Chapter 8, Acts chapter 8. This
story is always a blessing to me. I was thinking today, he
had no idea that he was going to go down in the Word of God.
He had no idea that what an example he was going to become years
and generations to come of how God saves sinners. The title
of this message, do you understand what
you're reading? Do you understand the word of
God when you read it? When you hear it preached, do
you understand? I started to title it, What Hinders
Me From Being Baptized. But you have to understand the
Word of God, because if you don't, that is a hindrance. That's a
hindrance. Now there's one thing that I,
one of the things that I know and I've learned as I've gotten
older, is that God is always at work, in the lives of His
sheep, even before they knew Him." Long before they knew Him. Listen to Jeremiah 1, verse 5. Behold, God says to Jeremiah, Before I formed thee in the belly. You notice, He didn't say before
you were formed in the belly. He said before I formed you. in the belly. I knew thee, and before thou camest forth
out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet
unto the nation. But before I formed thee in the
belly, I knew thee. I knew thee. It says in 2 Timothy
2.19, Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having
this seal, the Lord knoweth them, that are His. He's not waiting
to see who's going to be His. He's not writing names down in
the Book of Life as time goes on. Those names are written in the
Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world. He knoweth
them that are His, and it's a multitude that no man can number. And they
are made up of sinners saved by grace. God guides His sheep even before
they ever come to know Him. He guides them. He guides their
steps. He guards His sheep. He protects
them while they are lost, while they are out there in the world,
living like fools, most of them. He guards them. He protects them.
He shepherds His sheep all their earthly lives. You know, from
the time... Listen, where you're born, the
parents you're born to, the country you're born in, God has purposed
all of that. His hand is in every bit of that.
He shepherds His sheep throughout their earthly lives. Listen here
in John 1.47-48, Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith unto
him, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. Nathanael
said unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said
unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under
the fig tree, I saw thee. I saw you under the fig tree,
I saw you in your house, I saw you out in the garden. My eye's always been on you.
You know God's eye has always been on you? It's always been
on you. Now the first thing I want to
notice in this is God's providence. God's providence in all of this.
You know God's providence is exercised every day. in order to bring about the salvation
of his sheep every day. Somewhere along the way, this
eunuch became a proselyte, a convert. Somebody, somewhere in his life,
he had met or come across and he became a convert to the Jewish
faith. He went from probably some voodoo
religion to the Jewish religion, to the Jewish faith that was
of God. You know, God set that up. The
Jews had the Word of God. They were the only nation that
had the Word of God. They had all the types and all
the pictures. That was only given to that nation. That's why the
Lord said to the woman at the well that salvation is of the
Jews. And the reason he says that is because God gave everything
that pointed to Christ. He gave the types, the picture.
He gave His Word to that nation. He gave it to them. And this
eunuch came across someone and he became a convert to the Jewish
faith. Now he didn't know much. He probably
didn't know much of anything at all, what was going on. But
an interest, God's hand's in this. An interest was created
somewhere in his life. And so God crossed his path back
before this time, and he didn't even know it. He didn't know
it. You know, God's hand is in our lives. I made a profession
when I was 20 years old. I didn't know the gospel. I really
didn't. I really didn't know the gospel,
but I do know this. God's hand was in that. God's
hand was in that because it was through that that I ended up
coming to hear the gospel. I heard Henry preaching the gospel.
Before, you couldn't have gotten me to listen to anybody preach.
I wouldn't give a flip about God or preaching or the Word
of God or Christ. I didn't care. Seriously, I had
no interest whatsoever. When my parents quit making me
go to church, I never went again. I never went again. I mean, it's sad, but it's just
the way we are by nature. It's the way we are. But God crossed this man's path,
just like he has some of you. And then not only did he cross
his path, he prepared a preacher. And he sent a preacher, a gospel
preacher to him. The sinner and God's preacher
are going to meet, you know that? They're going to meet. They're
going to meet at the right time. They're going to meet at the
right time. And what's that right time? There's a time to be born
and a time to die. It was His time to be born of
God. There was a time for me when I heard the gospel to be
born of God. There was a time. It was time. And so God prepared
and sent a preacher to him. And the eunuch, listen, the eunuch,
while God is sending this preacher to him, The eunuch gets a hold
of the Word of God. He gets a hold of the writings
of Isaiah. And he's reading Isaiah 53. He's reading the chapter of substitution
and satisfaction. He's reading the chapter that
so clearly preaches Christ. That's what he's reading. Listen,
there's no such thing as luck or chance. You didn't just happen
to hear the gospel. No, if you heard it, you heard
it on purpose. When God saves, God saves on
purpose. Now, let's look in this, verse
26, And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, And Philip,
look here in verse 25. We had been going through John
4 where the Lord went to Samaria. Look where they were preaching
at the end of that. And they preached the gospel in many villages
of the Samaritans. The Lord opened that door, didn't
He? With that one woman. And then many believed on the
Lord, and then here they are preaching the gospel to these
Samaritans. And then the angel of the Lord,
though, he says to Philip, Arise, go toward the south unto the
way that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, which is a desert."
It's a desert. It's just a desert place. There's
nothing there but one. There's a sinner there, just
like there was at the well. There's one woman there. There's
a sinner, so he sends his... But now listen, he doesn't tell
Philip that. He doesn't say, Philip, I have a man down there,
an Ethiopian eunuch. He just says, Philip, pack your
bags and go to the desert. And Philip does so. The preacher
is obedient. Listen, he rose and he went.
And behold, that means give your attention to this, pay attention.
This story is now about to come together. A man of Ethiopia,
and eunuch of great authority under Candacy, Queen of the Ethiopians,
who had the charge of all her treasure. This man was a high-ranking
man. He was a very important man in
his country. And he came to Jerusalem, listen,
for the worship. The worship. There's one of the
things that I know about this eunuch. He became a proselyte. And he was walking in the light
that he had been given. Walk in the light that you have,
and God will give you more light. And so he's walking in the light
that he had, and he went to Jerusalem for the worship. And almost everybody
I read says that it was the time of the Passover. No doubt it
was probably the Passover. Now, this is so interesting. You can tell as you read this,
this is no incident. He's there at the Passover. What
happens at the Passover? There's the killing of the Lamb.
There's the shedding of blood. There's the sacrifice. Right
there's all those types that point to Christ. That's where
He's at. Then this really comes home.
This really comes home when he reads Isaiah 53. He's there,
he sees what's going on, he goes there to worship, he knows what's
going on, and now he's coming back and he's reading Isaiah
53 about the Lamb of God. Can't you just see the wisdom
of God in this? God is directing this whole thing. He does exactly the same in the
life of every one of His sheep. He does exactly the same thing. Your life and my life is completely
ordered and directed by God Almighty. Do you know anyone wiser to do
that? I don't. So the eunuch here is
reading the Word of God. It says in verse 28, "...he was
returning, and sitting in his chariot, read Isaiah the prophet."
He'd gotten a hold of a copy of Isaiah. God does not save apart from
His Word. God does not save... Now listen.
God does not save in these gospel singing fests. God does not save in those things. God saves through the preaching
of His Word. It is pleased God, it says in
1 Corinthians 1, it is pleased God by the foolishness of preaching,
what the world calls foolishness, to save them that believe. What
I'm doing right now. You know, there's literally not
anything or nothing more important than what I'm doing right now.
Nothing. Your souls are at stake on what's
being said. It's at stake. My soul's at stake. I want somebody
to tell me the truth. Don't lie to me. Don't lie to
me. Tell me the truth. Tell me the
truth on God. Tell me the truth on myself.
Tell me the truth on Christ. Don't lie to me. And Philip doesn't. He doesn't. Listen to James 1.18,
"...of his own will beget he us with the word of truth." 1
Peter 1.23, "...being born again, not of corruptible seed, but
of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth
forever." This is not a dead book. Oh, this is the Word of God,
the Living Word of God. Christ is in this Word, and this
Word is in Christ. It speaks of Him. God sent His
preacher to go connect Himself to this man, to preach the gospel
to him, to expound. Listen, God sent His preacher
to expound the Word, not explain it. He didn't explain it. He preached unto him Christ.
He preached Jesus. So what we have here, we have
the sinner, we have the Word of God, we have the preacher,
and now we have the Holy Spirit in verse 29. Something's going
to happen. With all that's put together,
something's going to happen. Then the Spirit, that's the Holy
Spirit, said to Philip, Go near and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him,
and he heard him read the prophet Isaiah. He's reading, and he's
reading out loud. He heard him read, he's reading
out loud. And for the first time, I've never seen this or thought
of this, and all the times I've looked at this, and I've preached
from it a few times, he's reading Hebrew. This man's educated. This has to be a well-educated
man. He's reading Hebrew. And he's reading that out loud.
And Philip said to him, Understandest thou what thou readest? And you can tell by his answer
in verse 31 that God has been at work in his heart. You see,
God's at work long before we know it. Long before we know
it. You know, I've seen this, I've
seen it myself, and I've seen it in others. When the Lord begins
to bring them to Christ, they began to have an interest that
they've never had before. They began to have a real interest
in the Word of God. They begin to have a real interest
in salvation. They begin to have a real interest
in knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. And this man is reading the Word,
and I'm telling you, he's sincere, and his heart is in it, and he's
wanting to know who's he talking about. But he says here, and it's such
a humble answer from this high-ranking official, this high-ranking man,
this well-educated and no-doubt man, he said, how can I except
some man should, and I like the way he says this, guide me. Guide me. And he desired He desired, he said, sir, he
may have said, would you please come up and, because he knew,
no doubt, shortly after meeting Phillip that he was a Jew. He
said, would you come up here and talk with me and tell me who this is. He desired
Phillip that he would come up and sit with him. He was not
offended. He was not offended by Philip
asking him, do you understand? You know, most people really
educated, they get more offended when you say, do you understand
what you're looking at? Well, of course I do. I've got umpteen
degrees. No, he wasn't offended at all
because I tell you why, God was at work in his heart. It's hard,
I told you this a week ago, you can't hardly offend a sinner.
You can't hardly offend one. And he recognized his need of
help. He recognized his ignorance of
the Word of God. You see, the Bible is a closed
book until God opens it. You can read this from Genesis
to Revelation. You can read it two times a year
for the rest of your life and you cannot understand it until
God opens it. When he opens your eyes, like
David said in the Psalms, open my eyes that I might see wondrous
things out of your word. Behold wondrous things out of
your word. Guide me, he says. You know,
if you're blind and you recognize it, you need a guide. Those Pharisees, they said, we're
not blind, we're not, you know, we see. God's our Father, we
don't have any problems. We be not sinners. You know what
the Lord said to them in John 9, verse 41? If you were blind,
you'd have no sin. But now you say, we see, therefore
your sin remains. We see, we don't need you. We
see, we don't need your righteousness. We see, we don't need your blood.
We don't need your life. We don't need your death. We
see, we're righteous. The Lord said, well, if you were
blind, If you were blind, you'd have
no sin, because I'd put it away. I would put it away. And the eunuch here, listen,
he's reading Isaiah 53, and I want you to turn over briefly here
to Isaiah 53. He's reading the same word that
you and I are reading right now. And this has been almost 2,000
years ago. And he's reading, look here in
verse 6. Let me go to verse 5. He was
wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was laid upon him, and with his
stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. See, here's where he's reading.
We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid
on him the iniquity of us all. He'd just been to Jerusalem.
And this is just fitting right in with what he witnessed there.
He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.
He's brought as a lamb to the slaughter. Philip's going to
make this application here in just a little bit. And no doubt
he's going to point back to the Passover that he just observed
and was there, and he's going to say, here's the lamb. Here's
the lamb. Here's God's lamb. Behold the
Lamb of God. He's brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and
as a sheep before her shears is done, so he openeth not his
mouth. In his humiliation, he says there
in verse 33 back in Acts, in his humiliation, his judgment
was taken away. And who shall declare a generation
for his life was taken from the earth? And the eunuch answered
Philip, And he said, I pray thee, I pray
thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? You can just see God's hand work
here. He didn't say, what is he talking
about? He knew he was talking about a person. He said, of whom
speaketh the prophet this? of himself, the prophet speaking
of himself, or of some other man. Then Philip opened his mouth
and began at the same scripture and preached unto him, Jesus. He began to preach his person
and his work. He began to take, he went back
up to the top of Isaiah 53 in that tender plant as the arm
of the Lord, the tender plant and the root out of dry ground
and went right down through there and applying it to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Took him back to the Passover, no doubt, and said,
see that lamb right there? The lamb became a man. The lamb
is the man, Jesus Christ. That's who he is. And he preached
unto him the Lord Jesus Christ. Philip did not try to get him
to accept Jesus as his personal Savior. He didn't do that. He
didn't put pressure on him. He didn't put pressure on him
to make a decision or to do something. We don't even get a hint of Philip
doing that. Philip just preached unto him
Jesus. That's what he preached. Philip said to him, do you understand
what you're reading? Do you? Do you? Do you understand who's spoken
of in Isaiah 53? Do you really understand? Do
you see him? Do you understand who the tender
plant is? God in human flesh? Do you understand who that root
out of dry ground is? Do you understand whom the arm
of the Lord is? Do you understand who the Lamb
is? I do. Some of you do. You know why
you do? Because it says in 1 John 5,
the Son of God has come and given us an understanding that we may
know Him that is true, we are in Him that is true, even in
His Son Jesus Christ. God, the Son of God has come,
and He's given us an understanding. And I thank God I understand.
I understand my need of Christ. I understand by His blood my
sins are put away. I understand that He is my righteousness. I understand how God can be just
and save a wretch like me. I understand that. how he can
justify me, clear me of all charges. I know what I've done. I don't know everything I've done.
God knows more than I know. He knows more about me than I
know. There are sins about me he knows
I don't. There's a lot of things I ought
to have done and I haven't and I don't realize it. He put them
away too. He put away all my sins. He put them away by the sacrifice
of Himself. He did not put away my sins by
just forgiving me. He can forgive me because He
has put away my sins. All of them, they're gone. Do you understand of whom the
prophet is speaking? Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And now, Philip must have spoken
to him of baptism. Because it says in verse 36,
"...and as they went on their way..." And I'm sure that was
Ananias. Wouldn't you like to have heard
that conversation? Wouldn't you like to just sit there on the
backside of that chariot? I took a seat in the back and
just listened to them talk. I used to listen to Henry when
we'd have conferences or something and he'd be sitting there talking
to another preacher or somebody else. I couldn't tell you how
I enjoyed just sitting there listening. Just shut up and listen. As they went on their way, they
came unto a certain water, and the eunuch said, See, here is
water. What doth hinder me from being
baptized? So it's evident Philip spoke to him about being baptized.
He that believeth that he is baptized shall be saved. And Philip didn't ask him if
he wanted to be baptized. He asked Philip. I don't ever
ask anybody. I don't ask anyone. if they would
like to be baptized. They come to me, just like this
young man I'm going to baptize this coming Sunday. He came to me. Mike and Debbie
asked me when they were here during the conference. I said,
I'd be glad to. I'd be glad to. The Lord gave two ordinances
to the church to be kept till he comes. One is the Lord's table,
and the second one is baptism. One is to remember Him by, do
this in remembrance of me. And the other one is to be identified
with Him. It's identification. I want to
be identified with Christ. You know, I asked Henry to baptize
me when I was, you know, years ago. I wanted to. I wasn't confused about it. I
wanted to confess Christ. I wanted to identify with Him. I wanted to identify with His
people and no one else. I wanted to. And the Lord said
to. He said to. Not to. It's just to be a rebel. It's a rebel. That's all it is.
But whenever Philip preached Christ to him, And evidently
he spoke to him about baptism. He said, what hinders me from
being baptized? You know, neither one, the Lord's
table or baptism, neither one has saving power in it in any
way, shape or form. Christ is the power of God unto
salvation, but those who refuse to, it's evident they don't know
Him. Now he says, what does hinder
me to be baptized? The same thing that hinders you
from all other spiritual blessings. The same thing. Unbelief. You do not believe God. You don't believe Him. You don't. What does hinder me from being
baptized? Unbelief. The two ordinances
are for those who believe. The Lord's table and baptism
is for those who believe and no other qualifications. No other
qualifications. And we see here that we see that
salvation is a heart work in verse 37. And Philip said, Here
it is. He's speaking to the eunuch.
He says, Here it is. You just asked me what hinders me from
being baptized. If thou believest with all thine
heart." He didn't ask him if he just
believed some doctrine. He said, if you believe with
all your heart, you may. That's all. That's the only fence
around it. The only fence around it is belief,
faith in Christ. And he answered and said, and
I bet he said this with, he said this with, I mean, some passion,
heart. He said, I believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God, which that statement alone tells me
that Philip really brought out the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because in that statement is
the embodiment of the gospel. God manifests in the flesh. God is the Lamb. God is the Lamb. God is the one that suffered
on Calvary's tree. God in human flesh suffered on
Calvary's tree. Paul said in Romans 10.10, "...For
with the heart man believes unto righteousness." With the heart man believes unto righteousness.
"...And with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." He said
it. I believe. I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. I believe He's God Almighty in
the flesh. He's equal with God. He's equal
with the Father. And note here, in closing, I
want you to notice the mode of baptism. And he commanded, in
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. And when they were come up out
of the water, which pictures the resurrection of Christ, The
spirit of the Lord caught away Philip and the eunuch saw him
no more. And he went, he went on his way rejoicing. You know, I don't, I've never
met anyone yet. I've never met anyone yet that
got mad because God saved them. I've never met anyone that says,
I wish he hadn't done that. I met a man that said to me,
he wished the Lord hadn't saved me. I had that said to me. But no man or no woman has ever
gotten mad because God saved them. He went away rejoicing.
But Philip, he says there in verse 40, was found at Azotus
passing through. He preached in all the cities
till he came to Caesarea. Do you understand what you read? We open the Word of God here
every week. We open the Word of God every week. Do you understand? Do you understand
who this is? Do you understand who this Bible's
about? This Bible's about one person. This Bible's about not,
you know, this Bible's not about do's, don'ts, how to live, how
to be successful, how to be victorious. It's about Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, our God. It says, by Him were all things
created that are in heaven and earth. He's the creator. I thank God. Oh, I thank God
that I understand. All right.