Acts chapter 8. The Lord's sovereign providence in crossing the path of the sinner
to bring him the gospel is marvelous. Some of you can tell marvelous
stories of how the Lord brought you to hear the gospel for the
first time. I can, and this story is one of the most remarkable
for that reason. Look at it here, beginning, we'll
get right into the story. Acts chapter 8, once again, Philip
is the preacher. Three times it says here in this
one chapter that Philip was found preaching. Philip went preaching. Look at verse 26. The angel of
the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south
unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which
is the desert. Philip was a deacon. He was an
evangelist as well, but he was a deacon. He wasn't a pastor.
He wasn't what you'd call a full-time preacher, per se. But he preached
whenever he had the opportunity. And don't you think that you
can't preach the gospel? You can and you do to any and
all you come across if the Lord opens the way. I went away that the Lord led
him," says down to Gaza. That's familiar in our day, and
there's a lot of controversy surrounding that little desert. You don't hear any salvation
going on out there, a lot of fighting and death. But here
in this story is a blessed story of salvation. Verse 27, "'And
Philip arose and went.' and behold a man of Ethiopia." Philip went
walking through the desert, and the scripture says, Behold, a
man appeared out of nowhere. He was riding in a chariot, but
he appeared, as it were, out of nowhere, or Philip did, or
one or both. This sure was a fortunate happenstance,
wasn't it? This was real luck on the part
of this Ethiopian, wasn't it? What a chance meeting! Out of
all of the thousands of miles of desert that they could have
been walking in, they just happened to cross one another's path.
Well, this man, this Ethiopian, was doing what he decided to
do. He was going where he wanted to go. He was doing what he wanted
to do. He was going where he planned
and purposed to go. He was doing what he had willed
to do. But God Almighty had predetermined his destiny before the foundation
of the world, and predetermined this meeting before the foundation
of the world. That at this exact moment in
time, just at the right time, Do you realize the so-called
chances of somebody meeting somebody else in the desert like that?
Well, just at the right time, way out in the desert, thousands
of miles of territory to travel, he just happened to meet a gospel
preacher named Philip. And somebody said, Philip didn't
know where he was going, but he was ready. And this man didn't
know, but he was seeking by God's grace. Verse 27, read on. It
says, Behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority,
a eunuch of great authority under Candacy, the queen of the Ethiopians,
an Ethiopian, a eunuch of great authority. Did you catch it there
in Psalm 68? Right. shall stretch out her hands to
God," it says. I can't help but believe that
that is a prophecy of this story here. There's also another one
in Zephaniah, if you're taking notes. Zephaniah 3, verse 10,
is another prophecy, I believe, of this. But this is another
marvel. In fact, this man was a black
man. I believe he was a black man. Some say that this Ethiopia was
in Arabia. Some say Africa. Nevertheless,
I believe this was a black man. And this is another marvel, another
marvel. The Jews didn't have much dealings
with Gentiles, be they white or especially black. But the
scripture says, things which are despised have God chosen,
things which are despised. You know, the white race has
despised the black man and the red man and the yellow man and
every other colored man. That's what we used to call them,
didn't we? Colored. They despised every other race
but their own down over the years and have brutalized and abused
every other race, too, haven't they? It wouldn't surprise me
a bit if there'd be more so-called coloreds, or what used to be
coloreds, in heaven. than the high and mighty white
man. It wouldn't surprise me a bit, according to God's rule,
that things which are despised, not many mighty, not many noble.
The white man has always considered himself a noble by his side.
It wouldn't surprise me a bit. But God doesn't look on the skin
color, does He? He looks on the heart. You may
be white as snow on the outside, and your heart just as black
You may be black as coal on the outside and your heart pure from
sin. So here was this black man, and
that's a wonder, and out of all those miles of desert, just happened
to cross the path of a preacher, that's a wonder. Says a man of
great authority, that's a wonder, isn't it? Not many mighty, it
says. A charge of the treasure, that's
a wonder. that he wasn't a covetous man.
It says he was in Jerusalem to worship. How many rich people
truly make it a point to worship? Their money is generally their
God. That's another wonder. He had come to Jerusalem to worship. Verse 28, and he was returning
and sitting in his chariot, riding along in the desert, reading
Isaiah the prophet. And he was returning from Jerusalem. Now, Jerusalem Just a little
background here. Jerusalem was heard of the world
over. It was a place of pilgrimage
for many faiths. You know, it still is. The Muslims
have their mosques there in the middle of Jerusalem, and they
make their pilgrimages, too. That's where all the ... Well,
I'm not going into that. At any rate, many people travel
to Jerusalem. The patriarchs had much dealings
there. It was a center of religious
activity for all of the world, many of the world's religions
anyway. And like I said, the Arabs now venerate and worship
at a mosque there. And this man had come all the
way from Ethiopia to worship, to worship. And apparently he
was like Nathaniel. He was a man without guile. Remember,
the Lord revealed himself to Nathanael. Nathanael was a man
without guile. That means without hypocrisy.
He was a true seeker of the truth. And this man was serious. He
wasn't playing church. He was seriously seeking God. And the Scripture says, He that
seeketh me shall find me. And this is a prime example of
how the Lord will reveal himself to anybody who really seeks things. And whatever light the Lord gives,
if they truly from the heart seek him, he'll give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,
won't he? He'll give the gospel to them. You can't be saved apart
from that light, that gospel. But the beginnings of it is a
desire to seek the Lord. And I barely believe that the
Lord will give a native in the middle of the jungle more light
if that man seeks God, to worship God from the heart. I believe
that. This is a prime example of that,
isn't it? I believe it is. It says he was
in his chariot, and he was reading Isaiah. He'd brought him a Bible,
too. That tells me he was serious,
and he was seriously reading it. And perhaps he'd been hearing
it read. You know, he went to Jerusalem,
and I don't know how many days he'd been there. It's kind of
like the great You know, our Lord went to it, and on the last
day, the great day of the feast, remember when he stood up and
made that great proclamation? Any man thirst? Well, this man
had gone to one of those long, drawn-out meetings, and I'm sure
he hadn't heard a thing. He hadn't heard a thing. There
was much Bible read and maybe preached and long dissertations
and papas read. He had some papas. A man read
a papas. And he hadn't gotten a thing
out of it. He was reading his Bible on the
way home. Now, it's one thing to read your
Bible out of duty. It's quite another to read it
to hear a word from God. And those who read the Bible,
I don't believe, I believe a man can hear God speak through the
reading of his Word. I believe that. Apparently, Apollos was
such a man. But he was taken and he was perfected by the man and his
wife. He was reading the Bible in sincerity,
and apparently he was reading it out loud. That's how serious
he was, reading it out loud, because Philip heard him. Look
at verse twenty-nine. He leads, doesn't he? He guides
to his sheep. His sheep are going to hear Christ,
his voice. The Holy Spirit is the one that
leads and guides and draws them and sends a preacher. Then the
Spirit said unto Philip, Go near and join thyself to his chariot. And Philip ran thither to him,
and heard him read the prophet Isaiah. Now apparently the chariot
was moving along, and it may have been a long train. in this
group. I'm sure there were other people. That's God's election, isn't
it? And there's no sign of anyone else receiving the word but this
man. But the train, the wagon train
or whatever it was, was moving right along, and here Philip
came running up, a stranger in the desert, and came running
up, and the man was reading his Bible out loud. And Philip heard
him, and he was trotting alongside that And he hollered up at the
eunuch and said, Do you understand what you're reading? And I'm sure the man looked down
and saw the stranger here, and he may have said, Stop, stop,
stop the chariot. And he said, look at verse thirty-one,
he said to Philip, How can I? How can I, except some man should
guide me? How can I? Ah, that's an honest
and humble seeker, isn't it? He's about to hear the gospel.
Those who receive the engrafted word with meekness are going
to receive it. They're going to hear it. They're
going to hear the gospel. Pride will keep us from knowing, knowing
we think we know everything. But an ignorant man will soon
know more than the ancients. That's what David said, didn't
he? I know more than my teacher, more than the ancients. Well,
he desired, Philip, it says, he desired, Philip, that he would
come up and sit with him in a chariot. He said, How can I except some
man show me? I don't know. And they sure didn't
show me back at that revival meeting. I just heard lots of
goings-on. I didn't hear any exposition
of Scripture. How can I except some man? Would
you come up here and sit in this chariot with me and tell me what
I'm reading? Boy, I'd like to run into some
people like that, wouldn't you? Just one. Just one would do.
All right, read on. So the place of the Scripture
which he read was this. He was led at, let's turn back
there, Isaiah 53, Isaiah chapter 53. And only two verses are quoted
here in Acts chapter 8, and I'm certain that they're only quoted
for the sake of space. I'm certain that this was not
all that the Ethiopian read, that he read the whole chapter.
by Isaiah 53, but that was the place he was reading. And he
said, back in our text, who is the prophet talking about, about
himself or another man? But it said, Philip began at
the same passage, Isaiah 53, and preached unto him the Lord
Jesus Christ. He preached to him. Now, like
I said, I don't believe he was just reading those two verses,
but read the whole thing. For the sake of space, that's
all that's recorded there in Acts chapter 8. And I'm just
certain that Philip didn't preach just two verses. He preached
the whole passage, didn't he? Well, let's look at it. Isaiah
53, and this is the message that you've heard so many times, and
this is the message that the Ethiopian eunuch heard from Philip. Verse 1, "...who hath believed
our report, and our doctrine, Well, it's unbelievable to the
natural man. It's hated by the natural man. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2
that the natural man receiveth not the things of God, a foolishness
to him, neither can he know them. They are spiritually discerned. But he says, God hath revealed
them unto us by his Spirit. Who hath believed our report?
Who hath believed the gospel? to whom the arm of the Lord is
revealed, to whom the Holy Spirit reveals this gospel to, to his
elect, to his chosen. That's who hath believed, that's
who will believe, no one else, no more, no less. The sovereign
power of God Almighty, the Holy Spirit, reveals the gospel to
whom he will. The Spirit bloweth where it listeth,
cannot tell the sound thereof, so is every man that is born
of the Spirit of God, Christ said. He reveals the gospel to
whom he will. And this man was evidently one
of God's elect from before the foundation of the world, and
he had to send Philip all the way out in the desert to find
him. And this was the message. What did he preach to him? We
saw before what Philip preached, didn't we? He preached Christ.
Look at verse 2. To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? For he, that's the arm of the Lord, isn't it? It's
a person. It's the right hand. The one
who sits at the right hand of the Lord, the right arm of the
Lord, the strength of God Almighty, his Son at the right hand of
the Majesty on high, he shall grow up before him, God. Christ shall grow up before God
as a tender little plant. You remember Isaiah 9, verse
6, a child is born, but a son is given. A little child was
born, a little baby, a tender little plant, right? In the cruelness
of time, God sent forth his Son made of woman, made under the
law. Why did he come? To redeem them
that were under the law, redeem them from the curse. Christ was
made a curse for us. Go on. It says he was a tender
plant, a little small baby and a young child as a root out of
a dry ground, a little brown little brown Israelite boy, little
brown Jewish boy, little skinny, little dirty-feeted boy running
around the streets of Jerusalem. If you saw him, you couldn't
tell any difference between him and the rest of the boys in that
day. Look in his eyes, you could. Look in his eyes, you could.
But he was a root out of a dry ground, seemingly insignificant,
insignificant. And I know that, you know, Philip
was relating all of this to the eunuch. I know he was saying
to him, Mr. Eunuch, you've heard of this
Jesus of Nazareth, haven't you? This carpenter's son that people
say was just a carpenter's son, the son of Joseph, the son of
Mary. He's more than that. He's more than just a man. I
know he just looked like it. And this is what it said. He
hath no form nor comeliness, nothing special about him, just
a man, just a young boy, just a man, grew up as a man. When
we see him, there's no beauty that we should desire in him.
Nothing's different about him from other men in that day, except
his character. And he may have alluded to that
tabernacle in the wilderness. I don't know. You could go on
and on from there. And he says in verse three, and he was despised
and rejected of men. Mr. Unick, you remember how that
everybody rejected him, his own family, his own countrymen. The Scripture said that, that
a prophet without honor is not without honor saving his own
country. And he was despised and rejected of men, a man of
sorrows acquainted with grief. And we, it says, hid, as it were,
our faces. from him. Turned away from him.
Everybody turned away from him. Rejected him. And it says, We
esteemed him not. Have you ever read your Amplified
Bible on that, Brother Henry? It's one of the most touching
and glorious renditions of this Isaiah 53 I've ever read. You
ought to read it sometime. It's something. Isaiah 53 in
the Amplified. Read it when you get a chance.
It says, He was despised and we hid, as it were, our faces
from Him as one unworthy of our notice. That's how rebellious,
how wicked, how ungodly mankind treated the Son of God. That
One who is worthy, who alone is worthy, whom the angels Behold,
in all his glory we, worms, lowly worms, when he came, we did esteem
him as unworthy of our notice, beneath our dignity." Think of
it. But surely, verse 4, "...surely
he hath borne our griefs." Why was he a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief? Because he was carrying our griefs
and sorrows. he was being made a substitute. He was bearing within himself
the burden of our sin and ultimately being stricken and smitten of
God, being cast out of the presence of God, being an object of God's anger and
wrath being made sin for us. You know, Christ, He went through
hell before He got to the cross. Just the thoughts of being made
sin was enough to make Him sweat blood. And he carried that burden
from a little child. That's the reason he was a man
of sorrows, acquainted with grief. I'm sure he looked haggard and
drawn, and his countenance was a sad countenance, except at
times. I'm sure he derived great joy
in the presence of his friends. and smiled with them. But at
the thoughts, that burden he carried with him all his days,
that was foremost on his mind, Terry, from a child, of being
made a bloody substitute for sin and being cast out of the
presence of the Father whom he loved so dearly. And that weighed
heavily on his mind and made him appear to be a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief. Yet we did esteem him, and when
he bore our griefs and sorrows on the cross, we did esteem him
stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." Remember what they
cried when he was hanging on the cross? He's crying out to
God, let's see if God will have him. In other words, they thought
they were doing God a service, and they were killing God's Son.
They thought they were doing God, in the name of God, they
were killing God's Son. That's how perverted religion
was then, and that's how perverted it is now. Blaspheming God's
Son in the name of God's Son. Aren't they? Sting him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But, I like that word, surely,
there in verse 4. Jew, surely. Yeah, surely. He's a surety, isn't he? Surely
he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. He surely
bore them as our surety. He bore them for us. Verse 5, And he was wounded for
our transgressions. Mr. Eunuch, Christ didn't die
for his own sins. He had none. He didn't die for
his own transgressions. He had none. He was dying. He was wounded for the transgressions
of his people. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our pea are
necessary for our peace. In other words, God, we've offended
an angry God. He's angry with the wicked every
day. He hateth all workers of iniquity. How are we going to
have peace with an angry God, with a God we've offended? Can
we make peace? No. No. Christ made peace by
the blood of His cross. Christ did that by satisfying
the demands of divine justice against our sin. Divine justice,
God's holiness, God's justice demanded that the sinner die,
that the sinner die. And that's the only way God's
wrath will be appeased. And the only way we will have
peace with an angry God is if our sins are punished. and they
were punished in Christ. He was punished in our stead.
The chastisement necessary for our peace was upon him, and with
his stripes, with his blood, with his blood, we are healed. We are healed. Mr. Enoch, you see, all of us, verse
6, like sheep have gone astray. We've all gone astray. We've
everyone turned our own way. There's not a man on earth who
seeks God by nature. None. It says we all have turned
our own way, gone astray like sheep. But God, God has sought
us. God has sought his people. By
the grace of God, we are brought to him. And God said, they're
going to glorify me. They're going to seek Me. They're
going to know Me. Yet we all have sinned and come
short of His glory. Oh, we like sheep have gone astray.
We've turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid
on him this iniquity." This is the greatest iniquity of all,
and not acknowledging our Creator, the One who made us, never giving
Him a thought, never thanking Him. All the days that he said
not in chapter one, he may have gone back there and said, I brought
up a rebellious people. I fed children that are rebellious. I've nourished and brought up
children. They've rebelled against me.
The ox knows his owner. The ass is master's crib. But
Israel, they don't know me, and my people don't even consider
me. And that's the greatest iniquity of all, not remembering our creator. Acknowledging him and thanking
him. And then we went further. We despised his son when he came
to make his father known. Despised him. Despised him. And the Lord hath laid on him
this iniquity of us all. All our sins. Verse seven. It
says that he was oppressed. and he was afflicted. He was
oppressed by men and by God. Yet he opened not his mouth.
He said when he was reviled, he reviled not again. He says when Pilate spoke to
him in the judgment hall and said, Don't you know I have power
And he laid all those accusations against him, said he opened not
his mouth. Opened not his mouth. Why? Why? He opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is done, so he opened
not his mouth. Why not? Why didn't he defend
himself? Because Mr. Unieck, he was a substitute. He was a substitute for his people. His people were guilty. They
were guilty before God, before God and men, guilty of every
manner of transgression. And when the law speaks, whatsoever
the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law, that
every mouth may be shut. Stopped. And so Christ being made our
substitute, he shut his mouth. Be like you and I standing before
the Holy God, and the Holy God bringing charge after charge
against us, accusation after accusation against us. What could
we say? What could we say before the
Holy God? Nothing. We had to put our hands over
our mouths. Guilty. We had no answer to the charge.
Christ was our substitute. Though in himself he could have
spoken up and said, Not guilty. I'm without sin. as he did before. Remember when he said, Who of
which of you convinces me of sin? Not now. He was being made
a substitute, and he was guilty. He was the greatest sinner who
ever lived at this time as our substitute. He said he was being
made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. So he didn't open his mouth.
That's Verse 8, he was taken from prison, literally. They
cast him in prison, and he was taken out of it, and from judgment. And who shall declare his generation?
He was cut off out of the land of the living. Mr. Unick, he
was put on that cross. He was nailed on it. He hung
there six hours under the wrath of God Almighty. He bore the
equivalency of an eternity of wrath. against all of God's people,
against their sins, and six hours on the cross. And then finally,
he gave up the ghost and died. He died. He did die. He actually died. And they took
him down from the cross. Why did he die? For the transgression
of my people was he stricken. He said, The Scripture says the
soul that sins must surely die. And either I'm going to have
to, or you're going to have to die, Mr. or somebody going to have
to die in your place. There's only one somebody that
can do that, and that was this Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus who
is the Christ, the substitute. And he did, and he made his grave
with the wicked. He went down into death just
like every man will have to do, go down into the grave with the
rich in his death. The scriptures foretold everything
about this man's life, everything about his death, even that he
would be buried in a borrowed tomb, donated by a rich man,
that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. You see, Christ died
and was buried and rose again according to the Scriptures.
He must fulfill the Scriptures. That's how we know he's the Christ,
Mr. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. Why did he die? Well, men took
him with wicked hands, and they crucified the Lord of Glory. Men did exactly what they wanted
to do. Men finally got their hands on God Almighty, and what
did they do? Love him? They killed him. They killed
him. They did what they determined
to do, but they also did what Determinant counsel and foreknowledge
of God planned for them to do from all eternity. You see, he's
a lamb slain before the foundation of the world, and at this exact
moment in time, he was to be taken. God's lamb was to be taken,
smitten, and put upon the altar and roasted with the fire of
God's wrath and his blood shed for the remission of sins. That's
what all of the—see, Mr. Enoch, you went to He went to
Jerusalem. He saw all those sacrifices being
shed, all those lambs and bullocks and turtledoves. That speaks
of the Christ. And this one who came, this Jesus
of Nazareth, put an end to all that. John the Baptist was preaching
him one day and said, Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh
away the sin of the world. The blood of bulls and goats
can't do it, but the blood of God's Son can. The holy, sinless,
spotless blood of God's Son can and did. Indeed, the Lord put
him to grief, though. He put him to death on our behalf. And it says this, look at this,
verse 10, When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin,
you see, his very soul was offered up, because the scripture says,
The soul that sinneth must surely die. And not just his body, but
his soul. That's a mystery, isn't it? It's
a mystery. Nevertheless, he went through
hell on behalf of his people, and God made his soul an offering
for sin. He died, but he didn't stay dead,
Mr. Unit. He didn't stay dead. It says, He shall see his seed. He's going to see His people,
the ones he died for, he shall prolong his days. God's going
to prolong his days. Yeah, he's going to give him
an eternity of days. And the pleasure of the Lord
shall prosper in his hands. Mr. Eunick, he didn't die to
make salvation possible. He died to accomplish it. And
when he hung on that cross, one of the last words he said was,
It's finished. It's finished. He came down to
earth with a work to do, the salvation of his people. And
he got the job done, and he said, I've done it. It's finished.
I've satisfied divine justice. I've freed my people from their
sin. I've paid the penalty that was
due them, and now the Lord give me what's coming to me. It's
finished. And this is what the Lord promised
him. He says, "...he shall see the travail of his soul, and
shall be satisfied, and by his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many." By Christ's person and work,
he justified many. He shall bear their iniquities.
He'll put them away. To bear means to carry them away. And therefore, this is what God
has given him. Therefore, will I divide him a portion with the
great? God hath given him a name which is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess
that he is Lord to the glory of the Father. And he right now
sits at the right hand of God the Father, reigning and ruling,
interceding, mediating on behalf of all those people he died for.
And he's going to make sure that every one of them, he's a surety,
he's going to make sure that every one of them come home to
be with him. I could say it in the Old Testament
again. Behold I and the children that you've given me. Thine elect,
the little sheep that I came to die for. And he shall divide
the spoil, the spoils of victory, the riches
that he has come unto He makes his people to inherit those riches
with him, joint heirs with him. He divides the spoil with his
people, with the great. Oh, not great in themselves,
but great because God has made them so, great in faith. Because
why did God give him this name? Why did God do all this for him? Because he poured out his soul
unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors. He didn't
have to. But he willingly did it, and he bore the sin of many—not
all, but many—and he made intercession for the transgressors. You see,
Mr. Unit, that's who this passage
is speaking of, Jesus of Nazareth. More than just a man, he's God's
Son, he's God's Lamb, he's our substitute. He's a propitiation
for our sin. Look back at Acts 8 now. So they
went on. Look at Acts 8. Look down at
verse 36 and verse 37. They went on their way after
Philip preached. I don't know how long he preached.
It may have been an hour or two hours. Who knows? Long time. But I bet this man's heart was
burning. He'd heard the gospel the first time in his life. Don't
you know he was thrilled? I tell you, his eyes were bugging. wide open in every passage, as
Philip opened the scriptures to him, by the way. And as they
were going on their way, and Philip finished his message,
maybe he didn't get through it. And the Ethiopian spoke up, and
Enoch said, Wait a minute! And they were riding along, and
they came along a little pond. Now, I know Philip told him the
way to confess Christ. He said, And all those that Christ
died for will come to him by faith, and believe on him, confess
him before men, believe on him, trust him, receive him, bow to
him, submit to him, love him, and they will confess him before
all men. And the way they confess him
is in the waters of baptism, which is a type of being buried
with him in death, in his death, and rising
out of the waters to walk with him in newness of life. And their
sins being put away in the blood of Christ. And they rise to walk
with him, present their bodies, live in sacrifice. Baptism, Mr.
Hennick, is the way he confessed this Jesus of Nazareth. So they
were riding along, and they saw a pond, a farm pond. Who knows
what it was? It didn't matter to this eunuch,
did it? He said, Wait! Here's water. He said, Here's
water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? I wish there were more people
like this, too, calling me up, Please fill the pool. I've just
got to confess Christ. And Philip said, Well, nothing
hinders you. It's the only thing necessary.
You don't have to go through a long period of repentance,
of penance, of feeling sorry for your sin. Yeah, you need
to be sorry. Confess them before God, repent
of them. But no, there's no time given. There's no certain feeling
you have to go through. Here's what Philip said. If thou
believest with all thine heart thou mayest. Believe what? Believe on Jesus? He just preached
the whole message to him from Isaiah 53, hadn't he? About Christ
the substitute, the successful sovereign savior. He preached
the gospel very clearly, as I just tried to do. Right? He just didn't
say believe on Jesus, did he? He just didn't say believe the
fact that Jesus came and died and buried and rose again, did
he? Did he, Brother Henry? He preached the gospel to him. And
this is what he would say, if you believe this gospel that
I just preached to you, with all your heart, not just your
head, but in your heart, it has touched you and you feel that
you're a sinner before a holy God and Christ is your only hope
and you feel your need of him, then you may be baptized. You not only may, but you're
commanded to do so. And beneath the opening, here
was his quick answer. He didn't say, Well, I think,
I might, I'm not sure. I believe. I believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. And Philip said, Stop, Jerry. And so they got down, both of
them went down into the water. and sprinkled him over the head. They went down into the water,
both of them, both of them down into the water, both Philip and
the unit, and he baptized him, laid him down under the water.
Upon your profession of faith, I baptize thee, my brother, my
dear black brother, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. and brought him up out of that water. And he
said, Go with Christ now. And he says, Spirit, call away
Philip. This is a mystery one. And the
eunuch saw him no more. I don't know if he just disappeared
into thin air or what. It appears that way, doesn't
it? And that eunuch never got over
that. He never got over the gospel. After he had heard it, he never
got over this man that had brought it to him. But Philip was found. Philip just didn't disappear.
He was never heard of again. Look at it, verse 40. Philip
was found as Xerxes. What was he doing? Resting on
his laurels? Preaching, looking for another
unit or whoever. Whoever it might be. He preached
the gospel to them. All right, stand with me and
I'll dismiss this in prayer. Our Lord, we thank you so much
for the gospel concerning your Son, your gospel, the gospel
of God, the gospel according to the the gospel of your power,
the gospel concerning your Son. And we thank you for this gospel. Thank you for making it known
unto us, for bringing it to us in various different ways. You've led your people, your
sheep, to hear the gospel. And we thank you so much, Lord,
for this gospel, the gospel of Christ. And we have not yet gotten
over it. And Lord, it is still dear unto
us, and we want to hear it over and over again until finally
someday we'll hear you, we'll see the gospel in the person
of Christ. And perhaps he'll explain it
to us more fully. In his name, we've met together
tonight, and we worship thee. Amen. you