Well, thank you, Tom. It's again, it's not often that
Robin and I get to be with you and we're, as usual, thankful
to the Lord that he's worked it out that we're here with you
today and and have been here on and off, as Tom mentioned.
And we're just so thankful to the
Lord for you. You know, we and until Really
until my mom and dad returned from the field, we didn't have,
I don't believe we had any contact with you. And so this is one
of the blessings that we have, you know, now that mom and dad
are here. I think when I first spoke to you a number of years
ago, for the first time, I said, well, with mom and dad here,
you'll probably see us again. And we're thankful to the Lord
that that's the case. And I have to say, you know,
it's, We're so thankful to the Lord for your grace to my mom
and dad. You know, if you want to reach
someone's heart, you're going to take care of their parents.
And that's certainly true for us. And we can't thank the Lord
enough for you. You know, not only just for this
time now, but for all the years of encouragement you gave them
on the field while they were there. They often spoke to us
about the encouragement you were to them. And that was after many,
of years that they've faced a lot of discouragement from churches
here in the States. And so for that, too, we're thankful.
But I have to say, too, I'm just so grateful to the Lord for Tom
and Margaret. You know, they keep insisting
it's not any burden at all, but we're just so thankful for all
that they do for mom and dad. for us as well. And, you know,
I wanted to make sure that I spoke about these things. So, we give
the Lord the glory in all this, don't we? And we always purpose
to do that. And I was so encouraged sharing
that testimony of Dawn as well, of her situation right now. Did
you hear any complaints? I didn't. She glorified the Lord. You know, she said, where's her
peace? It's in the fact that her sins
are forgiven. Her sins are forgiven for one
reason only, because of Christ. And what a rich blessing that
is to every one of us, every one of His people. And I trust
that we all will know that. We'll know that peace that only
God can give us. But anyway, this morning, I'd
like us to look, well, we'll look at the portion in Acts 8,
but before we do that, just turn to John 12 for a minute. And
I'd like to preface the message with something that we find here
in John chapter 12. And let's look there in verse
27. And as you know, Jesus is shortly
to go up to Jerusalem, to go up to the cross and accomplish
his great work of atonement there. And as this comes to him at this
time, he says, Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say?
Father, save me from this hour? No. But for this purpose I came
to this hour. Father, glorify your name. This was his great desire, wasn't
it? To glorify his father. And here's the father then, a
voice came from heaven saying, I have both glorified it and
will glorify it again. And we know that the people who
stood there, some heard as if there was thunder. And others
said an angel has spoken to him. And Jesus answered, this voice
did not become come because of me, but for your sake." And he
says something really quite a peculiar statement. He says, and he's
speaking about his work that he is shortly to accomplish at
the cross of Calvary. And this is what he says. Now
is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will
be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from
the earth, will draw all to myself. And this, he said, signifying
by what death he would die. And the people answered him.
And this was their answer. We have heard from the law that
the Christ remains forever. How can you say the Son of Man
must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man? Well, the reason I read this
is this is a very important question. It is a very important question,
and the Scriptures ask it often. Often. And what I'd like to do
this morning is give you just one of the glorious answers that
were given to this question. Christ just said it himself.
Who is the Son of Man? Well, he's the one that draws
all to himself. And that's what I want to speak
about today as we look at this story of this Ethiopian man in
Acts chapter 8. So turn over there to Acts chapter
8 if you would. We'll begin there in verse 26,
and I'll read through that first, and then we'll come back and
work through it as the Lord enables. But, you know, Christ says, and
I, if I'm lifted up, not any uncertainty there, but when this
happens, when it occurs, He'll accomplish something, and through
that, He'll draw all His people to Himself. The Word of God gives
us many examples of Christ drawing his people to himself, and we
can't look at all of them, but we can look at this one case
with this man from Ethiopia. And so let me just read there,
beginning in verse 26. And we read there, Now an angel
of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, Arise and go toward the
south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.
This is desert. So he arose and went. And behold,
a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Kandase,
the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury
and had come to Jerusalem to worship, was returning. And sitting
in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. Then the
spirit said to Philip, go near and overtake this chariot. So
Philip ran to him and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and
said, Do you understand what you're reading? And he said,
how can I unless someone guides me? And he asked Philip to come
up and sit with him. The place in the scripture which
he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter and as a lamb before its shearer is silent. So he
opened not his mouth. In his humiliation, his justice
was taken away. And who will declare his generation
for his life is taken from the earth. So, the eunuch answered
Philip and said, I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth
and, beginning at this scripture, preached Jesus to him. Now, as
they went down the road, they came to some water and the eunuch
said, See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized? Then Philip said, If you believe
with all your heart, you may. And he answered and said, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the son of God. So he commanded the chariot
to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch
went down into the water and he baptized him. Now, this man of Ethiopia, we find
him and he's reading the scriptures. And he's reading of a man whom
God describes as his righteous servant, who would justify many. This man who would bear their
iniquities. And he asks this great question,
doesn't he? Did you note that? See, here he's concerned. Who
is this man? Who is this man? And it's not
too much to say For you and for me, if we're ever to know God,
if we're ever to see God, we must know this man. Look there in verse 26. Let's
consider now what the Word of the Lord has to say to us today. And you know, as I preach, if all you hear is my voice, you won't hear anything. You
know, we look to hear the voice of Christ, don't we? We look
to hear his voice in the preaching of his word. And this is what
we pray for. This is what we long for. And
we trust that by his grace, he'll speak to you and to me today
from his word. And here we read that the angel
of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, Arise! and go toward
the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is desert. So he arose and
went. Now, an angel of the Lord, how
this occurred, we don't know. It just says, an angel of the
Lord spoke to Philip and said, arise and go. Well, who sent
this angel? The Lord sent the angel, and
the Lord tells Philip, through this angel, to get up and go
to a place which was a desert, a place where no men are. And
why? Why? Well, here was Philip. When the angel comes to Philip,
where was he? We're told that he was in Samaria,
and he was having a great ministry. Just turn back to the beginning
of this chapter in verse Let's see. Let's just consider the
circumstances which lead up to this. Actually, look back at
verse 3. And we read about this man Saul. He's made havoc of the church,
entering every house and dragging off men and women, committing
them to prison. Havoc to the church. Well, why
would the Lord purpose this? This seems so destructive. beginning
of the New Testament church. Here comes this man. He's creating
havoc. Why? Well, we know the answer to only
verse four. Therefore, those who were scattered
went everywhere preaching the word. Then Philip went down to
the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. And the multitudes,
with one accord, heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and
seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits crying
with a loud voice came out of many who were possessed and many
who were paralyzed and lame were healed. And there was great joy
in that city. So here is Philip, and he's in
the midst of this fruitful work, a remarkable work, really. The
word of God was coming in power, and people were being convinced
and convicted and believing. And there was great joy in that
city. And the angel of the Lord comes, and he says, get up and
go. Go to this deserted place. Surely the Lord has made a mistake. Isn't that what we would think,
naturally? Why would the Lord tell me to
leave this ministry that I'm having here that is clearly so
fruitful? But no, we're told elsewhere,
Philip, that he's a man who is full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. So when the word of the Lord
comes to him, what does he do? The Lord says to him through
the angel, get up and go. And Philip gets up and goes. Now, why would the Lord send
Philip to a deserted place? Because soon there would be a
man traveling through this desert, a man for whom Christ died. A
man who has been purchased with his blood. And the Lord Jesus
is going to draw this man to himself. That's the reason. In
verse 27, And behold, and behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of
great authority under Kandase, the queen of the Ethiopians,
who had charge of all her treasury, had come to Jerusalem and was
returning. The Word of God speaks about
this man and gives us a whole lot of detail. Have you thought
about that as you've read this? Think of the detail that is given
to us about this man. He's a man from Ethiopia, a land
far from Israel, a land of idols and spirit worship. And this
man has undertaken a remarkable journey. This journey from Addis
Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, to Jerusalem is a journey of
2,500 miles. On what? An airplane? A car? On what roads? On a horse-drawn carriage? This would have taken a minimum
of six months. One way. This man has committed
a year of his life, a year of his life, to go to Jerusalem
and worship. Now, much of this journey, too,
would have been over harsh, hostile terrain, through dangerous territory
of vandals and tribal kingdoms. Think of the cost of this journey. By today's standards, the cost
of this journey would have been staggering. Servants to feed, the company of soldiers,
obviously they're necessary to protect him. Accommodation, food
for the horses, all of these things, a staggering cost. Now, what would compel a man
to undertake such a journey? We're told he came to Jerusalem
to worship. This Ethiopian knew that the
gods of his land, the false gods, the idols, were exactly that,
just false gods. And that the one true God was
the God of Israel. This is what brought him. He
came to Jerusalem to worship. Now, how had this man come to
know this? Well, the Word of God doesn't
tell us. But I think we can make a guess. We can surmise. Think
of this. Where in the history of Israel
is there a prominent mention of an Ethiopian? Remember when
the Lord by his mighty arm, had brought Israel out of Egypt under
the leadership of Moses, and delivered in this mighty deliverance
a picture of the glorious redemption accomplished by Christ. And here
they are, and Miriam and Aaron challenged the authority of Moses. In Numbers chapter 12, we read
there, then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses, because
of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married. For he had married
an Ethiopian woman. Now, what that had to do with
what they were contending about, I have no idea. They were saying,
has God spoken only through Moses? Hasn't he spoken to us also,
as they challenged Moses' authority? But here was the complaint they
brought against him. He'd married an Ethiopian woman. And marrying an Ethiopian woman
is a tribal culture we're familiar with. Very extended families. The kinship relationships go
far beyond what we can comprehend. And when a person marries into
that situation, then he has tremendous contact, extensive contact, with
this whole group of people. And there's no question this
would have occurred at some point if Moses took an Ethiopian woman.
And in Moses being brought in contact with these people, who
had they heard of? They'd heard of the God of Israel,
hadn't they? Jehovah. And the revelation that
he'd given to Moses, the deliverance of the people of Israel out of
Egypt, all of these things. And I would think, over the centuries,
through the generations, The truth, the Lord had somehow kept
this truth there among those people to some extent. Because
here is this man and what's he reading? He has a parchment. In those days, this alone was
of precious value. He has a parchment of Isaiah,
of the prophet Isaiah. Now, we don't know if he had
the rest of the law and the prophets, but he certainly had the parchment
of Isaiah, and he's reading this. Now, we're told, too, that this
man was a man of great authority, power, and wealth. He had charge
of all the treasury of the Queen of Ethiopia. What was he? He was the equivalent of a treasury
secretary or a finance minister of the country. This was his
position in his place. And you can understand the influence
and the esteem that comes with a position like that. Well, Ethiopia
too, you see, in this time was a was a people of great stature
and accomplishment. And not today. How sad and how
pitiful and how tragic as we look on this country today. It
wasn't always this way. But at this time, this was a
significant nation. And he was a finance minister,
the finance minister of the Queen. And too, he was highly educated. We see
that just from the fact that he's reading these scriptures.
He's a man of letters. He's reading the Scriptures in
the language of the Scriptures, in Hebrew. The reason the Scriptures give
us all this detail is... One reason is to show us that
this man possessed all the things that men pursue to give them
satisfaction. He wasn't searching for these
things. You know, so many people and perhaps there's some of you
here today that you're you're searching, you're pursuing some
of these things. Well, this man had all of these
things. He already possessed them. But did they give him satisfaction?
No. No, no true satisfaction, no
true peace. What else would compel him to
get up and make this remarkable journey to Jerusalem? It seems
from this that he knew that, yes, none of this would give
him peace. No, no. And it seems that he
knew that he was poor without any righteousness of his own
in the eyes of the Almighty God, the one true God. And he was
searching for peace with God. Well, why had he undertaken this
journey, this remarkable journey? And why was he searching? Well,
because God was searching for him. And God was seeking him. In verse 28, and sitting in his
chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. Then the spirit
said to Philip, Go near and overtake this chariot. So Philip ran to
him and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and said, Do you
understand what you are reading? And he said, How can I unless
someone guides me? And he asked Philip to come up
and sit with him. Now, when God purposes to seek
and to save those who are lost, he sends a minister of the gospel. The spirit said to Philip, Go
near. Go near to this man. And you
know, in Romans 10, we have those texts of scripture that are so
often used as a missionary call, aren't they? And they are. And
they're a wonderful call. But so much more. And we read
this, whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. What a promise. What a promise. Whoever calls on the name of
the Lord will be saved. But then we read, listen, how
then shall they call on him whom they have not believed? Four
questions now. How then shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in
him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach unless
they are sent? As it is written, and now he
quotes from the Old Testament scriptures, how beautiful are
the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring
glad tidings of good things. Ah, so wonderful, so glorious. But, but they have not all obeyed
the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has
believed our report? So then faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the word of God. The hearing not of these ears,
But as I mentioned, the hearing of Christ speaking through his
word to our hearts. The prophet Isaiah asks, Lord,
who has believed our report? And the answer is all that the
Lord draws to himself. The Lord sends a messenger of
the gospel, a preacher of the gospel to go near. This has always
been the way of God and it always will be the way of God to draw
his people to himself. He sends a preacher to go near.
Is this man in the desert? Well, then to the desert he'll
send a preacher. This man will go, he'll preach
Christ. That's his message, isn't it?
He'll preach Christ. And this man will hear, he will
believe, he will call on the name of the Lord, and he will
be saved. Yes. That's the promise, isn't
it? What a promise! The Spirit said
to Philip, Arise and go. And Philip gets up and goes.
And the Spirit says to Philip, Go near. And what does Philip
do? He ran. He ran to the man of
Ethiopia. You know, wouldn't it be wonderful
if that was true of me, when the Lord speaks to me and tells
me to do something, and of you, that we get up and we run to
do it. But Philip, he ran to the man
of Ethiopia, and he finds him reading Isaiah the prophet. Now,
when we go to work, I don't know, do something mechanical work
on a vehicle or to build a house or to do some maintenance. What
do we go just with our hands? You know, with people that we
work among, I say, well, look, they build their gardens a few
hours up the river valley that we live in. in the high mountain
forest that's up there. And so they go up. So I say,
when you go to build a garden, do you just go with just your
hands? Just your hands? Do you go to
level all those trees and clear out that brush and dig up those
tree stumps and all those rocks and boulders out of the ground?
Do you just go with your hands or what do you do? No. You take
the tools necessary to do that work, don't you? You take an
axe to fell the trees, you take a machete to clear out the brush,
you take all those, the spade to dig, to do all that digging
you need to do, as you go to do this work that you purpose
to do. Well, when the spirit goes to do a
work, does the spirit go, if I can say this reverentially,
Does He go with just His hands? Well, in some ways He does, doesn't
He? But no, the Word of God tells us He goes with the Word of God. With the Word of God. And how
important this is today. This is how the Lord, again,
always works. It's through His Word. Through
His Word. And why? Why? Because we know
that the Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than
any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul
and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and as a discerner of
the thoughts and intents of the heart. That's how powerful the
Word of God is. And so, what is this man of Ethiopia
doing? Is he sitting in that chariot?
Well, he's reading the Word of God, isn't he? He's reading the
Word of God. Of course he is. And he's reading
in the prophet Isaiah. But here's the question. Here's
the question. Philip says, do you understand
what you're reading? Does he understand? You know,
this is the great tragedy of natural man, isn't it? His foolish
heart is darkened by sin. He's blind and cannot see. You know, how can we miss this
when we read through the Scriptures all of these analogies given
and these pictures given of a man dead, dead in trespasses and
sins. Blind. He cannot see anything
spiritual, anything of God. Deaf. And so these wonderful
words of life come. And with these natural ears,
he doesn't hear a thing, doesn't hear a thing. He's deaf. The Ethiopian can do many things,
searching even to the ends of the earth. But, you know, he
knows. And this is God-given knowledge.
He knows that unless there's someone to guide him, he'll never
know. He's reading. Who is this man? But unless there's someone to
guide him, he will never know and he will never understand.
How can I? How can I unless someone guides
me? For this man to see and believe, for this man to hear and understand
the Spirit of God, must come and illuminate the darkness of
his mind and pour life into his heart, enlightening the eyes
of his understanding. And then what? Then he'll know
the hope of his calling, won't he? And he asked Philip to come up
and sit with him. Now, listen. The Spirit sends
a messenger of the gospel to the Ethiopian, and he calls the
Ethiopian causes this Ethiopian to receive this messenger. You
know, we just read over this and don't even think about that.
How remarkable this is. You know, as a missionary, especially
in the early years, you preach, you know, and I look out as I'm
sitting, typically sitting on the ground, preaching to a group
of people. And what do I see? You know,
they're looking at me. What do I see? Dead eyes. Dead eyes. because I'm preaching to dead
men. It's always the case. It's always
the case. And you know, they might receive
me to their village to preach, but they're not receiving the
Word. And you know, as you continually
do this and seek to take the Word of Truth again and again
to these people, at times, and you see, you see a person. And the way that people describe
it is so perfect. It says, you see that their eyes
are a light. And that's true. And when I see
that, when I see that there's a person now with their eyes,
they come and they're hearing the Word and their eyes are a
light. And I know that they're receiving. They're receiving. And in God's grace, At times
we see this come to fruition and we see that they truly have
received this word in their hearts. You know, and it begins with
first receiving in this natural sense. And here is this Ethiopian. Here he is, this wealthy man
riding upon his chariot, surrounded by his retinue of servants and
guards in the desert. And here comes Philip running
up out of nowhere. On foot, alone, I'm certain he
was not very impressive in appearance. And what does the Secretary of
the Treasury do? He says, come up and sit with
me. How startling this must have
been. You would think to his servants, his guards, what is
he doing? But then again, Maybe not. Maybe
not. Maybe they were already thinking
that our master is a nut. What are we doing so far from
home, coming to this country, Israel, to worship? Aren't our
gods any good? Isn't our worship of any profit? You know, and he's dragged us
up here and we're so far from home, you know. But here he is,
he says to Philip, come up and sit with me. In verse 32, and
the place in the scripture which he read was this. He was led
as a sheep to the slaughter and as a lamb before its shearer
is silent. So he opened not his mouth. In
his humiliation, his justice was taken away. And who will
declare his generation for his life was taken from the earth? Now, we know that all the Word
is profitable. All the Word. But we also know
it's a very specific message that the Lord, the Holy Spirit,
uses in the salvation of the Lord's people. This message is
the message of Christ. This message is the message of
Christ and Him crucified. This is the message of the cross.
And we're told that this is the message which is the power of
God unto salvation for everyone who believes. You know, it is
staggering to me as I look throughout this land, throughout the mission
field in New Guinea, and this knowledge has virtually disappeared. There's all sorts of messages
being propagated. that the message that is the
power of God to salvation is the message of His Son, the message
of Christ and Him crucified. And we need to proclaim this
message for that reason. This is the message that saves. Well, where does the Spirit direct
the attention of the Ethiopian as he reads the Word of God?
Just anywhere? No, no. He directs him to the
53rd chapter of the prophet Isaiah. And, you know, all the word is
good. All the word is profitable. But
for me, there isn't any more precious word than what's found
in this chapter of Isaiah. I'll tell you why. You know,
I had one of the greatest privileges any child can ever have. I was
born into the home of Christian parents. And I was raised under the truth
of the gospel. Every day, every day that was
possible, my parents would have devotions with me and my three
sisters. And, you know, we'd memorize
scripture, and we'd sing a hymn, My dad would speak to us about
five or ten minutes, just a short word from the scriptures that
we're going through, and then pray. And, you know, I'd hear
all of this and it didn't mean a thing to me. Didn't mean a
thing. I just did it. You know, I was
an obedient child. And if I was told to do this,
about the only concern I had was scrambling at the last minute
before devotions to learn that next verse. So I wouldn't get
in trouble. And as kids set it around, and
it came my turn. And we learned whole portions
of Scripture, chapters of the Word of God. And it didn't mean
a thing. It didn't mean a thing. I just
did it. No thought. His words didn't mean a thing
to me. And then one night, I was laying in bed, I was young, but
I was laying in bed and I became very concerned. And I realized
I was a sinner. You know, and as a young child,
I can't remember all the thoughts the Lord brought to my mind at
that point in time, but I was concerned and I was afraid. And at that point in time, we were
just using pressure. kerosene pressure lamps and my
mom, everyone was in bed and my mom was in the bathroom with
the last pressure lantern on and I waited for her until she
finished and on her way to bed she came out and I called and
I said, you know, and she came and I said, what do I need to
do to be saved? And she said, wait a minute,
let me go get your father. And so she went and got my father
and he came in with a flashlight and read through
this chapter of Isaiah and spoke to me about Christ and His work
of dying for my sins. This was a day that I passed
from death to life. And here is this man. Think of
this now. Here is this man. The Lord brought
this man up out of Ethiopia on this monumental journey. He sent
his angel to Philip. He sent Philip down into the
desert. The Spirit of the Lord told Philip to go near. He opened
the heart of this man to receive Philip. And the Lord put it into
the heart of this man to be reading the scriptures. He directed him
to read a passage which speaks of the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ in his substitutionary death on the cross to save his
people from their sins. Now, who's doing all the work? Sounds like God is, doesn't it?
Salvation is of the Lord. How could anything be more clear? All the action on the part of
God to bring this man to himself, to draw him to himself. In verse
34, So the eunuch answered Philip and said, I ask you, of whom
does the prophet say this? Of himself or of some other man? You see, this is his concern.
Who? Who? Who is this man? That's the great question. And
this is the one thing which clearly has captured his thoughts and
desires. And this is his question. Of
whom does the prophet say this? Of who? Who is this spoken of
by the prophet Isaiah? Is he one who can truly make
atonement for sin? Is he truly one that can give
peace with God? Is he such a one who can bear
the punishment of sins which we ourselves can never bear? Is he the one who can satisfy
the divine justice of God which we can never satisfy? Is he the
one through whom a sinner might be justified. Could it be? Who is this man? In verse 35,
then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this scripture,
preached Jesus to this man. He preached Jesus. This is the
man who the prophet spoke of, wasn't it? This was Philip's
message. He had a message, didn't he?
This was his message. He preached Jesus. This is the
man who not only Isaiah spoke of, but who all the prophets
spoke of. And beginning at this scripture,
Philip preached Jesus to this man of Ethiopia. Well, we won't
begin at this scripture, but we'll end with this scripture.
Turn over to Isaiah 53 with me. Isaiah 53. And we can't even begin to touch
on all that's here. We'll just look at a few of the
texts that this man of Ethiopia was reading there in Isaiah 53. And, you know, the passage itself
really begins in this. in 52 and verse 13. But look there just in that first
verse of Isaiah 53. And here is that question again,
isn't it? Which we read from Romans. Who has believed our report? Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the
Lord been revealed? Well, We're going to see that he's
revealed himself to this man of Ethiopia. And here is reading
and he's reading in Isaiah 53. Look there in verse five. And
we read that he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised
for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace
was upon him. And by his stripes, we are healed. Oh, we like sheep have gone astray.
We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid
on him the iniquity of us all. Here he is. Here is this man.
He's wounded. He's bruised for our transgressions,
for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace
was upon him. Who is this man? And who are
these people for which he's done so much? This, I think this was the great
and overwhelming concern of this man of Ethiopia. Is this man
spoken of by the prophet? Is he wounded for my transgressions? Was he bruised for my iniquities? Was this man chastised in my
place that I might have peace with God? Did the Lord lay my
iniquities upon this man? Are you hearing? Are you hearing
this? These are not words just to the
Ethiopian. These are the words of Christ
to you and to me. Could it be? that this man has
borne the punishment for my sins, and that the fiery indignation
of the wrath of the holy God has been quenched in the body
and soul of this man. Who is this man? In verse 8,
there, he was taken from prison and from judgment. And who will
declare his generation? For he was cut off from the land
of the living for the transgressions of my people. He was stricken. My people, that's who these people
are. They're His people. And this,
this is something I believe is one of the troubling burdens
of this man of Ethiopia. God was the God of what nation? God was the God of Abraham and
of Isaac and of Jacob. God was the God of Israel. Isn't
that the case, naturally speaking? Who had God chosen out of all
the nations of the world? The Israelites. Who had He revealed
Himself to? Who had He given the Word and
sent His prophets and gave the covenants and the promises? Think
of all the rich blessings upon these people. And here is this
man. Who are these people? Was this man stricken for the
transgressions of Israel only? This was his burden. Wasn't the
promise of God given to Abraham that he would be a blessing to
all nations? Didn't the Lord, he had the prophet
Isaiah, and here possibly he was thinking, didn't the Lord
in Isaiah 2 speak there where he says, behold, my servant whom
I uphold, my elect one in whom my soul delights, I have put
my spirit upon him. This same man, this same man,
I have put my spirit upon him, and listen, he will bring forth
justice. to the Gentiles. Could it be? This is his question. Could it
be that he was stricken for me? Could it be that he was stricken
for my transgressions? Could it be that I'm one of his
people? Who is this man? Look at verse
10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He has put him to grief. When you make his soul an offering
for sin, He shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall
see of the travail, the labor of his soul and be satisfied
by his knowledge. My righteous servant shall justify
many. For he shall bear their iniquities. He reads, he reads of this man
who would be made an offering for sin. that his blood would
be shed, that he would die. Yet in doing that, what would
occur? He would die. But the Lord would
prolong his days. And if the Lord prolongs your
days, what will your days be? They'll be days without number,
won't they? Days without number. He would
be raised in the power of an endless life. Here, he is despised. Who has believed our report?
What? Because he is despised. Rejected
by men. A man of sorrows. Growing up
as a root out of the dry ground. Insignificant. Smitten by God. Afflicted. His soul made an offering
for sin. Oh, yes. But in all this, what? All the purposes of God being
carried out perfectly. perfectly to accomplish his will
and the salvation of a multitude of people. The pleasure of the
Lord would prosper in his hand. This righteous servant of God
would justify many. Could it be that he was despised
and rejected for me, smitten by God for me? His soul made
an offering for sin for me. Could it be? that he would justify
me. Who is this man? Well, who has
believed our report? The prophet Isaiah cried, and
here's a man who did, didn't he? The Ethiopian. The Ethiopian believed. Why? Because Christ said, and I, if
I am lifted up, will draw all to myself, all that the Father
has given me. And here is this Ethiopian. He
came up a dead man out of desolate places, and he returned rejoicing,
rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God. Amen.