I want to start reading here
in verse 26. I'm going to be going through
three or four things. And the title I said, the title
of my message, is The Practice of Preaching Christ. I remember
Henry telling me the first meeting he was down here, on the very
last night, we sat out in his car before we went into the service.
And he says, Brother Don, he said, I want to tell you something. He said, if you'll just make
the gospel, This is the gospel. Your ministry. Christ, your ministry. Don't get on people for what
they do, or where they go, or how they dress. Don't get on
them about anything. He said, you make the gospel and preaching
Christ your ministry. And God will bless it. And by
His grace, I've tried to do that. And that's why, you know, the
practice of preaching Christ is something you have to just
practice at. You know, His flesh gets in the
way. And so we have to labor at it. That's why Paul called
it a labor. And he said it was a determination that he had.
So he determined these things. But look here in verse 26 of
Acts chapter 8. And the angel of the Lord spake
unto Philip, saying, 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,
a great authority, unto Candice, queen of the Ethiopians, who
had the charge of all her treasure, had come to Jerusalem for to
worship. He was returning and sitting in his chariot, read
Isaiah the prophet. Then the Spirit said unto Philip,
Go near and join thyself to this chariot. Philip ran there to
him and heard him read. The prophet Isaiah said unto
him, understandest what thou readest? And he said, how can
I? Except some man should guide
me. And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with
him. The place of the scripture, excuse me, which he read was
this. He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter and like a lamb done before his shears, 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.' And the eunuch answered Philip,
and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this, of
himself or some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth,
and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him, Jesus.
And as they went on their way, they came to a certain water,
and the eunuch said, See, here is water. What doth hinder me
to be baptized? And Philip said, With thou believest
with all mine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the
chariot to stand still. And they both went down into
the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.
And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the
Lord called away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more, and
he went on his way rejoicing. You know, in preaching Christ
from the Old Testament, which I did three times down to Louisiana,
in preaching Christ from the Old Testament, we have to see
how they did it in the New. And that's the only thing they
had to preach from in the New Testament as they started preaching
was the Old Testament. And they use direct references
to our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he said here in Isaiah
53, 7 and 8. Direct references to our Lord
Jesus Christ. And they use a lot of types and
pictures. I listened to Paul Mahan preach
today, and he preached from a beautiful, beautiful type of our Lord Jesus
Christ as Joshua leading Israel over the Jordan. And then there
were references, it's pretty obscure, that they looked. And
we look at these New Testament preachers, and Barnard used to
say, if you want to know how to preach the gospel, learn how
to preach the gospel, study the book of Acts. Study the book
of Acts. And that's what we do, is we
do that. And here's the first thing I
want to say, that Philip, when he began to preach, he arrived
at Christ very quickly. He arrived at Christ very quickly. There in verse 35 of chapter
8, then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture
and preached unto him Jesus. Now he was led by the Spirit
of God. This man was driving along by
himself. He no doubt had an entourage
with him because he is a famous man. He is led by Spirit, by
the Holy Spirit to meet an Ethiopian eunuch. And it says, one of great
authority. This fellow has some power. This
fellow has some great authority. He had control of all the money
of that particular kingdom that he was over. And he had come
up, it says there in verse 27, he had come to Jerusalem for
the worship. You know, they had three times
a year that men would come up to worship in Jerusalem. And
he came to Jerusalem to work. That's what that woman at the
well said. We know that Jerusalem is where the Jews worship. That's
where the worship is at. That's where it's at. That's
where the temple is. That's where the tabernacle is. That's where
the priest is. That's where you go up there.
You go up there to Jerusalem to worship. And he went up there. seeking something. He went up
there to worship. He went up there to learn something.
He went up there to see what those rabbis had to say and see
what those teachers had to say and see what was going on around
the temple. And he left there just as empty as he was when
he went up there. He didn't get anything while
he was there but law and religion and Moses and then when he left
he still didn't have anything at all. And so he didn't find
Christ at Jerusalem. And then look what happened.
And the Spirit, verse 29, Go near and join thyself to this
chair. So Philip ran up beside that chair and was longer, longer
sighted. And he ran up to him, and look what it says, and he
heard him read the prophet Isaiah. This man was sitting there reading
out loud. He was reading out loud. And
Philip heard him reading. Then he asked him this wonderful
question, do you understand what you read? Do you understand the
scriptures that you read? Do you understand what you're
doing when you open that Bible and you're riding along here
and you're reading this out loud to yourself? Do you understand
what you're reading? And here's what he said in verse
30, How can I except some man should guide me? And that's what
God calls preachers to do. That's what God calls men to
do, is to guide people through the Scriptures. To show them
the things of Christ. And look what it says here, in
the place that he read, He asked Peter and Philip to get up in
there with him, and this was where the place he read. Let's
look at it in Isaiah 53. Let's see what this man had to
tell this fella. And it said, he began at the
same, opened his mouth and began at the same scripture, and preached
unto him Jesus. Now look, here's the verses that
he read. In Isaiah 53 verse 6. All we, like sheep, have gone
astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way. And the Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all. And here's where he's reading.
He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Now the first thing you've got
to tell him is why was he oppressed and why was he afflicted? Who
oppressed him? Who afflicted him? who caused
his body to be afflicted, his soul to be afflicted, his mind
to be afflicted. What caused him to be afflicted?
And no doubt, he began to go all the way through Isaiah 53.
And then look what he says here. And yet he opened not his mouth.
He never answered it. He never stood up for himself.
Never defended himself. He said even when they hired
people to false witness against him, he never defended himself.
Answer thou me, they said. Answer me. Can our Lord Jesus
just stand there? Just stand there? And He was
brought as a Lamb to the slaughter? So He's got to tell Him what
it was to be the Lamb. What a Lamb was for. What a Lamb
meant to be. What a Lamb meant to God. What
a Lamb meant to Eshom. What a Lamb meant to a soul that
it was offered for. So He had to explain to Him what
a Lamb was. He had to go back to, probably
went over to Genesis and said, the first time that the word
lamb was mentioned there, back in Exodus, and even Genesis,
and he said, oh listen, he went up on the mountain and he offered
a lamb in the stead of Isaac. Where's the lamb? He said. Where's
the lamb? God will provide himself a lamb, he said. So, oh listen,
he had to, and he brought his lamb to the slaughter. And the
thing this man asked was this, and he asked such an incredible
question, who is this prophet talking about? Is he talking
about himself or some other man? That's a good question. And oh,
listen, and he said, listen, and he's brought as a lamb to
the slaughter. What do you mean slaughter? Well,
without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin.
Without the shedding of blood, God will not put away sin. Without
the shedding of blood, God cannot be approached. It takes the blood
to put away sin. It takes the innocent for the
guilty. It takes the just for the unjust. And it took the blood of Christ
offered in our room instead. I'm sure this is what He said.
This is Christ we're talking about. This man that He's talking
about was the Son of God. The Lord Jesus Christ who came
into this world. And He came to be alone. He came
to be an offering. He came to be slaughtered. And
oh, listen, that's what He said. And as a sheep before a dumb
assurer, so He opened out His mouth. They come to get Him in
the garden of Gethsemane. They just led Him away. And you
know what He said? And I'll tell you. He said when
they come to take Him out of Gethsemane, He said, If you seek
Me, you let all these go their way. Oh, can you imagine that,
you Ethiopian eunuch, when he heard that, you know, that they
came to get the Lord Jesus Christ. A whole multitude came out to
get Him. And old Philip says, you know,
they came out to get Him. And I, Lord Jesus, he walked
up there and said, they said, we're looking for Jesus the Messiah. He said, I'm He. He said, it just scared him so
bad that he fell down. He said, who are you looking
for? Jesus the Messiah. I told you that's me. And they
wretched got hold of him and went away, led as a lamb to the
slaughter. And he said, but, oh, if you want me, you can't
have these. And, oh, I bet that Ethiopian, you can say, oh, you
mean, you mean to tell me that he loved those folks and he let
them, and all those people, he did that for them? Yes. And then
look what else he said. Verse eight, he was taken from
prison and from judgment. Oh my, led away by distress and
judgment. And who's going to declare his
generation? Who stood up and declared his
generation? Who told his generation? That's why they said to him,
said, Oh, we know his mother. We know his father. We know Mary. We know his brethren. We know
Joseph. We know that his dad is a carpenter. We know his family.
How then does this man say he came down from heaven? And listen
to this, he was cut off out of the land of the living. What
does that mean? Oh, Philip probably told me,
he said, that means that he died. He was numbered with the living,
then he was cut off out of the land of the living. He died.
He died for sin. He died to put away sin. And
then look what he says, and why was he cut off out of the land
of the living? For the transgression of my people.
Was he stricken? transgression of my people."
Well, who's them people? Then he got to tell them about
God's electing grace, Christ coming for a particular people,
and all this, and he goes on down here, and he probably went
on through this chapter, and look what he said, he made his
grave with the wicked, and with the rich and his death. Two wicked
men, one wicked man on one side and another man on the other
side. And oh listen, he was buried in a rich man's tomb and he had
done no violence, there was no deceit in his mouth. And yet
it pleased the Lord to bruise him. God bruised him. He said his
father bruised him. His father was the one that rose
up to put him down. His father was the one who came. He came to satisfy his father.
And he put him to grief, made his soul an offering for sin.
He shall see seed prolong his days, the pleasure of the Lord
will prosper in his hand. And oh, and this is the one that
he probably really, really let down the hammer on. He shall
see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. He saw the
pain, the labor, the agony of what his soul went through. Went
through. Which is his people. God was satisfied with the travail
of his soul. Christ was satisfied with the
travail of his soul. And we're satisfied with the
travail of his soul. And then look at this, and by
his knowledge, what does that mean? By him giving the knowledge
of himself. by him given a knowledge of himself,
shall my righteous servant, then he has to deal with what a righteous
servant is. He is righteous in his office,
righteous in his person, righteous in his nature, righteous in his
acts, righteous in his everything about him was righteous. And
he'll justify many because he'll bear their iniquities. And so
you see he went over there and he took the very verses of scripture
that this man was reading And he began to preach to him the
Lord Jesus Christ. And oh, he couldn't just finish
there. He had to go to Christ's coming. He had to go who it was
that was crucified is Jesus of Nazareth. Because he said, this
Jesus, how was he righteous? How did he justify many? According
to the Scriptures. And then they got down there.
He preached the Lord Jesus Christ to this man. There's no telling
how long it took. No telling how many verses of
scriptures he went through. And he had Isaiah with him. So he could go right through
Isaiah and show him all the things. He could go to Isaiah 7.14. Listen, he was virgin born. He
was born of a woman. He was born of a virgin. He was
Emmanuel. God with us. He could go to Isaiah
9, 6 and say, Thou shalt call His name Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace,
and upon His shoulder shall the government be. He could go to
Isaiah 42 and say, He shall not fail, and He shall not be discouraged. He could go to Isaiah 45, 22
and say, Oh, He's a just God and a Savior, so look unto Me
and be ye saved. He could have stayed in Isaiah
and preached for days and days and days and days. And oh, listen,
then he got down to some water. And it says in verse 36, And
they went on their way, and they came to a certain water. And
the eunuch said, Well, here's water. What doeth him to me? He taught him the importance
of baptism. He taught him that baptism was
the way you confess your faith in Christ. That baptism was how
you didn't get in the church by just raising your hand and
coming up and shaking the preacher's hand. In those days, it meant
something to be baptized. I mean, it really meant something.
And he said, here's water. And Philip said, this is what
Philip told him. If thou believest with all thine heart, you may. And he answered, said, I believe. I heard you preach, and I believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God that came into this world.
And he said, stand that chariot, stop it right in its tracks.
And I'll tell you, this right here tells you that baptism is
by immersion. They didn't get him up to their
ankles, and then he poured some water on them. And they were,
both of them went, both went down into the water. Both Philip
and the eunuch. And he baptized him, buried him.
And oh listen, I tell you that's why, that's the key. And you
find all the way through the New Testament, people were baptized
to make their confession of faith in Christ. And that means that
the Jews would disown them. Because you're confessing your
faith in Christ. And down in Mexico, for somebody
to get baptized there, they don't baptize very many, because most
of those people come out of Catholicism. And for a person raised in Catholicism
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, forsake Mary, forsake
the saints and forsake the Catholic Church and to be excommunicated
from the church and to get baptized and say I'm confessing my faith
in Jesus Christ and Him and Him alone. And whole families disown
the ones that do that. And that's what this meant here.
So that's why people don't take it too serious now about being
baptized. It's an easy thing to do and
it don't mean much to most people. But it meant everything in the
New Testament to these people. And look what, oh my. And I tell
you, Philip started and he taught the priesthood and he started
with the Old Testament. Prophet preached Christ from
there to his death and his resurrection. Christ in him crucified. Oh my,
he preached it. And I tell you, he started in
Isaiah. Let me show you another one over here in Acts chapter
2. Let's look at this just a minute. Acts chapter 2. Here's another preacher that
just preached the Lord Jesus Christ from the Old Testament.
We've looked at this Pentecostal preaching so many times over
the years. But this is Peter explaining
why there was tongues and the Holy Ghost coming. And you know,
when they all began to speak in other tongues, some said in
verse 13, others said, these men are full of new wine. And
others heard them speak the wonderful works of God in their own tongues.
But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and
said unto them, You men of Judah and all you that dwell in Jerusalem,
be this known unto you and listen to what I've got to say. These
men are not drunk, seeing that it's just the ninth hour of the
morning. That means it's third hour of the morning. It's just
nine o'clock in the morning. Ain't nobody drunk. But he began
to say this. He said, what you're seeing happen
is the fulfillment of a prophecy that was given by Joel hundreds
of years before this took place. And you know, Peter didn't know
that until he, I believe, until he got up and started preaching.
I believe when you got to start preaching, seeing that, the Holy
Ghost said, now this is what Joel said was going to happen.
And then he said, in the last days, and the last days started
when Christ came. I pour out my Spirit upon all
flesh, men, women, young, old, all, the Spirit of God will come
upon all types of people before it just came upon prophets. And
look what He says here, "...and I pour My Spirit upon you, and
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy." They're going
to witness and tell about the Lord Jesus Christ. And you young
men will see visions. Peter saw visions. Paul saw visions. Fill them with visions. They
saw visions. And you old men will dream dreams.
They'll dream about God. And they'll dream about Christ.
And they'll dream about the things that they're going to enjoy in
glory. And on my service and my handmaids I'll pour it out
in those days of my spirit and they shall prophesy. So He's
telling them, all that's happening to you was experienced and come
from the Old Testament of concerning joy. And He relates their experience
to that verse of Scripture. This wasn't just a history lesson.
And then He relates this prophecy quickly to our Lord Jesus Christ. Look down at verse 22. And so you listen, he went on
down through there, said some things that's gonna happen. And
then he says, you men of Israel, hear these words again. Said,
I'm listening to what I gotta say. Listen to what I gotta say. And
he got to Christ quickly. He says, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, Who this Jesus
and that? So He takes people to the Lord
Jesus Christ very quickly. He takes these people to Christ
and who He is. And what about who is He? First
of all, He's a man approved of God. No other man on topside
of God's earth was ever approved of God. Adam wasn't approved
of God. Abraham wasn't approved of God.
Noah wasn't approved of God. Moses wasn't approved of God.
The only one that God said, this is the one that I set my seal
on. This is the one that's my child.
This is the one that's my son. This is the one that I sent.
And He approved of him. Of him. And look what it says. And oh listen, this man was approved
of God among you. And it was obvious he was approved
of God. How come? Because by the miracles
that he did. You all saw the miracles. You've
seen miracles that He did. You saw Him give sight to the
blind. You saw the lame to walk, lepers to be cleansed, the blind
to see. And oh listen, and wonders, all
the wonders that He did. And the signs which God did by
Him in the midst of you. And look what He says here about
it. You yourselves know it. You know it. You know this. and all lessons he proves a deity
in power of Christ and then look what happens here he comes to
who he was proved of God what he did while he's on this earth
and then he comes to the crucifixion he said in verse 23 Him Him this
Jesus of Nazareth this man approved of God You yourselves know what
happened among you, in the midst of you. Him, this Jesus of Nazareth,
being delivered by the determinate counsel of God, delivered by
the sovereign purpose of God, by the counsel of God, by the
will of God, by the sovereignty of God, by the purpose of God
from all eternity. Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, God and Christ knew exactly
what was going to happen. Our Lord knew what was going
to happen. He knew when it was going to happen. He told the
disciples when it was going to happen. He told the disciples
how it was going to happen. And they didn't know what happened
until after it happened. And oh, listen, He said God delivered
him up. But He said, you know what He
did? He said, you, you, You have taken this one of God,
this man approved of God, this man delivered by the determinate
counsel of God. You've taken and by wicked hands
have crucified and slain. You got your hands on Him and
when He came into this world, you laid your wicked hands on
Him. You slapped Him. You spit in
His face. You beat Him. You gambled for
his garments, you lied on him. You sent men out to lay hands
on him and said, oh, never a man spake like this man. And you,
you, when you got an opportunity, man talks about his free will,
this is the best free will will do. Pilot being willing to do what
the people will to be done to him. People talk about their
free will, and I'm telling you something, a man's free will,
because he trusted his free will, he trusted his good works, he
trusted him working his way to glory, that every time he does
that, he's got his wicked hands on Christ. And he's belittling
Christ, and I'm telling you, he said, you crucified. And I know this, beloved, a man
must have some understanding of the death of Christ and what
that death accomplished. It's necessary to salvation.
This idea that Jesus died for everybody, that's not enough. This idea that Jesus has just
died and made salvation possible, that ain't no good. We got to have a definite accomplishment
in His death. His death must really accomplish
something for somebody. And so you got to understand
something about the death of Christ. Why He died? Who did He die for? Who did our Lord Jesus Christ
shed His blood for? And oh, listen, you've got to
have some understanding of that. And I'll tell you what, whenever
the death of Christ becomes particularly for you, when you understand
that He bore your sin, that He died for you, And you experience
that death in your heart. You experience the shame and
humiliation of your sin. That it took the death of Christ
to put your sin away. Right then and there, you'll
look to that man and say, Oh, bless his name. You mean he done
that for me? How can it be? How can it be
that thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Oh listen, God look what He went
on to say in verse 24, whom God raised up. He lived, He died, and then the
next word out of His mouth, He preached who He was, He preached
His death and why He died, and then He preached God raised Him
from the dead, having loosed the pains of death. Death was
painful for him. And death was painful in his
body, painful in his soul, as he sat there and said, Oh my
God, if there's any other way, let this cup pass from me. And
all reason that loosened him up because it's not possible
that he should be holding of death. Why? Because he's going
to go and tell us why death couldn't hold him. And he quotes here
from, I believe it's in Psalm Psalm 16, he says this, for David
speaks concerning Christ. That's what he's talking about,
this Jesus in us. David speaks concerning Him. I foresaw the
Lord always before my face. I saw the Lord speaking, Christ
speaking. I saw the Lord, and this is Christ
speaking, always before my face. He is on my right hand that I
should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice
and my tongue was glad Moreover, also my flesh shall rest in hope.
And this is Christ talking now. Because thou wilt not leave my
soul in hell, neither will you suffer your Holy One to see corruption.
You will not let me be in the grave long enough to see corruption.
And another reason why he'll never see corruption, because
he had no sin of his own. That's why. And all listen to
what he goes on and says now. And he says down in verse 29,
David's dead. David saw the resurrection of
the Lord Jesus Christ, because thou wilt not leave my soul in
hell, neither will you suffer your Holy One to see corruption.
David saw the resurrection of Christ. And he says, you made
known to me the ways of life, thou shalt make me full of joy
with thy countenance. Now, he says, men and brethren,
let me speak to you freely of the patriarch David. He is dead. He's dead. And he's buried. And you can go to his grave where
it's at right now. You can go to his grave. We know
where his grave's at. And him being a prophet, And
he know that God swore with an oath to him that of the fruit
of his loins the son of David according to the flesh would
raise up Christ to sit on his throne. The throne of David forever
and ever. And he seeing this before spake,
listen to this, David spake of the resurrection of Christ that
his soul was not left in hell, neither did his flesh see corruption
and this Jesus God hath raised up and every one of us are witnesses
of that and look what he says to these men and all he goes
on to say where he is now he says that therefore being by
the right hand of God exalted And have mercy, O exalted, set
him at his own right hand, a place of power and honor and glory. And have him received of the
Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he has shed forth this
which you now see and hear. David's not ascended into the
heavens, but he said, the Lord said, O my, to my Lord, set down
at my right hand, and I'll make you enemies, you footstool. Now
this is where it gets dead serious to him now. He said, they've
heard this message. He says, therefore let all the
house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same
Jesus whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, God
hath made that same Jesus. You know this and know it for
sure, that God made that same Jesus. You have crucified both
Lord and Christ. Now what happens? When they heard
this, they heard this, that he's sitting
at the right hand of God. And that one you crucified right
now, He's Lord and He's the Christ. He's God. And He's in heaven. He's at the right hand of God.
When they heard this, they were quick in their heart. I mean,
God stabbed them. Look what happens now. And they
said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren,
what are we going to do? What are we going to do? Oh,
I'd love somebody to ask me that. Then Peter said, I then repent,
be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for
the remission of sins, and then the Holy Ghost will be given
to you. And oh listen, for the promise
is to you and to your children, to all that are far off, even
as many as the Lord our God shall call. Oh and He's calling you,
that's what He's doing. And then look what happens here
in verse 41. Oh, then they gladly received
his word. Oh my, gladly received his word. They're glad to hear this gospel. They're glad to hear this word.
They're glad to hear that there's salvation. They're glad to hear
that there was remission of sins. They're glad to hear that the
Lord Jesus Christ would save them from their sin. That God
would call them. Then they gladly received his
word, were baptized, and the same day there were added unto
them about 3,000 souls. Could you imagine baptizing 3,000
people? They were busy that day. Oh,
I'm telling you, what an experience. And then look what else they
did. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine. Oh,
yes. They said, oh, these fellows
are telling the truth. These fellows are preaching the
gospel. These fellows are telling us about Christ. and they continued
steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and they continued in fellowship
they got together and they enjoyed one another's company and they
broke bread and they all got together and prayed oh my that's the practice of these
fellows You go through there and see how they took Christ,
wherever they started at. They got to Him. Got to who He
was. How He came into the world. What
He did while He was here. How He was buried. How He was
raised again the third day. And how that He was seen in so
many witnesses and ascended back up to glory. Oh, these fellas. I'd love to be able to preach
the gospel like they did. and the power they had, and the
understanding they had, I really would be able to open the Scriptures
that easily. Our Father, thank You for allowing
us to meet tonight. Thank You for allowing us to
look through Your Word, to enjoy Your Word, to look what it is
to preach Christ. how these men in the New Testament
just used the Old Testament and were able to preach the Lord
Jesus Christ in power, in glory. Men were converted. Men confessed. Men and women came, empty, broken,
cried out in their hearts, what shall we do? What shall we do? And oh Lord, open hearts, open
understandings, create desires in our lost loved ones, in our
children, our grandchildren, husbands and wives and daughters
and sons. We ask these things in our Lord
Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.