All right, turn back with me
to Acts chapter 8. Acts chapter 8, this is an amazing
story. This is an amazing story. I love
this story. Pray the Lord would allow me
to enter into it. I really do. This is a wonderful story of
how God opens blind eyes. Blind eyes. I pray the Lord would
open mine eyes that I may see. I want to see. Every soul that
has seen Christ I'm talking every soul that has
seen Christ knows that there was a time that I was blind. Until a person sees Christ, they
have no idea they're blind. You know that? It's like everybody
is blind, walking around in total darkness, and they have no idea
that they're blind. In a totally pitch black room,
and everybody's blind. But one day, somebody turns the
light on, and they realize, I was blind before, but now I see. Man, do I see. You go back and listen to what
you used to listen to and you think, I had no idea. Our Lord healed a blind man over
in John chapter 9. And the Pharisees were grilling
him for details. They wanted all these details.
And he finally told them, I don't know all the ins and the outs.
I don't know. But one thing I know. Whereas
I was blind, now I see. That's the only thing I know.
I was blind, but now I see. Now I see the truth. Now I see Christ. I don't just
see doctrine anymore. I don't just see religion anymore.
I don't just see morality anymore. What is church all about? Well,
it's about living right and doing right and being good. No, it's
not. I don't just see morality anymore.
If you want to go to heaven, you better straighten up and
fly right. I don't see that anymore. That ain't happening with me.
I wish it would. Now I see Christ. Now I see Christ. Well, God opened the eyes of
this Ethiopian eunuch. That's who we just read about.
Verse 26 says, Acts chapter 8 verse 26, it says, And the angel of
the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise and go toward the south,
unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which
is desert. This salvation, this conversion
begins with God's Holy Spirit. That's where it starts. God's Spirit was moving and working
long before the eunuch came into the picture. And that's how it
is with every single one of us. God chose us, chose to have mercy
on us. He predestinated us long before
we ever came into the picture. God spoke. That's how it all
started. God spoke. Verse 26 says, The
angel of the Lord spake unto Philip. Now, why didn't he just
speak to the eunuch? He spoke to Philip, right? Why
didn't he just speak to the eunuch? Philip already knew the Lord. Philip had to go a long way out
of his way to meet up with this eunuch. Why wouldn't the Lord just speak
directly with this eunuch? It's because that's not how our
God has purposed to call out His own. That's not how He has
purposed to open blind eyes. All right, well, he spoke to
Saul in chapter 9, right? The next chapter is when he spoke
directly to Saul. He said, Saul, Saul, why persecutest
thou me? What he did in chapter 9, and
we're going to see this when we get there, is he blinded Saul.
He blinded that man. And then he sent him to a man
named Ananias, and he said, Ananias is going to tell you what you
must do. So right here in chapter 8, verse 26, the angel of the
Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south
unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which
is desert. And he arose, and went, and behold,
a man of Ethiopia, and eunuch of great authority under Candacy,
queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure,
and had come to Jerusalem for to worship. God sent Philip,
his messenger, to a man who was from Ethiopia, and he was a eunuch. Now it says that this man was
of great authority. Great authority. Not just authority,
great authority. It says that he was directly
under the Queen. This was a man of politics. He was a man of government. Powerful man. It says that he
had the charge of all her treasure. This was a wise man in the ways
of business. He was a wise man in the ways
of accounting. This was a sharp man. He was a great man in the things
of this world, but he was a eunuch. This man reminds me of another
man named Naaman. Turn with me over to 2 Kings
chapter 5. 2nd Kings chapter 5 verse 1 says,
Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great
man. He was a great man with his master
and honorable because by him the Lord had given deliverance
unto Syria. He was also a mighty man in valor
But he was a leper. He was a leper. That nullifies every good thing
you could say about him. You know that? I don't care how great he was,
nobody wanted to touch him. Nobody wanted to pat him on the
back. He's a leper. Right? I don't care how valiant
he was, His flesh was going to rot off his bones. And he was going to die. Because
he's a leper. The same thing can be said about
every single one of us. Every single one. He's done this. He's done that. He's tried to
live right. He's given to charity. But he's
a sinner. But he's a sinner. Over in our text, it says that
this man was a eunuch, back over in Acts chapter 8. He was a eunuch. A eunuch was a bedchamber servant. They had these servants. And
this was one that was a bedchamber servant, this man. And just so
there wouldn't be any problems, Eunuchs were castrated. This man could not reproduce
life. There was no life in this man. It is the exact same for you
and me. We are born into this world dead in our trespasses
and sins. No life. It takes God's Spirit
to send life. You know that? It takes God's
Spirit. This man, he appeared to be alive
and well on the outside, but he was dead on the inside. Absolutely
dead. Well, verse 27 tells us that
this man was a religious man. Look at the end of verse 27.
It says that he had come to Jerusalem for to worship. He came to Jerusalem. Now I want to ask this question
again. Why did God send Philip to him? Why did God send Philip all the
way out to Gaza? He came to Jerusalem. That's the Mecca of religion.
Right? He came to Jerusalem. The reason
he came was to observe the Passover. in the temple with all the priests and all
the Pharisees. They were all right there. Why didn't God speak to him there? The reason is because God wasn't
there. He wasn't there. In the center
of religion, the big religion, God was not in their laws. They
had these Passover laws and rituals. God was not in their rituals.
He was not in their ceremonies. He was not in their religion.
Those priests and those Pharisees, those were not God's men. This man went down into religion
a blind and dead and ignorant sinner and he came out no better
off than when he went in. How do you know that? How do
I know that? You know how I know that? We're about to see, he
still didn't know who Christ was. They didn't tell him who
Christ was. He went into the heart of religion,
and he went through all their ceremonies, and he did everything
they told him to do, and when he came out, he still didn't
know who Christ was. No idea. He was so wise in the ways of
this world. But the Word of God says, Hath
not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? Men and women
pride themselves on everything they know. Everything they know. And one by one they go to meet
God. And then they realize none of that stuff matters. It doesn't
matter. None of it. There's only one
thing that matters, and this man does not yet know what it
is. What I want to know is, do I? Do I? Have I been down in the
center of religion? Do I know what it is? Verse 27 says, ìHe arose and
went, and behold, a man of Ethiopia and eunuch of great authority
under Candacy, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her
treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, was returning
and sitting in his chariot,î reading Isaiah the prophet. Now let me ask this question
one more time. Why did God send Philip to this man? He didn't have to go drag him
out of the bar. There's a man down in Gaza and he's in a bar.
And I want you to go get him and bring him out. He didn't
have to drag him out. He was sitting with his Bible open in
his lap. Philip didn't have to convince
him of the Word of God. I'll tell you what your problem
is. You need to start reading the Word. He already had it open.
He was already reading it. Why didn't the man just see the
truth and see Christ right there on his own? Right? Why did God send Philip? Go with
me over to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 14 says,
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God. Let me read that again. The natural man, that's all of
us, as we're born into this world, receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God. For they are foolishness unto
him, neither can he know them. because they are spiritually
discerned. This man, just like so many men
and women, he was reading Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53. Every word in this book is precious. But we can't help it, we have
some favorites. We all like Psalm 23, Romans 8, Ephesians 1, and
Isaiah 53, don't we? He's reading Isaiah 53. And he
had no idea what he was talking about. No idea. How many people have read this
book cover to cover? Cover to cover. But have not
been given these eyes of faith to see and believe Christ. How
did our Lord say faith comes? Faith cometh by hearing. That's
why Philip had to go. That is why Philip had to go.
God sent his own. This eunuch was a chosen child
of God. And God sent his own preacher. God sent me a preacher. I'm so
glad. Man, I'm so glad. I am so glad
somebody came and told me the truth. God sent him a preacher, crossed
his path with the preaching of the gospel. Back over in Acts
chapter 8, verse 28 says, 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?" Do you
understand what you're reading? Now this man was directly under
the queen of Ethiopia. Alright? Directly under the queen. This was a powerful man. He was
in charge of all her treasure. This was a rich man. Now, you
don't ask a poor man to handle your money for you. Nobody's
going to come running to me saying, I want you to start handling
my portfolio. You want somebody who's sitting behind a desk at
a big office who's done well for himself to handle your money?
This was a rich man. He was in charge of all her treasure. Walk up to a man like that, a
powerful man, a rich man. Walk up to a man like that and
ask him, do you understand what you're doing? See what kind of
response you get. Excuse me? I'm sorry, who are
you? Who do you think you are asking
me that? Don't you know who I am? But
look at this response. Look at the response Philip got.
Verse 30, 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. It takes God's
Holy Spirit, I can tell you, based on my own self, it takes
God's Holy Spirit to make a man or a woman say, I just don't
know. Would you teach me? I just don't, I don't know. When God's Spirit comes to a
sinner, the number one evidence is humility. That's what it is. It's humility. Christ is all. I am nothing. Just tell me more about Him.
That's it. Go over to Matthew 18 with me. Matthew 18 verse 1 says, At the
same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the
greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child
unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily
I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little
children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever,
therefore, shall humble himself as this little child, the same
as the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and whoso shall receive
one such little child in my name receiveth me." God's people do
not like showing their knowledge, do they? They just like hearing
about Christ. That's it, just tell me about
Christ. Back over to our text in Acts chapter 8, verse 31 says,
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 opened he 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. Philip preached Christ to him
out of the Old Testament. That hit me when I read that.
He was in the Old, that's all they had was the Old Testament.
And he opened the scripture and he preached Jesus Christ in it. There is only one subject in
the scripture and it's Christ. That's it. All of the Old Testament
was written to point us to Jesus Christ. It was not written to
educate this brain. It was written to point this
heart to Jesus Christ. That eunuch asked Philip, this
is what he asked him, is this thing by works or is it by grace? Which one is it? He said, did
the prophet accomplish this on his own or did somebody else
do the work? And Philip preached Christ to
him. That eunuch said, he, who is he? Philip said, he is, I
am. That's who he is. He is, I am. He is the one in the beginning. He is the same one who said,
Moses wrote of me. He's the same one who said, Abraham
rejoiced to see my day. He is God manifest in the flesh.
That eunuch said, what did he do? Philip said, he was led as a
sheep to the slaughter. And he willingly made himself
punishable. The one who was guiltless made
himself punishable for us, dear brother, for us. He willingly became guilty for
every soul that God put in Him. They set His charges before Him. They set His charge before Him. And they accused Him of everything
that I have ever done. And He opened not His mouth. That eunuch said, what happened
to him? Philip said, in his humiliation,
his judgment was taken away. Think about that. The judge of
the earth. We are all going to stand before
Jesus Christ and none of us are going to stack up. And he is going to judge us. And our only hope is if God put
us in Him. His judgment was taken away and
the judge of the earth was judged. Humiliated. for you and me. Can you imagine that the judge
of the earth, the creator of the earth, the creator of every
human being, the creator and owner and controller of all things
would allow himself to be stripped naked and hung up for all to
see in his humiliation? He was judged for you and me.
And who shall declare His generation, for His life is taken from the
earth? Philip said, Dear brother, He died. That's what happened
to Him. He died. But in His death, we
live. It's the only reason we're alive.
It's because He died. That's it. We died in Him. We were buried with Him. We arose
with Him. Never to die again. Never to
die again. God is satisfied. What a statement that is. God
is satisfied. Do you know how bad you are?
I don't have any idea how bad I am, but it's bad. Can you imagine
walking up to the throne of God and Him looking at you and saying,
I'm satisfied. God is satisfied. Satisfied. What else do I have to do to
appease God? Dear brother, it's Christ that
died. And God is satisfied. He is satisfied
with His Son. That blood was a sweet-smelling
savor. No more death. No more death. Our price is paid. Verse 36,
And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water.
And the eunuch said, See, here is water. What does hinder me
to be baptized? That eunuch said, I want to confess
this. That's what I want to do. I want
to be identified with him. That's what I want. That gospel
that you just told me, Philip, that's my gospel. I had religion before. I had
religion before, but it wasn't this. It was not this. This is too good to be true.
Philip said, Oh, but it is. I was blind before, Philip. I
know I was blind before. Now I see. May I have access to him? May I be a partaker of him? Verse 37, and Philip said, If
thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. Believe what? Everything the scripture says
about Jesus Christ. He said, If you believe on him,
if you look to him alone, to satisfy a holy God. If you look to Him with all your
heart, what that means is if you love Him, that's what it
means, if you love Him. Love comes from the heart, it
doesn't come from the mind. This thing of religion is built
on the mind. It's built on the mind. Well,
what do you believe? Well, let's see what I believe
and we'll compare the two and change both of our beliefs and
find something that compromises in the middle and then we'll
all be okay. Love doesn't come from the mind,
it comes from the heart. If you love God, not that little
God that we've made up in our minds, the God of this Bible. The God that owns us and controls
us. I love that. I love that. He owns me. I don't want to own
myself. He controls me. I don't want
to control myself. Somebody said, well, that sounds
like you're his puppet. That's right. Thank God. If you love God, If you love His right to choose,
that's His sovereignty. Oh, thank God He has the right
to choose. Because if He didn't choose,
all of us would go to hell. Thank God for that. If you love His work, He did
what I could never do. If you love the fact that it's
totally finished, If you believe with all your heart, Philip said,
you may. Verse 37, and he answered and
said, I believe that this is the final requirement of my salvation. That's not what he said. He said,
I believe. that God will be more pleased
with me after this baptism than he was before this baptism. That's
not what he said. I believe I'll never be a member
of the congregation without it. That's not what he said. He said,
I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I do too. I believe that He is the Christ,
the union of God and man. God and man. No less God, no less man. That means Christ. I believe He is. You know, most people believe
He was. You know what I believe? He is. I believe He is THE, not A, THE, one and only way, truth, and
life. I believe that Jesus Christ is
THE Son of God, the express image of God Himself. And Philip said,
pull the car over. Verse 38, he commanded the chariot
to stand still. And they went down both into
the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.
A confession was made. A conscience was cleared. True
love and thankfulness was acknowledged. That's what happened. And in
doing so, that eunuch said, I did nothing, and Christ did it all. That's what he said. Verse 39,
And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the
Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more, and
he went on his way rejoicing. The Lord removed every hindrance
from that eunuch that would cause him to take his eyes off of Christ. Don't look to the preacher. Do
not look to the preacher. Look to Christ. Look to Christ. Verse 39, they will 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, but Philip was found at Azotus. And passing
through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea.
Philip didn't run and put a notch on his belt. Paul said, I'm so glad I didn't
baptize any of you. He said, I didn't come to baptize. Baptism is not salvation. Salvation
already happened. No reason to put a notch on his
belt. He just kept preaching Christ. That's all he did. He
just kept preaching Christ. Christ and Him crucified is the
one message that is the power of God unto salvation. That's
it. May we, by God's grace, I pray
that this congregation, this little congregation, would never
get hung up on results. Never. I pray by God's grace
we'll just keep preaching Christ, just keep preaching Christ, just
keep preaching Christ. The Lord will add to the church,
won't he? Alright, let's stand together.