He laid her down for him, the
preacher said. But drops of grief can ne'er
repay the debt of love I owe. Dear Lord, I give myself away,
it's all that I can do. Go with me now to Acts chapter
8. Let's go ahead and read all of these verses. Verses 26 to
the end of the chapter. Acts chapter 8. The angel of
the Lord spake unto Philip saying, Philip was a deacon, but a preacher. arise and go toward the south
under the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which
is desert. And he arose and went. And behold,
a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace,
queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure,
had come to Jerusalem for to worship. He was returning, sitting
in his chariot, read Isaiah, the prophet, chapter 53, that
we just read. Then the Holy Spirit said unto
Philip, Go near and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran
thither to him and heard him read the prophet Isaiah and said,
Understandest thou what thou readest? And the man said, how
can I? Except some man should guide
me. And he desired, asked 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 done 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? The eunuch answered Philip and
said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of himself,
or of some other man? And Philip opened his mouth,
and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.
And as they went on their way, now Philip preached. He's preaching
to this man. Sitting in that chariot, they
came unto a certain water, lake or river or something, and the
eunuch said, here's water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? Philip said, if thou believest,
With all thine heart thou mayest." And he answered and said, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And Philip commanded
Chariot to stand still. And they both went down, 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 and the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip,
that the eunuch saw him no more. And he went on his way rejoicing.
Philip was found at Azotus. And passing through, he preached
in all the cities till he came to Caesarea. He preached Christ
and Him crucified. What doth hinder me from being
baptized? After preaching the Gospel to
the eunuch, Philip told him what the Lord said. The Lord commanded
it. He said, go into all the world
and preach the gospel of Christ and Him crucified, which I'm
going to try to preach, which I already tried to preach. The half has not been told. But after preaching the gospel,
He said, he that believeth, and is baptized shall be saved. Baptism doesn't save anyone.
Baptism doesn't do anything for us, to us. But it's a confession
of Him who hath saved us. Saved. Saved from what? Wrath. Not the love of God. The wrath
of God. Saved from sin. He said saved
from this untoward generation, from being destroyed with it. Saved. Saved means you're lost,
doesn't it? If you're lost, you can't save
yourself. You don't know the way. You can't find the way.
It means you were dead and you have to be quickened. Saved means
somebody else has got to do it. Saved. And this salvation is
only by Jesus Christ. Bearing our sin. Bearing the
wrath of God that we're due. That's what baptism is showing. There were two ordinances given.
Only two ordinances given by the Lord. Baptism and the Lord's
Supper. Both are representative of what
Jesus Christ did. We're not confessing ourselves.
We don't confess our church or our denomination. We're not confessing
what we have done or how we feel or anything like that. We're
confessing what Christ has done. That all our hope is in Him and
Him alone. Baptism. It's the public confession
of faith in Jesus Christ as your substitute. Christ crucified. That Christ was killed. that
Christ bore the wrath of God against you. Because if He didn't,
you'll have to bear it. And baptism is confessing, I
believe He's my only hope. The eunuch believed with all
his heart. Isn't that what Peter, Philip said? If you believe with
all your heart, You've pierced your heart that's smitten and
stricken over your own sinfulness. Broken heart. Blessed are they
that... Blessed are the poor in spirit,
our Lord said. Poor. I am nothing. I have nothing.
I can do nothing. I'm a nobody from nowhere. I'm a nobody. The church is not
something where everybody is somebody. No, no, no, no. The
church is where everybody is a bunch of nobodies. Where Jesus
Christ is the only somebody. Baptism is confessing our sin
and our guilt and confessing that when Christ died on that
cross, that was me. I should have died. But thank
God, I believe He did it for me. That when Christ came to
live a holy life, He didn't do it to show me how. He did it
for me. He did it to establish a righteousness,
a robe of righteousness, which is the dress code, which is the
robe every believer in heaven is wearing, not their works,
but His righteousness. Most don't know what that word
means, though 500 times in the Scripture, righteousness. It
is not by works of righteousness which we have done. but by the works of righteousness
which Jesus Christ has done. That's it. And baptism is confessing
Him, and the Lord's table is communion. Before, and it's in that order,
the Lord gave that order. The Lord's tables for those,
His communions, worship of Christ crucified, His body broken, His
blood shed for the remission of your sins. And you confess
Him in believer's baptism. And I remember always wanting
to take the table, but I couldn't. I hadn't confessed Him. Then
when they revealed Himself to me, I was so glad to be able to finally
take that table with the rest of the family, sit at the table
and take it, and reveal Himself to me. He did, and reveal Himself
to Elizabeth. He did, and others. I was looking
over some old notes. I just went back and looked,
preached on this many times. Generally, when someone is baptized,
I don't write, I have it written down, everyone's name and the
date and all that, and I advise you not to. Because we're not
trusting in this. Not at all. Don't look back to
this. But just so happened to have
somebody's name in my introductory remarks 20 years ago. Sitting
over here. The same. See, everyone that
believes does this. It's a great privilege, and every
time we witness it, and it's one of the most blessed things
we can observe, every time it happens, I want to be there. The eunuch believed with all
his heart, and he said, here's water, what doth hinder me? I'm
going to leave the pool. filled with water because we've
got a well and we don't have much water. But hopefully the
Lord will use this. I told that to Elizabeth. I said,
hopefully the Lord will use you as a witness and somebody else
will confess him too. Philip was sent to preach the
gospel. Verses 26, the angel of the Lord said, Go to a certain
place, didn't He? He sent Him to a certain place,
to a certain land, didn't He? Didn't He? Yes, He did. Why? Because God has an elect people
that He chose before the foundation of the world. John Calvin didn't
say that. Jesus Christ said that. He used
the term elect more than anybody. Because salvation is not by chance,
it's on purpose. The God of the Bible doesn't
do things by chance. He does everything on purpose. All things work together according
to His purpose. And that purpose is to save a
people which no man can number, but He has a number. The foundation
of the Lord standeth sure, having this seal, quote in Scripture,
the Lord knoweth them that are His. And he sends a preacher. He sends the gospel. Not just
a preacher, but a preacher of the gospel. A man like Philip. Now, the man's not important.
It was good that I forgot his name, wasn't it? He's not important.
They came to ask John the Baptist his name. He said he wouldn't
give it his name. John, the apostle, wouldn't even
write his name. What does that say about those
who come in their own names? Philip, though, was sent to preach
the gospel to this particular people. Christ said, My sheep
hear My voice. I know them, and they'll follow
Me. I send the gospel. He sends the
gospel to every one of His sheep, and they hear His Word, and they
believe, and they confess it. Well, the eunuch, it says in
verse 31, Philip ran. This is a story of an eager preacher, and a ready preacher, and an
eager hearer. It's a joy to preach to those
who are eager to hear the Word of God. Many people come and
sit and listen with critical ears. passing judgment on God's
Word, not God's people. They receive it as little children.
All whom God chose, all whom God saves, they are made like
little children. Disciples, learners, listeners,
ready hearers, eager to hear. That's how you know life has
begun. The Ethiopian music said, Would you please come up here
and sit? Now, this was a man of authority.
This was a man of great riches and wealth. This wasn't anybody's
fool. This man was in charge of the
treasure of one of the richest women on earth, the Queen of
Ethiopia. He was in charge of her treasure.
He was an honest man. He was a trustworthy man. He
was a moral man. He was a man of great authority.
He had the charge of riches untold. He's no dummy. He's a smart man. But the natural man doesn't know
the things of God. The natural man, 1 Corinthians
2, receiveth not the things of God, neither can he know them. They're foolishness to him. Neither
can he know them, they're spiritually understood. Hath not God made
foolish the wisdom of this world? That the world by wisdom, in
the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. You can't
sit down and read this book and figure it out. Like you would
any other book. This is God's Word. These things
are hid from the wise and the prudent. They must be revealed. And the way the Lord does this
is, in 1 Corinthians 1, He said, it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching. Not foolishness, mind you. And
the preachers of God are not fools. They're like Stephen. Old men, wise men, scriptural
men, they can answer you from God's Word, like Philip here. But what the world calls foolishness,
don't preach to me. You can't tell me anything, okay
then. You won't learn anything. Not
this man. Not this man. He said, Would
you please come up and sit? This was a worldly wise man,
a rich man. Not many wise men at the place.
Not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God had chosen
the weak man. And this was one of those few
wise, mighty, and noble men that God had called. And the way you
know is He sent him a preacher with the gospel. He said, how
can I? Would you teach me? Elizabeth
told me, one of the first things she said was how thankful I am
that the Lord sent the gospel to Rocky Mountain. Most people
think the gospel is everywhere. It's not. It never has been. The Lord went to various cities,
villages, where He went. Passed by many places. He went
right through Jericho. He saved a man going into Jericho
and saved a man outside of Jericho. He didn't save anybody in town.
He could have, but he didn't. He sent the Gospel. And she said,
I'm so thankful the Lord sent my parish to hear it. Well, I feel the same way, Elizabeth. I was just like you. I was raised
where the Gospel is, the true Gospel. Not this false gospel
where God loves everybody, and some of them go to hell anyway.
Jesus died for everybody, and some of them are in hell anyway.
A God that can't save. A God that wants to and can't,
and men must let Him do something for them. That's not the God
of the Bible. That's a God who can't save. The good news is
that God has a people, and every one of them will be saved. How
do you know them? Well, their names are written
in the Lamb's Book of Life, and nobody can see it but Him. But
they're there. Mark it down. They're there. Oh, He marked it down. They're
there, and it's sealed up, thank God. The names are sealed. How
do you know is they hear the Gospel, and they believe, and
they receive it. They don't say, but, but, but,
but. They receive it. The love of the truth of who
God is. Who Christ is. What they are. They receive what you tell them
about themselves. And there's nothing good in this
Bible about man. Nothing. None good. Not one. None righteous. Not one. Philip ran and joined himself
to this Ethiopian chariot and began to preach to him. Where
did he preach from? Isaiah 53 that Brother Mack read
to us. Go back there. Isaiah 53. He wasn't just reading those
few verses, but he was reading the whole chapter. And this was a man who was seeking
the Lord. a man who was interested. This
was a man who was reading the Scripture. And the Scriptures
does say, ask and you shall receive it. And you have not because
you ask not. Scripture, our Lord, does say
seek and you shall find it. If you don't seek, you won't
find it. If you don't call, you won't be saved. Whosoever shall
call on the night... It does say that, doesn't it?
Well, who will? See, God must get the glory.
We never leave this out. This is where we start. Because
salvation started with God, and it ends with God, and everything
in between. These things, seeking and asking
and calling, aren't the cause of salvation, they're the result. Faith is not the cause of salvation,
it's the result. Which begins first, faith or
life? Life. And you have He quickened. By grace are you saved through
faith, not of your sins. It's a gift of God. Listen to
Isaiah 65. I am sought of them that ask
not for me. Saul of Tarsus wasn't seeking
the Lord when He smote him down on that road to Damascus was
he? He started seeking Him from that
day forward. That's how you know He's one of you. If a man doesn't seek, it means
the Lord wasn't seeking him. If a man doesn't ask, it means
the Lord didn't reveal Himself to him. If a man doesn't call,
it means the Lord didn't call him. God gets all the glory,
we get the blame. I don't understand, preacher.
No, we don't. That's true. But this is the
truth. Isaiah 53, look at it with me.
Who hath believed our report? To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? You see that? It must be revealed. You can't figure it out. The
arm of the Lord. The Lord hath made bare to His
people His holy arm. Every false preacher on planet
earth stands up and tells people, God has no hands but your hand. But to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? the hands of the Lord in whose
hands you are. His right hand and His holy arm,
Scripture says, has gotten him the victory. To whom is the arm
of the Lord? What's the arm of the Lord? He's
made bare. My dad used to do this when I
was a kid. He'd say, show me your muscle,
Dad. And he would make bare his arm, that muscle. And boy, that's
my dad. He's stronger than any man on
earth. Didn't we think that? He can
whip anybody. Well, I've got news for you.
Good news. Thy God reigneth. He's made bare
His holy arm. Who's His arm? Jesus Christ. He's no weak, effeminate failure. He's no meek and mild, gentle
Jesus standing at your heart's door. He's seated on a throne
right now, reigning and ruling, and this earth is under His feet. And he saves whom he will. Aren't you glad? I wouldn't have
been saved had he not given commandment. That's what David said, thou
gavest commandment to save me. I wouldn't be standing here if
Jesus Christ hadn't sent His Spirit, hadn't sent that preacher
with this gospel saying, arrest that man. Stop him. You see that prodigal son? He's
in the hog pen. He ain't coming back. God said,
yes he is. That's my salvation. That's my
hope for everybody. I have grave concerns about people
in this building right now. I preach through time and time
again. Nothing, nothing, nothing. I scream, I holler. Still small
voice. I pray, I lose sleep. Nothing's
going to happen until God says so. I pray to that end. But I keep
preaching. Can these bones live? He said
to Ezekiel. Ezekiel, can these bones live?
He said, Lord, you know. He said, preach, Ezekiel. Preach
to dead people? Yeah, you don't ask dead people
to do anything. You just tell them like Ezekiel
stood up and prayed. You just tell them who God is
and wait for the Lord to move. And bless God, He does at times. Here and there, the Spirit bloweth
where it listeth. You cannot tell the sound thereof.
Here a little, there a little. There was a day, I'm a preacher's
kid. I heard message after message
after message after message after message. You know how many people
were concerned for my soul? And then I was a prodigal son.
I hit the road and landed in the ditch. Nothing and nobody
is going to bring me back but God. Buddy, when the Lord reveals
Himself to you, you quit arguing all this. You know, that's the
way it is. That's the way it is. Quit arguing. If the Lord hadn't
chose me, I'd never have chosen him. If the Lord hadn't spoke
to me, I'd never have heard him. If the Lord hadn't called me,
I wouldn't have come. I'd still be in a ditch or dead. To whom is the arm of the Lord?
It speaks of Christ that he'll grow up before God as a tender
plant, as a root out of dry ground, no form to come to him. When
we shall see him, there's no beauty that we should desire
in him. All these pictures of Jesus today, this blue-eyed Caucasian,
it's a lie. It's an idol. It's a figment
of man's imagination. He didn't have long hair. It's
a shame for man to have long hair. He wasn't handsome. Right here it says there's no
beauty. There's no earthly description of our Lord. It's an idol. The only description is given
in Revelation 1. You can't paint a picture like that. Brother
Tim James used to say, that picture that men worship is Wild Bill
Hickok. That's who it is. That's who
he looks like. No beauty. No form. Plain and ordinary looking. Like
the tabernacle in the wilderness. That brown tent in the wilderness.
Everybody passing by. It ain't nothing to that. It's
just a brown tent. What's in there? Oh, you look
on the inside. That's the only place where God
is. It's a kind of glory. Why, they had all their temples
and everything. There's nothing on the inside of that. It's all
on the outside. with the tabernacle, the only
place where God would meet with anybody. That's Christ. Show
Him the house. He had no form or company. He's
despised, verse 3, and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief. People, He wasn't just sorry
for people and weeping and grieving over people. It says that He,
verse 4, had borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. When Christ wept at Lazarus'
tomb, he wasn't weeping because he couldn't do anything. He came
there to do something. He came there to raise him from
the grave. He's weeping over the effects of sin. Someone said
he may have been weeping because he has to bring Lazarus back
to this place. But our Lord was bearing the
griefs and the sorrows of being made sin. Because sin is the
source of all our griefs and sorrows, is it not? Sin is the
source of all our troubles, all the pain, all the suffering,
all the sorrow, all the wickedness, all the corruption, iniquity,
and death. Death. And our Lord came to put
it away. And from the day He was born
until the day He died, He was carrying that the burden on His
back of being made sin, this is what it took for God to save
us, for Christ to bear the iniquity of all of God's people on His
shelter. We have a hard time. Our sins
weigh us down, don't they? Our sins give us great grief
and sorrow, don't they? When we finally realize, when
the Lord makes us realize the burden of our sin, it's a heavy
burden in the same way. We want to be done with it, don't
we? Well, God, and we come like the scapegoat and lay our heads
on the hand and say, Lord, take this. And He did. That's the
grief and the sorrow He had. Sin. And He didn't do that for
everybody, people. Look at verse 8. He said, for
the transgression of My people was He stricken. If Jesus Christ
died for everybody, everybody would be saved. Why? Because the blood of Jesus Christ,
God's Son, cleanses us from all our sin. Jesus Christ paid it
all, all the debt I owe. If He paid for it, sin won't
have to be paid for. See, when you confess Christ,
there's your hope that when Christ died, He put away my sin. It's
not in your baptism. It's not in your faith. It's
not in keeping yourself. You're confessing that when He
came, He came for you. When He died, He died for you.
When He lived, He lived for you to make you righteous. And He's
coming again for you. And He's going to keep you. All
that thou hast given me, Christ said, I have kept. None is lost. Is that the Christ
you need? Do you believe in all your heart
that you cannot keep yourself? You can't put away one sin. You
can't quit sinning. This is for sinners. This is
for those who can't quit sinning. You say, I don't want to explain that. God's
people know what I mean. The Holy Spirit that dwells with
all of God's people convinces them of sin all their days. All their days. And that way,
they look to Christ all their days. All their days. It says, He was wounded, verse
5, for our transgression, bruised for our iniquity, the chastisement
of our peace. That's the whipping. It was upon
Him. And with His stripes we are healed. Christ came down here to live
according to God's holy law. None can do it. But He did it. And He did that and He imputed
that. Romans 4, Galatians 4, all through the Scriptures talks
about righteousness imputed. Blessed is the man whom the Lord
will not impute sin, who imputes righteousness without iniquity. That means charged to reckon
to the account of that all that Jesus Christ did, He reckoned
it to the account of His people. Man, because the law convicts
me. The law makes me guilty. People,
whenever a policeman gets behind you in the car, how does it make
you feel? How does it make you feel? It's just innocent. And
knowing some of you, you're guilty. I've ridden with you. The law is not given to make
us feel good about ourselves, it makes us feel bad. The gospel
is not meant to make us feel good about ourselves, but to
make us feel bad about ourselves. To make us feel good about what
Jesus Christ has done. To look to Christ and Him alone.
The law is a schoolmaster to do what? Drive you to Christ. The law says, I won't save you.
I can only condemn you. Run to Christ. He can. He must. He did. He will. Is that true, preacher? So help
me God. Jesus Christ. He was wounded
for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement
of our peace was upon Him. With His stripes we are healed.
The law requires punishment. The soul that sins must surely
die. Christ died. He poured out His
soul unto death. His soul was made an offering
for sin. Whipping, scourging by the law. Back then, the law would use
very severe punishment at times. The scourging of the law. This
was told as a true story years ago. It was a one-room school
building then, the Appalachian Mountains. A rough area. That's where I grew up. And a
rough area. And they went through teachers
quite often. Nobody could handle the job.
And a young teacher went there, took the job, and he thought,
I'm going to have to get some kind of order. in this place. It would be madness. So he said,
we've got to make some rules. And he said, I'll let you all
make the rules. And so they started doing it. When somebody spoke up, no cussing.
Okay, no cussing. No stealing. No stealing. No spitting on the floor. You know, on and on it went.
And so they made their rule, and he wrote them down. And then
he said, if you have rules, you've got to have some consequences.
You've got to have some punishment for breaking those rules. And
he said, what punishment should we make for breaking these rules,
for stealing? And somebody spoke up and said,
ten stripes across the back with a rod. And the teacher said, that's
pretty severe isn't it? Oh no, everybody agreed. Ten
stripes across the bare back. Take your shirt off. Bare back
with a rod. The law is severe. The soul that
sinneth will surely die. Okay. One day there was a big
fella, over-aged in there with the rest of the little kids and
Big Tom, about 16 years old. One room school. Big Tom. Somebody
stole his lunch. And he told the teacher about
it. Somebody stole my lunch. And
the teacher said, got everybody together and said, alright, someone
has stolen Big Tom's lunch. You know the rule, no stealing. And he said, you know the consequences,
the punishment, stripes. He said, who stole Big Tom's lunch? And nobody would admit it until
finally. It was a little fella, young
and little Jimmy. Real thin, real small fellow. He always wore a coat to class. They got him up there and the
teacher said, Okay, Jimmy, you know the rule and you know
the punishment. He said, Take off your coat. He said, Teacher, don't make
me take my coat off. He said, Take off your coat, Jimmy. You
know the rule. Bear back ten stripes with the rod. So he did. He took off his coat. You see
his ribs. We had him lean across the desk.
He took out a big hickory switch. He reared back. I hit him on
the back ten times. And somebody said, Stop. Don't hit him. And it was Big Tom. And Big Tom
said, I'll take his licking. I'll take his weapon. Can I do
that?" The teacher said, I don't see where it says you can't.
He said, I'll take it. And he took off his coat. Broad shoulders. He's able to
take a licking. And the teacher ran back and
hit him ten times. And on the tenth strike, the
rod broke. Punishment's been carried out.
And little Jimmy went running up to him and threw his arms
around his neck and he said, I love you forever, Big Tom,
for taking my women. This is about Jesus Christ. How dare anyone say anything
to steal His glory? He took my licking. That's what this is all about.
That's what this is all about. I deserve to be whipped for breaking
the law. If we're proud of or pleading
our baptism, we've missed Christ. We haven't confessed Christ.
If we think this is doing something for Christ, we've missed Christ.
We're not confessing Christ. We're confessing that Christ
has done it all for us. Baptism is a humbling thing. An humbling thing. Go back to
our text there, Acts 8 and I'll close. It's a humbling thing. It came that Philip preached
from Isaiah 53. And it broke the eunuch's heart. It broke his heart over his sin. He didn't know. He said, what
man is this? And he preached Jesus, the man who as a man came
and lived as a man. Why? For the suffering of death.
And he said, he's not a mere man. He's the Lord of glory. He went back and sat on the right
hand of the throne of glory. And this is what Peter preached
at Pentecost. And everybody thought it was
just to Jesus. And he said, you know the one
you crucified? You're in his hands right now. God killed him. It pleased the Lord. The Lord's
the one that did that for somebody. I don't know if it's you or not.
If you believe it is, if you confess, it's you. But I don't
know. But they all, everyone at Pentecost,
thousands, were convicted, pierced in their heart. What? Rejecting
the Son of God. Realizing that they were in his
hands to do with him as he pleased, Peter didn't ask them to accept
him as his personal savior. That's not in the Bible. They
all began to ask, what if he'd accept us? You think he'd accept us? That's
the question, isn't it? He's not up for acceptance or
rejection. Here we are. He's not on trial here. We are,
and I'll tell you this, we're guilty. We're all guilty. But
everyone that asks, everyone that pleads guilty, God sends
them an advocate. Allow your substitute to take
their lick in. Baptism is a humbling thing. It says in verse 37, if you believe
with all your heart, he answered, I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot
to stand still, and they both went down. They went down into
the water like that man in the Old Testament. He was rich and proud. And Elijah
said, you're going to have to come down off your high horse
and get in that old muddy river Jordan. It's a humbling thing. We go down into the water. Elizabeth
is going down. I'd like to do it with you. I really would. We go down into
the water. We're going to go down into the
water, the pool of water. And this is representative of
being buried. And I'm going to put her under
that water. We'll go down in the water, and we've got to get
further down. Married. Christ was crucified. Lifted up. That was His glory.
Yet He was made sin. And being sin, He was married. Put away our sin. And what we're
saying in baptism is that I deserve to be crucified, but I believe
Christ took it for me. I deserve to die. Christ said,
he that believeth shall never die. Because Christ died. He never
died. It's not death for a believer.
It's sleep. And we say, I want to be put
out of sight. I used to think of somebody. I'm a nobody. Just put me out of everybody's
sight. I'm going to raise her up. All
the makeup is going to be gone. Everybody looks the
same when you come out of the water, don't you? We all have our fine clothes
on. We have our makeup and our hair
just right. If you have any, it's just right. And a man puts
you down, it all comes up looking like a wet rat. That's good.
That's good, because we're a bunch of nobodies. We're confessing
Christ. No beauty in us. That's what
we say. He's altogether lovely. Humbling. Pride ought to be gone. It ought to be gone in realization
of what Jesus Christ did. All pride ought to be gone. That's what baptism is. That's
what baptism is. I want to say something that
you told me, Elizabeth, okay, because it's such a blessing.
I'm not going to ask her to say anything, but her testimony told
you something. But she said, you know, I now
believe in my heart everything I heard years in my head. And
that was me. That was me. I have many of you
in here. Many of you. And she said, I'm
so unworthy. Unworthy. And she said, all I want and
need is to be found under the blood of Jesus Christ. To be found in Him, she said,
that's my hope. Isn't that what you said? I said to her, I said, I rejoiced. And I said, maybe the Lord will
use you for someone else. Maybe it happened before. This
has happened before. The Lord used someone. We're
not confessing our feelings. We're not confessing our faith.
We're not confessing anything. We're confessing Christ. We say,
I believe Him with all my heart. I believe He's my only hope. I've got to say this. This is
a very similar situation. My sister was a role model as
a child. You knew her, didn't you, Dan?
A role model. Obedient daughter. She never
did anything wrong. Me? Not me. I'm the prodigal son. I looked up to her. tormented her as a boy, younger
brother, but she was a fine daughter, wasn't she? A fine citizen. A
fine wife and mother. God had to show her that she's
just as much a sinner as a harlot on the street. A harlot. That's who God saves. And bless God, He did that, didn't
He? That's a miracle. It's a miracle to take a fine,
upstanding person, you know, and convince them. Man can't
do it. God doesn't. Convince them that
they're a sinner no better than a harlot, no better than a thief
on the cross. It takes just as much grace to
save someone like that as it does a feather light in a gutter.
Same grace, same blood, same righteousness, same message will
convict them all. Convict them all. And they'll all come running.
Please, I want to confess Him because I'm a sinner and nothing
at all, but Jesus Christ is my all in all. Is that your testimony?
Stop the chariot. All right. You come prepared. John, you come up with saying
number 42, I believe it is, 42.