Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to Acts chapter 8, and reading
for our text, verse 30, the last part. Desire to continue with
questions asked in scripture, and this time it is the question
asked of the eunuch by Philip. As Philip runs to him, as he
is in his chariot, and hears him read the prophet Esaias,
and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? Acts 8 and verse 30. There are many questions in this
portion The eunuch, in fact, answers by another question in
verse 31, How can I accept some man should guide me? What a statement of truth that
that is! How can I understand except some
man should guide me? And he desired, Philip, that
he would come up and sit with him. putting into action that
desire is to have some man guide him. And then we have the questions
later on, where the unit asks Philip, in verse 30, sorry, in
verse 33, is the question of scripture itself, the prophet
Isaiah, In his humiliation his judgment was taken away, and
who shall declare his generation? Who shall declare the generation
of the Lord, the eternal Son of God? And then the eunuch asks
two other questions in verse 34. I pray thee, of whom speaketh
the prophet this? of himself or some other man. Then when Philip began at that
same scripture and preached unto him Jesus and they came to water,
he has another question. So here is water, verse 36, what
doth hinder me to be baptized? And so there are many questions
just in this very short passage, and it begins with Philip asking
one who is reading the Word of God, understandest thou what
thou readest? And what a question that is for
us. Each time we read the Word of
God, and it's a great blessing that we do read the Word of God. There's so many professed Christians,
so many that would say, who are part of our denomination, or
part of the churches, or we're a Christian, but they don't read
the Word of God. One of the questions and answers
on our website with Dr. Alan Cairns, he was asked, how
should we best study the Word of God? And he said, this might
seem a strange answer to begin with. He said, study it by reading
it. Many people just want a quick
answer. They just want to ask some other
of the Lord's people to get their answers instead of reading the
Word of God. Now the eunuch here was reading
it. He still had questions, but he
was reading it fast. Now may we, if we are truly sincere
in our faith and in following the Lord, read the Word of God. Read it in a meaningful way. Read it consecutively. Read it so that we are likely
to understand the context, understand the passage, and what the Lord
is speaking to us through it. How many treat the Word of God
like they would never treat even a newspaper? You wouldn't pick
up a newspaper To get an article and just read a few paragraphs
in the middle of the article, you'd say you need to read the
whole thing. And yet many will only just read
parts of the Word of God and not be familiar with the full
context and what the Word is actually speaking to us of. Well, before I come to three
main points, I want to highlight five things that are the really
key important teachings in this portion. The first thing is this,
we have an example of a preacher and a hearer brought
together. Now we know it will not always
be and most likely not in our days, with an angel like speaking
to the preacher to go to this particular man. But what we do
understand very clearly is that God does bring preacher and hearers
together, not by chance but by design. The Apostle Paul was
called to go over into Macedonia and to go and help them. That
was through a vision at night. Now, of course, if someone has
a regular pastor and a flock is listening to that pastor regularly,
we hope we can look back to when that pastor was brought to that
flock that the Lord has appointed that man. to be like Philip,
to regularly preach the Word, open that Word up to his flock,
and many times that Word will be blessed to them. But sometimes
we have special services, and several of us here can testify
of maybe a last-minute decision to go and hear a particular minister
or attend some services, and the Lord has been pleased to
bless those services and we have felt persuaded not just of the
blessing but of the Lord's appointment that we should be there and we
should hear that word and the Lord's servant should take that
particular text. So here we have this example
of preacher, hearer brought together and maybe often notice that. And if we are a hearer, may we
often seek to go and hear the preached word, to sit under the
preached word. This is an example of blessing
under the preached word. So it is also an example of a
preaching from the Old Testament. You know, of course, at this
time, the New Testament was not written. But we have Philip taking
a text from the Old Testament and preaching Christ, Isaiah
53. Years ago, I was criticized once
in an old people's home, actually, for preaching from the Old Testament. And yet we have this very clear
example and the example of our Lord on the way to Emmaus in
all the Scriptures, the things concerning Himself. The Old Testament
is Christ, He is foretold, and in the New Testament He is revealed. And may we oft expect to find
our Lord Jesus Christ set forth in all the Scriptures. But then
in the third place we have here an example of a passage that
at first was very dark and not understood and not a profit at
all to the person reading it, and yet through the ministry
it was not only opened up but made a source of real blessing. And that should be a real encouragement
to us When we have passages we don't understand, still read
it, pray that the Lord would direct His servants to open that
up, and pray that it might be made a real blessing to our souls. A dark understanding at first,
and then a blessing upon that very, very passage. Then we have here an example
of what the requirement is for baptism. We read the question
that the eunuch had of Philip, what doth hinder me to be baptized? And the answer of Philip, if
thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest. And he answered
and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. those requirements of believing
with all the heart, and especially the confession, the audible confession
of the mouth. In Romans 10 we have, with the
heart man believeth, that with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. And so we have here the confession
of the yearning. I believe that Jesus Christ,
that is Jesus of Nazareth, is the Son of God. But then we have an example of
the administration of the ordinance of baptism. The Lord's commission
was, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every
creature, He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved, and
he that believeth not shall be damned. Here is Philip that required
the eunuch that he would believe with all his heart. And here
is the eunuch then being baptised. It's a direct fulfilment of Christ's
commission, and it tells us how it was done. It's very important. shows the error of infant baptism. Here is believer's baptism, not
adult baptism. Yes, a eunuch was an adult, but
we believe in believer's baptism, where there is a belief. And of those, as we read in Nehemiah,
those that come to understanding that be able to give a confession
and they are baptized on that profession, that which a baby
can never do. And so we have the manner of
it as well. We read that they went, in verse
38, they went down both into the water, both Philip and the
eunuch, both the candidate and the minister, and he baptized
him. Baptism by immersion, going down
into the water and up again, buried with him by baptism into
death and risen again in newness of life. That is what is set
forth in baptism. That is the right way for it
to be administered. So in this short account, and
beginning with this, question, as Philip comes to Una, we find
examples of these five things that are very, very important
in the Church of God. We want to then look firstly
at, as we are born, that we are not or we do not or cannot understand
the things of God. And then secondly, not understanding. It is the cause of stumbling
to some and the cause of blessing to others. It should be a time
that we really consider when we don't understand something.
And then thirdly, God's work in conversion. is to give understanding. But firstly I want to consider
how we are by nature and how the Lord has so ordered it that
natural man or man as we are born into this world he is without
understanding spiritually. It is a One of the solemn judgments
of God, in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely
die, and though physical death comes later, yet spiritual death
is with everyone that is born into this world. And so we have our Lord speaking
in John chapter 12, And he says in verse 37, though he had done
so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him. That the saying of Esaias the
prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who have believed
are important. This is the first verse of Isaiah
53, which is the same passage that the eunuch was reading. Whom hath the arm of the Lord
been revealed? Therefore they could not believe,
because their desire said again, He hath blinded their eyes and
hardened their hearts, that they should not see with their eyes,
nor understand with their hearts, and be converted, and I should
heal them. It is a judicial darkness and
lack of understanding that by nature we cannot understand,
and it is important to realize that. The natural man receiveth
not the things of God, neither can he know them, because they
are spiritually discerned, and Paul tells the Corinthians that. We also have Paul in the latter
chapters of Acts when he is in Rome, and he is preaching and
speaking to the people in Acts 28 and from verse 26. Well, in
verse 24 we read, as he preached, some believed the things which
were spoken and some believed not. What made the difference? Well, we read in another place,
as many as were ordained unto eternal life believed. But here he says, in verse 26,
of what Isaiah the prophet said, again it's Isaiah, saying, go
unto this people and say, hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand,
and seeing ye shall see and not perceive. For the heart of this
people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and
their eyes have they closed. lest they should see with their
eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart
and should be converted and I should heal them. So it is a judicial
darkness and blindness that there cannot be an understanding or
receiving of the things of God. When Paul is writing to the Ephesians
he says of them and he would exhort them in the way that they
are walking as believers. He says in chapter 4 verse 17,
This I say therefore and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth
walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind,
having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life
of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the
blindness of their heart. Though a believer that does have
understanding is exhorted to walk in a different way than
those that do not have understanding. Our Lord, when he was on earth,
spoke in parables, and we read that without a parable he spoke
not unto them. And in Matthew chapter 13 we
have several parables, but one predominant one in the beginning
of that chapter is the parable of the sower. And when the Lord
interprets that, then He makes this distinction. Remember there
was four types of ground that the seed was cast into, which
equates to four types of hearers. And He begins to interpret that,
and he's therefore the parable of the sower, when anyone heareth
the word of the kingdom and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked
one and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart, this is
he which receives seed by the wayside. And the thing to note
is that he hears the word and he does not understand it, and
so Satan can very quickly take that word out of the hearts. And that is contrasted with the
fourth hearer, the hearer that brought forth fruit. And we read
there, he also that receives, sorry, but he that receives seed
into the good ground is he that heareth the word and understandeth
it, which also bringeth, beareth fruit and bringeth forth some
an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. And so the great contrast
is that one does not understand, no fruitfulness, the word is
taken straight away, one does understand, and they bring forth
fruit to the honour and glory of God. And so this is the point
I want to make here. is that by nature, though man
has been given understanding in many things, in electronics,
in engineering, many things he can understand, he can do, in
spiritual things and the things of God, there is a great darkness
and lack of understanding in those things. And it is a judicial
blindness and darkness So that man of himself cannot, he cannot
come and by searching he cannot find out God. It must be by a
direct teaching from God through his servants, they shall all
be taught of God, that we have that clearly set forth as the
promises in the word of God. And those then that have understanding
of the things of God will know that that understanding has been
given them. They've gone from darkness to
light, from not understanding to understanding. And if we are
to have assurance of life, if we are to have comfort in the
word, he which hath begun a good work in you shall perform it
unto the day of Jesus Christ. you must realize that such understanding
of the things of God that lead to believing, to joy, to the
great truths of the Gospel received in the heart, they are that which
must be opened up and the understanding given. Remember, When the Lord
appeared after he had risen from the dead, he appeared to the
disciples on that first day of the week, we read, then opened
he their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures. How very clearly it was, even
the disciples, even those that had been with him, heard so many
things, yet they needed the act and work of God to open their
understanding so that they can understand these scriptures. On to then, look, secondly, what
a turning point it is when we don't understand. It can either be a cause of stumbling
or a cause of blessing. We think of those that are recorded
in John chapter 6, when our Lord was teaching about Himself, except
ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, ye have
no life in you. Then He said, the words that
I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. All of those
that were hearing Him, they were interpreting it in a natural
way. And the natural man, that is
all he can do. When our Lord said to Nicodemus,
you must be born again, he says, how can a man enter into his
mother's womb and be born again? He's thinking of it in a natural
way because he cannot think of it in a spiritual way. Those
that we're hearing, our Lord said, except you eat the flesh
and drink the blood of a son of man, you have no life in you. They interpret it in a natural
way. How can this man give us his
flesh to eat? And so they say, this is a hard
saying, who can hear it? And they went back and walked
no more with him. So it was for their downfall,
their destruction, they're going away from the Lord because there
were things in his teaching that they couldn't understand. And
if you're online, if you're listening this evening and there are parts
of the Word of God you don't understand, don't turn away from
it, attend to words, listen to the preaching, pray that the
Lord will open your understanding to it. And most of us here in
the chapel, it applies to us as well, that where there are
those parts we don't understand, may we ask the Lord to show them
to us, reveal them to us, and that he doesn't cause us to be
offended, and to go away, and to say, well, that can't be a
truth, or that can't be right. Sometimes it can be individual
doctrines. You see the Jehovah's Witnesses,
and they ridicule, they've laughed and ridiculed at me to testify
of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, because they
say it's just an impossibility. They just can't reason it, can't
put their mind round it. And yet the scriptures say, great
is the mystery of godliness. God manifests in the flesh. We cannot understand the Trinity. It is a mystery, but it is a
mystery that is clearly taught in the Word of God. Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost, three distinct persons in one Godhead. One God,
not three Gods, but three Gods. three persons in the Godhead. Then we have the case where Peter
is speaking of the Apostle Paul's writings, and he says of him,
wherein there are some things which are hard to be understood,
they which are unlearned and unstable, they rest or twist
to their own destruction. Again, it's a real warning, where
there's things that can't be understood. And there's the preacher,
the preacher of the Apostle Paul. And there were those, because
they couldn't understand his teaching, they twisted it, turned
it around. And what was it for? Not their
saving, for their destruction. And yet we find the very opposite
with the Bereans. They heard the Apostle Paul,
they searched the Scriptures daily, whether these things were
so. Therefore, many of them believed. And we have the case here in
our text with the eunuch. What an example of a passage
of scripture that begins with the reader of it not understanding
it at all, cannot see the Lord Jesus there, wonders whether
he is speaking of himself, Isaiah, or some other man, and yet the
Lord is pleased to make that very passage that he couldn't
understand a blessing to him, where Christ is revealed to him. This is where Philip began at
that same scripture. It was an example there, not
just of preaching from the Old Testament, but from the preaching
from a text, the practice we have. in our churches of taking
a text, a verse or two, and preaching from that, that is what Philip
did. And so, may we always remember this when we come to things we
don't understand, may it be in our life as well. The things
that we do, what thou I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt
know hereafter, Sometimes we struggle with providences, we
struggle with things in our lives, with things in other people's
lives, the governance of the world and the Lord's sovereignty
over it all, the marrying together, the accountability of men, the
wickedness of men, and God overruling that for good. The greatest example
of this is in the crucifixion. Delivered by the determinate
counsel of God, ye have taken them by wicked hands, crucified
and slain. And you have God's sovereignty,
God's appointment, but also their wickedness. You have it with
Joseph, Joseph saying to his brothers that he meant it for
evil, but God meant it for good. Ye sent me not here, but God,
to save your lives by great deliverance. We're gathering tonight and there
are things we can't understand, can't fathom. Don't let those
things be a way Satan will get in and undermine our faith, discourage
us and cause us to turn back or cause us to hang our hands
down and our heads perhaps in shame and be full of confusion. God is his own interpreter and
he will make it plain. Want to look then thirdly, that
God's work in conversion is to give understanding. We read the portion in Nehemiah,
and you would have noticed in that portion there is a pulpit
made, and Ezra stands on that pulpit, he opens the book in
the presence of all the people, and they read, they read the
word of God. Verse eight is very concise. So they read in the book, in
the law of God distinctly and gave the sense and caused them
to understand the reading. So they put it in context of
what it actually, what it was telling them, what it was, the
message was, and cause them to understand it. And those that
were gathering there, in verse two we read, and Ezra the priest
brought the law before the congregation, both the men and women, all that
could hear with understanding. So it was that could hear with
understanding, old enough to do so, but they still needed
that opening up, and clearly setting it forth. There's an
example to us in the ministry of how we must set the Word very
clearly. And yet, though it is set clearly,
we're not to learn God's truths as schoolboys learn their tasks.
We still will know, however simply and clearly the Word is set forth,
it is still the work of God to bring one to understand. In fact, it is the Blessing of
faith, we have the very clear definition given in chapter 11
of Hebrews. Now faith is the substance of
things hoped for, is verse 1, the evidence of things not seen,
for by it the elders received a good report. And the very first
example is through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by
the word of God so that things which are seen were not made
of things which do appear. How many, they stumble at creation,
they do not believe it, they do not understand it, and they
stumble at that before reading far in the Word of God at all. And yet we're told here that
we understand that by faith, and faith is based upon the Word
of God. In effect it is saying we trust
not men that have just been on the earth for a few years and
just presume to think that they can authoritatively tell what
has happened thousands of years before they're born. In fact,
men are saying that they know what happened millions of years
ago. The Word of God says, no, the world is but just over 6,000
years old. And faith says, I will believe
God, not man. I believe in the authority of
God, I believe there is a God, and that He is a good God, and
He's given us a book, and He's shown us His will, and He's told
us how He made the world, and He's told us what we are, and
how we have fallen, and how we need a saviour, and how He's
provided that saviour. He is the one that we trust,
not man, and it is by faith that we understand these things. May
we always look upon this as a real clear mark of conversion, that
the Lord is pleased to give us an ear and cause us to understand
the scriptures, just like he did the apostles, because it is an that faith is
realised and the work of God is really evidenced in our lives. That those scriptures are no
longer just a mystery, a dark book, but the Lord has opened
our understanding. They shall all be taught of God. They shall not say, let everyone
to his neighbour know the Lord. They shall all know me from the
least, even unto the greatest. And may we be encouraged, encouraged
that the Lord has worked in our heart where he's opened our understanding. May we be brought to understand
about our sinnership. May we be brought to understand
about the Lord Jesus Christ, his sufferings, his death, his
blood that was shed at Calvary. To understand that it is by that
shedding of blood that sins were put away of His people, and that
by believing in that which He has done, believing that gospel
provision, that we shall be saved. And to understand that the Lord
gives us, imputes to us, His own righteousness, so that it
is not in our good works, in what we have done, he has done in his perfect life
and obedience. In Christ's obedience clothe
and wash me in his blood, says the hymn writer, so shall I lift
my head with joy among the sons of God. We understand about ourselves
as sinners. We understand how the Lord forgives
and pardons sin. If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. We understand that which is before
us, outside of Christ, hellfire and the judgment to come, in
the Lord Jesus Christ and inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled and
reserved in heaven for us. We understand what this world
is, With all its bewitching cares and snares, and walking by faith,
we walk as pilgrims and strangers in the earth, declaring plainly
that we seek a city that is yet to come. It is a blessed thing
to be able to think back to when we were without understanding,
when these things didn't mean anything to us, and that we couldn't
understand them and didn't understand them, And yet the Lord then has
opened our understanding line upon line, here a little and
there a little, showing us the things of God and making us to
rejoice in them and maybe to walk in the very same steps as
what dear Eunice desired to walk in and did walk in. And if the
Lord has opened our understanding and brought us to that same profession
and belief as a eunuch had, we are those right candidates for
baptism and to continue in the way of the people of God. May the Lord help us to follow
through with this question, understandest thou what thou readest? How does
that question find us this evening? Do we have to say with the eunuch,
no, we do not understand. And if that is the case, are
we destined to throw up our hands and say there's no hope for me? The eunuch didn't do that. He
didn't say there's no hope. He designed that Philip might
come up and that might guide him. And the Lord blessed that
means in that way. not by Philip's power, but by
God's power, and God using Philip to that end. But may be the Word
find us that we say we do understand. By the grace of God we do. Then
may we give Him the honour and glory and praise, and may we
be encouraged that the Lord has given us that understanding. Whether it is through the Word,
whether it is in our lives, May we be delivered from stumbling
and making shipwreck when there are those things of the Lord's
dealings or his word that we cannot understand and put together. May the Lord then add his blessing.
Amen.