn't it? Philip saw him
no more. And he went on his way. It's
talking about the eunuch. He went on his way rejoicing. Rejoicing. But Philip was found
at Astus, and passing through, he preached in all the cities
till he came to Caesarea. And this is what Paul called
the joy and peace of believing. He went on his way rejoicing. Now, if you believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God, and you have some understanding of
what Isaiah 53 teaches, you know what you're gonna do? you're
gonna go on your way rejoicing. Let's pray. Lord, let us be just like this
eunuch. To believe that Jesus Christ
is your eternal son. And teach each one of us by your
grace what it is to rest in who he is and what he did. And look nowhere but him and
go in our way rejoicing in him. In his name we pray, amen.