impossible with God. The Lord Jesus, He's the Son
of God. Everlasting. Almighty. Whatever His soul desired, that's
what He did. Always. So this is underrived
power that He's got as God. But this One who is God, He humbled
Himself and was obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. And by his cross death, he saved
his people. He saved us. Oh, my soul, he
saved me from my sins. And as a result of that successful
work of redemption, God's highly exalted the stages of His exaltation,
His resurrection, His ascension, His coronation, His everlasting
rule, then finally the judgment when every knee shall bow unto
Him. As the God-man, He has earned the right to have all authority. It's been given to Him by the
Father. He is the Lord. He finished the
work the Father gave Him to do, the work of reconciliation, the
work of salvation. He paid the price, and He paid
it fully, fully. Jesus paid it all, all the debt
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it. and he washed it
white as snow. He did it himself. As Daniel
predicted, our transgressions were finished. Our sins were
made an end of. He made reconciliation for iniquity
and he brought in everlasting righteousness. He sealed up or
finished all the prophecies concerning his substitutionary sacrifice. And as a result of doing the
work that the Father gave him, to the Father's full satisfaction,
he's been granted the position of universal authority, and he
is the king. He's the king of kings, and he's
the Lord of lords. I don't know whether you've ever
seen the song or not, Stand Up for Jesus. But one stanza says,
till every foe is vanquished and Christ is Lord indeed. I beg your pardon. He's Lord
indeed right now. Right now. He's not waiting to
be the Lord. It's not someday off in the future
when Lordship will be rewarded to Him. He's already the Lord. God made Him both Lord and Christ. And everybody is going to bend
the knee to Him sooner or later. In this life, if we bend the
knee by the power of the Spirit of God, that is called salvation. We bow to Him willingly and lovingly,
devoted to Him. We worship Him as the Lord. He is the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that right? The Lord Jesus
Christ. We don't just receive Him as
Jesus, we don't just receive Him as the Christ, we receive
Him as the Lord Jesus Christ, because that's who He is. He doesn't need your permission
to be your Lord. He's already your Lord, and as
your Lord, He will do with you according to His good and sovereign
will. and He'll get the glory by you.
Whatever He does with you and whatever He does with me, He
will get the glory by us. That's for sure. Why? He's the
Lord. He's the Lord. Now watch this. Since our Lord
Jesus has been given all authority and all power over all things,
this is what He says to His disciples. Look at verse 19. Go ye therefore. The reason these disciples are
to go forth into the world preaching the gospel, teaching all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit is for this reason. He has all authority. He will empower their message. God's preachers are not on a
fool's errand. We have the word of the gospel,
the word of substitution, the word of Jesus Christ and His
cross death that was successful to the saving of His people.
We go forth with this message. And we go forth with the absolute
confidence, He who is the Lord, will make an application of his
gospel to those to whom he sends it. We are successful. God's preachers
are always successful. God makes us always to triumph
so that when we preach this gospel, we're a saver. The word of God
is a saver of life unto life for some and death unto death
for others. but it's always successful. The Word of God can't fail because
God can't fail. You may not believe this message,
but somebody is going to believe it. The Lord's sheep are going
to believe this message. Our Savior said to those Jews
who hated Him, who despised Him, They didn't want to hear the
message of grace. They were good people. They kept
the law of Moses. He said, you believe not because
you're not of my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep,
they hear my voice. And I know them. And they follow
me. And they have everlasting life.
He has all authority. Therefore, we go forth preaching
the gospel with this absolute assurance His word will not return
unto him void. Listen to Isaiah 55. For as the
heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your
ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh
down and the snow from heaven and returneth not hither or thither,
But watereth the earth and maketh it bring forth in bud that it
may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So shall
my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. And that's the incarnate
word and the written word that comes forth from the mouth of
God Almighty. He says it shall not return unto
me void. But it shall accomplish that
which I please, and it shall prosper. I love that. It shall prosper in the thing
whereto I sent it. Isaiah 55, 10 through 13. I especially
like that word prosper. It shall prosper. There's an interesting verse
over in Judges chapter 14, you don't have to turn there, but
it's concerning the life of Samson. And Samson goes off down to a
town by the name of Timnath. And along the way, a lion confronts
him. It says in Judges chapter 14
verse 6, And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him,
and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing
in his hand. That expression, the Spirit of
God came mightily upon him, is translated, that same Hebrew
word is translated in Isaiah 55 as prosper. God's Word goes forth mightily. Mightily. There's nothing weak
about the Word of God. There's nothing that the Word
of God lacks. When divine energy, when the
Spirit of God accompanies the Word of God, it will always accomplish
whatever it is that God has ordained. It shall not fail to do that.
This is a mighty word that we preach. A mighty word. So we go forth in boldness. We
go forth preaching the gospel. Because we know all power has
been given to Jesus Christ. Who makes this gospel effectual
to the hearts of His elect. And it won't fail. Because He
can't fail. He can't fail and his gospel
shall not fail. He says, I will do all my pleasure. Brethren, we set forth this gospel
with this wonderful assurance. It will be sent forth mightily
by the Lord and the lion that goes about seeking who may devour,
this gospel will slay him. This gospel will drive out the
demons of hell out of the souls of His people. You who are still
held in bondage, who are still in captivity, this gospel, when
God Almighty, as it were, rolls up His sleeves and goes to work,
this gospel is effectual. And it releases the captives.
Those who are in bondage, and Satan has to let us go. When
the Almighty Christ says, release them! Let them go free! Boy, that's when the dragon has
to let them go. That's when the lion finds out
he's up against the lion of the tribe of Judah. And he's in a
no-win situation. Oh yes, this gospel is always
effectual because our Lord Jesus has all power. I'm not ashamed, the apostle
said. I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. For if this gospel, it is the
power of God and the salvation. It is the dunamis of God. It
is the very dynamite of God. To everyone that believeth, to
the Jew first and also to the Greek, For therein in this gospel
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is
written, the just shall live by faith. Oh, may God the Holy
Spirit, may God the Holy Spirit work mightily in you and in me. to bring us to the feet of King
Jesus and worship Him and believe Him and rest all of our hopes
of glory upon Christ Jesus alone. Now go to Acts chapter 1. Look
at Acts chapter 1. Alright. So our Lord gave that
great commission to His disciples. I've got all power. You go forth
and teach all nations then. You go forth and preach. But before they began to evangelize
the world, they were instructed to wait. Wait for the power,
wait for the presence of the Holy Spirit. Acts chapter 1 verse
8, But ye shall receive power that the Holy Ghost has come
upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and
in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of
the earth." We need to remember, my brothers and my sisters, that
we can do nothing without the Spirit of Christ Jesus. Don't ever attempt to do anything
for the Lord. In fact, don't ever attempt to
do anything at all without the presence of the Spirit
of God. The Lord said, wait. You just
wait. We are anxious to go. Just wait. The Spirit of God then was fully
given. The Spirit was given. He was
fully given upon the basis of redemption having been accomplished. Then upon the gift of the Holy
Spirit in the second chapter, they went preaching. The Holy Spirit was given, chapter
2, verse 1, when the day of Pentecost was fully come. They were all
with one accord in one place. And you know what they were doing?
Waiting and praying. Waiting and praying. We do good
to learn from them. Wait and pray. But we've got to do something,
preacher. We've just got to do something.
Wait and pray. And when the Lord makes Himself
manifest to us, then we preach. in his power. I don't want to
get in a hurry, and I don't want to lag behind either, do you? Oh Lord, let me go forth in your
power. But until you give the word,
I'll just stay right here. Moses said, Lord, if you don't
go with us, I'm not going any further. When I began to be your pastor,
I said, oh God, if you don't go with me, I'm going to take
another step. And I'm going to tell you something.
That's how we ought to begin every day. Every day. Lord, I'm not going to get out
of this bed. I'm not even going to begin my
day unless you got to go with me. I need your power. I need your presence. I need
your grace. I need your forgiveness. I need
you. I need you Lord. I need you to
lead me through this day as I go to my job, as I visit with people
during the day or as I am with my husband or with my wife or
whatever the case is. Lord I need you to be with me
always and I am not going to take another step unless you
are with me. So they waited and they prayed. They were all together in one
accord, in one place. Oh, that we would be of one accord,
one mind, one heart, one goal, His glory, one message, Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. We're a people of ones, aren't
we? We have a singular purpose. We have a singular message. We
have a singular goal. Verse 2, And suddenly there came
a sound from heaven. It had to come from heaven. As
of a rushing mighty wind, it filled all the house where they
were sitting. There appeared unto them cloven
tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon them, and they were
all filled with the Holy Ghost. And then they began to preach.
In fact, they preached the gospel in languages they never studied
before. The Lord loosed their tongues
and they began to proclaim Jesus Christ and Him crucified in languages
that they hadn't gone to school to study. The Spirit of God came upon them
in great power. And you know the story. Thousands were converted. I tell you, God does what he
wants to do. If he wants to reveal himself to thousands of people
at one time, he can do that. Or maybe to just one. Maybe to
just me. Maybe to you. But one thing is
for certain, he has to reveal himself. Now that's for sure. Well, wonderful things happen. The disciples, you know they
were thrilled. I mean, listen, we are thrilled
when the Lord brings one soul into the fold of salvation. We
just rejoice, don't we? We're just so happy, we're so
thankful. Oh God, thank you for finding another one of your lost
sheep and for using us in some small way to set forth the gospel,
to support the gospel by which people are brought in. Well,
think about 3,000. What about 3,000? We're not into numbers, preacher.
Well, I tell you what, I'd love to see a whole house full of
worshiping God, wouldn't you? I'm not in it for numbers, but I'm not objected to numbers
either. We're not going to tape $5 bills
under the pews to get people to come in and see if they're
lucky enough to get a $5 bill under the pew. We're not going
to entice them in with things of man's wisdom. But if people
come in wanting to hear the gospel, they're hungry for Jesus Christ
and Him crucified, I say throw them the doors. And the fact
of the matter is whoever God wants to come in here, that's
who's going to come in. He has not left Himself without
a witness nor without a people. And He has got a people in this
world. And I tell you what, I am preaching the gospel. I am on
the trail of God's lost sheep because He is going to call them
for He has redeemed them already. They just don't know about it
yet. They haven't found out about it yet. And one of these days,
if you are the Lord's, one of these days you are going to find
out some real good news. He died for you. And He put your
sins away. So these men there are just preaching
and enjoying themselves. And you know what? They just
absolutely forgot that they are supposed to go into all the world
and preach the gospel. But things are going so great
in Jerusalem, They just stayed there. Well,
in order to uproot them from their very comfortable surroundings
and force them to go forth, the Lord sent persecution and He
sent trials. Stephen was killed, stoned to death, and that did
it. had resulted in them just spreading. Look at chapter 8 now. I told
you I'd get back to Acts 8. Look at chapter 8, verse 1. Acts
8, 1. And Saul was consenting unto
his death, the death of Stephen. Acts 8, 1. And at that time,
there was a great persecution against the church, which was
at Jerusalem. They were all scattered abroad
throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. Remember the Lord
said, preach the gospel in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria. But you know what? They're still
in Jerusalem. So people began to spread. Everybody
except the apostles. As a result of this persecution,
they were scattered. Now the commission is being fulfilled,
the Great Commission, but not without some prodding. You see, trials and afflictions,
they don't come to the people of God without purpose and design. You've got to remember that when
trials and troubles come, and they're coming, you've had some
already. You say, well, right now I'm
in the sunshine. Well, I tell you, there will
be a storm. There's a storm cloud gathering somewhere for you.
That's for sure. But they always come with purpose
and design. The Apostle Paul in Philippians
chapter 1, we don't have time to turn there, he was put in
prison. for preaching the gospel. Was
that hard on Paul? Yeah. His living conditions were
not pleasant. And I'm sure the people of God
who heard about his imprisonment prayed and they said, Oh God,
free our preacher. That's what I'd pray, wouldn't
you pray that? Oh Lord, brother Paul is in prison. And Lord,
he's a mighty preacher of the gospel. Oh God, release him. But he said, my imprisonment
has happened for the furtherance of the gospel. The only one that
wasn't praying for him to get out was the Apostle Paul. And he said, I've learned to
be content whatever state I'm in. He was exactly where he ought
to be for the cause of the gospel. I tell you, those trials you're
being called upon to endure will fulfill some purpose hidden from
you now and may be hidden from you all during your life. You
may never know the purpose of them. But you know the God behind the
purpose, don't you? Yeah. Once upon a time. Don't you love stories that begin
that way? Once upon a time. Two preachers got in trouble
with the local authorities and they wound up in jail, Paul and
Silas. And rather than yelling at their
captors and kicking and screaming, saying, this isn't fair, I have
my freedoms, I have my rights. That's probably what I would
have done. They went in prison. They began
to pray and praise the Lord and sing. I bet they sang that passage
that you read tonight, worthy is the lamb that was slain. Other
prisoners heard them. I believe there was somebody
else listening too, that was a jailer. See, that all happened in the
purpose of God, the providence of God. I know that was a miscarriage
of justice, but that's not the greatest illustration of a miscarriage
of justice. What about the death of our savior?
And who purposed that? And wasn't that for our good? We don't believe like, what's
his name, used to own a girdle factory, a preacher. Years ago, and he was over in
Jerusalem, he said, I'll tell you, if I'd have been here, they
wouldn't have killed my Lord. He needs to go back to his girdle
factory, because he doesn't know anything about the gospel. For
if Christ Jesus hadn't died, there wouldn't be any hope for
us. That happened in the purpose
of God. Well, they scattered. And Philip, he went to Samaria. Wonderful things happened there.
God was revealing the gospel to his sheep. Philip's there
preaching and then the angel of the Lord came to Philip and
said, you need to relocate. And he did. I'll give you five
things real quick. I'll just touch on these real
quick and I'll be finished. Number one, here's the preacher,
Philip. Verse 26 again, the angel of
the Lord spake unto Philip saying, Arise, leave Samaria, And I mean,
many people were converted in Samaria under Philip's preaching,
but the angel of the Lord said, Arise and go toward the south
under the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which
is desert. I'm going to send you out into
the desert, a dry place where there's no life. Because there's somebody out
there that needs to hear this message. You mean, Lord, I'm
to leave all of these people and go out there for one? Yeah,
it's time for that one lost sheep to be found. So here's the preacher. Philip's a servant of the Lord.
He sends his servants wherever he wants to send them. No preacher
answers to a church board, don't answer to a local assembly, don't
answer to another preacher. We answer to the Lord. We go
when He says go. When the cloud moves, as one
preacher said, when the cloud moves, God's servant moves. The cloud stops, that's where
He stops and preaches. When the call came to Philip
to go and preach the gospel, he didn't consult with flesh
and blood. Well, you think I ought to go over there? What do you
think? What do you think, brother? You think it's a good idea? Well,
did the Lord tell you to go? Well, yeah, but what do you think?
Well, what difference does it make what I think? If the Lord
said for you to go, then you need to go. And he did. Several years ago, I think you
preached for me when I went to that church up there, didn't
Several years ago, church down below, about maybe 20 minutes
from a big Armenian free will church, they invited me to come
preach. And the way that all came about
was their preacher went on a sabbatical. He had been there 10 years, and
he went on a sabbatical. Is that, if you're here 10 years,
do you get a lengthy sabbatical? Is that the way it worked? I
forgot to consult the fine print in the contract. But anyway,
that's what happened. And the board got together and
said, you know, in the preacher's absence, I think he's gone, took
two months off, something like that. What preacher in his right
mind? No preacher of the gospel wants to take two months off.
But anyway, it took two months off, and the board said, here's
what we'll do. We'll listen to a preacher from different denominations. We'll go to as many different
denominations as we can. We'll listen to preachers from
them. And one man in the congregation who was on the board, he had
heard me preach. He said, well, I know who the Baptist preacher's
going to be. It'd be Pastor Bird up in Elmont. And I went to preach there. I
tell you, if I'd have consulted with some people, You think I
ought to go to a freewill Armenian church that has about a thousand
people? I bet you some people say you shouldn't go down there.
I won't answer to any man. It's amazing to me how some preachers
want to direct where other preachers go. I'm just a hard-headed rebel.
And you're not going to tell me what to do. In fact, if you
want me to do something, you insist that I do something, more
than likely I'm going to do the opposite thing because I'm just
a rebel that way. I'm a Virginia rebel. It's in my blood. It's in my nature. Anyway, I
went and preached. And all the junk there. And I preached first service
to 300 or 400 people. Then those went to Sunday school,
and then the other ones that were in Sunday school, they came
in as 500 or 600 people. So they estimated about 1,000
that day. I preached, I suppose preached
two times in the morning and once at night. After I preached
two times in the morning, they said, you don't need to come
back tonight. You know who opened the door
for me to go there? It's only one who could ever
open such a door. We've ridden by that religious
edifice several times. And I still am amazed that I
was ever invited to preach there. And I've wondered why. Why? Was there an Ethiopian eunuch
there? Or was it that God was sealing their doom with the truth? I don't know. I don't know. The Lord sent Philip out and
said, you go preach this man. Number two, here's a chosen vessel,
Ethiopian eunuch. He's traveling back to Ethiopia.
He's an object of God's electing grace. He's an object of God's
affection. He's a chosen vessel of mercy.
He's got to be confronted with the gospel, and now is the appointed
time. And here's a seeking sinner.
God the Spirit is at work within his heart. He has been to Jerusalem. He came away empty. Have you
ever thought about this? Well, why wasn't he converted
then? We have already read back in chapter 8 verse 1, all the
preachers left Jerusalem except the apostles. Well, they were
preaching the gospel. The pastor of the church was
most likely James. He is preaching the gospel. Why
not be converted there? The ways of God are mysterious,
aren't they? He is going to be isolated one-on-one. Well, preacher, I didn't have
but one in my Sunday school class this morning. One eternity bound
soul. That's a lot. What a responsibility. Don't despise the day of small
things. Here's a chosen vessel. Here's
a seeking sinner. Number four, here's the declaration
of the gospel. He's reading from Isaiah 53. And he says to Philip, Well, look at verse 31. Philip
runs to him. Philip said, do you understand
what you're reading? I see you're reading. Do you understand what
you're reading? In verse 31, he said, how can
I except some man should guide me? I need a teacher of the ignorant. Philip was a teacher of the ignorant.
Oh, blessed day, when we say I'm ignorant, I need somebody
to tell me. Could you tell me? Would you
please tell me? Today everybody's got all the
answers. Nobody's asking any questions today. But oh, every
once in a while you'll come across somebody who says, can you tell
me some good news? I've been reading the Bible and
I can't exactly make heads or tails out of it. And I'm reading
Isaiah 53. Who's this man writing about? Is he writing about, is he speaking
about himself or some other man? And Philip began at the same
place and preached to him some other man. Jesus Christ the Lord. Declaration of the Gospel. And
here was a confession of faith. They went on their way. After
he had preached to him, Jesus, verse 35, Jesus, Savior, Jehovah
who saves. As they went on their way, they
came upon certain water, and the eunuch said, See, here's
water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? Philip said, Do
you believe? This is believer's baptism. It's
believer's baptism. Do you believe? He said, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the very Son of God. And he commanded the chariot
to stand still. They both went down into the
water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. Let me tell you something. Baptism
by immersion That's the only baptism there is. Immersion is
not really a form of baptism. It is baptism. So I think sprinkling's
all right. Well, I'll tell you this. The
Ethiopian eunuch, I'll guarantee you he had a canteen of water
because he's going through the desert. And I promise you he
had water in his skins And he could have said, Philip, would
you sprinkle a little of this water on my head? But that didn't
happen. There had to be enough water
for both of them to go down into the water. And he baptized them
because baptism pictures death, the death of Christ Jesus the
Lord and his resurrection. So he was baptized. And they
came up out of the water. The spear of the Lord caught
Philip away and said, I got somebody else I want you to preach to. And the eunuch saw him no more.
His eyes are not on the preacher. His eyes are on the Savior. He
is looking by faith at the Lord Jesus Christ and all of His work
of redemption. His soul is enraptured by the
Son of God who loved Him and gave Himself for Him. He wasn't worshiping a man. Don't follow a man. Follow Christ
Jesus. Follow Christ Jesus. If you're
just following a man. Now, I'll say that the Apostle
Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ. That's okay. But don't
just follow a man because, well, that man is special to me or
I like his gifts or his abilities or talents or whatever. God's men are leading you to
Christ Jesus. And that's where we want you
to stay. Stay there. And look at that last phrase
of verse 39. And He went on His way rejoicing. That's what's
unique. He went on His way rejoicing.
Rejoicing in full and free salvation. Rejoicing in the Redeemer. Rejoicing
in Christ Jesus. His soul is filled with praise
and thanksgiving and He is joyful. And I say tonight as you are
baptized, I say then go on your way rejoicing.
If you are going to North Carolina, go on your way rejoicing that
the Lord knows you and the Lord loves you, and He's redeemed
you, and He's taught you the gospel, go on your way rejoicing. And I tell the rest of you tonight,
if your soul has been made to rejoice in Christ Jesus again
tonight, when the last amen is said tonight, when you're dismissed,
go on your way rejoicing. Rejoicing in Him, whom to know,
is life everlasting. Amen. All right. You come leave us in the song
and we'll go back here and get ready. If you would open your handles
to page 393, please. 393, take my life and let it be. Take my life and let it be consecrated,
Lord, to Thee. Take my hands and let them move
at the impulse of Thy love, at the impulse of Thy love. Take my feet and let them be
? Swift and beautiful for thee ? ? Take my voice and let me
sing ? ? Always, only for my being ? ? Always, only for my
being ? ? Take my lips and live with me ? filled with messages
for thee. Take my silver and my gold, not
of mine would I withhold, not of mine would I withhold. Take my love, my God, Lord, That life be its treasure store,
Take myself and I will be, Never lonely, all for Thee, Never lonely,
all for Thee. Thank you. All right, thank you. This is
Believer's Baptism. Taylor, you believe the gospel
of Jesus Christ? Yes. You're not trying to work
your way to heaven or merit God's salvation by any works? No. Are you relying on the Lord Jesus,
His blood and His righteousness for all of your salvation, all
of your life? Yes. Okay, that sounds good to
me. privilege to baptize you. This is my sister, Taylor Robinette. I baptize you in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. All in favor of receiving her
into the fellowship of our church, say, Amen. Amen. So ordered. Welcome. Glad to have you. God bless you. Okay, brother, leave us a little
song. Anybody else want to be baptized?
I'll get you another one. Closing hymn is 201, please.
201. He is able to deliver thee. ["Pomp and Circumstance"] Give surrender, speak, through
the ages from Give surrender, speak, for a mortal tongue Give
surrender, speak, let the world ever somehow know He is able
to deliver thee He is able to deliver thee He is able to do everything. No question of rest, go to him
for rest. Our God is able to do everything. It's the grandest thing that
the earth or man can do. For a mortal's dream is a grand
destiny. Tell the world again our God
is able to deliver thee. He is able to deliver thee. He is able to deliver thee. Now I see the rest, counted in
for rest, Our God is able to deliver thee.