Our Bible is to Acts chapter
8. Acts chapter 8. Since we have three baptisms
after this message, I thought it fit to preach on this familiar
passage where the Lord sent Philip to the Ethiopian eunuch and made
him hear the truth. Immediately, this eunuch desired
to confess Christ, confess his faith in Christ and believe his
baptism. For having obtained eternal redemption
for all His people, having fully accomplished that which God the
Father sent Him to accomplish, fully redeeming His people, God
the Father raised Christ from the dead and set Him at His own
right hand and gave Him all power over all things. He put all things
under His feet and gave Him the power and the glory of calling
out those He redeemed and giving them faith in Christ through
the Holy Spirit. Christ is the head of the church.
The scripture says, God hath put all things under His feet
and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, which
is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. Christ is the one, just as He
is the one who fulfilled the law, He is the one who fills
the pew, and fills the pulpit, and fills the heart of His child
with faith, and fills this baptismal pool with those confessing Him.
He is the one who fills all. Christ is. When He ascended up
on high, He let captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. He gave
some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors
and teachers till we all come in the unity of the faith and
of the knowledge of the Son of God. Christ provides His pastors. The glory of sending the gospel
to each of His redeemed and bringing us to faith in Christ is Christ's
glory. This is His glory. Isaiah 53
says, the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in Christ's hand. And we read in 1 Corinthians
1, it pleased God. There's the pleasure of the Lord.
One of the things that pleases the Lord, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And that pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in Christ's hand. I've titled this
Christ's Power, and I want to show you three things about Christ's
power involved in bringing one of His redeemed to faith in Christ.
First of all, by Christ's power, Christ equips and sends His preacher. Christ is the one who equips
and sends his preacher. We read here in verse 26, it
says, And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise
and go. Now this will be good for our
preachers here. Before Christ sends his preacher,
before he sends his preacher, Christ makes him know that all
power is Christ's. and not the preacher. All power
is Christ and not the preacher. Philip experienced this first
whenever Christ came to him, sought him out, and commanded
him to follow me. And that word came with such
power, scripture says, Philip followed him. He left everything
and followed Christ just with that word of Christ saying, follow
me. That's power. Now, the way we
receive mercy from God is going to determine how we preach the
gospel. Listen to this, Paul said, seeing
we have this ministry as we have received mercy. How did you receive
mercy? How did I receive mercy? How
did Paul receive mercy? By the effectual power of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And how you receive mercy, that's
going to determine the means you use to call sinners. Paul said, as we receive mercy,
we faint not. It's by that same power that
called us that makes us not to faint. He said by that power
we've renounced the hidden things of dishonesty. Not walking in
craftiness, not handling the word of God deceitfully, but
by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every
man's conscience in the sight of God. Why did he do that? Because
he knew we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency
of the power may be of God and not of us. You get what I'm saying?
If a man wasn't called by this power, he'll use other means.
He'll try to use other means because he don't know anything
about the power of God. But if Christ called you by this
power, you'll use the gospel because you know Christ is the
power. And then Philip learned two more
lessons when Christ fed the multitude. Go over to John 6 and look at
this. This is how Christ equipped Philip to send him, for this
day, to the eunuch. John 6, verse 5, we're told here,
when Jesus then lifted up his eyes and saw a great company
come unto him, he saith unto Philip, When shall we buy bread
that these may eat? And look at the next word. And
this he said to prove him, to test him, for he himself knew
what he would do. He's teaching Philip something
here. Philip answered him, two hundred penny worth of bread
is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a
little. Peter said, who's sufficient for this? One of his disciples, Andrew,
Simon Peter's brother, said unto him, There is a land here which
hath five barley loaves and two small fishes, but what are they
among so many? How can these foolish things
feed so many? And by this Christ taught Philip
this twofold lesson. He taught him not that we are
sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but
our sufficiency is of God. He saw that day when Christ fed
that multitude that his sufficiency is of God. And he learned this
too. By using those foolish meanings,
just a few fishes and a few loaves, he learned God had chosen the
foolish things of this world to confound our wisdom so that
no flesh glories in His presence. So this was two more things Philip
was taught by Christ to equip him, to send him forth. On another
occasion, go to John 14. Some men came to Philip and they
said, we would see Jesus. But Philip didn't go to Christ. He went to Nathanael instead.
Why did he do that? There were some enemies that
wanted to kill Christ, and wanted to kill anybody associated with
Christ. And Philip didn't want to see
Christ die, and he didn't want to die himself. So he didn't
know what to do, so he went to Nathanael to figure out what
to do. And Christ taught him something
that day. In John chapter 12, verse 25, Christ taught him this. He that loveth his life shall
lose it. Try to save your own life, you're
going to lose it. But he that loveth, hateth his
life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any
man serve me, let him follow me. Where was Christ going? To
the cross. He was going to lay down his
life. Christ said if any man is going to serve me, he's going
to have to lay down his life. And he said, And where I am,
there also shall my servant be. And if any man serve me, him
will my father honor. Well, on another occasion, now
this is John 14. Go there, John 14. Peter made
a statement, a foolish statement, like we all do a lot of the time. Christ taught him another lesson.
John 14 verse 8, Philip said unto him, Lord, show us the Father,
and it sufficeth us. Jesus said unto him, Have I been
so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?
He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. And how sayest thou
then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am
in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak
unto you, I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth
in me, he doeth the works. This is the lesson he is teaching,
fellow. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father
in me, or else believe me for the very works sake. Verily,
verily, I say unto you. Now here is the lesson, very
important. He said, he that believeth on
me, the works that I do, shall he do also. What's he talking
about? As the Father dwelt in Christ,
so that Christ spoke the words the Father gave Him to speak,
that believer who trusts Christ, that preacher who trusts Christ,
Christ dwells in him and sends him forth so that he preaches
only what Christ would have him to preach. And then look at this,
here's the next thing. And greater works than these
shall he do because I go unto my Father. greater than all the
physical miracles that our Lord Jesus Christ worked when He walked
this earth, greater than all those physical miracles, through
His preacher preaching the gospel, Christ works the miracle of regeneration
and faith in the hearts of those He calls. So you see what he
learned here? Just as the Father was in Christ
and Christ was in the Father, Christ is in His people and His
people in Christ. And that preacher He sends forth
does the works Christ did. Christ spoke only the word the
Father gave Him to speak. And His preacher speaks only
the word Christ gives Him to speak. and he does greater works
than those physical miracles Christ did through the preaching
of the gospel. Through his preacher, Christ
works the miracle of grace, regeneration, and faith in the heart of his
child. So Peter, I mean of Philip, is learning this, and these lessons
is what the Lord's going to teach those that he's going to use
before he sends his preacher. This is how we're made to use
only the means of the gospel. preaching the gospel. We don't
have ball teams and we don't have divide up into every kind
of division you can think of and classes for divorcees and
classes for this and that one and the other one. We preach
the gospel of Christ to everybody. And so back in Acts 8 now, having
been taught these things, when the angel of the Lord spake unto
Philip saying, Arise and go, look at the end of that verse.
He arose and went. He arose and went. He didn't
question. He arose and went. Now that's
what we think we've got, those lessons. But Christ will not
send us forth till we have them. Till He's taught us effectually
and made us learn these lessons. Alright, secondly, by Christ's
power, He sends His gospel directly to His lost sheep. and He prepares
His sheep to receive it. By Christ's power, He's going
to send this gospel directly to each and every one of His
lost sheep. Every one of them. Without faith,
it's impossible to please God. He's going to bring every one
of them to believe on Christ. And He's going to do it by sending
the gospel to them, and He's going to make them receive the
gospel he sends. He says here in verse 26, The
angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, go toward
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 the charge of all her treasure,
and had come to Jerusalem for to worship. And he was returning,
and 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, Now here's the point of this whole passage, How can I
except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip. that he would come up and sit
with him. Now, you're familiar with the
old road, let the new road bypass. When we were coming back from
North Carolina we wanted to avoid traffic in Washington so we took
the old road and this was the old road that the new interstate
bypassed. We saw those old court motels
all grown up and dilapidated because all the business now
was going down the interstate instead of going down those old
roads. Well there were two roads to Gaza. two different roads
that went to Gaza. The new road went straight west
to Gaza. It was the interstate. It was
the shortcut. It went straight to Gaza. That
was the new road. But the old road went way south
of Jerusalem and then turned west and went to Gaza. And that's
the road the Lord sent Philip down. He sent him directly down
that old road way down there south of Jerusalem before he
had ever turned west and head to Gaza. God makes his preacher
take the old paths. Scripture says, Thus saith the
Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths
where is the good way, and walk therein. And you shall find rest
for your souls. But they said, We will not walk
therein. Our gospel is as old as God. There's nothing new, nothing
contemporary about God. He said, I am God, I change not. I change not. And so this gospel
doesn't change. He's Jesus Christ the same yesterday,
today, and forever. So the message we preach does
not change. That ought to tell us something
when you see religion having to continually change in order
to please people. That's what the world does. That's
why they come out with a new model car every so often, so
you'll go spend your money and buy your new car. Because you
got the old model, you want the new model. Well, that's what
religion is doing. That's a trick religion is using.
They all pass, we just preach Christ and Him crucified. This
is the message to which God has saved His people from the very
beginning. And this is the old path. There's
no shortcuts with God. God didn't bring Israel out of
Egypt and take them straight into the wilderness. He brought
them out and made them circle and go around this way and that
way and the other way 40 years before He took them in. There
are no shortcuts with God. No shortcuts. But by His power,
Christ moves His messenger and He moves His lost sheep and He
makes the gospel to cross the path of His lost sheep at the
exact time that Christ would have it at the exact place Christ
would have it. And His time is always the best.
We see this throughout the Scripture. Since the Lord came and has ascended
to His throne and is working this glory now, we've seen this
throughout the Scripture. The Philippian jailer. There's
this man in a jail working. How's God going to get the Gospel
to him? He causes Paul to be arrested and thrown in that jail
and Paul preaches the Gospel to him and the Lord saved him.
We see it with Lydia. Paul wanted to go somewhere else
and preach. The Spirit forbade him. Wouldn't
let him go. The Spirit turned him and sent
him right to where Lydia was and he preached the Gospel and
God opened her heart and gave her faith. We even see this with
those in Caesar's household. That's right. The Lord arrested
Paul and gave him an armed guard escort all the way to Rome. Carried
him with an armed guard at the expense of Rome so that Paul
wouldn't be injured. Carried him all the way to Rome.
Put him in his own hired house so that Paul could receive visitors. And Scripture says in some of
Caesar's own household, were called by God and believed Christ. You see that? Christ can get
the gospel to his people wherever they are. Today brother Greg
is confessing Christ and believers baptism. You think of the roundabout
way the Lord brought you. Think of that. Greg was, he was
in religion and the Lord began to teach him Christ is our Sabbath.
Not a law, not a day, Christ is our rest. That's what the
Sabbath day pictured. And Greg began to think, who
else knows this truth? Who else believes this truth?
And he remembered years ago meeting Don Fortner. And he called Brother
Don, and Don said, there's a church not far from you. And so he came
over. And here he is, sitting under
the gospel, confessing Christ in believer's baptism. Jeff and
Joyce. I preached for Jeff and Joyce
for a year and a half in Pennsylvania. And when I left, I never expected,
they didn't expect it either, that one day they'd be sitting
here and I'd be preaching the gospel to them, let alone that
they'd be confessing Christ. I never expected that. The Lord
works in mysterious ways. But you needed that roundabout
way God brought you. And it's His right time and He
always brings us under the gospel when it's His time. If you're
sitting here today hearing the gospel preach, thank God, this
is not by accident that you're sitting here today. This is what
Christ works. I'm telling you, this is what
Christ works. He brings His people under the
sound of the gospel. And at the same time, the Lord
was preparing this Ethiopian to receive Philip. It says there
this eunuch had traveled a very great distance to Jerusalem to
worship. But God didn't use those teachers.
He used Philip. He sent Philip to him. He traveled all the way from
Africa, all the way to Jerusalem and was going back and he hadn't
heard anything spiritually in truth. And he's out here in the
middle of the desert where you least likely expect to hear the
gospel. And here comes God's preacher
preaching the gospel to him. Thank God. And he gave that eunuch
a teachable spirit. The scripture says, Philip said,
understand thou what you're reading? And he said, how can I except
some man guide me? And he desired for Philip to
come up in his chariot. This man is a, he's a ruler. under Candace the Queen. He's
the head of the treasury. He's not traveling by himself.
This man has an entourage with him. He's probably got more people
with him than you see the president travel with. And in front of
all these people, he asked Philip to come up and teach him what
the book said. That's God working in a man's
heart to give him a teachable spirit. And thank God, He gives
this teachable heart to His child, so He makes us close our mouth,
and He makes us listen to the gospel, and God answers all our
questions through the preaching of the gospel. Thirdly, by Christ's
power, He makes His preacher preach Him. By Christ's power,
He makes His preacher preach only Him. It says there in verse
32, the place of the Scripture which He read was this, Isaiah
53, he was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb
done before his shearers, 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. He preached Christ to him. That's
what you find everywhere God calls out one of His people,
they preach Christ to them. Philip turned over there to Isaiah
53 and he said this was Christ. In obedience to His Father, He
allowed them to lead Him as a sheep to the slaughter. He allowed
them to do that. So He opened not His mouth. This
is Christ who in His humiliation had all His judgment taken away.
Arraigned before Pilate in His kangaroo court. They brought
forth false witnesses against Him. They beat Him. They blasphemed Him. They reproached
Him. They spit upon Him. But don't
make any mistake. Christ was in full control. He's God. He was in full control. And what He was doing was manifesting
that unlike these men, the righteous judge of all the earth always
judges right. That's what Christ was manifesting
on the cross. He came there to manifest the righteousness of
God. To show by His death, by bearing
the sin of His people, that God is just, His law satisfied. And God is the justifier. That means He's the one who fulfilled
the law for His people in Christ. Isaiah 53 says, He was wounded
for our transgressions. That's substitution. He was bruised
for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. And with His stripes we're healed. You're not healed the day that
God gives you faith and you come to believe on Christ. All God's
elect were healed back there when Christ was bruised for our
sins. That's right. With His stripes
we're healed. That's the difference between
putting it in the sinner's hand and saying, you made Christ blood-effectual
and saying, no, Christ made His blood-effectual. He healed us
with His stripes. It was not Christ who had sinned. We, like sheep, went every man
after his own way. And the Lord laid on Him the
iniquity of us all, of all His elect. The Lord made Him bear
our sin. And the Scripture says, It satisfied
God. It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. It pleased the Lord. What does that mean? He shall
see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied. That's
what it means. It satisfied God. By His knowledge
shall my righteous servant justify many, for He shall bear their
iniquities. Everybody Christ died for on
that cross, He justified. So, judgment cannot be poured
out on them a second time. They've already been justified
before the law of God. Judgment can't be poured out
on them a second time. And therefore, Christ sends each
one this gospel. We're dead, spiritually dead,
lost, unable to believe, unwilling to believe. But just like God
did for this unit, Christ sends us this gospel, sends us his
preacher with his gospel, and he makes our heart, gives us
a new heart, and makes us receive this gospel. And that's how he
saves his people. You notice, and I want you to
be sure to get this, be sure to get this, Christ only gives
faith through the preaching of the truth of the gospel. That's the only way. Christ didn't
work this work through those idol teachers down in Ethiopia.
There was a bunch of false teachers down in Ethiopia worshipping
idols. He didn't use one of them. Even when this man went up to
Jerusalem, the Lord didn't use the fundamentalist Pharisee,
and the Lord didn't use the liberal Sadducee. because they were preaching
lies and they were lost. He didn't use them. Christ fulfilled
this prophecy right here. Doesn't Scripture say He has
to fulfill all prophecy? He said, I came to fulfill all
prophecy. And this is His prophecy. This
is one of His prophecies right here. Christ must fulfill. He
said in Jeremiah 3.15, I will give you pastors after My own
heart, which shall feed you with knowledge. and understanding. True knowledge and true understanding.
Now it's impossible to believe on Christ in truth if you've
not been taught the truth of Christ. That's just impossible,
brethren. And we're taught that truth by
Christ. That's right. And Christ doesn't
use lies. Listen to this. Now Romans 10.14
says, How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not
heard? Now listen to this. Ephesians
4.20 says, You've learned Christ, if so be that you've heard Him
and been taught by Him as the truth is in Jesus. How shall
they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? How are you going
to believe until you hear Christ teach you affectionately in your
heart? And how is he going to do it? How shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it's written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. You know, when the Lord gave
that scripture in Isaiah, Isaiah 52, that's where Paul is quoting
from, when he said, how beautiful are the feet of them, When Christ
gave that scripture in Isaiah 52, He said how beautiful are
the feet of Him. Because right before it, He said,
My people shall know in that day, they'll hear My voice and
they'll know it's I that speak. You see, it's not the preacher
that makes this word effectual, it's Christ preaching through
His preacher. And He makes us to hear this
word and makes us to know, I'm hearing the truth of the gospel.
Now, knowing that it's Christ who preaches to us the truth
of the gospel, let me ask you this. Let me ask you this. Would
Christ die to shed His blood for His elect, for His particular
people, then send and teach the message that He died for all
men? Would He lay down His life for His elect, for the particular
people God gave Him, but then send a preacher to preach that
He died for all men without exception? That wouldn't be understanding
and knowledge. Christ was made a curse for His
people that He might redeem us from the curse of the law. Would
He then send a preacher to declare, but now you must keep the law? Would He? No. He saves in truth. The Spirit is the Spirit of truth. And Christ said when He's come,
He'll guide you into all truth. He won't speak of Himself, Christ
said. What I give Him, that's what He'll speak. And He'll bear
witness of me, Christ said. How are we born again? How are
we regenerated? Of His own will begat He us with
the Word of truth. With the Word of truth. God purposed
from eternity that we would believe, be sanctified by the Spirit and
come to a belief of the truth. Isn't that right? There's no
entrance into heaven without truth because God said nothing
shall enter in that defiles or makes a lie. Nothing. Nothing. You know what the difference
between God's people and the reprobate is? God's people believe
the truth. Christ said, because they would
not receive the love of the truth, God shall send them strong delusion
that they should believe a lie and be damned. But God's people
believe the truth by His grace. Christ saves through the truth.
So through truth, Christ called this eunuch. It says in Acts
8.36, as they went on their way, they came to a certain water.
I like that, don't you? I picture Philip went out there
and he meets this eunuch right at the right time that Christ
would have him meet him. Climbs up in his chariot and
they start rolling. And as they're driving along,
Philip's preaching the gospel to him. And God gives him faith
to believe right when they come to water. Talk about timing now. It gives them faith to believe
right when they come to this certain water. And Eunuch said,
See, here's water. What doth 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. Sinner, do you believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? What does that mean,
preacher? It means you believe He's all the righteousness of
God. It means you believe He's your
only righteousness. He's your only acceptance with
God. You don't add anything. There's nothing that Scripture
says you must add. And the truth is, you must not
add anything. Christ said, I didn't come to
call the righteous. I didn't come to call those that
can add something to my work. He said, I came to call sinners
to repentance. That's right. Do you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ as your only righteousness before God? If Christ works this work in
your heart, then you do what this eunuch did. It says, verse
38, ìHe commanded the chariot to stand still, and they went
down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized
them.î This eunuch repented because God changed his mind. He believed
because Christ gave him faith to believe that Christ was all
his righteousness. He confessed Christ with his
mouth. He said, I believe, I believe. And he followed Christ in believer's
baptism. That's what Christ has done for
these three believers that are going to be baptized. And that's
why they've requested to confess Christ in believer's baptism.
I pray God do that for one of his lost sheep here today. Bless
this word to your hearing. You see, the difference in the
truth and a lie, Christ gets all the glory. All of it. All
of it. Let's stand together. Father, we thank you for this
word. We pray now that you'd bless it to the hearts of your
people. Speak in power, Lord, and make us truly hear and believe.
Make us see Christ as real as when He stood here on this earth.
And make us behold Him as the only righteousness you'll receive.
Make us bow and confess faith in Him. Lord, don't let your
people ever stop seeing Him. Don't let us ever stop hearing
His voice. Don't let us ever stop bowing
and confessing Him. And now Lord be with these believers
as they confess you in baptism and keep them Lord as they go
forth and teach them by your word. We thank you for them and
we thank you for your grace to them. We thank you for Christ
our righteousness. It's in his precious name we
pray. Amen. Alright brethren, you can be
seated.