Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Acts chapter eight. The name of the message is Philip
and the Eunuch. Lord willing, we're gonna finish this chapter
today. Lord willing. We come to now the narrative
of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch, and this passage of narrative
before us plainly states the purpose of God in the salvation
of his chosen people through the merits of the Lord Jesus
Christ in him alone. See, we are not saved by anything
in us, by anything we can do, by anything we can say. We are
saved by grace through Christ alone, plus nothing by us. If there was anything we could
do to save ourselves, then why would Christ come to this earth?
Right? And you ever think of this? God
can't die. So God becomes a man so that
he can die in our room and place. Isn't that amazing? The word
of God, the second person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we are delivered from spiritual darkness under the preaching
of his gospel, the gospel that's all about him, all about Christ. It's Christ-centered gospel.
Now folks preach a man-centered gospel in this world and that's
not the gospel. I will not stop saying that because
I was caught up in that stuff. Anything that adds something
you have to do to salvation is not the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We are either saved by Christ
in him alone or we're not saved at all. She said, well, that's pretty
strong language. Well, that's what Paul preached.
And that's what Peter preached. And that's what John preached.
And that's what Philip preached. That's what Spurgeon preached.
That's what Jim preached before I came. I come here, I preach
the same gospel, right? My, oh, my. Let's stand up and read part
of what we're going to look at today, which is verses 26 to
31. I want us to stand up and read this portion together. Acts
chapter 8, verses 26 to 31. And the angel of the Lord spake unto
Philip, saying, Arise and go toward the south. unto the way that goeth down
from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went,
and behold, a church, or eunuch, queen of the Ethiopians, who
had the charge of all her treasure, had come to Jerusalem for to
worship, 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. And Philip ran thither
to him, and heard him read the prophet Isaiah, and said, Understandest
thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except
some man should guide me? And he desired that Philip, that
he would come up and sit with him. My. Wonderful, isn't it? Wonderful.
I've got nine points. Somebody says, well, this is
going to be a short sermon. I've got nine points. Nine points. Do you want to write them down?
You can? Nine points. Here are the nine
points. I'm going to go over them quick,
and then we're going to look at them one by one. Number one,
our Lord's obvious purpose in the salvation of this Ethiopian
eunuch. Number two, our Lord's ordained
preacher was sent to accomplish God's purpose. Number three,
our Lord's appointed time and place in the salvation of this
eunuch. Number four, our Lord's divine
providence in all the events surrounding the life of this
man from Ethiopia. Number five, the preparation
of his heart to receive Jesus Christ and his gospel. Number
six, the message of Christ from the Old Testament, prophet Isaiah,
and the preaching of Philip, a New Testament gospel preacher,
are one and the same, same message. I'm gonna go over each of these
as we get to them, too, if you wanna write them down, but I'm
just gonna give you an overview right now. The enlightening power
of God under Philip's preaching, which is you must be born again,
regeneration, of the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Number eight, the positive proof plainly set forth in Acts chapter
eight of the Ethiopian eunuch's conversion to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And number nine, our Lord's continual purpose, plan,
and means for the salvation of his chosen, blood-bought, promised
children was manifested through the gospel that Philip preached
and that the eunuch embraced. Okay, that's a lot, isn't it?
That's a lot. My prayer is that God, the Holy
Spirit, give us an understanding of these scriptures. This is
a precious portion of scripture. A lot of us will be familiar
with it, even the children, because this is often taught in Sunday
school classes and stuff like that. We probably all heard it.
Well, I didn't. I was a heathen. If you were
in church, you probably heard it. When you were younger, you
probably heard it. And my prayer is that God would
be honored, praised, and glorified through the preaching of this
portion of scripture, just like any other message, that he'd
be glorified. And remember, Christ is God's unspeakable gift. He's God's gift to us, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who ransomed, ransomed our eternal souls. And how did
he do that? How'd he do that? Someone tell
me. By dying on the cross, amen.
Shedding his blood, eh? And the ransom price that God
demanded, Christ made. For the sins of all his elect,
of all the ages. A number that no man can number. Hey, Brother Brian, we were talking
about that on Friday. A number that no man can number.
Out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. More than the sand on the seashore. Now if we can't go to the sea,
just go to the Great Lakes and look at, you pick up a handful
of sand. Do you know how many little grains
of sand are in just that little handful? Oh my. A multitude that we can't even
number. The Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed. We don't know who
they are. But he does. He knows every one of them. Okay,
so the first point is this. Our Lord's obvious purpose in
the salvation of the Ethiopian eunuch. Look at verse 26. And the angel of the Lord spake
unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south, unto the
way that goeth down into Jerusalem, unto Gaza, which is desert. He's sending him to the desert. Now, Philip, he doesn't know
why, but he doesn't say, Well, Lord, I'm not sure that's where
I'm supposed to go, does he? Nope. Nope. So this wonderful scripture set
before us shows us that it's God's purpose. Philip doesn't
know why. It's God's purpose for Philip
to go to Gaza. Right? He's sending that preacher
to a specific place, to a specific place. a desert region of Gaza. And Philip didn't just suddenly
decide, well, it might be interesting to take a little trip. I think
I'll go to Gaza. He didn't do that, did he? God
sent him there with purpose. Do you know that there was a
day, if the Lord saved you in this church or wherever church
the Lord saved you, there was a day that you walked into a
church or heard a message online or heard a message through the
radio, if that's how the Lord saved you, or were driving down
the car after you heard a message, but you were in that exact place
due to the purpose of God. How do we know that? Because
our God is a sovereign God. And he will have his preachers
cross paths with his lost sheep. It could be downloading the message
from the internet. It could be sitting in church.
It could be a saint talking to you, telling you about Christ. Oh, my. Faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by what? The Word of God. Oh, my. Sister Ann, why did you bump
into Jim and Barb in Florida? It was all part of the purpose
of God. And they said, hey, there's this preacher in Elmont. It was
Jim, wasn't it? That was all purpose by God.
You meet on the beach. And they tell you, there's a
man preaching the gospel there. Isn't that amazing? Oh my gosh,
it's absolutely incredible. God's so good, and here you are.
My oh my. It's just amazing. So there's a lost sheep. There's
a lost sheep down in Gaza. Oh my. And it's God's appointed
time for the path of that blood-bought lost sheep and the path of his
ordained preacher to cross. And it's all purposed by God.
Just as much as what happened to you in Canaan is purposed
by God. Isn't that amazing? Oh my. God will send a preacher to where
his lost sheep are. He will send a preacher. Or he'll
send a preacher to preach to his sheep. Yes, he will. I told you many times, Norm Wells
said, the only reason you're in Elmont is because there's
sheep there. Here we are. Isn't that amazing? There was a lost sheep who'd
been ordained to eternal life, scripture says, right? People
say, well, what do you mean ordained to eternal life? Well, God chose
them in Christ before the foundation of the world. That's what the
scripture says. That's not my opinion. And even Paul said,
or Luke wrote in Acts, that as many as were ordained to eternal
life believed. That's speaking of the Gentiles,
and they were glad. This is for us too, it's not
just for the Jews. Praise be to God. Number two. We see in verse 27,
our second point, our Lord's ordained preacher was sent to
accomplish God's purpose. We'll read verse 27 and 28. And
he rose and went, and behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of
great authority. under Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians,
who had charge of all her treasure and had come to Jerusalem for
the worship. So this man, this man was an Ethiopian. He'd been
converted to Judaism. He's probably a proselyte, right,
to Judaism. And he's coming to Jerusalem
to worship. And this is not just any ordinary man either. This
is the man in charge of the treasury. Now, that's a great honor. That's a great honor. And he's not just the treasurer
of a small governor. He's the treasurer of the queen
of the Ethiopians, Candace. He's a man of great responsibility.
So know this, too, that this man would not be traveling alone.
this man would have an entourage with him. He'd have guards, armed
guards, and chariots with him. There'd be people following along,
maybe servants of his or just people who work with him. So he's not just running around
in one chariot here. No, and when you travel through
the desert like that, you had to have armed guards with you,
because there was robbers everywhere. And they would fall, if they
saw one or two chariots, they'd fall upon that, they'd kill the
folks and take everything they have. But he would travel, being
the man of this authority, he probably had soldiers even from
Candace's army with him. And look what it says here. was
returning and sitting in his chariot and read Isaiah the prophet. Oh my. So here's this man. Here's this man. He's riding
along in the chariot. A man of great authority. And Philip sent to him. And Philip
just didn't sit. He went. He went. God sent him, and he went. Look at, let's read verse 26,
27, 28. And the angel of the Lord spake
unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the
way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And
he arose and went. He didn't even hesitate, did
he? He didn't say, well, I'm not sure. No, I don't know. Remember Jonah? I don't want to, Lord. I'm going
to go the other way. Philip didn't do that. He just
yielded to the Lord's will, didn't he? Oh, my. He went. He rose and went. And
behold, a man of the Ethiopians, a eunuch of great authority under
Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her
treasure. This guy's an important fellow,
like I said. And had come to Jerusalem for the worship. Was
returning and sitting in his chariot and read Isaiah the prophet. Oh my, so we see that God has
sent his preachers to cross paths with this eunuch. And the eunuch's
reading the book of Isaiah. And we find out he's reading
Isaiah 53. Philip rose and went, didn't
even hesitate. So it's obviously that Philip
was one of God's ordained preachers. Our Lord Jesus Christ spoke to
him, told him to go to the desert region, and Philip went. Okay, Lord, that's where you
want me to go. And Philip was not an apostle,
but he was one of our Lord's appointed deacons, and one of
his ordained preachers. And as we looked at earlier in
the chapter, Philip had went to Samaria, and the advance of
the gospel was great there, wasn't it? Many were saved. Many were
saved. So he was in the midst of that
still. And God said, you need to go
to Ganesha. He didn't say, well, there's
such a wonderful work going on here. That's of God, right? God can still work that without
a preacher being there, right? He'd just raise up another preacher,
won't he? Oh, yeah. Oh my, don't put so much emphasis
on the preacher. We're just men preaching the gospel of grace.
I had someone ask me one time, well, if you left, not here,
but out west, we were talking, we were looking through John
chapter 10, and they said, well, if you dropped dead with the
church out there, if you dropped dead, what would happen? And
I said, God just raise up another preacher. That's all, you know, it's not
complicated, really, is it? God will raise up a preacher
and he'll put them where he wants to put them. He brought me here.
And here we are. Isn't that amazing? So God's preachers, we obey the
call and we go wherever God sends us, wherever God sends us. They'll obey because all the
work that took place was on God's account. Right? It's all on his account. The
salvation of the Ethiopian eunuch, even, is all on God's account. And remember this, too. Think
of this, too. Here's that Ethiopian eunuch.
He's going through the desert. But God's plans won't be thwarted,
right? There's a time of love when that
man, the Ethiopian eunuch, is going to meet a preacher of God.
And God, the Holy Spirit, is going to regenerate that eunuch
and give him faith to believe. And we're going to see that.
And then after he believes, he says, well, what doth hinder
me to be baptized? That's why we call believers
baptism. A little baby can't believe, can he? No. No, you must be born again. You
must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. and thou shalt be saved. Isn't that wonderful? Oh my. Our next point is our Lord's
appointed place and time in the salvation of this eunuch. Look
at verse 27 again. And behold, a man of Ethiopia
and eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians
who had charge of all our treasure and had come to Jerusalem for
the worship. God's timing is always perfect timing. Philip
could not have been late. And the eunuch could not have
been early. Always remember this. There's
no such thing as chance in the salvation of God's people. There's
no such thing as chance in this world. Okay? Let's just strike that away like
luck. No, somebody says, well, you
were lucky. No, God protected me. I believe in His providence.
And somebody says, well, I ain't being nitpicky. No, I ain't being
nitpicky, because I used to believe in that stuff before. Now I know.
Now I know that God's sovereign. Brother Neil, when you were under
that cow and he was stomping around, that wasn't luck you
got out of there. That's the providence of God.
It wasn't your time to die. But that cow could have killed
you. But look what? Here you are today. Isn't that
amazing? Oh, my. Brother Brian, you could
have died in that car, that car accident you and your friends
were in when you went off the road. Or that other one when you came,
Brian came over a hill. And here's a dump truck and a
car in the middle of the road, right? Here's Brian today by the providence
of God. And I'm sure each one of us can
look in our lives and see a time when similar things happened.
And here we are. Well, we have an appointment
with death. We're not going to escape that appointment. But we're not
going to die until that appointment. My oh my, what peace that gives
God's people. And then when we die, it's not
death to die. You know that? Not for the believer. It's life. Eternal life. It's wonderful,
I'll tell you. So this, Philip couldn't have
been late, and the Ethiopian unit couldn't have been early.
Or they'd have missed the appointed time, right? You ever think of
that when you read this? I never thought of that until
I was putting this message together on Tuesday, and I'm like, oh
my gosh. They couldn't have, it was God's
perfect timing, beloved. Because they're meeting in the
desert, in the middle of nowhere. But it's God's perfect timing. Oh my. Our great God, our sovereign
God had appointed their paths to cross. He purposed it. He
purposed their paths to cross. So marvel at the fact that this
couldn't have happened unless God purposed it. See, we're not saved by accident.
We're saved on purpose. Isn't that wonderful to think
about, sister? It's wonderful, isn't it? We're
saved on purpose. By God's purpose. And we're receivers of this grace
and mercy. We're born again by the Holy
Spirit of God, given faith to believe, and do we willingly
go to Christ? Absolutely. Only because we've
been made willing. And that's glorious. Who does
that give all the glory to? Someone tell me who that gives
all the glory to. Christ. Amen, brother Travis. God gets
all the glory, don't he? We're just receivers of mercy
and grace. That's all we are. And it's glorious. Because there
is nothing special in us at all. There's no merit in us at all.
God didn't look down through time and see who would choose
him and then chose him. No, he didn't do that. He chose
us in Christ when we were dead in trespasses and sins. And the
scripture says, this is the scripture says this, before the foundation
of the world. Sister, if it was before the
foundation of the world, do we have anything to do with it?
Amen. It's all mercy. All mercy, all
grace. That's all it is. And it's wonderful. It's wonderful. Hmm. So now let's bring this God honor
and truth and how it applies to us too. Like Isaac, according
to the time of life, right? Isaac was born according to the
time of life. Sarah laughed when God told her,
told Abraham they were going to have a child. But Isaac was
born at the exact time, right? That God had purposed. And our Lord, he brings his lost
sheep under the preaching of his gospel by one of his ordained
preachers at his appointed time and place, and they're regenerated,
born again of the Holy Spirit of God, and he delivers them. Right there. He delivers them
from the power of darkness, and he translates us into the kingdom
of his dear son. Into his eternal kingdom. all by the preaching of the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of God, the Holy Spirit. Which brings us to our next point,
number four. See, I told you it wouldn't take
us long to get through these. Our Lord's divine providence in all
things surrounding the life of this eunuch, this man from Ethiopia. Here's some interesting truths
concerning the Ethiopian eunuch. that we should pay close attention
to. Number one, the Ethiopian eunuch
was a man of great authority. God had put him in that position,
hadn't he? God had made him a man of great authority. Now he had
the finances to take a trip from Ethiopia to go to Jerusalem.
Not all Ethiopians could do that, but he had the finances to do
that. And he had charge of all her
treasury. He was a man who was trusted. He was a trustworthy
man. Number two, this man was obviously
a proselytizing to the Jewish religion because he had aligned
himself with those who are under the law of Moses, right? Going
to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. He went there to worship
God. So marvel at our Lord arranging
all these events. Providentially. That's what he
did. And marvel at the fact, too.
He would have had to go to Candace and say, Queen Candace, I'd like
to go to Israel to worship. And she could have said, no,
you're not going. But she gave him permission. Who arranged that? Our king. Who purposed it? Our king. Who had that to come to pass?
Our king. God did it all, didn't he? This
is amazing, I'll tell you why. So the queen gives her servant
permission, and as far as he knows, I'm just going to Jerusalem
to worship. He doesn't know he's not saved. He thinks he's good. Oh my. And so he goes from Ethiopia
all the way to Jerusalem and goes there to worship with the
Jews. And now, now he's leaving Jerusalem and he's heading home
through the desert, through Gaza. And here God has planned and
purposed that his path will cross with one of his ordained gospel
preachers. This man, think of this too,
this man, think of this, this man was just at Jerusalem where
the apostles are. And yet God didn't have their
paths to cross. You know why? Because they weren't
the ordained instrument that God was going to use to preach
the gospel to them. And think of this too, if the
Lord had saved him in Jerusalem, think of then the contention
that he would have faced. Oh my, isn't our God great? Isn't he glorious? He's planned
and purposed this whole thing. And now he's putting his plan
into execution. And Philip was going to be the
ordained instrument that God would use to preach the gospel. And faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. The Holy Spirit would take that
and regenerate that eunuch. And he'll believe. He's gonna
testify that he believes. Oh my, this is wonderful. So
our Lord arranged it so that his promised child would again
be away from the influence of those self-righteous Jews, not
the apostles, but the other Jews that were in Jerusalem at that
time. And even though the eunuch didn't
know it at the time, he was reading about the promised Messiah. He
didn't know. He's reading Isaiah 53 and he
doesn't know. He even asked Philip, who is
this talking about? He doesn't know that it's talking
about the Messiah. I think I've told you, I was
on a plane one time, sitting beside a Jewish fellow, and I
started talking to him about Psalm 23, and being all about
Christ, being about the Messiah, and he says, I don't see that. I don't see that at all. But
I preach Christ to him from Psalm 23. Because he's all through
there. He's the promised Messiah, isn't
he? So he's reading Isaiah 53, he
doesn't understand what he's reading. But all these events
have been purposed by God. They've all been purposed and
planned by God before time began. Remember, God invented time,
didn't he? He dwells outside of time and
space. But all these things being purposed by God, by he who works
all things after the counsel of his own will, see? Whose will
is supreme in this universe? God's will. Our well is bound
to our nature. And if we have a dead nature
that loves sin, all we're going to do is sin. Now we have a new
nature. Now we fight against sin, don't
we? We struggle with sin now. We
hate sin now, but we're still plagued by it. So all this is going to come
to pass. Now our fifth point is the preparation of the eunuch's
heart to receive Jesus Christ and his gospel. Remember the
parable of the sowers? One sowed on stony ground, and
one sowed on thorns and thistles, but one sowed on good ground. Why was the ground good? Because
it was prepared ground, wasn't it? Why we believe and others don't? Because God had toiled the souls
of our hearts, the soil of our hearts, and we didn't even know
it, to receive the Word. It's all His work. It's all His work. And what's
He doing? He's telling the sorrow of this
man's heart. He's reading Isaiah 53. And God's telling the soul of
his heart, beloved. See, because when the seed falls
on good ground, again, that's prepared ground. When Vicki and
I were doing construction work, Our contractor would buy land, so
you'd see these signs, right? Ours was Whittle Construction,
so you'd see a sign, Whittle Construction, nothing done to
the land, just a sign there, sold, Whittle. Oh, he bought
another, we're gonna be building a house there. Come back in two
weeks, now the bulldozers would come out, and they had plowed
the ground and prepared it to receive the concrete pad. Then
the concrete guys come out, put the pad down. Then the framers
would come out, start framing. See, but it was prepared ground,
wasn't it? At first, it was just a normal piece of land, no different
from anything else. And then it was purchased. Ah, it was purchased. And then it was prepared. And
then the house was built. We're stones being made ready,
aren't we? being made ready for heaven,
beloved. Oh, it's all the work of God. It's nothing man does.
It's all the work of God. My, oh, my. Look at verse 28. This is where we see the preparing. This promised child of God, he
was reading Isaiah. He says, was returning and sitting
in his sitting in his chariot, read Isaiah the prophet. My oh my. Look at that. He's returning
back to Ethiopia. He's sitting in his chariot.
And he's reading Isaiah. The eunuch had a great interest
in this. We're going to see later on because of his words. He started
getting interested in this. He doesn't understand who it's
speaking of. But he's got, we see just the fact that he's reading
the word of God, he's got a genuine interest, doesn't he? And he didn't understand what
he was reading, but he was sincerely trying to understand. And the Holy Spirit was using
what he was reading to prepare his heart for what Philip was
gonna say to him. And let us remember this, only God can deal
with the heart. He's the only one who can deal
with the heart. He's the only one who prepares
the heart to receive the word. When I was in religion, man, I look back and I've apologized
to my kids for how I was. because I had zeal without knowledge. And now when they ask me questions,
I just present Christ to them. Back then it was always about
something they had to do. Now it's all about what Christ
has done. And that's what we present. So only God can deal with the
heart. Now look at this, the message
of Christ, this is our sixth point, the message of Christ
from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah and the preaching of Philip,
a New Testament gospel preacher, are one and the same. What did
Christ say? He said the law and the prophets
say what? Testify of me, right? He testified of Christ. This
Bible is an H-I-M book. Him. Him being Christ. It's all about Christ. I've been
listening to a study by one of our brothers on Revelation, and
he said this, he said, what's the first thing when you talk
to people, when you talk to people about the book of Revelation,
what's the first thing that usually pops in their mind? It's either
the end times, it's a book about the end times, or it's about
the Antichrist. It's about Christ. Do you know that the word apocalypse
means unveiling? The book of Revelation is an
unveiling of Christ, Christ revealing himself. That's what it's about. Now,
are we in the end times? Yeah. You know how long we've
been in the end times? Since Christ died. We're in the end times. We've
been in the end times for 2,000 years. People say, well, how can you
say that? Well, think of this, too. If one day is like 1,000
years to the Lord, right? He's only been gone two days. Not very long, is it? Long time for us as humans. but
not a long time for our king. And the book of Revelation, like
all other books in the Bible, is all about Christ. It's all
about him. And it's marvelous. It's marvelous,
beloved. And so the message of the Old
Testament saints and prophets is the same message we have today
from God's ordained preachers. Look at this in Acts chapter
8 verses 29 to 35. Then the Spirit said unto Philip,
Go near and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither
to him, and heard him read the prophet Isaiah, and said, Understandest
thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except
some man should guide me? How can I understand this? He
said, And he desired filled that he would come up and sit with
him. The place of the scripture which
he read was this, he was led to the sheep as a slaughter,
and like a lamb done before a shearer, so he opened 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 asked Philip,
and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this, of
himself or some other man? He doesn't have a clue who the
prophet's talking about. He has no idea. Did we have any
idea before the Lord saved us who the preacher was talking
about? We may have heard the name Jesus, but did we really
know who he was? I didn't. And look at this. Now I'll tell
you what, let us always remember this. Paul, John, Peter, James, all
the apostles, all the saints after preached from the Old Testament. The New Testament was being written. They preached Christ. When you
see the scriptures, that's the Old Testament. And we have the
whole. We have the whole. They only
had the Old Testament. But look, who does Philip preach?
I love this. Then Philip opened his mouth
and began the same scripture and preached unto him who? Jesus,
the Messiah, the sent one of God, sent to save his people
from their sins. Oh, this is wonderful. And our
Lord Jesus Christ sent Philip to preach his gospel to this
Ethiopian eunuch. who was a common person. And
he has no ability to understand the things I read, he said. See,
without the Holy Spirit regenerating us, without us being born again,
we have no understanding of the scriptures. None. I've told you before, before
the Lord saved me, I read the Bible and it was paper and ink.
Read portions of the Bible and it was just, I didn't understand
nothing. It was just words. But after
the Lord saved me, man, there was stuff coming off them pages. That book was alive, right? That book spoke to my
heart. Didn't before. I was dead as
a doornail before, spiritually. Then I made it alive, born again. Oh my goodness, Christ died for
me. Praise his mighty name. So the message that Isaiah preached
is the same message that New Testament preachers preach. It's
Christ, in Christ alone. Like all the writers of the Old
Testament, Isaiah wrote of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ
and his sufferings for the salvation of his people. He is the Messiah
sent by God. And Philip was one of God's New
Testament preachers. How do we know that? Well, look
at verse 35. Then Philip opened his mouth
and began at the same scripture and preached unto him, Jesus.
He's one of the New Testament preachers. We see that Christ and him crucified
was the message of the Old Testament, prophets, what they preached,
and it's the message that the Holy Spirit of God moved the
New Testament preachers to preach. The next point I'd like us to
consider is the enlightening power of God under Philip's preaching,
the gospel, the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look
at verses 8, verses 36 to 38. And as they went on their way,
they came unto a certain water, and the eunuch said, See, here
is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? Now, there's a group out there
called the Church of Christ, and they believe you have to
be baptized to be saved. That's a heresy. That's another
gospel. Because anything man has to do,
to be saved is a false gospel. The gospel is all about Christ
and what he's done, not about what we do. We're just receivers
of God's grace and mercy. And how do we know here? Because
if that was the case, Philip would have just taken him and
baptized him, right? But here, look what Philip says to him
in verse 37. And Philip said, if thou believest
with all thine heart, thou mayest. He's saying, if you believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart, you may be baptized. That's called believer's baptism. Isn't that wonderful? See, there's
no saving power in baptism. The saving power is in Christ,
in Christ alone. And look, here, look at this
confession. And he said, I believe! I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. There's his confession. And he
commanded the chariot to stand still, and they went down both
into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized them.
Now look at that. This wasn't a little pond, or
this wasn't a little puddle on the side of the road for him
to sprinkle them. Was it? And the word baptism
means to immerse. It means to sink a ship in the
Greek. So let's see what they did. And he commanded the chariot
to stand still. And they went down both into
the water, both Philip and Enoch, and he baptized them. Look at
that. God is the only one who can deal
with the heart, isn't he? He's the only one who can deal
with the heart. And he does so under the preaching of his glorious
gospel, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he dealt with
the heart of this Ethiopian eunuch, hadn't he? He'd been born again. How do we know he'd been born
again? Well, that confession. I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. And that's a heartfelt confession,
isn't it? He's the only Savior. And Philip preached the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Holy Spirit, by his sovereign
power, regenerated the eunuch, he was born again, and delivered
from the power of darkness. Delivered from religion too,
wouldn't he? Delivered from do, do, do, to already done. It is finished, our King proclaimed
on the cross. If thou believest with all thine
heart, thou mayest. Oh, that's so wonderful. And
this clearly proves that the believers are the only candidates
for baptism. Not babies, right? The only believers. It's wonderful. And the eunuch was a genuine
candidate because he openly stated, I believe that Jesus Christ is
the son of God. My oh my. Here's another truth
concerning God's divine providence that arranged all the events
of the eunuch, the Ethiopian eunuch's conversion to Christ,
which again was out in the middle of a desolate area in the desert.
Our Lord arranged it so that the exact time the eunuch wanted
to be baptized, they came to water. They're in the desert. Isn't God amazing? See, we don't think of that when
we read that narrative, do we? They're in the middle of nowhere.
They come to an oasis. They come to water in the desert. Oh, I love it. And think of this,
too. Those in the caravan, they wouldn't
have left without water, right? So if sprinkling was the method
of baptism, well, they had plenty of water probably in their water
jugs. But it's not the method of baptism. And here we go. that that water
they carry wouldn't be sufficient enough to immerse our dear brother. Baptized again means to immerse.
And our sovereign Lord arranged it so that they came to a certain
water deep enough for Philip to immerse that eunuch. Isn't
that amazing? I never saw that till this week. Isn't that amazing? I saw that
the water was there, but I didn't put the desert and that together,
right? And here, God's timing. What
doth hinder me to be baptized then? Nothing. God's provided, hasn't he? Oh
my. And again, getting baptized and
being immersed is coming out of the water typifies the death,
burial, and resurrection of Christ. In our strongest imagination,
sprinkling cannot typify a burial, right? When we bury someone,
we don't dig a six-foot hole and then just sprinkle some dirt
on them and leave, do we? They're buried. And we put all
that dirt back on top. See, that's why it pictures death,
the burial, and the resurrection of Christ. Oh my. There's no saving power in it
at all. It's an ordinance from the Lord for us to do along with
the Lord's Supper, but it's not a means of grace, and there's
no saving power in it at all. The only grace we get comes from
God. Right? Oh yeah. And then look at verse 39. This
next point, the eighth point, is the proof, the positive proof
plainly set forth in Acts chapter eight of the Ethiopian eunuch's
conversion to Christ. Look at this. And when they came
up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord caught Philip away,
and the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing.
So the eunuch couldn't have come out of the water unless he'd
been immersed in it, right? You see how it just shows us
so clearly? But the point I want to stress
in verse 39 is the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip,
and the eunuch saw him no more. What? Yep. Is anything too hard
for our God? Is anything too hard for our
God? Did not Elijah go up? Yeah, Elijah. Did he not go up, up to heaven? In a chariot? And Elijah watched? Yeah. Elijah watched that chariot
go up. So, could our God take someone
from the deserts in Gaza and place them somewhere else? Can
he do that? That's nothing for him, is it?
And this, he literally is moved somewhere else. You talk about Star Trek, what
was that, beam me up, Scotty, right? There's no beaming up,
it's just boom, boom. Isn't it, this is a miracle. Oh my, and think of this too. Several reasons could be given
for this. Not that Philip would allow it, but the eunuch had
no opportunity to try to reward Philip. No opportunity to show his gratefulness
by maybe giving him money. Nope, the gospel preachers don't
want money. Look at that. We don't preach for money, we
preach because the Lord puts it on our heart to preach. And also the sudden disappearance
of Philip would manifest to the eunuch that the whole affair
that had taken place in his conversion to Christ was all of God. And the Ethiopian eunuch experienced
the miracle of the new birth and was granted faith to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he was baptized. We
see the eunuch went on his way rejoicing. Well, yeah, he would.
He's born again. He's saved. He's redeemed. He
was redeemed 2,000 years ago, our time, but he was
redeemed at the cross, wasn't he? By Christ. And here the eunuch went on rejoicing,
proving that the Ethiopian eunuch was converted to Christ. He rejoiced
in the Lord. And all of God's preachers tell
our hearers not to look at God's preachers. Don't look to us.
I'm just a sinful man preaching the only Savior to sinners, to
other sinners. I'm a saved man. Praise be to
God. I'm telling others where to find bread. There's no hope. There's no hope. There's no hope
outside of Christ. And you know what? There's no
sin. There's no sin that's so terrible that the blood of Christ
can't wash it away. Know that? We're proof of that, aren't we,
beloved? Oh my, the thoughts have passed
through our minds sometimes, before we were saved and even
after. Praise God, it's all under the blood. So we look to Christ
and only Christ, giving him all the glory for what he's done.
And may we leave here rejoicing. Now, the last point has to do
with verse 39 and 40. You might have some questions
after that. He caught up. Where'd he go? Well, let's read verses 39 and
40, which brings our ninth point, the closing point. Our Lord's
continual purpose, plan, and means for the salvation of his
chosen blood-bought, promised children was manifest through
the gospel that Philip preached. He preached salvation only in
Christ. And we're gonna find out, he gets caught up and put
somewhere else, and what's he doing? We're gonna see what he's
doing. Is he wandering around going? I imagine he was amazed at where
he was. Let's read verses 39 and 40.
And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the
Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more, and
he went on his way rejoicing. There's gonna be day, if we're
alive at Christ's return, we're gonna be caught up at the second
coming of Christ. Yeah. And we're gonna either
meet Christ in the air if we're alive when he returns, or we're
gonna meet him at our death, aren't we? Oh my, we'll be carried up to
heaven, beloved. Isn't that amazing? Oh my. It blesses us, doesn't it, Brother
Brian? Oh, man. Even so, come quickly, Lord.
My, but listen to this. When they were come up out of
the wild, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, and that the eunuch
saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip
was found at Azotras, and passing through, he preached in all the
cities till he came to Caesarea. So the Spirit of the Lord caught
away Philip, And he was found at Azotus, which was a city of
the Philistines, about 35 miles from Gaza. What a ride. How did he get there? God took
him there, didn't he? Isn't that amazing? Will God
be able to catch us up when he returns? Be nothing for him,
will it? Nothing. Do you know all the
Christians that were thrown into the Colosseum and eaten by lions
and then went through their bodies and into the ground and all that?
Do you know that God's gonna put every single molecule of
their body back and give them a new body? Is it hard for us to believe
that this happened? Nope. 35 miles away. Just like that. Anything too hard for our God?
Nothing. Nothing. 35 miles away. And this is recorded
for our learning, beloved. For our learning. And what did
Philip do when he passed through Asaltos? And what did he do? He preached
in all the cities till he came to Caesarea. Who did he preach?
Preach Christ, Amen, sister. He preached Christ, didn't he?
That's all he preached. He was swept up, carried away
to this other city, put there, keeps preaching Christ. I don't
know if it was instantaneous. I don't know. It probably was,
knowing the Lord. We don't know. It just tells
us he's caught up and then he's there. Doesn't say he walked,
does it? Our God is amazing. He's an amazing
God, I'll tell you. Oh, may God give me grace to
preach Christ and Him crucified. Salvation only through His redeemed
blood. For as long as I have breath
to breathe and I'm here with you, dear saints, I sure love
you all. It's wonderful to be here. My
goodness, isn't God great? Isn't he just so good? Brother
Neil, can you close us in prayer, brother?