Okay. Every time I read Ezekiel 34
and I read those verses about him making a covenant of peace,
I will make a covenant of peace and I will cause the evil beast
to cease out of the land and they shall dwell safely in the
wilderness and sleep in the woods. And when we were in India we
used to go into the wilderness with our little girls and they
were only sort of 13 to sort of 15, maybe a little bit older
anyway, and we used to go out and sleep and camp in the woods
where there are tigers around. Tigers are such huge animals
that they do their stropping like cats do on the trees and
it'd be as high as the ceiling in this place and you'd see their
footprints and they'd be the size of dinner plates around
the place. to think that the Lord Jesus
Christ, we live in a world where there is just trials and tribulations
and problems and lions on every side, but such is the glory of
our God and such is the wonder of His providential care of His
people that He makes them to lie down in those wilderness
places and He makes them to sleep in the woods because He's got
rid of the wild beasts. What a great thing, what a great
Redeemer we have. So turn with me to Acts chapter
8. We have seen in Acts these extraordinary
contrasts, haven't we? We've seen the Lord raise up
His people and we've seen people rise up in opposition. We have
seen Barnabas reveal the heart of God's people that will give
everything that they have for the sake of the glory of the
Lord Jesus. And we've seen the hypocrisy and deceitfulness and
covetousness of Ananias and Sapphira. We've seen the wonder of God
working in Stephen to make him pray for his enemies who were
stoning him to death. He spoke gracious words to them
and spoke the truth to them and they were enraged against him.
We've seen the joy in the city of the Samaritans And we've seen
the deceitful heart of Simon Magus, and here we have the heart
of the Ethiopian eunuch exposed before us. But also we have,
most gloriously, we have the work of the Lord Jesus, the hand
of the Lord Jesus in the providential circumstances of our life. And
it's such a good thing for us to contemplate, isn't it, after
all our years together as a church this time, this year that we
are celebrating our decade together, to think upon each one of you
and the providential hand of the Lord in drawing you to this
place where we are gathered by Him to worship Him in spirit
and truth. And every single one of you have
a story. Every single one of you have
a journey. Every single one of those journeys is a journey that's
been through trials and tribulations. It's been through floods and
fire and it's been a journey that has been one that if we
saw some of it beforehand we'd be fearful of, but if we saw
the Lord's hand behind what we see with our human eyes we would
be rejoicing. in his hand. And the Ethiopian
eunuch went away rejoicing and my prayer is that when people
hear the gospel, God's people will go away rejoicing and some
of you who haven't rejoiced might be caused by a sovereign hand
of God's grace to go away rejoicing today. All of us might go away
rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ. So let's begin reading in Acts
chapter And I want to begin at 25, and of course the one thing
that we see so evidently is that every time there's been opposition
to the Gospel, the Lord has used it to profit. The Apostles have
to deal with Simon Magnus, and then in verse 25, which we didn't
look at last week, and they, when they had testified, this
is Simon and John, when they had testified and preached the
word of The Lord returned to Jerusalem and preached the gospel
in many villages of the Samaritans. So the opposition in Jerusalem
and the opposition from Simon Magus had just been a cause for
the gospel to go out. But now we come to this story
that we want to spend our time on today, this remarkable history
of the Lord saving one of his children. and how particular
and personal is the salvation of every single one of the Lord's
people. As we read in Ezekiel 34, they
will be my people and he will be their God. It's always going
to be individual and personal and the salvation of every sinner
is particularly tailored by God in such a way that they see his
sovereign hand of grace upon them. So these stories these
histories that we have and they are a selective history in Acts.
Just as when John finished writing his remarkable Gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ, he said if you'd written everything that
needed to be written about him, the world couldn't contain the
books that are written. So when we have this history
of 30 years of the early church and we have these selected stories,
they are specifically selected by God the Holy Spirit to teach
us particularly pointed and meaningful lessons. In verse 26, we'll read
from 26 down to 40, then we'll come back and look at it. And
the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise and go
south, go towards the south unto the way that goeth down from
Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went,
and behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under
Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasure,
had come to Jerusalem for to worship, and was returning, sitting
in his chariot, read Isaiah the prophet. 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 said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said,
how can I except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip
that he would come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture
which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so he opened
not his mouth. In his humiliation, his judgment
was taken away. And who shall declare his generation?
For his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered
Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet
this? Of himself, or of some other
man? Then Philip opened his mouth,
and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way,
they came unto a certain water, and the eunuch said, See, here
is water. What thus hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest
with all thine heart, thou 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
had 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. What a wonderful, wonderful story.
May it be the Lord's will that we could go away rejoicing. Let's
pray. Heavenly Father, we are so much like the Ethiopian eunuch.
We need to be guided and we need to be led. We need to be taught
of God. taught of you, our Heavenly Father,
to see the Lord Jesus Christ in His glory as revealed in the
Scriptures, in His glory as revealed in His everlasting love for His
children, for His Bride, that remarkable everlasting love that
draws, that causes Him to draw His people to Himself. And may
it be our portion, Heavenly Father, that you be our teacher this
morning, that we might see the Lord Jesus Christ high and lifted
up, we might see Him reigning upon the throne of this universe,
Him reigning together with all of His chosen bride. And may
it, Heavenly Father, be our portion to see yet again His hand of
providence in saving His people from their sins and drawing them
to Himself. May it be our portion, Heavenly
Father, by your grace, that no matter what our circumstances
when we come here or even when we sit here, that we might be
led and allowed of you to go away rejoicing in the Lord Jesus
Christ. For we desire for Him to be glorified,
Heavenly Father, as these blessed scriptures do so abundantly. May it be made clear to us. For
we pray in His name and for His glory. Amen. As I said earlier,
these are events that are filled with meaning. This is a selected
story and there are many in this history of this first 30-odd
years of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, but they are all,
again I want to remind myself and you, they are the acts of
our great God and our great Sovereign. And we need to hear what the
Spirit says to the churches. There are so many remarkable
lessons in this short story, this meeting of this Ethiopian
eunuch with Philip. And this story shows us how the
Lord gathers his sheep. We will have another one in the
next chapter, in Acts chapter 9, of Saul becoming Paul and
being gathered by the Lord to himself. But there are several
things that I want us to see in here. We want to see how the
gospel is brought to man and how the word of the Lord is always
fulfilled. The Lord Jesus promised that
night that he was taken away to be crucified. He promised
that he, in his prayer, this high priestly prayer that the
Father has answered and answered abundantly, neither I pray for
these alone, John 17, 20, but for them also which shall believe
on me through their word. The Gospel is going to come to
people through the word, through the word of a man. And we have
no doubt in the history of God's people that the men are just
ordinary men, but they are endowed from on high with a word from
God, and endowed from on high with God's leading of them. It says in verse 26, And the
angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go
towards the south unto a way that goes down from Jerusalem
unto Gaza, which is desert. That was away from Jerusalem
down to the Mediterranean coast. Gaza is famous these days for
the troubles that are there. But there were two roads down
from Jerusalem to Gaza. There was one, the common road
that everyone travelled on, and this other road is a road that's
through the desert. We have the angel of the Lord. The angels of the Lord spoke. to the apostles, if you remember
in Acts chapter 5 verse 19 and 20, the angel of the Lord, they
opened the prison doors and they brought them forth and said to
the apostles, go and stand and speak in the temple to the people
all the words of this life. God in those days and in these
days, folks, speaks to his people through angels. The word angel
means messenger. He speaks to his people through
messenger. So there are four or maybe five
fundamental things that we want to see here. We want to see,
the Lord will allow us to see, the providence of God in effectual
calling. We want to see the meeting of
a chosen sinner and a particular preacher. We want to see the
preaching of the gospel and we want to see that work of God
the Holy Spirit in that divine illumination that brings belief
and brings public confession. And we want to look at the wonder
of baptism as a public profession of the Lord Jesus Christ. You
see, Philip was in the midst of a revival in Samaria. Many Samaritans had become believers,
but there in the midst of that, with the apostles down there
with him, he has this word from God. Go, arise and go towards
the south. In verse 27, and he arose and
went and behold, that word behold means to pause and consider.
This is a story that needs to be paused and considered. Behold,
a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace,
queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasure,
had come to Jerusalem for to worship. And Philip, Philip met this man,
and this Ethiopian, in verse 28, he was returning, and sitting
in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet, in verse
29, and the spirit, then the spirit said unto Philip, the
angel speaks and the spirit speaks, go near and join thyself to this
chariot. The hand of God in providence. The hand of God providentially
directs all of the events of this world. It is a great comfort
to troubled souls to think that no matter what the circumstances
that have passed, whatever history has passed is God's history. Whatever has come to pass in
this world has come to pass at the sovereign ordination of our
great God. It was determined before the
foundation of the world and that great scroll that the Lord Jesus
Christ took in Revelation 4 and he opened those seals, he
was opening the seals of the everlasting covenant. All of
God's covenantal promises, all of God's covenantal purpose in
bringing glory to himself and glory to his son and glory to
the Holy Spirit and glory in the salvation of his people was
all there and everything. Everything is worked by God. We are not deists. We do not
believe that God is passive. We believe that God, according
to the scriptures, is working all things for the good of those. It says, as Paul says, doesn't
he, he says, when it pleased God, when it pleased God, That's
what happens. Things happen when it pleases
God. It is a great comfort to our
souls in the trials that you are going through and that you
will continue to go through, whatever you remain in this world.
Our God sovereignly rules over all things. He moves in a mysterious
way His wonders to perform. We can't see the sun shining
behind the dark, dark clouds, but we know that the sun shines. And may it be for us that in
the midst of whatever the trials are, we actually ask the Lord
to reveal yet again His hand of sovereign will. He works all
things according after the counsel of His own will. In this particular
circumstance, he actually sends this particular preacher to meet
with this particular eunuch. It is a reminder, a reminder
as I was speaking to Simon earlier, that God's God's message is never sent in
some sort of random, ad hoc way, and God's messengers are never
sent. There is a significance, an eternal
spiritual significance about the things that happen wherever
God sends his message, wherever there is the preaching of the
gospel. There are serious things going on. God sends his messages,
as he sent Philip. He sends his messages specifically,
and his messages go with a particular message to a particular people,
and the message is always the same. Philip preached the Lord
Jesus Christ. He preached Christ to them in
Samaria. When he meets the Ethiopian eunuch, he just preaches Christ
to him. There is just one message that God's servants always bring. It is the most remarkable privilege
in all of the world to have the Gospel proclaimed to us. We will,
in a couple of months' time, have Greg and others come from
Florida here for a couple of weeks. And it is no small thing
for the God of this universe to send one of His preachers
from Florida all the way to Nowra to speak to this little group
of people. He will send, Lord willing, Alan
Jellett and send Peter Meany here. It is no small thing. Woe
to us if we treat it as a small thing. What a difference it would
make to our hearing and other things in our lives if we believe
that we're actually hearing the very words of God. And we are,
we are reading and hearing the very words of God. There are
multitudes in this world who have gone from this world who
have never heard. We will read in Acts chapter
16 of that remarkable situation in Acts 16, 6 and 7 where Paul
was desperately keen to go to places. He wanted to go into
Bithynia and the Spirit of God said, no you can't. He wanted
to go. He was forbidden of the Holy
Ghost to preach the Word in Asia. There is a remarkable, remarkable
privilege in hearing the Word of God. It is, and a remarkable
privilege. What a remarkable gift was sent
to this Ethiopian eunuch. As James said, every good gift
and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the
Father of lights with whom there is no variables, neither shadow
of turning. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth that we should be kind of first fruits of his
creatures. The gospel is sent. By divine
commission, it was sent by God to this Ethiopian eunuch. It's sent in salvation and it's
sent in judgment, but it's always sent of God for His purpose. But here we have this chosen
sinner. What a remarkable story it is.
I love Ezekiel 16's description in that great allegory. He describes
the time of love. The time when God meets with
his chosen one and reveals himself. They were his in eternity. He
has loved them with an everlasting love. They were always justified
in him. They've always been one with
him. But there is a time of love.
There is a time when the Lord Jesus Christ manifests himself. And here we have the story of
this Ethiopian eunuch. This man of Ethiopia, this man
who had An extraordinary history, didn't he? He had an extraordinary
upbringing. He was raised to this place of
great authority. He was a black man meeting a
white man. Philip, we don't know much of
his origins at all. We just know that he was a Jew
who had some Greek lineage. But in terms of status, he was
this one with great authority, a eunuch of great authority under
Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians. He had great authority, he had
great position, he had great wealth, he had great power. He was travelling with a company
of people. And yet, in that meeting, there were two hearts moved by
the hand of God. The heart of Philip was moved,
but the heart of the eunuch was moved." It's really interesting,
isn't it? This eunuch was someone who took
the things of eternal life and took the things of his spiritual
destiny with great seriousness, hadn't he? I looked up on the
internet and it's 4,000 kilometres from Addis Ababa to Jerusalem. Now whichever way you travel
4,000 kilometres in those days, even if it's in a boat, it's
a long and arduous journey. And somehow, and we're not told
how, somehow the news of this God that was in Jerusalem, this
God of the Jews, had gone all the way down to Ethiopia. Somehow
this man in that place had become a proselyte. It's not as if there
weren't enough gods in Africa. There are bucket loads of them,
just like there was one under every stone it seemed in India.
They're all over the place. But he, he, having his heart
moved, Unknown to him, he had his heart moved. See, Philip
knew of his calling, and the Ethiopian eunuch had this sovereign
hand of God moving everything in his life to this particular
point and this particular meeting, and he was completely unaware
of it. Such is the state of everyone
until the Lord opens their eyes." But the Ethiopian eunuch had
done some things, hadn't he? The Ethiopian eunuch had heard,
and the Ethiopian eunuch had taken things seriously. The Ethiopian
eunuch had gone on that journey which must have taken months
by the time he went and spent that time in Jerusalem. The Ethiopian
eunuch had bought a copy of Isaiah. According to the historians,
it takes a year for a scribe to copy Isaiah. So the purchase
of a copy of Isaiah was an incredibly expensive thing and an incredibly
special thing. But not only did he have it on
his shelf, but he actually was reading it. Ralph Barnard makes
a statement that Henry Mahan repeats often and often again
and I think it's so important. He says, walk in the light God
gives us and he will give us more light. Walk in the light
that God gives us and he will give us more light. We are in
this age of ours in the most extraordinary privileged position,
aren't we? Bibles were rare in his day.
Bibles are as common as anything in this world today. You can
pick up your telephone and get 20 or 30 different translations
and commentaries and other things on them. Spurgeon made a comment,
he said, there's enough dust on the Bibles of London to write
damnation on it with your finger. The Ethiopian eunuch had taken
advantage, by the grace of God, unknown to him, but he'd taken
advantage of all of the opportunities laid out before him. It is something
to be mindful of, isn't it? The privilege of hearing the
gospel is a God-sent gift. and woe to us if we treat it
lightly." And here he was, reading. The providence of God had led
him to go all the way to Jerusalem. He'd been drawn there by a hand
of a sovereign God to go on all of that journey. And he'd come
to Jerusalem, and Jerusalem at this time was no doubt a place
where there was much religious discussion Very, very few Christians
left in Jerusalem. At this stage, it was just the
apostles in Jerusalem, and maybe just 10 of the apostles, if Peter
and John are down in Samaria. And most of the other Christians
are gone, and no doubt the religious leaders in Jerusalem, when they
had someone who was rich and powerful and came with a great
train of people, no doubt they spent as much time as they could
to make sure that they had his money. and his support in all
of their endeavours. And he would have heard those
stories about the Lord Jesus Christ. But the Ethiopian eunuch
was on his way home. He was on his way home and he
was just as hungry as when he came. He'd gone on that long
journey and he went out of Jerusalem as hungry as when he came, as
blind as when he came. But there he was in this chariot
on this particular desert road not the common road. And what
was he reading? He was reading Isaiah the prophet. He was reading Isaiah the prophet. And then Philip said, verse 29,
Philip's 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 to him, Understandest
thou what thou readest? Now that's a question, isn't
it? That's a remarkable question. Understand, do you understand
what you're reading? See this question, that's a question
that would offend the proud in heart. This man was a ruler of
people. He has control over all the wealth
of all of that nation of Ethiopia. understandest thou what thou
readest." So the Lord had worked in the heart of this man And
his response is, how can I except some man should guide me? And he desired, Philip, that
he would come and sit with him. See, he was a humble man. He was a wealthy man, an influential
man. But he was a humbled man, and
he was a searching man. He was ignorant, but he was seeking. And he was honest. He was an
honest man. He admitted his ignorance. How can I accept some man should
guide me? None of us should be offended
when we're asked that question. Do you understand what you're
reading? We are here in the finiteness of humanity trying to understand
God. God whom the heavens can't contain. God who is not at all like us. God who is infinite in holiness
and infinite in sovereignty and infinite in wisdom and justice. It is good for us to be humble
before God's Word. It is a wrestling time when you
come to prepare messages for God's people, to read God's Word
and to try and understand what it says, and to try and seek
a message out of it, to try and find something in it that glorifies
the Lord Jesus Christ, that will comfort His people. All of God's
servants, no matter how much experience they have, wrestle. They wrestle wanting for God
to reveal Himself and to reveal something of Himself in these
scriptures. We come to the scriptures to
be taught. We can't come to the scriptures
proud in heart and go away having learnt anything. The natural
man can't understand the things of the scripture. The natural
man in religion is even more ignorant because the natural
man in religion believes that he does know. And his system
of theology and his creeds and his confessions and other things
will give him all the answers. And he can put it all down in
some systematic way and he can memorize verses and things. But
all of God's servants are humbled. Henry Mayer said, don't be a
know-it-all when it comes to the Scriptures. And don't go
to the Word of God to prove some system or to some point of doctrine,
but go to the Word of God to be humbled and to learn from
Him. We need a guide. We need some help. And God uses
men to guide, and He uses the Blessed Holy Spirit taking the
Word of God. He'll take the things of mine,
John 16, 15, says the Lord Jesus of the Holy Spirit. He'll take
of mine and He'll show it unto you. He'll take the things of
the Lord Jesus and He'll show it. We all need to be guided. So this humble man, this humble
man sought this stranger, this complete stranger, Philip, to
come and sit with him. He's not too proud to seek advice
from this man who was so much different from him in status,
in every other way. And he came, in Acts 32, and
the place the scripture which he read was this he was led as
a sheep to the slaughter and like a lamb dumb before his shearers
he so he opened not his mouth in his humiliation his judgment
was taken away and who shall declare his generation for his
life was taken from the earth and he asked this question and
the eunuch said to Philip Utica answered Philip and said, I pray
thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this, of himself or of some other
man? What a great question. Then Philip
opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached
unto him Jesus. What can we understand? What
can we be guided to in Isaiah chapter 53? It is a remarkable
passage of scripture, isn't it? What a hand, what a remarkable
hand of God's providence to lead to this particular point in this
man's life. that there he was with the incredibly
expensive scroll and obviously been reading for some time and
he got to Isaiah 53 and he still didn't have a clue that it was
about the Lord Jesus Christ. It is remarkable, isn't it? What
do we learn? What do we learn? What did Philip
teach him? What did he preach from this
passage of scripture? Obviously it's a passage which
is just full of the Lord Jesus Christ as the rest of them are.
Let's just read some of it. Who hath believed our report
and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? The arm of the
Lord is the arm of power, isn't it? It's revealed to a particular
people for For he shall grow up before him
as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. He has no
form nor comeliness when we shall see him. There is no beauty that
we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of
men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it
were, our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. That's the history of the Lord
Jesus Christ before the Jewish people there, isn't it? God sent
his Son. God sent his Son. So the preaching
of the Gospel begins with God the Son. He preached unto him
Jesus. He preached unto him God's grace
and mercy in him. God sent his son. God crushed
his son. God's son came to this earth
and came to Jerusalem and came to that land of Israel and he
was rejected by those people. He was despised and rejected,
a man of sorrows and equated with grief. He was despised and
we esteemed him not. It's almost as if Isaiah was
writing after the events. of the life of the Lord Jesus
rather than 700 and something years beforehand. We esteemed
him not. So the preaching of the Gospel
begins with the declaration of who the Lord Jesus Christ is
and it begins also, begins with the nature of man. It begins
with the nature of the sin and the guilt of man. Verse 4, surely
has borne our griefs. There is a particular people
that the Lord Jesus represented and came for and carried our
sorrows and we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and
afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. We all, 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. The Gospel comes to sinners in
such a way that they are revealed as sinners, and the sin is our
sin, and the guilt is our guilt. And the only way, the only way
to approach a holy God is as a sinner, as a sinner humbled. In verse 12, It goes on to say,
He was numbered with the transgressors. I love the descriptions of the
Lord Jesus Christ and His union with His people. In this, He
was numbered with the transgressors and He bare the sin of many. He bared the sin of many. He
never did bear the sin of all. He bared the sin of many, and
He bared their sins in His own body on the tree, and He bared
them away, and He made intercession for the transgressors in Isaiah
53.12. To approach a holy God, we must
approach Him on the basis of our sin and our guilt. and we
must also be drawn to God to see His grace and His mercy. Salvation of this sinner and
salvation of all sinners is in God's doings and not in man's
doing. We see in Isaiah 53 this remarkable description of the Lord Jesus
Christ as the suffering servant, a servant who came, who came
to be the sacrifice for the sins of His people, who came to be
the substitute for His people. God sent His Son. God slew his
son. God crushed his son. Verse 10. Yet it pleased the
Lord to bruise him. And that word is to crush him.
It pleased the Lord to bruise him. It pleased the Lord that
he has put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sins. God the Father made the soul
of the Lord Jesus Christ an offering for sin. The Lord Jesus Christ's
offering for the sins was an offering to God. He wasn't offered
to man, he was offered to God, and God accepted his offering
because God crushed him. The holy justice, the holy law
of God slew the Lord Jesus Christ. He was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace
was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. We have the incarnate
saviour, we have the suffering Saviour. We have the sinner that
the Lord Jesus Christ came to save. And this one, this great
redeemer, no doubt the Ethiopian eunuch had heard the debates
in Jerusalem and heard the discussions about what had happened there
in this recent history. And yet when he was reading Isaiah
53, which describes him perfectly, he didn't have a clue. This tender
plant, the whole of God's plan of redemption, All of the hope
of Israel was just there, this tender plant. There was a time
when he was just a baby in Mary's arms. All of God's plan of redemption
wrapped up in something seemingly tender and seemingly weak. something so tender that to be
trodden on was to destroy it. And he was as a root out of dry
ground. That nation Israel, that nation
Israel thought it had spiritual freedom and yet it was captive.
It had no spiritual life. There was no worship of God in
that place. And it was full of man's religion
and it was as empty and as barren as the desert that they were
travelling through. a root out of dry ground, what
good could come out of Galilee? What good can come out of Nazareth?
What good could come? And yet into that land and into
that nation and unto that people, all of these promises were fulfilled. And the Lord had nothing in Himself
that would cause men to look at Him and say, wow, isn't He
something special. He had no beauty. He had no beauty
that we should desire Him. He had no form nor comeliness.
He looked for all the world just like an ordinary, ordinary man. And yet He was the Suffering
Saviour. Surely, verse 4 of Isaiah 53,
He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. He was the Suffering
Saviour. the Saviour who was silent. In verse 7 of Isaiah 53, He was
oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth.
He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before
her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. Why didn't the
Lord Jesus Christ defend Himself? When accused of blasphemy, why
didn't He defend Himself? He didn't defend himself because
he bore their sins and ironed them as his iron. We want to
declare over and over and over again that the Lord Jesus Christ
had no sin of His own, ever. He was that perfect sinless Saviour. He was holy in all of His acts
and all of His doing. And yet, in this substitutionary
sacrifice, He bore all of the sins of all of His people and
He owned them as His own. And therefore, before His accusers,
He has no defence. He has no defense. He took before a holy God full
responsibility for all of the sin of all of His people, the
sin that you are committing now, the sin that I am committing
now. was all laid on Him by a sovereign
hand of God. He was a willing Saviour, but
He was the suffering Saviour. He was the sinless Saviour. Verse
9, He made His grave with the wicked and the rich in His death
because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His
mouth." There's not a single human being on planet Earth,
other than the Lord Jesus, that can claim that. There was no
deceit in His mouth. But our Saviour was not a try-hard. He wasn't the God that's declared
or the Jesus that's declared in this modern world that loves
everyone and died for everyone and tries to save everyone. Isaiah
53 will not allow it, nor did any of the preaching of Acts
the Apostles. It's remarkable, isn't it, that
every time you read something from religion these days they
want to tell you how much God loves everyone. Do you realise,
and we'll say it again, in all of the sermons in the 30 odd
years of the history of Acts of the Apostles, never once,
never once did the Holy Spirit record that the Lord Jesus loved
everyone. Never once does it say that the Lord Jesus died
for everyone. Isaiah 53 and the rest of the
scriptures declare our great God to be a sinless saviour,
a suffering saviour, but most of all it declares Him to be
a successful saviour. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him, and he hath put him to grief. When thou shalt 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. Philip preached Isaiah 53 and preached the Lord Jesus
Christ to this man. And this sermon might have gone
on for hours. Isaiah 53 is so full, but the
rest of Isaiah and the rest of the Old Testament prophets bear
extraordinary testimony to this singular fact that our God, our
Lord Jesus Christ, is a satisfied Saviour. He shall prolong his
days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Verse 11, he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall
be satisfied. Whenever you think of the Lord
Jesus Christ, no matter what the circumstances are in this
religious world or in this physical world, you want to make sure
that you remember that he's a satisfied Savior. Hebrews 12.2 says, for
the joy set before him. The Lord Jesus Christ right now
is a joyful Saviour, and He's a satisfied Saviour, because
He's a sovereign Saviour. He is God, verse 11. He shall see the travail of His
soul and shall be satisfied by His knowledge, so my righteous
servant justify many. Justify many. To justify them
is to remove their sins from them such that in the sight of
God, which is the only sight that matters, they have no sin
anymore. To be justified is to be perfectly
free of sin. for he shall bear their iniquities. He doesn't justify everyone,
he justifies the many and he bears their iniquities. Therefore
will I divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide
the spoil with the strong because he has poured out his soul under
death and he was numbered with the transgressors and he bear
the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. It is
the glory of Isaiah 53 and the glory of the Gospel that Philip
preached to this man to declare that remarkable union between
the Lord Jesus Christ and his people, a big part of salvation
is that manifestation, that manifestation that we are sinners and we have
nothing but sin and we have no righteousness of our own, nor
can we achieve any righteousness of our own. No matter what our
station in life, whether you're like the Ethiopian eunuch dwelling
in palaces or living in the poorest of circumstances, we have no
righteousness. But we are, as the children of
God, we are This manifestation is the manifestation of this
union between the Lord Jesus Christ, this union that in the
preaching of the Gospel, life and immortality is brought to
life through the Gospel. God's people are deeply aware
of the reality of death and the meeting of them with their Saviour,
with their God. And the wonder of salvation,
the wonder of salvation is the revealing of that eternal covenantal
union, that provision that was made by God, that provision that
was made by God in eternity that was written down in promises
hundreds of years before this Ethiopian unit got to know about
the full import of it all, that we were one with Him. that we
are one with Him, that when He was manifested, all of we were
manifested, when He appeared, we appeared. When He obeyed God's
law perfectly, we have obeyed God's law perfectly. When He
was crucified, we were crucified with Him. When He died, we died
with Him. When He was buried, we were buried
with Him. When He arose, we arose with
Him. When He ascended to glory, we
ascended to glory with Him. And all of this is brought to
light through the preaching of the Gospel. It's only the preaching
of the Gospel that can help a lost sinner. And how did this Ethiopian
eunuch respond to the preaching of the Gospel? Just read on. Verse 36. And as they went on
their way, they came unto certain water. In the midst of that desert
there was water. And the eunuch said, see here
is water, what does hinder me to be baptised? Philip would
have preached baptism to him, would have preached the baptism
that the early church practised again and again, that Jerusalem
would have heard about and the Ethiopian eunuch would have known
about. But he preached baptism to him. He preached that public
confession, that public confession of our union with the Lord Jesus
Christ. Here is water, what does hinder
me to be baptised? And Philip said, If thou believest
with all thine heart, thou mayest." If thou believest with all thine
heart. And this is the Ethiopian's confession,
isn't it? And he answered and said, I believe
that Jesus Christ This Jesus Christ that you have preached
to me from Isaiah 53, that sovereign, successful, sin-bearing Saviour
that reigns over this universe, having done that work of redemption,
I believe that that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. See, Phillips
doesn't ask him, what do you feel? Doesn't ask him what you've
experienced. Doesn't ask him to pray some
sinner's prayer. Doesn't ask him and doesn't say,
well, now we have to test to see how genuine you are. Do you
believe, do you believe, do you believe that the Jesus Christ
of the scriptures is the son of God? See, salvation is not a decision
that people make. Salvation is the operation of
God, the operation of God in providence, in preaching, the
operation of God in their hearts. And Philip said, verse 37, if
thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. If you believe with all your
heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, To believe is to have eternal
life. And the Yithyabian eunuch wanted
everyone around to know that he publicly was confessing that
he was a believer. And he commanded, verse 38, the
chariot to stand still. When the Lord does a work in
someone's life, there's always a sense of urgency. There's not
some reason to put it off. There is no good reason to put
off the things of God. He commanded the chariot to stand
still and they went down both into the water, both Philip and
Eunuch, and he baptised him. There is absolutely no sense
in which anything other than baptism by immersion is baptism. Everything else that man has
concocted has got nothing to do with baptism at all. They
both went down into the water to be baptised. 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, and
the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing."
He went on his way rejoicing. To be saved by a providential
hand of God is to go on your way rejoicing. I think one of the reasons it's
mentioned that he goes on his way rejoicing is that there were
no chapter divisions. So you need to read on from chapter
53 to chapter 54. And how does chapter 54 begin?
Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear. Break forth into singing
and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child. For more
of the children of the desolate than the children of the married,
saith the Lord. Enlarge the place of thy tent,
and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitation. Spare
not. Lengthen thy cords, and strengthen
thy stakes. Verse four, he says, fear not,
thou shalt not be ashamed. Neither be thou confounded, for
thou shalt not be put to shame, for thou shalt forget the shame
of thy youth. Thou shalt not remember the reproach
of thy widowhood anymore. Because, or for, verse five,
thy maker is thine husband, the Lord of hosts is his name, thy
Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth, shall
he be called. The lawful the Lord hath called
thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife
of youth when thou wast refused. Saith the Lord, for a small moment
I have forsaken thee, but with great mercy will I gather thee
In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with
everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord
thy Redeemer." And you keep thinking, don't
you, that this man went away. Philip removed from him and he
went all of his way down to Ethiopia to meet with what? See, he went on his way with
the Lord Jesus Christ. And as the hand of providence
had drawn him to himself, the hand of divine providence continues
that drawing work and continues that sustaining and revealing
work. Verse 13 of Isaiah 54 says, all
our children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy children." He
will be protected, if you read on in Isaiah 54, you will find
that the Lord in all those promises, promises to protect. That Ethiopian
eunuch can be sent down there to the trials and tribulations
and the afflictions that will befall all of the children of
God. Isaiah 54 finishes, No weapon
that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that
shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the
heritage of the servants of the Lord. They have a heritage, all
of God's children. Their righteousness, their righteousness
is of me. That's what baptism signifies,
doesn't it? Our union with Him, His joining
Himself to us. Sink or swim, I'll cling to Him. One of the remarkable things
about the ordinances of the Gospel, baptism and communion, is that
within minutes there is nothing outside which is changed, and
yet there is in the heart of God's people led by the Spirit,
there is remarkable things happening, a revelation of our union with
Him. We go into the waters of baptism
in union with Him and as the Lord Jesus Christ came out of
that grave, we are buried with Him and He comes out. One of
the remarkable things about the body of the Lord Jesus Christ
when He came out of that tomb He was, when he chose to reveal
himself, exactly as he was before. But there was one thing missing.
When that body was put into that grave, it was covered in blood
from head to foot. And God says, when I see the
blood, when I see the blood, I'll pass over. God the Father
has seen the blood. It's been shed once. It's done
its mighty work. And it continues to do its mighty
work of cleansing all of his people from all of their sins. God's children come out to newness
of life, life with Him. And we live with Him, and we
live upon Him. Sink or swim, I'll cling to Him,
says the child of God. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we thank you for your providential hand of grace and mercy in the
salvation of your people. We praise you, Heavenly Father,
that it was planned in eternity, that it was written in your word
of promise, that we might go back to the scriptures and see
that what came to pass and is coming to pass right before us
now is exactly as you have promised. And Heavenly Father, we thank
you for the manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ in this
world, to live before you and before the holy law of God with
absolute perfect righteousness. and to bear in His body the sins
of all of His people, to own them as His own and to take responsibility,
to bear our sins and to bear our guilt and to bear them away. Heavenly Father, may that be
the portion of Your people. May You comfort our hearts with
the fact that the Lord Jesus cried out, when he died, that
it is finished, perfectly and completely finished, that all
of your children are perfect and fit recipients of eternal
life in the new creation with you forever. This is a work of
your hand and we praise you for that, Heavenly Father, and this
is a work that you manifest by the preaching of the Gospel And
we do pray for the proclamation of Your Word throughout this
world, but also, Heavenly Father, we pray for the proclamation
of Your Word into the hearts of Your people, that it might
move them and cause them to look to the Lord Jesus again and again,
to see Him high and lifted up, to see Him bearing our sins and
bearing them away, to see Him roving us in that perfect righteousness
which fits us perfectly. at all times for living union
with a holy God. We thank you, our Father, for
sending him. We thank you for him coming,
and we thank you for the Holy Spirit revealing these things
to us. May you now let us feed upon him by faith as we take
these elements. We pray, Heavenly Father, that
you would cause your Son to be glorified amongst us and in us. We pray in his name. Amen.