Acts chapter 8, and we'll have
a meal at the end of the service downstairs, right? If I go down there and there's
nothing there, I'll be in trouble. Acts chapter 8, I titled this,
What Hinders Me From Being Baptized? What hinders me from being baptized?
Now, we have in this chapter, I call it the process, for lack
of a better word, the process of salvation. The way God works
in saving a sinner. We see it here in this chapter.
We have God's preacher prepared and sent of God The
preacher's got to be sent of God. And we have the sinner prepared
of God to receive God's preacher. He said, Would you come up in
the chariot set with me? So the sinner is willing to hear
God's preacher to receive him. And then we have the Word of
God, Isaiah 53. Many have called Isaiah 53 the
gospel of the Old Testament. It's just so clear on substitution
and satisfaction, on how God can be a just God and a Savior,
Isaiah 53. And then we have the message.
Philip began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Substitute. Wouldn't you like to have been
there and heard him preach that? Because Philip was with the Lord. All God's preachers are with
him, but you know, he walked there with him on earth and and
he could say this is him and this is him and this is it's
this references him and this points to him And Philip preached Christ to him
then we have the question What hinders me from being baptized?
It's evident Philip mentioned baptism to him Or he wouldn't
have asked that question. So it's evident Philip brought
that up And the result, faith expressed by the sinner's obedience
to be baptized. You see, this is an expression
of faith. It's when you submit to the Lord's
baptism because He gave it, and it's in obedience. What Matthew
is doing after this service is in obedience to the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's obedience. Now God had prepared
this sinner long before this sinner knew Him, as He does every
one of His children. Long before they know Him, God
is at work. This man did not gain an interest
in the One True Living God by chance or accident. This interest
is of God. He doesn't know it yet, but He's
going to. It's of God. God is always at
work in the lives of His children long before they know Him, long
before they know Him. He's at work. In fact, God thought
upon each one of them before He created heaven and earth.
He thought upon them and He chose them. Jeremiah 1.5,
before I formed thee in the belly, did you get that? He didn't say
before you were formed in the belly, he said before I formed
you in the belly. All life is of God, whether it
be natural or spiritual. Nothing's on this earth alive
that God didn't give it that life. Before I formed thee in
the belly, I knew thee. He's not saying I knew about
you, he said I knew you. But I knew you before you knew
me, but I knew you. You're mine. You're mine. And before thou cameest forth
out of the womb, I sanctified thee and I ordained thee a prophet
unto the nations. God's ordained my whole life.
God's ordained your whole life. God's ordained Matt's whole life.
It's ordained. That's why I said you can rest
now. There's great comfort in that.
All is well. All is well. It says in 2 Timothy 2.19, Nevertheless,
the foundation of God standeth sure, having this sealed, the
Lord knoweth them that are His. He knows every one of them that
are His. God guides those whom He will
save throughout their entire life. I know we think about what we're going
to do as a career and all these different things. God's guiding
us. God's guiding us all through our lives. You remember the story
of Hosea and Gomer? Listen to this. For she did not
know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied
her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. But she didn't
know I gave it to her. She thought it was her lover's.
It was me, I gave it to her. What do you have that you didn't
receive? I have nothing that God hasn't given to me. Remember
when the Lord spoke to Nathaniel? He saw Nathanael coming to him.
He said, behold, an Israelite, whom there was no God. Nathanael
said to him, whence knowest thou? How do you know me? We've never
met. I've never talked to you. And
Jesus answered and said to him, before that Philip called thee,
when thou was under the fig tree, I saw thee. Yeah, I saw you long
before you saw me. I know you. The only way he can
do that is be God. That's the only way. Now the
first thing that stands out in this story is the providence
of God in bringing all this together. I had no idea that the Lord was
leading me and guiding me to hear the gospel in power and
He would save me. I was just interested in having
a meal. That's all I was interested in. I was hungry and we weren't
mom and dads. Dad said, sit down. He said,
that man's preaching the gospel. I wasn't even looking for it.
I thought I had it, and I wasn't looking for it. But our Lord providentially,
He's working all things together in this world to bring every
one of His children to Himself. There's not a person here by
accident this morning. You will never hear the gospel
by accident or by chance. If you hear the gospel, if you
hear it in power, you will hear it on purpose, God's purpose. Somewhere along the way, this
eunuch became a proselyte. He went from worshiping many
gods, as we saw in our Bible class, how they worship many
gods, the prophets of Baal and all them. to the one true living
God. Now he didn't know much, but
I'll tell you what he did do, and this is important. He walked
in the light God gave him. Scripture says walk in the light
that you're given and you'll have more light. You'll have
more light. And then God prepared and sent
a preacher of the gospel to him. He didn't tell Philip, he didn't
say, Philip, I want you to go down to this place, it's desert,
there's a eunuch, he's in a chariot, he's ahead of all the treasure,
the queen of Ethiopia. He just said, Philip, go down
there. And Philip went, he went. He sent his preacher to preach
the gospel. The sinner and God's preacher
are going to meet. Now you're going to meet God's
preacher if he's going to save you. You're going to hear God's
preacher. He's going to send him. He's
going to have the message and you're going to hear it and you're
going to hear it in power. It's going to be life-changing. Your
life will never be the same again. Not if God's in it. Not if he's
in it. in that unique God-salt hood. Now listen, God's at work
here in His providence. He got ahold of the writings
of Isaiah and He's reading Isaiah 53. What a place to preach Christ
from. What a scripture to preach the
Lord Jesus Christ from. He's reading the Gospel of Substitution. The Gospel of Substitution and
Satisfaction in Isaiah 53. Now here in verse 26, God sends
His preacher. And the angel of the Lord spake
to Philip, saying, Arise and go toward the south unto the
way that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, which is desert. You know, the Word of God tells
us in Romans 10, How shall they preach except they be sent? God's
got to send them. They've got to be sent of God.
And God sends him, there's somebody he has in his sights. There's some sinner he has in
his sight. And the preacher obeyed, and
he arose and went. And behold, an Ethiopian, here's
the sinner. Now he's going to run into the sinner. He's going
to meet the sinner. The eunuch of great authority under Candace,
queen of the Ethiopians. He had gone up to Jerusalem,
look at that, it says, who had the charge of all treasure and
had come to Jerusalem for to worship. I believe this was probably
the Passover. I believe it was probably the
Passover. And when he was there, what did
he see at the Passover? He saw a lamb. He saw blood being
shed. He saw the sacrifice. All those
things got appointed. And I believe Philip took what
he saw there at Jerusalem, and then he relayed how they applied
to the Lord Jesus Christ out of Isaiah 53. And God gave him
eyes to see and ears to hear. It's like when Philip preached
to him, he was like, I see. You remember that day? You remember
that day when the Lord made known himself to you? And you say,
I see, I understand, I understand. You can, this book is a closed
book. I don't care what translation
you have. I don't care what translation
you have. This book is a closed book. I like what Henry said.
He said, we have all these translations so we can understand it without
believing it. That's a powerful statement. We get all these translations
so we can understand the Bible without believing the Bible,
without believing God's word. This is God's Word. This is God's
Word. What I need to do is believe
God. Then I'll understand. Then I'll
understand. Lord, I believe. Help thou what?
Mine unbelief. He arose and he went. And this
is all going to come together when he reads Isaiah 53 and God's
preacher gets up into that chariot, takes the Word of God, and preaches,
just like I do here every week. Every week. And when God's pleased, when
God's pleased, He'll save a sinner. You know, I don't put pressure,
we don't put pressure on anyone here to come down an aisle, or
I don't put pressure on anyone to be baptized, because I know
this, If they ever believe God, they will. If you ever believe
God, you will. And this eunuch here, he's reading
the Word of God in verse 28. He's returning, sitting in his
chariot. He read Isaiah the prophet. You
see, God doesn't save apart from His Word. He does not save apart
from His Word. That's why it's so important
that I take the Word of God and preach every week Christ from
it. In James 1.18, Of his own will
begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind
of firstfruits of his creature. 1 Peter 1.23, Being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever. By the word of God. Now, in the saving of a sinner,
the Holy Spirit is always involved. The Holy Spirit is 100% always
involved. If God's going to save a sinner,
the Holy Spirit is always present. Regeneration is His work. Faith
is His work. Faith and repentance is His work.
He applies it in power. He applies the Word of God in
power. That's what He does. Verse 29, Then the Spirit said
unto Philip, Go near, and join yourselves with this chariot.
The Holy Spirit spoke to him. And here's a good question. Philip ran, he was swift in obedience,
he ran thither to him and heard him read the prophet Isaiah and
he said, do you understand what you're reading? Do you understand
what you hear me preach and the Scriptures. Do you understand
what you're reading? Do you understand who Jesus Christ
is? Do you really understand who
He is, what He did, where He is now? Do you understand Him?
Do you understand how God can be a just God and a Savior? Do
you really understand that? You know, the Scripture says
the Son of God hath come and given us an understanding. If
you and I can truly say, I UNDERSTAND THE GOSPEL, I UNDERSTAND HOW
GOD CAN SAVE A WRETCH LIKE ME AND BE A JUST GOD, I UNDERSTAND
IT! Well, God revealed that to you. Peter called Christ the Son of
the Living God. He said, Flesh and Blood didn't
reveal that to you. You didn't learn that in a Bible class.
My Heavenly Father revealed that to you. You see, there comes
a time from when you learn from sitting here listening to me,
to the time you come to learn listening to Him. You hear Him.
Yeah, you hear me preach, but you hear Him. It's effectual. It works in you. And this man has a lot of power. He's over all the treasure of
the Queen of Ethiopia. And he said, how can I accept
some man should guide me? This man is intelligent. This
man's educated. That's not written in his language. That's not written in his language,
but he's educated. He can read it. He's reading
it. Because it says he's reading Isaiah, Isaiah 53. It's what
he's reading. So he's definitely an educated
man. But he says, I don't understand this. I don't understand what
the prophet is saying or who he's talking about. How can I
except someone who knows guides me? You know who needs a guide? Someone who's blind. Someone who's blind. You know
what the Lord said to those Pharisees? He said, if you were blind, you'd
have no sin. You'd have no sin. But now you
say, we see. We don't need you. We don't need
you to tell us. That's what they're saying to
the Lord. We don't need you to tell us. We see, we understand. Well, you don't need me, you're
right. But if you're blind, you need Christ. You need Him to
open this book. I need Him to open His Word to
me every week when I sit in that study to come out here and preach.
Lord, open the Scriptures to me. I pray that all the time
because this book is a closed book until the Lord opens it.
Over in Revelation, John wept. You know why he wept? Because
there's nobody found to open the book. Then you know what
happened? The one who could open the book
stepped forward and opened the book. You can't understand the
Word of God until He opens it. Ask Him to open it. Read it and
ask Him to open it. Give an understanding. And you know, look here, in verse
32 and 33, The place of Scripture which he read was this, He was
led as a sheep to the slaughter, and like as a lamb done before
his shearer, so it 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? Could he have been reading a
better place? Right here is the Lord Jesus
Christ, clearly revealed as the substitute for sinners. This
is a place where God reveals how He can be a just God and
a Savior, right here. And Philip said, do you understand
in that eunuch here in verse 34, And the eunuch answered Philip,
and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this, of
himself, or of some other man? You see God at work here. God has moved this man to ask
the right questions. Who is he talking about? He is
not so proud that he can't admit he doesn't know who the prophet
is talking about. You can see the humbleness, the
humility that God is at work because He's asking the right
questions and He's submitting Himself to God's preacher. He's
not arguing, He's not gonna argue with Him. We're not gonna argue
the Word of God. He asked a question and He shut
up and He listened. That's how you know God's in
it. when God shuts the mouth of the sinner and he listens.
Speak, Lord, thy servant heareth. Speak. Do you understand that this man
spoken of here is the Lamb of God? You understand that? This is the God-man. Can I say
it this way? This is the Lamb-man. This is
God's Lamb, who's a man. And Philip opened his mouth and
began at the same Scripture and he preached unto him Jesus. We don't read of Philip putting
pressure on him, trying to get him to accept Jesus as his personal
Savior. We don't read that. You never
read that in the Word of God. That does not come from the Word
of God. What we read is Philip preaching and faith. This man is born again. without
any effort on his part, and he just believes. You know, that's
what I found, you know, in my experience. One day I heard the
gospel and I just believed. I believed God. I wasn't saying,
well, how this? How that? No, I just believed
God. I realized my ignorance of God's
Word, my spiritual ignorance, and I asked the Lord to teach
me. You're not teachable until you
want to be taught. You're not teachable until you want to be
taught. And when you want to be taught, you'll shut up and
listen. You will. For the first time, you'll shut
up and listen. And then he says here, Philip,
and as I said, Philip must have spoken of baptism because he
says in verse 36, and as they went on their way, they came
into a certain water, certain. No one realized that that pool
of water was there all those years for this one event. One
of his children, he's gonna be baptized in that hole of water.
To everybody else, it was just a hole of water. But to him,
it was a place to confess Christ before everybody. It was a place
to identify with Christ. It's a place to identify with
his people. A place to identify with the death, burial, and resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I like what Madison said after
I baptized her. She said, I could do this every
week. I could confess Him every week. And as they went on their way,
they came into a certain water, and the eunuch said, see, here's
water. What does hinder me from me to be baptized? Is there anything
left? Is there a problem or what stops
me from being baptized? We don't read of Philip putting
any pressure on him to be baptized. He put the pressure on. He put
the pressure on. Our Lord gave two ordinances
to the church to be kept till he comes. That's the Lord's Table
and Baptism. That's the only two. Now there's
no saving power in them, but I tell you this, when the Lord
saves you, you're gonna be obedient and do both of them. You know, it confounded me, and
there's a lady I knew years ago, and I knew her, she's a friend,
Vicki and I knew her real well, she's a friend, and it just confounded
me. She confessed to being a believer, And she would take the Lord's
table, but she never ever submitted herself that I know of to being
baptized. And that just... Half obedience is no obedience. Half obedience is no obedience.
Am I right? What does hinder me to be baptized? Well, the same thing that hinders
me and you from all spiritual blessings, UNBELIEF. That's it. That's what hinders me from being
baptized. I don't believe God. I'm not
going to be obedient to the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not going to
do it. You see, this is a matter of
OBEDIENCE. Now, we don't be baptized to
be saved. I heard a man years ago talking
to a false preacher, and he said, you know, one of these days I
want to get baptized. And that preacher said, well,
I'll baptize you. I'm not going to baptize anybody
until they sit down with the gospel. I'm not going to baptize anybody.
They sit under the gospel and they believe the gospel. They
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Baptism doesn't save anybody,
but those whom God saves will be baptized. They will be. But unbelief is the only fence
around baptism. It's the only fence around the
Lord's table. You see, it's the Lord's table. It's not my table, it's the Lord's
table. I was at a place one time years
ago, I know I've told you this, but I was at a place, I was a
young man, and this place wanted me to be the pastor. And they
wanted to have a meeting with me. I was probably in my later
20s by then. And they wanted to have a meeting
with me, so I met with them. And they asked me, they said,
they had three questions. They said, do you preach against
messages? Do you bring messages against
abortion? I said, no, I preach Christ.
I said, I'll deal with it. I deal with whatever the scripture
deals with when I'm dealing with it. They said, well, do you preach
against rock and roll? I said, no, I preach Christ.
They said, we know that. I said, well, your children can
quit having abortions and they can quit listening to rock and
roll and they're still going to hell. That's what I told them.
Then they said to me, the third question was, do you believe
in close communion? That means nobody that's an actual
member of this congregation can take the Lord's table. I said,
well, let me ask you this. You mean to tell me if my pastor,
Henry Mahan, comes here and we're having the Lord's table that
night, I'm gonna tell him no? I said, that ain't gonna happen.
I was a little too brash maybe with it. But I was honest, I
was honest with it. The only fence around the table
and baptism is faith. It's not my membership, it's
faith. If a person comes in here and
this person believes the gospel, he can take the Lord's table.
He or she can take the Lord's table. It's the Lord's table,
it's not mine. It's not ours, it's His. And
baptism is an ordinance He gave. as obedience to faith. This is
in obedience to the command that Matthew is going to do this morning. It's in obedience to the command
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not to do it as disobedience. It's that simple. It's that cut
and dried. We don't have to complicate it. Why be baptized? I'm going to
give you one simple reason the Lord said to. Do I need to add
anything to that? The Lord said to. And then Philip said, if thou
believest with all thine heart, you see, salvation is a heart
work, thou mayest. And he answered and he said,
I believe. He didn't say, I believe in election, I believe in predestination,
I believe in particular redemption, I believe in depravity, I believe
the Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God. You know what, now
he's able to be taught. Until you believe that, whatever
else you believe, you really don't understand what you believe.
But when you believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Son
of God, and you completely submit yourself to his teaching, now
you're ready to be taught. Now you're teachable. You're
not teachable until then. That's what he said to Peter.
Whom say to men that I am? And they said, the prophet and
this, that. Who do you say I am? Thou art
the Son of God, the Son of the living God. Thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God. Now you're teachable. Now you're
teachable. And if you believe with all your
heart, all your heart. With the heart, man believes
unto righteousness. And we'll note the mode of baptism in verse
38. And he commanded the chariot
to stand still, and they went both down into the water, both
Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him, immersion. When our Lord died, they didn't
throw dirt in his face. When our Lord died, he was buried
in the tomb. They didn't sprinkle dirt on
him. They didn't sprinkle dirt on
him. He was buried in that tomb. And when we submit to baptism,
we go under that water, identifying with the death, burial, and resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're identifying with God's
people, we're identifying with the Lord Jesus Christ, and we're
saying by that, that we have a new life. Christ is my life. He's not a part of my life. Jesus
Christ is not a part of my life. He's my life or I don't have
life. He's all of it or none of it. And that's why most people
will not really submit to it because that's a commitment to
Him. That is a complete 100% commitment
to the Lord Jesus Christ. I am His and He's mine. Sold
out, lock, stock and barrel to Him. I'm His. I have no reason
to exist except for Jesus Christ and that's it. That's it. 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. But I tell
you what, he sees Christ forevermore. In a little while, you'll see
me no more. But then you'll see me again by God's grace. We'll
see each other in glory. But we'll see the Lord Jesus
Christ forevermore. FOREVERMORE. And we will REJOICE
TOGETHER IN HIS PRESENCE. Here we are this morning and
we are going to be gathered with that great congregation and we're
going to sing his praises and we're going to praise him as
we ought to, worship him as we ought to. And Philip was found
at Azotus. You know, God has a work to do. And he sends his preachers here
and there. Philip, go to the desert. He
was preaching in Samaria. He was having a lot of success.
Go down to this desert. And God's word was accomplished. It didn't return void. He saved
that eunuch. And he said, Philip, now you got someplace else to
go. You got someplace else to go. You see how God sends the
gospel? The gospel of God's grace, the
gospel of God's glory is here. It's here right now. He may send it away. Cherish
it. Cherish it. All right. Go on, go back.