The book of Acts, go back to
chapter 8 again. I'd like to show you this evening
an instance of a man who was really converted. I know he was really saved by
God's grace. In this religious environment
that we live in, there are lots of fake conversions. Lots of religiosity, as we refer
to it. Lots of people who quick to make
a religious profession. I was brought up in religion
to where the question was asked you, do you want to go to heaven
when you die? Yes. You don't want to go to
hell, do you? No, I don't want to go to hell.
Then just believe Jesus came. He lived, he died, he was buried
and rose again the third day. You believe that, don't you?"
I said, yes, I believe that. The preacher said, you're saved. You're converted. He said, don't
ever doubt it. I was six years old. And it's
amazing, you know, how those things stick with you. I was
sitting right there on the second row. Joe, were you? Not in this
building. Not in this building. In Bassett,
Virginia. That's where I was sitting. And
I got scared. I got scared to hell. And I will say this. That's something
to be scared about. That's right. That's something
to be scared about. I just don't want to perish.
I just don't want to go to hell. But there was no gospel there. It was just make your decision
for Jesus. And I decided that I didn't want
to go to hell, and I decided I wanted to go to heaven. And
so I remember going forward. And I tell you, for years I held
on to that profession. But I wasn't converted. That's
not salvation. I tell you what, our Savior said,
this is life eternal. Not to make a decision, but to
know God. That's life eternal. That's what
the Savior said. John chapter 17. This is life
eternal. He said, that they might know
Thee. Know God. Not God as we imagine
Him to be, but God as He's revealed Himself in the Scriptures. And to know Jesus Christ, whom
He sent. And back in, I think it was about
1971, I was assistant pastor of a church
in Winston-Salem. And we had a preacher came and
preach for us. That man preached faithfully
behind his pulpit for over 50 years. And I heard the gospel
in here. I may have heard it before, I
don't know. But it didn't register before.
It's got to register with you, doesn't it? God's got to show
it to you. God's got to show you His glory.
He's got to show you the glory of His grace in your salvation. God's got to show you how He
remains just and righteous, and yet He can show mercy to you
without compromising His law and His justice. I didn't know
that before, Brother Allen. I didn't know that. In fact,
I never thought much about the justice of God. I never thought about righteousness. I never thought about what God
demanded. I just thought about, I sure
do need a hell insurance policy. I found out who God is. And then
I got afraid. I found out God's holy. God will
not at all, He will not at all forget iniquity, let iniquity
go unpunished. He can't do that. I found out
God charges His angels with folly. I found out God is a purer eyes
than to behold iniquity. And guess what I found out? I
drank iniquity like water. And so then that left me in this
dilemma. How can God be just and justify
me? If he can't look on iniquity,
and that's all I am is iniquity. If I drink iniquity like water,
if I am a sinner, like the Bible says I am, how can God in justice
save me? How can He forgive me? And that's
when the gospel of the Lord Jesus and His substitutionary death,
that's when it became good news to me. I found out about a substitute. I found out about a sin offering. about a sacrifice. I found out
that God found the way. He found the way whereby He could
deliver me from going down to the pit. And yet He wouldn't
compromise His justice at all. He spared me because there was
somebody who came and took my place. He died my death. He suffered my hell. He endured
the wrath of God for me. That's when I experienced salvation,
conversion. Now, I know that there's a sense
in which we can say, I've always been saved. I've always been
saved because in God's eternal purpose, I have been. And I know
that when the Lord Jesus died, I'm justified by His blood. But I also know this, the Spirit
of God has got to quicken dead sinners. He's got to give unto
us those evangelical gifts of repentance toward God and faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's when you flee to the
Savior. You flee from the wrath to come. Oh, blessed Savior, I trust You. I rest in You. All of my hopes
of life and salvation, all of my hopes of righteousness and
acceptance with a holy God, it's all in Christ Jesus. And when
God brings a sinner to that place, I believe we can say, He's saved. He saved. Now, I know I'm not
fully saved because sin still is a problem for me. It is for
you too, isn't it? Sure it is. So one of these days,
I'll be glorified. I'll be glorified. I'm going
to die and leave this old body behind, leave my old sinful nature
behind. That's going to be gone. It won't
be a problem for me anymore. I suspect that it is with you
as it is with me. My biggest trouble is myself. It's myself. And I examine my
thoughts as best I can. my motives as best I can, and
I say as best I can because nobody has an absolute thorough understanding
of their sinfulness. You just don't. But I just look
at, not so much the things that I do, I mean I try to be a decent
sort of fellow. I try to be a moral person, as
the world calls a good person, but you know, This matter of
sin, it goes a whole lot deeper than that, doesn't it? It goes
all the way to the heart, the thoughts, the imaginations, the
motives. Boy, that will get all of us.
The motives. Why do you do what you do? And
I'll tell you, anything less than God's glory, it's sin. That's right, isn't it? It's
sin. In fact, the Bible says, whatsoever is not of faith is
sin. Oh, what wretched people we are. It sure is a good thing salvation
is all of grace, isn't it? I tell you, a man is really saved,
I believe, really converted when he sees the glory of God. in
His salvation of sinners by that God-man whom He sent into this
world, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think we have before us
this evening, I say I think, I'll reel those words back in,
I know we have before us this evening a real conversion in
this man, the Ethiopian eunuch. God has been pleased in His infinite
wisdom, to have this on record forever. Forever. Luke, the physician,
he wrote the gospel according to Luke, and he wrote the book
of Acts. And we know he is the only Gentile
writer of Scripture in all the Bible. Luke wrote this. God the Spirit had him record
this, and I'll tell you something, heaven and earth will pass away
and this will still be written here. I've got it on good authority. This man's converted. Here's
a genuine conversion. The conversion of the Ethiopian
eunuch. Now, back before this, there
is a false conversion. Let me give you that. Let me
tell you about that. You know, Philip and many others were scattered
abroad as a result of the persecution that arose on account of the
death of Stephen. God had ordained and He had purposed
and He had commanded, go into all the world and preach the
gospel. The Lord was doing such great things in Jerusalem that
they just didn't want to leave. Well, the Lord has his way of
ousting his people from their comfort zone. And so he sends persecution.
And dear old Stephen, you know, the church had seven deacons.
The apostles had given themselves to the study of the scriptures
and prayer. seeking God's face, preaching
the gospel. And there were some things, some
widows in the church needed to be taken care of, some financial
issues that needed to be dealt with. And so the apostles said
to the church, you folks, you choose out seven men. They chose
out seven deacons. And we don't know much about
five of them, but we know a few things about two of them. One
of them was Stephen. He is a mighty preacher and you
read Acts chapter 7 and you will find that he had an opportunity
to preach once. He preached one time and he paid
dearly for it because he is stoned to death. And the other guy was
Philip. Well, after Stephen died, Philip
went forth preaching the gospel. And Philip went into Samaria
preaching. And God did great things. God
did unusual things. There were just many, many people
were genuinely converted. I know that most sovereign grace
churches, most of them not very large, most of them much smaller
than this congregation, But let's don't forget this.
Our God is mighty to save. He saves who He pleases, and
He saves them when He pleases. And I'll tell you back in the
book of Acts, back in chapter 2 and even further in here in
chapter 8, under the ministry of this man Philip, God was pleased
to bring many people into the fold of salvation. God's arm
is not shortened. It can't save. I tell you, when I preach this
gospel, I expect things to happen. I believe God's doing His work.
Don't you believe that? I believe God's saving His people.
God's got a people. They're out there. It's like
the Apostle Paul. He went to the city of Corinth
and he was fearful and the Lord said, don't you be afraid. I
got much people in this city. You just preach the gospel. Roll
up your sleeves and you tell people about my darling son. You tell them what they are,
you tell them who I am, and you tell them how I'm a just God
and a Savior only through the Lord Jesus Christ and His death
upon the cross. You tell them, because I got
much people in this place. Boy, he preached the gospel,
stayed there something like a year and a half, 18 months. God brought many people in. I
tell you, I fully believe and expect God to bless this message. I'm not saying this particular
message, although I believe He'll bless this particular message,
but the message of grace. God's preachers, grace preachers. Men who don't preach salvation
by words, but preach salvation by grace. I fully expect and
believe God will bless their ministries. He'll bless their
ministries because He's got a people out there. They've got to hear
the gospel. They've got to hear the truth.
And as they hear the truth, God brings them in. He gathers them
into the fold of salvation by effectual grace, irresistible
grace, that grace that's absolutely all-powerful to save the lost,
to find the wandering sheep, The shepherd goes forth. He goes
forth through this gospel. And he finds his sheep. And old
Philip, he's preaching. He goes down to Samaria. He's
preaching. The Lord finds it. Here's a sheep
over here, and here's a sheep over here, and here's a sheep
over here. They keep coming in! Oh, how thrilling! Well, there was a fellow there.
His name was Simon. He was a sorcerer. And he said,
you know, I believe I'll get in on this. He said, I believe. Got baptized. But he had wrong motives. He saw the gifts that Philip
had and he envied those gifts. Then Peter, Simon Peter, word
got back to Jerusalem what God was doing. And Simon Peter said,
I'm going to go investigate what's happening. Simon Peter went and
he met up with Simon the sorcerer. Now, Philip didn't have the insight. He didn't have the discernment
that Simon Peter had. Simon Peter had apostolic authorities. And Philip, he couldn't bestow
gifts upon anybody. Only the apostles could do that.
Boy, Simon Peter, he met Simon Magus, the sorcerer. And I'll
tell you, God's preacher, he was enabled by the Spirit of
God to just look into that man's heart. He said, your heart's
not right with God. Your heart's not right with God. Simon Magus, you see, he was
envious of the gifts. He wanted the gifts so he could
bestow them on others. He could make money. He could
make money. Simon Peter said to him, your
money perishes with you. Your heart is not right with
God. He said, repent of this. Pray God, maybe you'll be forgiven. Peter said, you're in the gall
of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. The bond of iniquity. Think about it. You know what
a bond is? It's something that ties you down. Binds you. You're
bound by iniquity. You're bound. And nobody can
break the bonds but God Himself. And the Lord just left him there. You know what Simon Magus said
to him? Pray for me. Pray for me. That none of these things that
you've spoken happen to me. Well, Peter and John was with
him. They preached and then they went
back to Jerusalem. And there's Philip. And you get
down to verse 26. The angel of the Lord spake unto
Philip and said, Arise! Arise! And go toward the south
unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which
is desert. And he arose and went. He left
all these people that had been converted where God was working
mightily, And this just seems so contrary to human reasoning. Leave the masses for one? Oh
yeah! There's a lost sheep out there.
There's one lost sheep, like the shepherd in Luke chapter
15. He left the ninety and nine in the wilderness and he goes
after the one lost sheep. The Spirit of God said to Philip,
there's a lost sheep out here in the desert. Arise! Arise! And go out there and meet
Him. I like what's said in 1 Samuel
21 8, I think it was, by one of David's men. He said, the king's business
requires haste. The king's business requires
haste. And so the Lord said to Philip,
you arise and go. And you know what he did? He
arose and went. He arose and went. And he met this man, an Ethiopian
eunuch. He had been to Jerusalem. He's
a man who's in charge of all the treasure of the Queen of
Ethiopia. He had gone to Jerusalem to worship. To worship. I'll tell you what
God did. God created an interest in that
man's heart for the things of the Lord. Now, this matter of
being truly converted, I'll tell you what will happen. If God
truly converts you, He's going to create an interest in your
heart. You know what to create is? It's to call into existence
something that didn't exist beforehand. Here is a grown man, grew up
in his paganism of the Ethiopians. But God put a desire within him
to know more about God. Well, where are you going to
go back in those days to learn something about God? Go to Jerusalem. So he goes to Jerusalem. And God, in His very wise providence,
did not have him meet up with any of the apostles, apparently. Maybe some of the Sanhedrin,
maybe they saw this guy and said, what are you looking for? And
he said, well, I want to know more about this way of grace. And
maybe the Sanhedrin said to him, let me tell you something, buddy.
I know you're visiting here, but you better stay away from
them apostles. Because they are going to talk to you about how
the Jesus Christ, He is the way of salvation and they are all
down on the Mosaic Law. You better stay away from that
crowd. I don't know what happened. That's just, I kind of imagined
that sort of thing happening. But he didn't get the answers
to his questions. But I tell you what he did do.
He bought him a copy of the gospel according to Isaiah. At least
chapter 53. Maybe that's all. But he got
that. And he's going back and he's
reading it. He's reading. Notice in verse 28, it says,
was returning and sitting in his chariot and reading. He read
Isaias or Isaiah the prophet. And then the Spirit said unto
Philip, go near, join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran. He ran. This is urgent business. This is urgent business. Those
who have the gospel of grace, we go speedily. We're anxious
to give forth the message. We want to tell people. You can't
hardly hold us back. We're like Job's fourth friend,
the one who was the youngest. He said, I'm full of the matter,
I gotta tell you what the truth is. That's the way God's preachers
are. They're anxious, they run forth
because we got a message of good news and righteousness and life
and salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. We run with the message. We're excited about it. Can you tell I'm excited about
it? I'm thrilled with the message
of the gospel. This is good news for sinners
like us. So he ran thither to him and he
asked him this question. Oh, this is a good question.
Verse 30, Understandest thou what thou readest? Do you understand
what you read? I see you're reading the Bible.
Yes, sir. Do you understand what you're
reading? I've talked to a man one time,
and I didn't have to talk to him very long before he gave
some very clear indication to me that he didn't have an understanding
of how God saves sinners. But you know what he told me?
He said, I've read the Bible through 25 times. And I said, maybe you ought to
slow down a little bit. Listen, I'm all for reading the
word of God. But rather than reading a whole
chapter and just say, well, I don't know what it said, but I read
it. It'd be better to read just one or two or three verses and
have some understanding of it. Don't you think that'd be wise?
I think it'd be better, don't you? Understandest thou what
you read? Do you understand what you read?
Do you understand what the Bible is all about? Do you understand
this is a book of redemption? This is a book about somebody.
This is a book about God's salvation. This is a book that tells us
who God is and what we are and who Christ Jesus is and what
He did and why He did it and where He is now. Do you understand
that? I preached at a preacher's meeting
years ago up in Michigan. And afterwards, those men wanted
to question me, and one man stood and said, you know, I'm teaching
through the history of Israel. He said, I don't see how you
can preach Christ out of the history of Israel. why he could
just push me over with a feather. I just, what? I said, how can
you not preach Christ from the history of Israel? I mean, their
whole reason for existing was the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom
God gave the Word, the Word of the Gospel to them. God sent
His Son through them. You miss Christ Jesus? Do you
understand what you're reading? And I'll ask that of you. You
know, the Bible has a lot of weighty questions, doesn't it?
Boy, I could just go through a bunch of them right now. What
think ye of Christ? That's an important one. Here's one. What must I do to
be saved? Here's one. How can He be cleaned? that's born of a woman, how can
you be clean before God? How can you? How can man be justified
with God? If a man dies, shall he live
again? Boy, there are a lot of weighty
questions in this book. And here's one. If God be for
us, who can be against us? Understandest thou what thou
readest? In verse 31, he said, How can
I? How can I? Except some man should
guide me. I need a teacher. Literally,
it's what this word guide. Write this down. It means, I
need a teacher for the ignorant. I need a teacher for the ignorant.
I'm the ignorant one and I need a teacher. Oh, it's a blessed
day when God brings a sinner to acknowledge this. I don't
know anything about the things of God. Would you teach me? Would
you show me? Well, where was he reading from?
Verse 32, the place the scripture was he read was this. He was
led as a sheep to the slaughter. That's Isaiah 53. A sheep. And like a lamb dumb before his
shearer, so openly not his mouth. He didn't murmur about God's
providence. While He Himself in the Covenant
of Grace appointed that day and appointed the sufferings. He's
not going to murmur about it. He's not going to say, this isn't
fair. He's not going to say, I didn't
deserve this. Because since our sins had been
charged to Him, He did deserve it. He did deserve it. All of the iniquities of His
people had been put to His account. He didn't murmur. He didn't murmur. He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter. Led. Not forced. Led. That's willingness. That's what
that is. And like a lamb done before his
sheriff, so he opened not his mouth. In his humiliation, his
judgment was taken away. There wasn't any justice here
as far as man was concerned. But there's a greater justice
at work in the death of the Lord Jesus. That's God's justice.
God's justice. And who shall declare his generation? For his life is taken from the
earth. And the eunuch answered Philip
and said, I pray thee, I beg of you. Of whom speaketh the prophet
this? Is he talking about himself?
Or some other man? And Philip opened his mouth and
he preached some other man to him. He began at the same scripture
and preached unto him Jesus. Jesus the Savior. Jesus the Substitute. Jesus the Sacrifice. Jesus the Sin Offering. Jesus
the Son of God. Jesus the Servant of Jehovah. And as they went their way, They
came upon water. And the eunuch said, see, here's
water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? I wonder how he even knew about
baptism. I reckon Philip told him that
too. And Philip said, if thou believest
with all thine heart, Thou mayest." And He commanded the chariot
to stand still. And they went down. Let me go
back and read me into verse 37. And He answered and said, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I believe He is who He
says He is. I believe He is Jesus the Savior.
I believe He is the Christ. He is the Messiah. He is the
Sent One. He is the Anointed One. who came
to save His people from their sins. I believe He's divine.
I believe He's the Son of God. He commanded the chariot to stand
still. They went both of them down into
the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and He baptized them. He didn't sprinkle Him. He could
have sprinkled Him long before this. You see, immersion is not a mode
of baptism. It is baptism. It is baptism. I had a lady call me. It had
been several years ago, of course, pastoring up in Michigan. And that church was founded in
something like 1837, something like that. And she called. They kept a register, a list,
a record of all the former pastors. I reckon I made that list. But
some of them just for a few months, but anyway, she wanted to know
about who was a pastor there back during the 1860s. And I said, well, there was a
lady in the church. She kept all those records. And
I said, well, you call her. She can tell you. And this lady
who called me, she said, well, and I want to ask this. Do you
keep a record of the infants that's been baptized at that
church? I said, first of all, no infants are ever baptized
in this church, and they're not sprinkled either. She said, why
not? I said, because infants can't
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, faith comes first. Believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Then you're baptized. That's
a testimony. It's a profession of your faith
in the Lord Jesus. So anyway, they come up out of
the water. And the Spirit of the Lord called
away Philip, had another job for him somewhere. So much so that the eunuch saw
him no more. Well, what about the eunuch?
Well, he went on his way rejoicing. He went on his way rejoicing.
And Suzanne, I say to you tonight, go on your way rejoicing. Rejoicing,
your sins are put away. Rejoicing, you are robed in the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Rejoicing, God is your
Father. Christ is your elder brother.
He is your substitute. He is your Savior. He is your
intercessor. He is your advocate. He is your
mighty mediator. And the Spirit of God, He is
your comfort. Go on your way rejoicing. And I say to all of
you who believe Christ Jesus, Go on your way rejoicing. Rejoicing
in the Lord. That's what the Apostle Paul
said in the book of Philippians. Rejoice in the Lord. And again
I say, rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord. Well, let's
sing a closing song. And it is number 63. Take the name of Jesus with you. Number 63.