Brother, if you will, let's turn
to Acts chapter 8. Look at that Ethiopian eunuch.
The Lord told us plainly to be lots in this community, didn't
he? Pretty clear. He did. Well, if one heard. I
read that and that's such a blessing to me. I've been persecuted and
I know some other people's been persecuted and it hurts until
we see for his namesake. What a privilege. I've had people
in that office back there and on emails and on phone calls.
Somebody called for to clean this church this week. So can
we give you a quote on cleaning the church? And I said, well,
there's only two families that clean it. We take turns, takes
about 30 minutes. They weren't friendly after I
told them no. We would come out, you want to drive two hours and
make $20? I said, I'm saving you money. You need help running
a business. You don't need a place to clean.
They'd get mad. That's for Christ's sake. That
makes it all right. That makes it good. And if it
was for one, just one, if God smoothed the whole heaven and
earth for one sinner to hear the gospel, he did right here
in this text. There was a revival of one. I
don't think that'll be my title. My title is the seed of a eunuch.
If somebody knows what a eunuch is, that'll seem preposterous.
But boy, we need that seed. You could call it a revival of
one. Most, that's what it is, getting
that seed put in you. That's a revival. That's life-giving. This is a very popular story
in the scriptures, but maybe there's someone that hasn't heard
this yet, or they've never seen Almighty God revealing and exalting
Christ to a eunuch before. Maybe they don't know what a
eunuch is. Maybe he'll give seed to a eunuch here tonight. There's
people and there's things in this story I want you to watch
out for. I was told at a young age and in church, they'd say,
now let's put on our thinking caps. Let's see if God will teach
us something tonight. You see these characters and
I want you to pay attention to them as we go through them. There's
Philip. That's an evangelist. That's the Lord's preacher. And
then we're going to meet an Ethiopian eunuch. A sinner saved by grace. Holy Spirit's involved in this.
This is His work. We're gonna see the scriptures.
Somebody read the scriptures. Isaiah 53 was read. A message was preached. Everybody else wouldn't pay.
One fellow paid attention. It's all that's needed. And there's a desert oasis. Certain
waters for those that believed obeyed. There's obedience if
God does work in somebody. There's gritting of teeth, and
don't you tell me what to do if there isn't a work of God
done in somebody. The children of that father are
obedient children. Glad to. We'll see how happy
this is. This is a happy thing. This is a good pattern we can
learn a lot from. This dead man is going to be
given life. He's going to be given a new
heart. He's going to be given sight for the first time, hearing
ears. He's given saving faith. What's
the means that is used to give this dead man life like this?
The same as it was for me, the same as it was for those that
believe God. Ain't no different. They didn't
send him an email. He didn't have, he was reading
the holy scriptures. Didn't do him no good. Somebody
came and like, like you just read, what did Christ do when
he went to preach? He opened his mouth one-on-one in person. He talked, they heard. This is
miraculous. Let's watch him work, okay? Verse
26, Acts chapter 8, verse 26. And the angel of the Lord spake
unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south, and to 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 Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who
had charge of all her treasures, and had come to Jerusalem for
to worship. He was returning and sitting
in his chariot read Isaiah the prophet. The angel of the Lord
told Philip to head to the desert. Gaza was a desert. It was out
in the boonies, still is. I've loved this story so much.
since I was little, because I can relate to that eunuch so much. I can. And I'm so thankful the
Lord's given me understanding to learn some things about Philip
too. He's taught me more in this. Things I'd never experienced.
I could read it. I hadn't lived it. And there's comfort in this. To be able to see the way that
the Spirit moves, like the wind. in ways that I would never think
to. The Lord's ways ain't our ways.
He does things like I don't think he ought to do it. He does things
where you don't think it ought to be done, but he's gonna do
it anyway. That's what we're thankful for. What was just going
on with Phillip? You remember last week? You remember
what just happened? We just went over this. There
was a great revival in Samaria. The gospels being received in
great measure, greatly. There was a growing, successful
work in Samaria. But why didn't Philip stay there?
The angel of the Lord came to him. And he said, go, it's time
to leave. Verse 27 says, and he arose and
went. He did it. If you've ever experienced
this, You'll see how sweet it is. Have you ever prayed, Lord,
whatever, whatever it is that you're doing in business and
in family matters and relationships with your neighbors and all those
things, because we are a lot in this community and you want
to do the right thing. You don't want to bring approach on God. And you
said, Lord, what is your will? What would you have me to do? And then the Lord answers so
clearly. And you just have contentment
in your heart, and nobody can tell you any different. You can
try to talk somebody out of something, and the Lord's convinced me of
it. I got peace. Years ago, we was moving to New
Jersey, and we didn't know we was going to move to New Jersey.
And when it was time, both of us. We're going to New Jersey. Everybody said, you crazy? Nobody
retires and goes north. I get the best sales pitch I
ever heard. Clay said, well, if you want
to move here, you can. Taxes are high, and things are
expensive, and people are driven. It gets real cold, and there's
snow all over the place. And everything's expensive, and taxes.
That's what we got to. He said, really? Okay. I had to. God commits. We pray,
Lord, what would you have us do? And he spoke loudly. It was
as bright as a candle. That's what we got to do. If
you've experienced it, that's precious. It's precious. I hope
you do experience it sometime. For the eunuchs part. Who was
in Jerusalem? The apostles were there, remember?
That verse where Saul came and everybody was scattered. Everybody
was scattered to save the apostles up in verse one. But they weren't
in the Jews' temple, that's where he'd went. And they weren't part
of the Jews' feast. And they weren't part of the
Jews' Passover, you see? You see that? There's organized
religion going on. That eunuch was going to the
place where God was supposed to be. God's up there in a building
somewhere and I'm gonna go meet him. God's with that particular
people, and I'll go up there and get to know God. But the
Lord's not in cities and buildings and things like that, are they?
The Lord came to this man. He went to go find the Lord,
and the Lord wasn't found. And then in the most undesirable
and unsuspecting place, the Lord came to him. He didn't find God,
God found him. You see that? He was on his way
home. He'd done mission complete. I
did the best I could. We worship God this weekend.
Feltin' just as empty as anything. And he was headin' back home,
2,600 miles away. People won't hear the gospel,
they'll go hear the gospel. That's just so. One time I was in Jacksonville,
Florida, and I heard they had all-you-could-eat crab legs at
Red Lobster down in Cocoa Beach, about five hours away. I drove
to Cocoa Beach. Now what do you think I think
about snow crab legs? You think I like them? Somebody
wants the gospel, they'll find it. They'll get to it. They'll
hear where it is and they'll go. They'll go there. But anyway,
he was heading back home, just as empty. And the Lord dealt
with him out in the middle of the desert. You know what he
was dealing with? Pride of place. Recently, I heard a message from
Brother Don. I've seen him in person do it on multiple places
around this continent. He would discredit the very place
he was preaching to him. He would. He would say how bad
it was there, wherever he was preaching, and how good it was
back where he was from. You know why he'd do that? He
did it on purpose. Knowing those people were tied
to a location more than the gospel. We like the gospel, but we want
it where we are. If the Lord loves us, he's gonna
prove our love in us. He is. That's what he's gonna
do to this fella. He loved Ethiopia, and he only
wanted to go church up in Jerusalem. Really far away, but that's what
he wanted. He was having things his way. So the Lord, in his
time, in his time of love, and in his place that pleases him,
he sends his preacher. Something else about this Ethiopian
eunuch, he was mighty. Scripture there says, of great
authority. He was intelligent. He didn't, he was the, Secretary
of Finance or whatever. He was Treasury Secretary for
Ethiopia. He had some power. He had some
prestige. He had a good cabinet of advisors
with him. But he happened to be a eunuch.
I don't know if you've ever seen this before. This was precious
to me. You remember us looking at Naaman, that general? He was
a great general, of great respect, head of the army, Joint Chief
of Staff, who happened to be a leper. That things were tied together.
That taught us something. We're lepers, ain't we? Remember Rahab? She
had a title. Harlot. We harlots. Remember
that one at our Lord's crucifixion that was saved? He was on a cross.
He was a thief on the cross. Those names and conditions that
teach us about us. We're the unclean one. We're
the harlot. We're the thief. Well, what's a eunuch? Everybody
knows about the Ethiopian eunuch. Well, what's a eunuch? Very simple.
A eunuch was a castrated male that was allowed to serve in
the palace. Now remember, he didn't serve a king. He served
a queen, didn't he? That's what the Lord told us
that information on purpose. He was allowed to serve in that
palace. He could be in there during the day when everybody
was there, and he could be in there at night. He could be in
there by himself. He could be an advisor to the queen that
could be summoned day or night. If she didn't feel like coming
out of her room, he could go into her bed chambers without
worry to that queen, without worry to her family, without
bringing any reproach on that crown. Why? How's that? There was no seed in that eunuch.
He was castrated. There was no possibility. I hope
you're with me on this. There's no possibility of him
producing any life in himself. and there was truly no desire,
he didn't want to. That's just so. Therefore, there's
no danger of corrupting that crown, but also no possibility
of him preserving his own DNA or his lineage or his seed, right?
Brothers and sisters of Adam, if I can get you in Christ, I
got you in Adam, you hear me. That's us. This isn't just about a proud,
mighty authority figure from Ethiopia that ends up getting
baptized. This applies to me. That's how I come into this world.
I had no ability of life. There's no seed in me. That's
you. That's all of us. We need to
pay attention to this, don't we? He went a long way to Jerusalem
to worship, and now him and his entourage is heading back home,
and he's reading the scriptures. He was reading the scriptures
and he went to worship because he said so. Well, you know what? The outside of his body, he has
clothes on, all those things, he shows up, he looks fine, don't
he? Everything on the outside's fine. The problem's on the inside,
physically. And he's dead spiritually. Everything
on the outside looks fine. He's breathing and walking and
talking and moving his hands. But on the inside, there's no
seed. There's no life. There's death. And he don't even
know it, does he? How will he ever be saved and
given life? Verse 29, then the spirit said
unto Philip, but God. Then the Spirit said unto Philip,
Go near and join thyself to this chariot. Go right up next to
it. This man had danced to the tune
of false religion a long time. But God, the Holy Spirit, sent
a preacher to him. Everything in his life, learn
how to read, being a eunuch physically, everything in his life up to
this point had prepared this eunuch, now stay with me, to
hear from and to learn from the man that God sent to them. Won't
like Philip. Well, go on to hell then if you
want. That's what God sent. This is gracious. This is a gift,
isn't it? Verse 29, then a spirit said
unto Philip, go near and join thyself to this chariot. And
Philip ran thither to him. He didn't lollygag. He went.
Lord said go and he went. He ran. He had a race. Remember us looking at that?
And he 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. Come here and sit with me. I
got it. These are comfy seats. That chariot was designed for
this preacher of the gospel. This man was teachable. You get
that? How would I treat someone if
I was, I mean, like number two in command of a country, right?
I hold the purse strength, pretty rich. I own all of Ethiopia.
And some stranger came up, and I was being very religious. I
was reading out loud, aloud, so people could hear. And I got
my these and thines and all those things squared away good. And
some stranger came. I'm in a chariot. He's on foot.
You ain't even got a horse. You ain't even got a donkey to
ride. You're on foot. You're nothing. And they came
up to me. I have the best advisors. I was so learned. I was so accomplished.
I had so much authority. I thought of me. Would I sincerely
ask and politely request for a stranger to guide me? Would I? This man did, because
God's working in him. Or would I run him off and ignore
him in his lowest state and say, get out of here. Oh, you're younger
than I am. Go away. Your clothes ain't as nice as mine. Get out
of here. You don't know as much as I did. I've been doing this
for 55 years. Now get out of here. He said,
guide me. You know the exact same translation
as that? Obey them that have the rule over you. Obey them
that have the guide over you, for they watch for your souls.
He said, would you come up and preach to me? I'm a sheep without
a shepherd. Somebody needs to teach me. He
didn't say get up here so I can instruct you, Philip. Now, Philip,
I think you're going to make an evangelist one day if you
give me about six months with you. I got a training regime,
I need you to read these things and listen to these messages
and write this down and practice this other language." He said,
you teach me. Have we ever had that spirit
where God sent a man and we didn't instruct the fella, but we said,
you should instruct us. Have we had that spirit yet?
This one fella in the whole convoy did. and it was God's fella,
a certain fella. God had begun softening the soles
of this man's heart with water, and he's about to plow it, and
he's gonna use Philip just to throw the seed in there, and
then God's gonna give the increase to. Verse 32. The place of the
scripture which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter, and like a lamb before his shears, he opened not his
mouth. In his humiliation, He was humiliated. And his humiliation, it was his.
His judgment was taken away. Satisfaction. And who shall declare
his generation? For his life is taken from earth.
He's risen. And the eunuch answered Philip
and said, I pray thee, please, of whom speaketh the prophet
of this? Who's Isaiah talking about? Is
he talking about himself or is he talking about somebody else?
What's that? That ain't pretend, that's sincere
interest. Now that says something, and
God said it, and I wanna know what he means. And I don't know,
boy that's something, if God enlightens us to where we don't
know nothing. We grow down, don't we? And here's somebody with
sincere interest, a pupil, and that means go make disciples
of them, go make pupils, and a teacher, equipped of God to
tell them, And there's a student, there's a teacher, and encompassing
all this is the greatest lesson of all to be learned. The only
lesson to be learned. The Lord has to give a man the
voice, and the Lord has to give a word from himself to a man
to preach. But, if the Lord equips somebody,
if he's pleased to gift a man with a voice out in the desert,
he's gonna gift somebody here to hear him. That's just so,
I know some people that want to preach and they get there
in their living rooms and ain't nobody gonna listen to them.
Nobody cares to listen to them. Well, Lord ain't gave nobody
to have ears. It ain't for you. And there's some people that's
real reluctant that don't want to. Like I'm good at doing other
stuff. Lord gives people ears to hear. Lord put these two together. Who gets the glory for all that?
Who gets the glory for having ears and who gets the glory for
just being a mouthpiece? Who gets glory for having this
text to read? The Lord gets glory in all of
it, doesn't he? Verse 35, then Philip opened his mouth, just
like the Lord opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture
and preached unto him Jesus. Now, the words mean things. This
is an unpopular topic, and it's going to have to get more unpopular.
Philip did not explain Christ to him. He preached Christ to
him. He did not debate the cause of
Christ to him. He declared Christ to him. He
didn't present an idea. Well, here's the principle of
indwelling sin or original sin. He proclaimed, he said, all flesh
is grass, behold your God. From that very text that the
man was reading when he walked up. Imagine that. Let's turn back to Isaiah 53
and look at it. Isaiah 53. I just imagine if the Lord made
a text obvious and said, I had to preach from it. I thought,
what would Philip do? There was a whole lot of miles.
How many miles took place? It was in a chariot. They wasn't
even just in the same room. It was close. They sat right
next to each other. He didn't just look at him and
go, Jesus. Did he? He preached Christ to him. And
he said, now see where you was reading? Now let's back up a
little bit from there, okay? Let's get the context of what
you're reading. You're getting a cart before the horse. Now
hold on now. You think you can do this by yourself? Let's back
up some, see what God was saying. Let's back up some too. Let's
go back to verse one. Isaiah 53, verse one. Isaiah
crying out, who hath believed our report? And to whom is the
arm of the Lord revealed? Well, there's one and a chariot
on the way to Ethiopia. One. That's enough. Real important
if you're that one, isn't it? Real important. For he shall
grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry
ground. He hath no form nor comeliness.
And when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire
him. In the flesh, the Godhead was
manifest in a body. And that body wasn't tremendously
handsome, six foot three with blonde hair and a perfect smile.
We would pay no mind to him. Go find a homeless person down
there on Hamishaw. Draw your purse that way from
him, don't you? That's what he looked like. He was despised,
verse three, and rejected of me, and a man of sorrows, and
acquainted with grief, just like us. And we hid, as it were, our
faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. He went to that cross. Philip
could have been a disciple while cross walked the earth. He went
to that cross and Philip said, that was me. He suffered and
died alone. And it's my fault he's on that
cross. And I wasn't there to help him. He did it by himself.
I chickened out. I ain't nothing. I ain't faithful.
He's the faithful one. He's telling him from experience.
Verse four, surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did assume him stricken
and smitten to God and afflicted. He was nailed to that cross,
we said, what's going to go on now? We thought he was going to raise
up a physical kingdom here. What happened? Is it all over?
But he was wounded for our transgressions and he was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes,
we're healed. What part of that do we have?
All we like sheep gone astray. We didn't accept him. We didn't
sort him out. He wasn't lost and we found him. We was the
one that was lost. Preaching ain't changed none.
The head harlot in town might look different, be taller, shorter,
louder, quieter, or whatever. Disposition might be a little
bit different, but the message ain't changed one lick. All we
like sheep gone astray. And we've turned everyone to
his own way. I had the way of destruction.
I had the way of death. I was doing it my way. Christ is the
way. And the Lord laid on him, while
we were yet sinners, while we were in rebellion, while we were
at war with him, God, the Lord, laid on him the iniquity of us
all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth. Why didn't he defend himself? He bore our guilt. Explain that
ain't nobody can and if they think they can run from them.
No, that's that's the Lord's business I can't do that. Mankind
can't do that. I can't I can take somebody's
I'd pay their bills I can maybe go even go to jail for you in
another country or something. I can't take somebody's guilt
God can't And he did it He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter,
and he was as a sheep before his shears was done, so he opened
not his mouth. There was substitution that took
place, and there was satisfaction. You needed a substitute, eunuch.
You ain't got no seed in you. Somebody had to go live for you
and die for you, and then put that incorruptible seed of theirs
in you, and give you their righteousness. and God's gonna be satisfied
with it. I'm sure Philip probably too, could have been here a long
time, that he compared scripture with scripture, didn't he? Philip
probably said, you remember back in Genesis 22, Abraham and his
son Isaac, they was going up that mountain and the boy said,
daddy, we got fire and we have wood, but where's the lamb? You remember that, Eudic? And
Abraham said, my son, God will provide, himself a lamb for a
burnt offering, for an acceptable sacrifice. The Lord will provide. I hear it all the time in a lot
of different situations, in a lot of different places in daily
life. People say, well, the Lord will
provide. Well, the Lord will provide. Okay, what's he going
to provide? We say it what we mean by it. Mankind says that.
People at the school of gas, they said, Lord provide. All
right, what's he going to provide? Everyone's so concerned about
food and money and shelter and employment and the Mercedes Benz,
whatever. Well, if that's provided, God
provided that too. But here's the important thing. This is the making of eternal
life. The lamb of life is the lamb God provided. It's himself,
the lamb's Christ. Jehovah Sitkenu, the Lord our
righteousness, is provided by Jehovah Jireh. The Lord will
provide. Verse eight. He was taken from
prison and from judgment. And who shall declare his generation?
For he was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression
of my people was he stricken. He made his grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death, because he had done no violence,
neither was there any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. By the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God, you with wicked hands have slew." God
did it where it fought. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed.
He ain't gonna see your seed, eunuch. You ain't got no seed.
He's gonna see his seed. He's gonna see Christ. And he
shall prolong his days eternal life. and the pleasure of the
Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail of his
soul. He's going to see that payment, and he's going to be
satisfied. That lamb was a substitute, and
the Father is satisfied because he's the one that provided it.
That's what we need. Can I have that seed? I ain't
got no seed. You need seed? You need life
in you? You need a new creation? That's
what we need, isn't it? By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
We lived in him, Eunuch, and being made one of us, he was
made sin for us, and he bled and died for us, and we were
punished in him, and we died in him, and he arose and we arose,
we were risen with him. And Philip probably kept going,
didn't he? While he walked this earth, he told him all the words
that Christ spoke on this earth. Christ said, you go out and preach
to every creature, and those that believe, they baptize them.
And he said, and teach them, and tell them all the things
I said. What'd he say? He gave us ordinances, didn't
he? He said, this earth is my body. It's broken for you. Take,
eat. Eat it. This is my blood. This is the blood of the new
covenant. This is shed for you. Drink it. He said, that's the
baptism of waters. I was baptized. I gave you the
example. I told you to do it, and I did it. And that shows
that you're buried with me in death, and you were risen with
me in satisfaction. He said, and the father's satisfied. Father satisfied, and we will
be made fully like Christ one day. Verse 12, therefore I will
divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the
spoiled with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto
death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bared
the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. That's
what he's doing right now, till we're with him. Philip didn't
preach about Christ, Philip preached Christ. I thought a lot about
that. I was gonna give you a bullet
point checklist to tell you the difference between preaching
about Christ and preaching Christ, but I ain't gonna do that. I
can tell the difference, and the child of God can tell the
difference. They might not be able to give you a bullet list,
a checklist as to what the difference is, but a child of God can say,
They told me a lot of things, but eh. And then the child of
God said, that's Christ. They didn't tell me about Christ.
They preached Christ. They declared him. They can. Why? They know the shepherd's voice.
They're the sheep. They're that stray sheep. And
I know that voice and they follow him. They follow him. Now back
in our text, Acts chapter eight. That's chapter 8. Remember the characters here? And the things involved. There
was a sinner. There was a preacher. There was the word. There was
the message. There was the spirit. All this
is in vain unless the Lord sends us and the Lord's doing it. Unless
he builds the house, we're swinging hammers at nothing. As Paul said,
we're shadow boxing. And there was a response, a response. Verse 35, then Philip opened
his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him
Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came to a certain water
and the eunuch said, see, here's water. What does hinder me to
be baptized? He knew something about baptism,
how? Well, the Lord told him to go preach. He said in Mark
16, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,
the rich, the poor, the wise, the unwise, black, white, male,
female, it don't make a difference, gay, straight, as such for some
of you. He said, you go preach to everybody.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth
not shall be damned. He didn't say he that believeth
not and him that ain't baptized will be damned. He gave that
command, didn't he? Why would a person be baptized
after seeing Christ for the first time? Well, he said to him, we
want to, don't we? When we see him the first time,
we might have been baptized 45 times before that, but when we
see Christ, Peter said it this way, he was talking about baptism.
And he said that it saves us, baptism. He said, he's not talking
about putting away the filth of the flesh. We're not talking
about that. He said, but the answer of a
good conscience towards God. This will make your day a lot
better, because God said so, and we want to. We want to declare
Him. True spiritual sight is not just
seeing the right doctrine that line up with the Scriptures.
So there's a systematic theology, and according to this, legally,
yes, that makes the most sense. And that must be right. And I
found it. That's what's behind it. If it's unsaid, that's what's
unsaid. It's not just picking something
that lines up right. It's seeing Christ. It's not just a religious
event. It's not just a moral obligation
that we ought to go to church or we ought to do this. It's
seeing a person and loving that person. They're going to be loved.
And you have to have them. Now, we prefer to do it in air
conditioning with electricity and running water and clean medicine
and all those things, all those nice conveniences we have. But
that's my wife. Now if that's in the jungles
of the Amazon with nothing, no shoes, or that's in the penthouse
up in New York City, that's my wife. Now if he's our husband,
he's our husband, sickness and health. Good providence or bad
providence. Rich or poor, it don't make a
difference. We have him, we have a person. If that's in Hawaii,
that's great. And if that's in Piedmont, North
Dakota, okay. I made a living shoveling snow before, good for
the kids, they get strong. It's a person. What hinders any
person from observing the Lord's table or being baptized? What's
the requirement to be obedient? Look here, verse 37. And Philip
said, if thou believe us with all thine heart thou mayest.
And he answered and said, what's all your heart? Eunuch, he's
gonna tell you. I believe that Jesus Christ is
a son of God, he's God. That's God, that lamb, that's
God. And my substitute's God, and God's satisfied with the
lamb that he provided, and I needed one. I didn't have no seed, and
he's put that incorruptible seed in me. I'm gonna profess it.
And he commanded the chariot to stand still. Who was in charge
of the convoy? This guy, don't forget that.
And they went down both into the water, both Philip and the
eunuch, the Lord doubles down on them, and he baptized him. What was that? Well, where are
they? They're in the middle of the desert, a barren land. And
here's an oasis. You ever drive up Sacramento?
Halfway between LA and Sacramento, there's a big Tesla supercharger
station, right? Why? So you can stop and charge.
I guess some cars probably run out of gas or electricity, volts,
whatever it is, before they get up there, right? And there's
an In-N-Out there, and there's a regular gas station for us
regular folks, us old-fashioned folks. And that place is busy. You know, how busy you reckon
this oasis was in the middle of the desert? I'll tell you,
if there wasn't nobody else there, I'll tell you who was there,
the people in that convoy. There were people that respected
this eunuch. There were people that took orders from this eunuch.
And that eunuch had some shoeless fella come up, didn't even own
a horse, and he just preached to him. And now that guy's getting
down to water with him, and he's baptized him. That's embarrassing. What's
Joe down at the water cooler gonna think? Who cares? He's professing his Lord. Don't
matter who's there. Well, you're old. You've done
this before. People's gonna say you wasn't saved before. I don't
care about me. I care about him. You see the difference? It's
not my image. It's professing Christ, my husband. I want people to know that's
my wife. You might think I'm rich or something. How'd he get
her, huh? Now, watching the Spirit move
like the wind, we feel it, but we can't tell where it's coming
or where it's going. What would you think that Philip and this
unnamed eunuch would do? The Lord just saved him. Well,
I bet they'd head down to Ethiopia, boy, and open up a big old fancy
church, and they'll get to preach, and the Lord's gonna save a bunch
of people. No. Verse 39. And when they were come up out
of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip. The eunuch saw him no more. Never
saw him again. What'd that eunuch do? God did
it. He didn't know it before. He'd
have been upset. He's like, wait a second. I tell
people when to come and go. He said, ah, Lord's on his throne.
Lord did this. This is the Lord's doing. And
he went on his way rejoicing. There was a profession and there
was happiness. There was contentment, there was joy. They were happy
about that. Because he had something to be
happy over. He was lifeless before and he didn't know it until he
had life in him. He thought he was doing okay until God gave
him sight. And he said, I've been, this is all a sham, my
whole life. It's all for nothing. It's not
that all those things were wrong. I'm wrong. And that Lord gave me life. He
did it all. And he's happy. I've seen people
at conferences and other places, visitors come in. One of my friends
come in one time from the Army. And he said, boy, everybody here
seems awful happy. That broke my heart. Why ain't you happy?
Because God ain't put joy in you yet. Well, how's he going
to do it? Well, I'm going to preach to him. What are we going to do
next week? Well, let's preach to him. Let's
keep doing it. Don't put a time stamp on God.
Sometimes he'll take 30, 40 years. It'll wake him up one day. Philip
went on somewhere else. Someone else. It was needed.
Wasn't another town. Another lost sheep was out there. Look
at verse 40. But Philip was found at Azotus and passing through,
he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea. This
eunuch went on his way rejoicing because he had something to rejoice
about, isn't it? Sometimes these evangelists are used to plant
one seed and then they go off. That's what I'm charged to do.
Paul told Timothy plainly, he said, you do the work of an evangelist.
Do it, that's on my duties. I wonder what happened then or
what's still happening. We have an Ethiopic version of
the Bible, a text, original text. I wonder what's still happening
in Ethiopia. Lord's working in Malawi, isn't he? I wonder what's
happening there now. 50 years ago when evangelists
came through a place back in Eastern Kentucky, a little podunk
place that was a steel mill town, wasn't nothing there. and planted
a seed and kept on trucking. And you know what happened? 70
years ago, I'm here preaching to you now because of it. I'm
here today. Spirit brought me here for now
to preach to you, to bring a word. Isn't that amazing? We watched him work. Now we get
frustrated when the Lord don't do it our way? Or do we praise
him for his will, his way, not ours? That's what we do. I'm
thankful. You thankful? I am. I'm rejoicing. How about you? Let's pray together. Father, thank you for this word.
Thank you for this eunuch. That's us. Lord, what a gospel
you've given us. What a redeemer. the land that you provided, our
great King and our God. Make us rejoice in heart, Lord,
work in your people. Give them faith and make us like
Christ. Thank you for promising these
things. Thank you for giving us eyes to see and ears to hear.
Thanks for sending a man to me and to these people to preach
to us, to declare us of a person. Exalt Him. It's for His namesake,
Lord, we gather and ask these things. Amen.