He's a preacher, a sinner, and
salvation. A preacher, a sinner, and salvation. Philip's the preacher, Eunice
the sinner, and salvation is when he hears the gospel. It
becomes the gospel of his salvation. Everybody's got to hear the gospel.
Not a gospel, the gospel. The gospel. You know, God's ways
are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts.
Some He deals with in grace, some He deals with in judgment.
He dealt with Moses in grace, Pharaoh in judgment. He tendered Moses' heart, hardened
Pharaoh's. Some are vessels of mercy, some
are vessels of honor, some are vessels of Wrath and some vessels
of dishonor. And in this particular chapter
here, we have Philip going down to Samaria. And Samaria were
half-breed Jews. They had mixed with other races,
and that's why they were called Samaritans. You know, the Jews
had no dealings with Samaritans. Remember when our Lord talked
to the woman at the well, and she said, How is thou being a
Jew? Speak to me, a Samaritan, for we know that the Jews had
no dealings with the Samaritans. Well, here Philip went down to
preach to the Samaritans. And while he was down there,
God blessed him. They had the revival broke out. And here,
our Lord, he had saved that Samaritan woman, but here, Simon the sorcerer,
he was a Samaritan, and yet his sin was exposed, and he was told,
you know, that his money was going to perish with him. His
false profession was exposed. So there's times that God will
save one, expose another, make His grace known to one, make
the sin known to another, and leave them in their sin. And
these verses that I read to you today, no doubt you're very familiar
with them. They're about this Ethiopian
eunuch. But let's look at how salvation, that our Lord Jesus
Christ and God goes after one soul. One soul. Here's one man. One man that
our Lord went after. One man. And sent a preacher
to preach to that one man. I was talking to Brother Henry
last week, and he was telling us about a time that a fellow
asked him to come out to Oregon to preach. He said he'd rent a building
and get some people to come in. And he asked him, he said, how
many would you need to be in the services before you come?
One, me and you. A fellow rented a building, he
went out there, and there was eight different preachers that came.
And God saved four or five of those preachers, and that preacher
that opened the door, God never done it, he never heard from
him again. But the Lord saved five or six preachers in that
meeting. But he was willing to go for one. That's the thing. You're willing to go for one.
And that's what God did here. First of all, let's look at how
God goes after one of His sheep. Let's look at Philip. He's the
preacher. Talk about the preacher, a sinner, and salvation. And
the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, there in verse 26, saying,
Arise, and go toward the south from the way that goeth down
to Jerusalem, unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose, and
behold, a man of Ethiopia, and eunuch of great authority unto
Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her
treasure, had come to Jerusalem for to worship." Now here, beloved,
we have a preacher. First thing you notice about
him, God spoke to him, told him what he wanted him to do, where
to go. The Lord leads his preachers where they need to be. They're
not just left to go willy-nilly and go where they want to go.
They're not left to themselves. They've been bought with a price.
They've been called of God. Now here he was, he had been
in Samaria. The Lord was using him. There
is a great revival, look back up there in verse 5 of Acts chapter
26. God was using him here. Then
Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ
unto them. And the people with one accord
gave heed unto those things which Philip spake. Hearing and seeing
the miracles which he did, for unclean spirits crying with a
loud voice came out of many that were possessed with them, and
many taken with palsies, and that were lame were healed. And
there was great joy in that city. Great joy. So here he was. He had been used greatly of God
in Samaria. And it says there in verse 12
here, it says, But when they believed, Philip preaching the
things concerning the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ. They were baptized, both men
and women, so God was using them. Lots of people getting converted.
A lot of people, they believed what he had to say about the
Lord Jesus Christ. They believed what he had to
say, believed the gospel. But here he is, he's being used
of God, great revival, people getting converted, people being
saved by the grace of God, people being baptized, people believing
the gospel. And all of a sudden there's this
great revival going on, and God comes to fill them, said arise
and go down into the desert. Go down into the desert, leave
the work here, leave the revival here. Leave all these people
that you've been preaching to, leave these crowds that you hear
sin getting converted. You leave all these people and
you head south. Huh? Go into the desert. Why
in the world would God send a man into the desert? You know that's
where he revealed himself to Moses at, in the desert, on the
backside of the desert. And oh beloved, but listen, what
could possibly be in the desert? But I want you to notice this,
Philip did not question the Lord. He didn't say, Lord, there's
something going on here, I need to stay here. That's what I need
to do. I need to be here preaching. People getting converted here.
He didn't question God, never said anything about, well, I
mean, no, no, he obeyed. He didn't know why he was going
to the desert. He didn't know why he was going
to the south. But I tell you what he did know, he knew the
Lord, and he knew where God led him he was supposed to go. And
oh, beloved, look what it says there in verse 27. And he arose, and went. He arose and went. And then look
what the next word says. And behold! Behold! Oh my! There's one fellow. He sees one
man. Ethiopian eunuch. Of course, there was probably
somebody driving his chariot. He probably had servants with
him. But behold, a man! of Ethiopia. That's all it says
about him, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch. Don't tell us his name. Nothing like that. But oh, listen,
what God does. What is the worth of a soul to
our coveted God? The worth of one soul for whom
the Lord Jesus Christ died. And here it says, his one man,
Ethiopian, great authority, all treasure, but we know God saves
individuals. You look back through the scriptures,
Enoch walked with God. Abel was saved. Noah, out of
that whole generation, God singled out. Abraham was the only one
called out of the Ur of the Chaldees. Christ went to one woman at the
well. Saul of Tarsus by himself was
stuck down on the Damascus Road. God goes and gets individuals.
And whether He saves 3,000, He still saves them individually.
He doesn't save them all at once. Every one of them has got to
hear the gospel for themselves. Every one of them is saved by
the grace of God by themselves. And that's why you think God
doesn't care for his sheep? You think God doesn't care for
one for whom Christ died? He'll put his preachers to great
extreme and great expense and great sacrifice to go get one
sheep for whom Christ died. And he won't even know what's
going on until it's over and done with. So here's the preacher. He went
down. He arose and went. And look what happens now. Here
we see the sinner, there in verse 27. A man, a man of Ethiopia,
and eunuch of great authority, under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians,
who had the charge of all of her treasure, and had come to
Jerusalem for to worship. First thing we see about this
sinner, he's a powerful man. He's an important man. He's a
man of great authority, no doubt great wealth. He is a treasurer. He would be like our Secretary
of Treasury, except he has more authority, he has more prestige,
he has more power. I mean, beloved, it was like
when Joseph was raised up over Egypt. I mean, beloved, he had
charge over everything and nobody got nothing from Pharaoh or his
treasury or anything about it unless Joseph was the one to
get it. And this is the way this fellow
was. Nobody got anything from the king except through this
man. Oh, and this fellow, he's a great
and powerful man, an important man, a man of great authority,
a treasure. And oh, beloved, you know how
many great men God has humbled? There's old Naaman. Oh, Naaman. He said, oh, no, I'm not going
to go down to that river. There's too many rivers over
here in Samaria for me to go, for me to go over Syria, for
me to go over to get in that river of Jordan. Well, if you're
going to be clean, you're going to go get in that river. And
you're going to not just get in it and wade in it up to your
ankles or wade in it up to your waist, but you're going to get
in it and you're going to go under that water seven times or you're
going to perish in your sin. And you're going to take off
that general's uniform. You're going to get down off
of that horse. You're going to do it in front of everybody that's
subservient to you. You're going to do it in front
of the privates. You're going to do it in front of the captains.
You're going to do it in front of the kings. You're going to
do it in front of everybody. You're going to get, oh, you're
going to step down and get in that water or you're going to
perish. He said, well, I'm going to get
in the water. And Hezekiah Here's the king of Israel, and God said,
I'm going to kill you, and you're going to die. He turned his face
to the wall. God humbled him down, made him
cry and plead for another day. And there saw Tarsus, a hater
of Jesus Christ, full of pride, full of self-righteousness, full
of law, full of hatred, full of enmity against everybody that
wasn't like him. And Christ humbled him and put
him in the dust. Oh, the powerful men that God's
brought down. And then look what this fellow
had done. Here's a powerful man, but it said here that he had come to Jerusalem to worship,
for the worship. You know Israel, the men have
come to Israel three times a year. Men were supposed to come three
times a year for three feasts. And here's a fellow and a stranger
could come. You can read that over in 1 Kings. A stranger could
come. He could come up to worship. When they heard about the name
of God, they'd come up to worship. And here's what this fellow did.
He'd come all the way from Ethiopia, 1,200 miles away, to go to Jerusalem
to worship. You know why? It's like that
Samaritan woman told our Lord Jesus Christ, and she says, they
say Jerusalem is where men ought to worship. That's what she said. Jerusalem is where everybody
is supposed to go worship. And how many Americans and how
many people all over the world go to Jerusalem to that holy
city and call it the holy land? I'll tell you there's something
mysterious. They said, we're going up to Jerusalem to worship.
And he went up there, beloved, to go see that great temple of
Solomon's. To go see them high priests in
all their glorious robes. He went up there to see them
sacrifices. He went up there to see the great
crowds. He went up there to see all the
gold and all the silver and all the things that went on and eat
all the great feasts that went on at that time. But when he
got up there to worship, what did he find? What did he find? Christ had done been risen from
the dead. The temple veil had done been
rent in two. They showed the fallacy that
there wasn't nothing behind that veil. It was empty. There was
a new way to come to God. And those fellas kept on pretending.
Kept on playing church. Kept on playing worship. And
what did he find when he got up there? He found a dead Dead,
empty religion. These folks up there were twice
dead. They were dead in Adam and they
was dead in their religion. And they was empty. And when
he got up there, not only found the dead, but he found those
who called themselves super religious. They were Pharisees. Pharisees. What's a Pharisee like? Well,
look in Matthew 23. Let's just look at what a Pharisee
is like. Just look at some of the things
the Lord Jesus said about them. Matthew 23. These are the super
religious. Like a bunch of folks we know
today, they've got to be super religious. They've got to be
using Jesus' name all the time. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord
this. Praise the Lord that. Waving their hands. They've got
to dress a certain way. They've got to do all those things
and all this, strain a gnat and swallow a camel. That's what
our Master said. Look what He said about them here in verse
5. Our Master is speaking about
the super religious, the Pharisees. The scribes and Pharisees, He
said in verse 2, sit in Moses' seat. They want to sit up there
in Moses' seat. They want to tell you, set in
judgment on you. They want to tell you what you're
supposed to do. But he says, verse 5, but all their works
they do for to be seen of men. They don't care whether God sees
them or not. They're not interested in heart
worship. They're not interested in coming to God and letting
God see their hearts and bow them before Him. They just do
everything they do to be seen of men. They make brothered phylacters
and enlarge the borders of the garments. Look what it says down
in verse 13. But woe unto you, scribes, Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of
heaven against men. You won't go in yourselves. And
those who would go in, you don't want them. You won't let them.
You say, you've got to come through us. You've got to come by us.
Our way, our laws, our rules, our standards, our convictions.
And then look what it says down in verse 23. Woe unto you scribes, Pharisees,
hypocrites. You'll pay tithe. You'll go out
and get your mint and get 10% of that. You'll get your nice.
You'll get that. You'll get your cumin. But you've
omitted the weightier matters of the law. Judgment. You don't
care about judgment. Mercy. Faith. You don't care
about any of those things. You ought to have done these
things and not to leave the other undone. You blind guides. You'll
strain at an ass and swallow a camel. And oh, beloved, that's
what they found when he went up there. He found this kind
of religion. More concerned for the jots and
the tittles than the spirit. Then he found, what did he find
up there? The super religious. Then he
got up there and he also found the political. You know, the
Sadducees were a political group. They didn't believe in the resurrection.
They didn't believe in spirits. They didn't believe in angels.
I don't know what in the world they could have believed in worth
believing in. But they were, at that particular time, they
were the ones in power. They were the high priest at
that time. The Sadducees were the high priest.
And here the Sadducees were more of a political party. Now you
want to get a mess, you mix religion and politics and you've got a
deadly combination. And oh, here they come in this
great worship and their religion and politics, and here they come,
and they're up there, and everybody's waving their hands, and they're
going before God and talking about their sacrifices. And our
Lord Jesus Christ says, one day, in the last day, the great day
of the feast, He stood and cried, it is His birthday. Let Him come
to me. That's the last day. They'd been
up there and they'd seen all the water, they'd seen all the
sacrifice, seen all the worship, seen all the crowds, and our
Lord Jesus Christ said, you come here empty, you're going to leave
here empty, and if you get anything at all, you're going to have
to come to me to get it. And oh, look what, not only did
he come to Jerusalem to worship, and he was a powerful man, but
look what it says here now back over in our text. He said he
was returning, going back down to Ethiopia, and he was sitting
in his chariot, and he was reading Isaiah the prophet. And you know
the scriptures then were in scrolls. They were in scrolls that opened
this way. And Jews read from left to right. The Jewish Bible
is written from left to right. Hebrew is written from left to
right. Right to left, excuse me. Backwards to what we do.
Right to left. And here they are, they're sitting,
he's sitting here reading. And you know a scroll was very,
very expensive. And so he had bought a scroll.
The scroll of Isaiah. Sixty-six chapters. It'd be a
great big scroll. And he had roped that thing up
and he had got down to the 53rd chapter. And he was sitting there
reading and they read aloud. When they'd read the Scriptures,
they'd read aloud. And oh beloved, and he didn't find God in Jerusalem. But he found the book of God
in Jerusalem. He found God's blessed book.
He found some of God's precious word. And then look what it says
here. And it says, the spear said unto
Philip, go near and join yourself to that chariot. See that chariot? There's this fellow going there.
He said, get up close to him. Get up close to him. Go get close
to that chariot there. And get close to Him. Go jump
and get near to that thing. Now, here's the preacher again.
Oh, what's this preacher going to do? What's he going to say?
I could just hear a soul winner here. Have you accepted Jesus
yet? Are you a sinner? I am. You want
to go to heaven? You want to go to hell? Oh, I
want to go to heaven. Well, I tell you what, if you'll just confess
you're a sinner and say, I accept Jesus into my heart and pray
this prayer after me, he said, you'll be alright and just go
on home. No, no. And so Philip, it says there
in verse 30, Philip ran and heard and he joined and got too close
to him and he began to hear him read. See, he was reading out
loud, hearing him read. He was reading the prophet Isaiah
and he said, you know, he's listening to my street and he says, You're
reading this, but do you understand what you're reading? Oh, I wish
somebody... You know, you find very few people
say, I don't understand what I'm reading. I don't understand
the Scriptures. Every mother's son's already
got his opinion about it. He's already decided what he
knows about it. I'll tell you, I know a preacher. You know,
tell me a preacher. But oh, somebody say, do you
understand? Do you understand the book of
God? Do you understand the scriptures?
Do you understand what God's book says? And then look what
he said here. Understand what you read? And he said, how can I? Oh, what
a blessing. How can I? Except some man should
guide me. I'm just reading words on a page
right now. But how can I except some man
guide me? People want to make little of
preachers? Well, I'll tell you what, if you make little of a
preacher, you're not going to get very little from God. He
said here, do you understand how can I except some man should
guide me? I can't understand this book.
Somebody needs to tell me what it's saying. Somebody who knows
what it says. Somebody who understands it.
Somebody who understands this message needs to tell me what
I'm reading here. And oh beloved, the value of
the Word of God, the value of a preacher, the sin of God, there's
no way in the world you can calculate what it will be worth in eternity.
I cannot tell you the worth and value of preachers that I've
known and the messages that they've preached to me over the years.
How invaluable is Pastor Henry Mahan to my soul? How invaluable
has his preaching been to me? How invaluable has Scott Richardson's
preaching been to me? How invaluable has Maurice Montgomery's
preaching been to me? How invaluable has these men's
message been to me as they took the Scriptures and preached to
me? Boy, what this is, is grace going
before grace. Here's God without a preacher
in Samaria. Here's God got one of his sheep
way down here in the desert on the Gaza Road. God takes his preacher and goes
down here and this fellow's sitting reading the Bible, reading Isaiah
53. And why is God, he says, grace
is going before grace. Here's this guy, God's going
to do something for this fellow, but he's already started working
with him. He's sitting reading the Scriptures. He wants some
understanding. Grace going before grace. God
the Holy Ghost preparing the soil before in the heart. And
you know what he does? He makes him ready and willing
to listen. Now, how can I? I don't know anything. I'm ignorant. I'm ignorant. He's ready and
willing to listen. Then look what he said here.
He desired Philip, here in verse 31. How can I accept some man
should guide me? He desired Philip. Come up here and sit with me. Come up here and sit with me.
And you know where the two verses of scripture he's quoting from
here. Is Isaiah 53, 7 and 8. And the place of the scripture
which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter. And like a lamb dumb before his
shearer, so open not his mouth. He never bleated, never made
a sound. And in his humiliation, his judgment
was taken away. Nobody stood up to thaw him and
say, don't do this to him. And who declare his generation?
For his life is taken from the earth. And the last part of verse
8 is, and for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And oh beloved, and it says,
now watch what he asked him here. And the eunuch asked him there
in verse 34. And the eunuch answered Philip
and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet? Who's this
prophet talking about? Of himself or some other man? Oh, what a question. He knew
that this prophet was talking about a man. He's talking about
a lamb. A lamb led to slaughter. A lamb led before his shears.
A man taken away in humiliation. A man's judgment coming down
on him. A man, beloved, who was stricken for the transgression
of people. And he said, who is this man
talking about? Is he talking about himself? Is he the lamb?
Is he the one stricken? Is he the one in humiliation,
judgment, taken away? Or is it some other man he's
talking about? Now, I tell you, beloved, the Jews believe, and
they still do, that Isaiah 53 concerns Jeremiah, or else it
concerns themselves as a nation, as their humiliation will be
taken away. And their judgment will be taken
away. But, oh, beloved, he knew it was about a man. He knew that
that lamb led to slaughter was a man. But, oh, man, now listen
to what he says. Listen to what now Philip began
to do. In verse 35. Here's the message. The preacher's
got a message. And that's how you can tell if
he's sin of God. What's his message? What's he going to tell you?
What's he going to say? Then Philip opened his mouth
and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus. Now I'm telling you something,
beloved. He started at that very place. And he began to preach
unto him the Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell you what, the first
thing I know he told him was, that this has already taken place.
This is not something that's going to happen. This is something
that's already happened. Christ was the Lamb of God that
was slain. Christ was the one who was taken
away in humiliation. Christ was the one who was judged.
Christ was the one who no one declared his generation. Christ
was the one who was, for the transgression of my people, was
stricken. And you know, in beloved preaching, now listen to what
I'm going to tell you. Preaching is the relation between the Scriptures
and Christ. If we don't get Christ out of
the Scriptures, and that relation of Christ to the Scriptures started
with that Scripture, and what did he do? He preached Christ
from that. The preaching is the relationship between the Word
of God and the Lamb of God. If we can't take the Word of
God and show the Lamb of God, and show the Lamb of God in the
Word of God, we're not preaching. Oh, we show the relation between
the written Word, that's this, and the living Word. If you ever
see Christ the living Word, you're going to see Him in the written
Word first. And when you see Him in the written Word, you'll
see He's the living Word, the One by whom you're converted.
It's the relation between the record that God gave concerning
His Son, and showing you the Son that's on the record. And
oh, beloved, when he began to preach unto him the Lord Jesus
Christ, there's no doubt about it, that he told about our Lord's
birth. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ
was born of a virgin. He said, this man that was the
Lamb of God, John told about, behold, the Lamb. And our Lord
Jesus Christ, here is Philip talking to him, and Philip saying,
you know, the Lord Jesus Christ was born of Mary, And he was
born of the Holy Ghost, and do you know he lived a sinless life,
and he was despised, he was rejected, he was wounded, he was hated,
he was despised, and yet he never committed any sin, he never offended
anybody, he pleased God all the days of his life, he honored
God all the days of his life, he exalted his Father all the
days of his life. And then he talked about how
that they came and brought him and put him on trial and hired
people to lie about him. And then, beloved, they took
him and brought him and nailed him to a cross. And he told about
why he was nailed to that cross. You see, he said, see here where
it says, for the transgression of my people, was he stricken?
He was stricken for a particular people. He wasn't smitten and
stricken for everybody, he was smitten and stricken only for
his people. God's people. And then he began
to preach God's electing grace. He didn't turn around and say,
now listen, let me tell you, God loves you and Jesus died
for you. No, he sat right before him,
right off the bat, the electing grace of God. Christ was stricken
for the transgression of my people. Huh? Oh, he didn't kiss him on
the neck since God loves you and I do too. No, no. He talked about what
his death accomplished. That he put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. That he bore the judgment due.
All those sins for all those people for whom he was stricken.
And that by His death, He conquered sin. He conquered judgment. He
conquered everything that was against God's people in His death
on that cross. And was raised again from the
dead to prove that He was the Man-Sin of God. Oh my! Now, I tell you, He preached
Christ unto him. And I tell you, they went on
telling how long they went on. It might have been an hour. It
might have been two hours. It might have been a half a day. I don't
know how long it was, but I know, beloved, look what happens. Now
look what happens. Oh, after he had preached Jesus
Christ unto him, and as they went on their way, they came
unto a certain water. Look at his confession of faith
now. This fellow is going to confess his faith. Philip didn't
ask him, are you going to believe? Philip didn't beg him to believe.
Philip didn't... No, no, watch this. They went
on their way and they came unto a certain water. And the eunuch
said, see, look here, there's water right here. What doeth
hinder me to be baptized? Ah, and Philip said, If thou
believest with all thy heart, he mayest. And he answered, I
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Oh my. How in the world did this faith
come to him? How did this faith come to him? Faith cometh by hearing, hearing
by the Word. Now, you know, this is what I
preached last Sunday morning. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. How shall they call on Him in
whom they have not believed? How shall they believe in Him
of whom they have not heard? How shall they hear without a
preacher? And how is that preacher going to preach except to be
sent? So then, faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word
of God. Here's the preacher. Just imagine you heard Christ,
the preacher was sent, and he believed what he heard, and he
believed what Philip said. He believed the gospel, he believed
Christ. This is one lost sheep. This preacher was sent from wherever
the Bible was going on to preach to this one person. And here
he says, here's water. Here's water. He understood that
you confessed your faith in Christ by water baptism. You know, there's
places in this world, down in Mexico, Catholicism is so strong
down there. And I mean, it ain't nothing
like Catholicism in America. It's dark, superstitious, pagan
to the highest degree. And if you Become what they call
an evangelical down there. And you confess faith in Christ
and you get baptized. That's almost like you becoming
a devil to everybody in Mexico or in your community where you're
at. That's the awfulest thing can happen to you, confess faith
in Christ, by being baptized. You're born into the church,
you're raised in the church, and your priest's got to do everything
for you. And when you finally hear the
gospel, and then you say, the priest or the church can't do
nothing for me, only Christ can do something for me. They think
you've done lost your mind. You'll be cut off. Huh? And oh, beloved, that's why we
don't have too many people confessing while understanding what baptism...
I mean, it's saying, I'm breaking with my past life. I'm breaking
with my self-righteousness. I'm breaking with my false profession.
I'm breaking with my religion. I'm breaking with my sin. I'm
coming to Christ and I want to confess Him in water baptism. I want everybody in this world
to know that I confess my Lord and my Savior. And he says, what
hinders me? What would keep me from confessing
my faith in Christ? And, oh, beloved, he said, this
is the only thing you've got to know. This is it. One thing. I'm not going to set you in front
of the church and make you go through the catechism or anything
like that. No, no. Philip said, if you believe,
now listen to this, with all your heart, For with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made. And the answer said, here's his confession, I believe
that Jesus Christ, that's both his titles, Jesus, Savior, the
Son of Man, Christ, the Anointed One, the One appointed, Son of
God, and the Son of God, God's Son come into this world. God's
Son who you just preached to me. I believe that this Jesus
Christ that was crucified. This Jesus Christ that was this
lamb taken to the slaughter. This Jesus Christ who was stricken
for the transgression of my people. I believe that's the very Son
of God Himself. And watch what happens. Stop
this chariot right now. Stop! And watch what happens. They went down both into the
water. Went down both. Philip and the
eunuch. And Philip baptized. The fellow
didn't baptize himself. And didn't I tell you what? It
says they went down into the water. It didn't say they stood
at the edge of the water and he filled water up on him and
sprinkled it. They went down into Down in two. He was immersed. He wasn't sprinkled. He didn't
give us some water and pour it over his head. They both went
down into that water and he baptized him. And baptism is his confession
of his relationship to Christ. And oh, listen, you reckon this
fellow enjoyed his salvation after that? Look what happens
in verse 39. And when they were come up out
of the water, they had to crawl back and they had to get up out
of the water just like when we used to go to the baptism down
to the river, everybody go in there and get up out of the water.
We'd come, we had to walk back out, clothes wet. What's this? And when they were come up out
of the water, the Spirit of the Lord called away Philip, said,
Philip, you need to go someplace else. And the eunuch never saw
him ever again. And that, he went on his way rejoicing. He had something to rejoice about
now. He understood what God said now.
He understood who Jesus Christ is. He understood what Jesus
Christ did. He understood who Jesus Christ
did it for. And he understood where Jesus
Christ is now. He enjoyed it. They never saw
one another again. That goes to show you. That is the message that God
uses. Oh, this keep us from creature
worship. But he went on his way rejoicing. And oh, he had heard
that joyful sound. Psalm 89.15 says they heard that
joyful sound, that joyful sound of the gospel. This day, this
day he heard the gospel of his salvation. The gospel became
the gospel of his salvation. Have you ever heard the gospel
of your salvation? And then look right here what
happened with Philip. The preacher, here we got the preacher, we
got the sinner, and we got the salvation. And Philip was founded
at the age of souls. What did he do? Did he quit preaching
then? He went back and told everybody, he said, I want a soul in Jesus
today. I want a soul in today. I want
one in Jesus. No, no. He continued on his way
being led of the Lord. And watch what, passing through,
he preached in every place he went. Wherever he went, he went
preaching. Until he came back to Caesarea. And then look what, this great
man, this powerful man, this treasure. I tell you something,
he didn't come to Christ as this powerful man. He didn't come
to Christ as this great man. He didn't come to Christ as a
treasurer of Candace, nor of Ethiopia. He came to Christ as
a sinner in need, and he acknowledged his need. I don't understand,
except you guide me. Tell me who this man is talking
about. I don't know anything. I'm ignorant. And he didn't come
as a great man or a powerful man or a man of authority or
a rich man. He came as a sinner. Huh? He confessed his ignorance, he
confessed his need, he confessed his faith by his baptism. Huh? Oh boy. How can I? Except some men guide
me. Well, we got all three of those
things today. We got a preacher. There are some sinners. May there be some salvation. Our Father, in the gracious,
blessed name of the Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for your gospel. Thank you for your word. Thank
you for the blessed, blessed truth of Christ. God bless the
word to the heart, to the understanding. God save you people in this place.
And if there's any here who believes in their heart that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God, I pray that you'd move upon them to confess
as it seemeth good in your sight. We ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen. Amen.