Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Acts chapter 8. We'll continue our study in Acts
chapter 8. And as I said, this message isn't
very long, but it's a portion of the text. And I think I've
only preached on baptism one other time, I think, or maybe
twice. I think when Charlie was baptized, Charlie Zeme, I preached
on that then. Remember old Charlie the farmer?
And I think I preached on it there. But it doesn't come up
a whole lot. Of course, we all practice believer's
baptism. After the Lord saves us, we're
baptized. And this is what's coming up in this text. So the
name of the message is Believer's Baptism. Believer's Baptism. Acts chapter 8. Now last week
we looked at verses 5 to 8, where we saw that Philip went into
the city of Samaria. He didn't go in there and hold
a rally or tell them how to get better. He went in there and
preached Christ, didn't he? That's what he did. And that's
what gospel preachers do. We preach Christ and him crucified,
right? Again, as we looked at in Sunday
school, I thought that was a wonderful portion of scripture to look
at. We need discernment, don't we? And Paul prayed for discernment
for the Philippian believers that they might be able to to
be able to say, well, this person's preaching the gospel, and this
person's not, to know the difference between the two, because as we
saw further down in Philippians chapter one, there's contention,
even amongst the church. So they have enemies without,
and they have enemies even within. One's preaching contention to
add to Paul's bonds, and the other one's preaching out of
love. And they waxed bold because of Paul's bonds, and they're
preaching all the love, those folks. But then there's some
that are preaching like attention, seeking to add affliction to
Paul's bonds, not sincerely preaching. Oh my. But Paul says, I rejoice
whenever the gospels preach. That's what's most important.
And so look at here, look at verse five. Then Philip went
down to Samaria and preached Christ unto them. That's what
he did. Is there any other topic for
us to preach? There's not. See, the whole scripture is all
about Christ, isn't it? Now, there's doctrine in here
for reproof and for rebuke and for edification, but it all centers
around Christ. Even what we looked at in Sunday
school, it said about, without being a fence until the day of
Christ, The only way, and that being to God, not being offensive
to God, the only way we're not offensive to God is to be in
Christ and to be clothed in His righteousness and praise God.
The blood-washed saints of God are clothed in that righteousness.
Isn't that wonderful? And then because of that, we
seek, we desire to walk a holy life, don't we? We don't desire
to go and go crazy out the door. No, that's antinomianism. I don't
even know preachers that preach that. Now, we get accused of
that, because when you say, well, when you say things like this,
when you say, you know, I was talking to a fellow this week,
and they were going off about somebody doing something. And
I said, well, praise God. I said, you won't agree with
this, but I'm going to say it anyways. Praise God my salvation is not
affected by what I do. He kind of looked at me. And
I said, it's in Christ. And I said it right then, too.
That doesn't give me a license to go out and do whatever I want.
Because people often say, if you believe how we believe, you
can just go out and do whatever you want. Just look them in the
face and say, no, that's not true. Do you get convicted when you
sin? You sin more than you want to?
Yeah, we do, don't we? What causes that in us? Because
we didn't feel that way before, did we, before we were born again?
No. It's the Holy Spirit of God. Isn't that wonderful? So here,
Philip went down and he preached Christ. There are a bunch of
unbelievers down there. There are a bunch of, they're half Jews in Samaria. So he goes down there. And remember,
our Lord went through here one time, didn't he? The woman at
the well. And there was a huge revival
there. Many came to the Lord. He said, I must need to go through
Samaria. And that's emphatic in the Greek.
And he had to. Why? Because there's a sheep
that got it that well. But we found out later on in
John chapter 3, there's a whole bunch of sheep in Samaria, isn't
there? Well, some years have passed, and there's more sheep
there. There's even more. Oh my, look at this. Then Philip
went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them.
And the people with one accord, look at that, we've seen those
words, one accord, that means in unity, right? Gave heed unto
the things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles
which he did. For unclean spirits, what miracles happened? Well,
for unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice came out. 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. Not just because of the healings, but because the Lord
saved a whole bunch of folks. Says, look at that. How many? We don't know. We don't know,
but there was a lot of them. Now, let's read verses 9 to 12,
which will be our text today. There is a certain man called
Simon, which before time in the same city used sorcery and bewitched
the people of Samaria. Now, we've seen that word bewitched
before. We've seen that word in our Galatian study, and it
means to put under a spell. Right? Oh my. Paul said, who hath bewitched
you? To the Galatian believers, that
you believe another gospel. Oh my. Look at this. Bewitched the people of Samaria,
giving out that himself was some great one. You ever seen those
false teachers on TV? They think they're something,
don't they? When they're nothing. Right? That Joel Osteen fellow
and Benny Hinn and all those, well now there's a whole new
crop of young guys coming up too. places full of people. They love the praise of man,
don't they? They do. They love them. And
what are they doing? They're only after the money,
aren't they? They're just robbing folks. They're not preaching
Christ to them. I said to somebody the other
day, I said, that Joe Olsteen's a wolf. Oh, you can't say that. Oh, you can't say that. I said,
he's a wolf. He's not preaching Christ, beloved. He may mention Christ. He may
say something, but not very often. But he don't preach the gospel. Oh, no, no, no. So this fellow
here, he bewitched these people by sorcery. And he thought he
was something. Look at this. And then the folks,
look what the folks said here. To whom they all gave heed, from
the least to the greatest, saying, this man is the great power of
God. He's deceived them. What do people
say about the Pope and these false people? Well, they're great
men of God. No, they're not. No, they're not. They're deceivers. Again, remember what we looked
at in Philippians about discernment? Paul prays that the Philippian
believers would be given discernment. I pray that for all of us. Me,
too. All of us. That we'd be given
discernment. To be able to look at something
and go, that's wrong. And listen to what a man's saying and go,
that's wrong. And then listen to something and go, that's right. So if a man's preaching the free
grace of God in Christ, the salvation's in Christ alone, by faith alone,
plus nothing, we can have fellowship with him, can't we? But if another
man's preaching that you're saved by some work you do, so hold
on, that's not the gospel. That's not the gospel. My oh my. Look at this. And to him they had regard because
that of a long time he had bewitched them with sorceries. Look at
this. But when they believed, Philip
preaching the things concerning kingdom of God and the name of
Jesus Christ. So now here, Simon has bewitched
them with sorcery. And here comes Philip and he's
preaching the gospel. Imagine this. They're all taken
up by that fella. They're all thinking, oh, man,
this guy's a man of God. And then Philip comes. This ties
right into what you said that one time at breakfast, brother.
It has to be revealed. Here comes Philip. He's preaching
Christ. And he preaches Christ. And the
same folks that were thinking, well, this is a great man of
God, are now going, this is the gospel. Salvation's only in Christ. He's
preaching the truth. Born again of the Holy Spirit
of God. They heard the gospel. Faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. How shall
they preach, except they be sent? Philip was sent to Samaria, wasn't
he? By God. He's sent there. preaches Christ,
and it's not by any power of his, but the Holy Spirit takes
those words. And there's a whole bunch of
sheep there. They're lost, they're dead in their sins, but then
they're born again. They're born again by the power
of God, the Holy Spirit. And they profess Christ. They
rejoice in Christ. Look at this. How do we know
that? Well, they believe Philip. they believe what he was preaching.
One minute they're idol worshipers, I love this, I love this. One
minute they're Gentile idol worshipers, right, or not Gentile, they're
Sumerians, they're half Jews, they're despised by the Jewish
people, and they're, here they are, one second they don't believe,
and the next second, by the power of God, they believe. They hear. Who gave them ears to hear? God
gave them ears. Who gave us ears to hear? God
did, didn't he? Who gave us a heart to believe?
God did that, didn't he? We have a new heart, don't we?
It's called regeneration, right? And Christ said you must be born
again. We can't make ourselves born again, can we? But God can
regenerate us. God can make us born again. And
he does that. And then when he does that, Do
we willingly go to Christ? We willingly run to Christ, don't
we? Absolutely! Because we've been made willing,
and it's wonderful. It's wonderful. Before that,
we can't exercise our will before that, because we're dead in trespasses
and sins, and our will is guided by a dead nature. So all it wants
to do is sin. Luther has a great book called
The Bondage of the Will, if you can get your hands on it. It's
a wonderful book. So our will's guided by our dead nature. And
then, that's why we have to be born again. Now we have a new
nature. And now you desire, as well as
I do, the things of Christ. And we believe when the preacher
preaches, don't we? By the grace of God. So many
people drive by here every day. People driving by right now don't
have a care in the world. And here you are rejoicing, praising God. You ladies, you get up and sing.
Sing about the Lord. Play the piano for the glory
of God. Why? Because you believe, right? Why do we come here? Why do we gather together? Why
do we give our time and our money to the church for the furtherance
of the gospel? Because we believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ to the saving of our soul. And that's all by the
grace and mercy of God. It's wonderful. So they believed. They believed what Philip was
saying, preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God
in the name of Jesus Christ. And they were baptized, both
men and women. So what happened before they were baptized? What's
that text say? What does that text say before
they were baptized? It says, they believed. I forgot to have us stand up
and read. Let's stand up and read. I know
I already got into it, but let's stand up and read verses 8 to
12 together. It's in my notes and I forgot
to say it, because this is wonderful. But there was a certain man called
Simon. which before time in the same
city used sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving
out that himself was some great one, to whom they all gave heed
from the least to the greatest, saying, this man is the great
power of God. And to him they had regard, because
that of a long time he had bewitched them with sorceries. 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. Isn't that wonderful? Look at
that. So we see the order there, right? That's why we believe
in believer's baptism. They believed. See that text?
It says they believed, and then they were baptized. Can a baby believe? then you wouldn't baptize a baby,
would you? Babies can't believe. They're little. And even young
people. I'll be honest with you. I didn't
really know what sin was until the Lord started working in my
life. I thought sin was something that somebody else did in my self-righteousness. See,
we don't understand sin until God starts to reveal to us who
we are, what we are before him, and our desperate need for Christ.
And we only believe by God-given faith, right? So we see here
in this text that they believe, look at, verse 12 again, but
when they believed, Philip, preaching the things concerning the kingdom
of God, that's key right there, he's preaching the things concerning
the kingdom of God, that Christ died, came to this world and
died for the sins of his people, right, that he was buried, he
rose again. And the name of Jesus Christ, that's
the name that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess.
They were baptized, both men and women. Now, did they know
all the tenets of the faith? Did they know about election
and limited atonement there? Nope. But they believed, didn't
they? Now, I believe that God will
teach us that stuff. But what does the text say? They just
believed on Christ. That's why you're going to hear
me keep preaching. Just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
thou shalt be saved. I'll tell you, that's what's
most important. I've heard even some folks say,
well, you have to believe all these things to be saved. No,
not according to that. They just believed on Christ.
Who did the thief believe in? That thief, he's hanging on that
cross. Did he know any of those precious
doctrines that we hold true? No, he just looked at Christ
and said, Lord, remember me. And what did our Lord say? Today
thou shalt be with me in paradise. Now I'm not saying we can just
go anywhere here, because there's a lot of places that aren't preaching
the gospel. Right? There's just no gospel there.
They either wind you up in law works, or they just don't even
preach the gospel. But I'll tell you what. These
folks, they just believed on Christ. Now, did they grow in
grace? Yeah. Were they taught by the
Holy Spirit, the things of Christ? Yep. Did they probably embrace
some of these wonderful doctrines that we believe? If they lived
and grew, a lot of these folks were being persecuted for their
faith, too, and dying. But if they grew, if they lived
a long life, they would grow, and they would be taught these
precious, precious truths. How do we know that? Because
Paul taught them. Because our Lord taught them. Right? He said, no man can come
to the Father except the Father draw him. What's that? That's irresistible
grace. Then he said, no man can pluck you out of my Father's
hand. What's that? That's perseverance of the saints.
And then Paul wrote, we're doing trespasses and sins in Ephesians
chapter 2. That's total poverty. And then we know God chose us
before the foundation of the world. That's election of grace. See, I don't believe these truths
because Calvin believed them. Calvin just took and put them
together. That's all he did. He taught these truths to his
students, and actually it was after his death that his students
put together the five points, which I believe come from scripture. And it was a response to Arminius,
who had wrote against that, and they responded back. It wasn't
Calvin who wrote that. Calvin bought these doctrines
together. He got it from Augustine. But do we believe everything
Calvin believed? No. Calvin baptized babies. We
don't believe that. But was he a man who loved the
Lord? Of course he was. Luther wanted to reform the Catholic
Church from within. They ended up booting him out. Right? He baptized babies. Was he a saved man? Yeah, I believe
he was. Because he preached the gospel. That was the key thing right
there. Oh my. I don't even, I know some of
my brethren are getting rough about this, but I don't even,
if someone disagrees with me on eschatology, and they're preaching
the free grace of God in Christ, which is end time stuff, I can
have fellowship with them, because the fellowship's in the gospel.
It's in Christ, right? That's what's most important.
Now, well, when they ask me questions, what am I going to say? I say,
well, I don't believe that. I used to, but I don't believe that
anymore. I believe in the present reign of Christ, that he reigns
right now. He's not waiting to come back and reign. He rules
right now on his throne in glory, right? That's scriptural, isn't
it? He's sovereign. He's in charge. He rules and reigns. These folks disbelieved by the
grace of God. How did we believe? by the grace
of God. The gospel is where we find fellowship. Christ is where we find fellowship,
right? Always remember that. That's
the key. But now, the scripture also says there's another Jesus.
And the scripture also says there's another spirit. Well, that other
Jesus is this. God's done all he can do. Now
the rest is up to you. That's not the God of the Bible.
The Jesus of the Bible saves. He came to what? Save his people
from their sins, right? He saved us, didn't he, Brother
Travis? He saved our souls. It's wonderful. So look at, again,
I'm going to read this verse again. 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. They believed,
and they were baptized. Now look, there was a certain
man called Simon who was a false prophet. Some of them say, well,
how do you know he's a false prophet? Later on in the text,
which we'll look at next week, it says he believed, but it wasn't
sincere. It wasn't genuine. You know how
we know that? Because he said, give me this power. I'll give
you money. And we're going to see Peter's response and John's
response to him. My, oh, my. And he was deceived. He liked drawing attention to
himself. You know, he probably really
liked that title that he told and said, oh, you're a powerful
man of God. Oh. I'll tell you what. Any preaching by a God-sent preacher, if it's
a blessing to you, it's because God the Holy Spirit has used
it. We're just mouthpieces. That's
all we are. And I love you guys. I'm so thankful I'm here with
you. But if I was to drop dead, God'd just bring you another
preacher, right? Preach the same message. Right? That's how it is. I'll tell you. It's not dependent upon the preacher.
We're just messengers sent to be with you and fall in love
with you. Have our hearts knit together,
right? But when I breathe my last breath, I'm going to glory. And so are you. If you're a believer,
if you're born again by the Holy Spirit of God, when you breathe
your last breath, you won't give a care about this world ever
again or anything going on in it. Folks say, well, OK, mom and
dad are looking down on us. No, they're not. If they're a
believer, they're so enamored with Christ, they don't want
to look nowhere else. I'll tell you that. And when
you get to heaven, if you're a believer, you get to heaven,
you're going to be so enamored with Christ, too. I believe we're going to know
each other. But we're going to all just be like, Worthy is the lamb that was slain. Worthy is the king. He's worthy
of all praise, isn't he? See, this man liked the praise
of man. So did the Pharisees, right?
God's preachers, we just preach Christ. Give him all the glory.
You get a blessing from the message, give God all the glory. Give
it to him. Oh my, it's wonderful. So even
religious people in our lives and in our times, look at the
Pope. People call him the vicar of Christ, which is supposed
to be the representative of Christ. Well, he's just a false prophet. He preaches workspace salvation.
Actually, they preach that when they baptize that little child,
they're actually part of the church right there. They believe
in what's called baptismal regeneration. So they believe that they're
born again right there. And in the confirmation that
you often hear about, that's just them confirming what their
mom and dad did by sprinkling them, saying, yes, I'm a member
of the church. You know, I went through that, and I didn't have
a clue who God was. I didn't have a clue. Number
one, I got sprinkled. Right? We're going to see later
on Philip with the eunuch. Man, they went down into the
water. And the Greek word baptismal means to sink a ship. Do you
sprinkle a ship to sink it? Right? Get a watering hose on
there. Oh, there, we baptized it. Nope. It means to sink it. That's why
when we're baptized, we go down into the water, which symbolizes
our death with Christ, and we come up out of the water to symbolize
our resurrection with Christ. And it's just symbolic. There's
no means of grace in baptism. There's none. It's just a public
confession Right? These folks were publicly, think
of this too, think of the time, they were publicly confessing,
I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And some, at the cost of their
life probably, didn't care. They believed God. And see, God
gives you grace that way. We don't need dying grace until
we're dying. Right? You ever notice You go
through things, and God will give you strength, and you look
back and go, how did I make it through that? You ever do it? It happens all the time, doesn't
it? Oh, my. It's amazing. I'll tell you why.
So people exalt religious leaders. It's natural for people to exalt
religious leaders. They claim they're some great
one, but really they're deceivers. If they're not preaching the
gospel, I'm going to say it plain and simple, they're deceivers.
That's what they are. And also, men and women, in our
natural state, have a very high opinion of ourselves. See, that
changes when the Lord saves us, right? We're about low. But in
our natural state, we have a very high opinion of ourselves. And
we tend to boast of our doings. even sometimes degrees that people
hold. And I'm not against learning
at all. I'm not against that at all. But some people can get
pretty holly sometimes when they get a certain thing or certain
stuff. I talked to someone and they said, well, I can't work.
I stopped by Oregon McDonald's. He said, well, job over? I can't
work over there. I've got the degree. Really? Oh, my. See? But religious people, they want
to tell you about the ministries they're involved in or how many
souls they supposedly won for Christ. I went to this guy's
website one time. And he said, I won 250,000 souls for Jesus.
Right away, close. I don't need to see that. God's
preachers don't brag about that stuff. Because we know salvation's
of the Lord, right? It's God who does the saving.
If a soul is won to Christ, it's because God won that, moved in
that person's heart. Now, do we still witness? Of
course we do. But this will make witnessing so easy here, too.
You tell someone about Christ and leave it in God's hands.
Isn't that wonderful? You might go back to them, see
them again. You might tell them again. If
the Lord opens the door, hey, let me tell you about this. Vicki
and I were just over at McDonald's this morning. And a guy named
Jay, who I've got to know in town for the last eight years,
and he come over and said hi and met Vicki. And I said, hey,
church is at 1030. Why don't you come over some?
And he goes, well, I don't know if I'd ever do that. And I said,
well, Jay, you're welcome. Come on over. Come hear the gospel. Could be just as simple as that.
Volume of the church. My oh my. Turn if you would to
1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians. You see, God's preachers don't have any
power to save anyone. It's God the Holy Spirit that
has the power. Right? God uses means, so he uses preachers
to preach the gospel, right? Faith commits by hearing, by
hearing by the word of God. And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall he preach except to be sent? But
the power is of God. Is of God. And Some people can be bewitched
and say, oh, he's a great man of God, when they're a false
teacher. Now, we're the highly esteemed
preachers for their work's sake. We're to look at them, though,
as sinners saved by grace. I'm just a sinner saved by grace.
That's all I am. God's given me the ability to
preach, but it all comes from him. As I said in Sunday School,
God makes the preacher. See these people pumping out
preachers in school. You know what I've heard from
a few of them? Well, they say this. Well, there's a job waiting
for me over here. It's not a job. Preaching's not
a job. Preaching's a calling. Why do
preachers quit? A preacher friend of mine out
west, He said, Wayne, do you know why you see these people,
they become a preacher and then they quit? Because God never
called them. I told you, I'm hoping to die
here. Right? Norm and I were talking,
and he goes, I don't think there's retirement in God's preachers
unless we get so old, right, that we can't preach anymore.
Josh said, Dad, you're going to know when it's time not to
preach anymore when you stand up in the pulpit and you say,
Moses said, I forget. And I said, yeah, that would
probably be time for me to stop preaching right there. Right? But God's preachers are sent,
and we're sent to preach, and we're sent to be here. That's
why you don't see me going all over the place. I'm called here. This is where I'm called. My,
oh, my. Look at this in 1 Corinthians.
See, remember this, too. Brother Neal, you plant your
crops. God gives you rain. Right? And God gives the increase,
doesn't he? You can't make that grow yourself.
Now see, there's a lot of lessons in this world. We plant gardens,
flowers, I like flowers. Plant flower garden. You put
the plant in the ground, what happens if you don't water it?
Well, if God don't send rain, that plant's gonna die, isn't
it? So every day we go out there with our hose, and we start watering
the gardens. Vegetable garden, anytime you
start watering your vegetable gardens, right? Tending to it. And then God gives
some rain, too. Nice, nice rain. Not a hard,
hard rain, but a nice, soft rain. And then it increases, right?
Well, you know, some preachers, some preachers, some preachers
plant, some preachers Some preachers water, but God gives the increase. Look
at this, 1 Corinthians 3, chapter three, 1 Corinthians chapter
three, I should have told you there before. 1 Corinthians chapter
three, verses four to seven. For where
one saith, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are
ye not carnal? So again, here we got, like we
looked at in Sunday school, you got some preacher worshiping
going on. Some saying, I'm of Apollos, I'm of Paul. Oh, don't
do that. Whoever preaches the gospel,
just enjoy it. You know, I can get a blessing
from listening to a preacher just starting and to listening
to a seasoned preacher. I can get a blessing from all
and everybody in between. And if I don't get a blessing
from it, if I go, I'm not getting nothing out of that, then the
problem is not with the preacher. The problem is with me. Right? Oh, my. Look at this. For while one saith,
I am a Paul, and another, I am a Paul's, are ye not carnal?
Who then is Paul? Who's Paul? Who's the Paul's? Right? That minister is by whom
you believed, even as the Lord gave to every man. Look at that.
So they preached the word, and God gave them faith. Look at
that. That's what it says there. Even as the Lord gave to every
man. Every one of them that believed, the Lord was the one that gave
them that grace and mercy. The Lord was the one that gave
them that faith. I have planted, Paul is saying this, or Paul
has watered, but God gave the increase. So then it is neither
he that planteth, both preachers, right? So then it is neither he that
planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth
the increase. It's put there twice just for
us to really get a hold of that. It's God that gives the increase. See the message goes out from
here into the internet, right? And God uses it for however he
wants to use it. And it's God who gives the increase,
doesn't it? Isn't it wonderful? Oh my, I'll tell you what. So
let's go back to our text. Let's go back to verse 9. We
see here, Simon used sorcery to bewitch the people of Samaria.
But there was a certain man called Simon, which before time in the
same city used sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving
out that himself was some great one. Now the word sorcery there
means to practice magic. He was called Simon Magnus because
he was a magician. And beloved God, Simon Magnus
had learned the diabolical, John Gill said this, he had learned
the diabolical arts and used enchantments and divination. That's what he used. And diabolic
means devil or of devils. Gill goes on, these diabolical
arts then would be fiendish, devilish deceptions. And then
here comes Philip. And you know Philip preached
the same message that God sent preachers preach today? And what happened? What happened
when we heard the message by the power of God the Holy Spirit?
We believed, didn't we? Sister Carolyn was telling me
how Wayne, Wayne came to Christ. It was amazing. This is for me. And he believed. By God's grace,
he believed. Oh my. These folks believed. By the
grace of God, they believed what Philip said. And we, even by
the grace of God, we've received the spirit of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Holy Spirit, who guides us into all truth, doesn't
he? He guides us into all truth, the truth about Christ, the truth
about God, the truth about our sinister,
the truth about our standing before God after we're saved. Oh my. And the word of God tells
us, you know, it tells us that it's not possible for God's enlightened
children to be deceived. if we're born again. Now, we
can fall into error, but we won't be totally deceived. We won't
be totally deceived. We can be influenced by false
doctrine. And think of this, too. Now,
this is chilling. For those who are in false doctrine,
it was purposed by our Lord Jesus Christ for our spiritual good. So we can say, that's wrong. That's wrong. Praise God he saved
me. Praise God I'm not caught up
in that. Oh my. Even me being in Catholicism
was used by God because now, now I see the difference. One's works and one's grace.
Salvation in Christ alone is all of grace. Salvation in the
Catholic Church is a false gospel. Oh my. And they believe if you
leave that church, you're lost. They actually call us, in the
Council Church, they call us anathema. Damned. Huh? I ain't damned. I'm saved
by the grace and mercy of God. Are you? Praise his mighty name. Praise his mighty name. And a temporary deception, even
that we can fall under sometimes, may be used to reveal to us the
importance of being under the ministry of God's ordained preachers.
That we would grow in grace and grow in the knowledge of our
Lord and Savior. that we would not be tossed to
and fro by every wind of doctrine. By the slight of man. Let's read
verse 12 here. We'll get to this now with baptism. Verse 12, but when they believe
Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name
of Jesus Christ, you can't preach the kingdom of God without Christ. Right? Because it's his kingdom,
isn't it? It's his kingdom. They were baptized both men and
women. Now many who heard Philip preach turned a deaf ear. Turned
a deaf ear. Did not believe. Didn't want
to have nothing to do with it. But some did. Well, one may ask
why. Well, as many as were ordained
to eternal life believed. Why do you believe? Because you
were ordained to eternal life. That's scriptural. That's Acts
13, 48. Some folks say, I don't like that. Well, I love it. Do
you love it? I love that, because I would
never have chosen Christ. I would never have believed unless
the ordainment. How do I know that? Well, there's
none that seeketh after God, Romans chapter 3 says. There's
none that understandeth. No, not one. There's none good. No, not one. Oh my. See what God's rescued
us from? Ourselves, our sins. Oh my, it's
amazing. So marvel at this fact, brethren,
that God has ordained preachers to preach to a particular people. I don't know who they are. I
preach, I preach the gospel here to our dear saints, but I don't,
even amongst us, We don't know. There's wheat and tares, right?
Oh my. So I preach the gospel. God does
the saving. God does the building up. God
does the edifying. Right? But I know this. He ordained
a particular people. He chose in Christ before the
foundation of the world. He chose them to eternal life.
I know that for a fact. That's what the scripture declares.
And they will believe. You know, all those folks who
believed and were Baptists, they were ordained to eternal life.
Lydia was ordained to eternal life, wasn't she? Paul was ordained. Paul, slaying Christians. Paul
was ordained to eternal life. Next chapter, we're going to
see him get knocked off his horse. And he's on his way to murder
Christians. Bring them back in chains. If
they don't get killed, bring them back in chains. And if they
die along the way, oh well. That's the truth. Remember when
we looked at the beginning of this chapter, that he took pleasure,
he took great pleasure. When it says, and Saul was consenting
there, that word consenting in the Greek means he took great
pleasure. And the fact that Stephen died, you don't think he took
great pleasure in wasting the church? Yes, he did. Oh, my. But then the Lord says
to him, he's a new creature in Christ, isn't he? And they marvel
and say, he who persecuted the church, now he preaches Christ.
Oh, my. It's amazing. I'll tell you,
God's grace is incredible. So Marvel again at this fact
that God has ordained a particular people. And he will save them. Remember
one of our points through the first 25 verses is that God always
causes the sinner his purpose to save to hear the gospel? We
see that right here in our text. God purposed to save those folks.
And what's he do? He sends a preacher to them,
doesn't he? And Philip's sent to a specific
place, isn't he? Why? Because it's their time
of love. And they're going to believe,
and then they're going to be baptized. My, oh my. Our dear brothers
preach these truths for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, considering
the spiritual needs of God's saints, and praying for the salvation
of those who are still lost. Brother Travis and I can attest
to this, that when we step into this pulpit, we desire only to
preach Christ, don't we, brother? And not say something wrong. But that's our desire, is just
to exalt Christ, just to lift him up. And that's what Philip did, right?
He lifted Christ up, didn't he? And we know they were fed with
great joy. And we see in verse 12, by the power of God, they
were born again. And those who believed were baptized. They
made a public profession of their faith. They were fed with great joy.
They were rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ. They were rejoicing
in his perfect redeeming work that made them acceptable in
God's sight. That makes us acceptable in God's sight, too, who believe. And they willingly expressed
that joy. I want to be baptized. I want to
profess Christ publicly. Again, there's no saving in it.
As we've seen, they've already believed, haven't they? They've already believed. And
all believers will obey that command. Listen to these words.
And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I
say? Well, if you'll allow me to keep my commandments, we're
to be baptized after we're saved, aren't we? Oh, my. And I ask all of you this question,
and I do pray that all of us will give an honest answer. Have
we received believers' baptism? If not, why not? Why not? The reason I use believer's baptism
is this. Number one, if you were baptized
under the preaching of a false gospel, that's not believer's
baptism. It's not. Number two, if you were baptized
as an infant, like I was, or sprinkled, that was not believer's
baptism. I didn't have a clue. I didn't
even know what to say anything. I probably cried. Because they
poured water on me. I didn't know anything. And this happens a lot. If you're
baptized just to please your parents, or your spouse, or to
please anyone, that was not believer's baptism. Many people do that. Many people. Look a little further
down. This is amazing. A little further
down this chapter, we see Philip with a eunuch. And what's he going to do? He's
going to preach Christ to him. And he's going to explore it
again, and he believes, and then let's watch what happened after
that. Look at this. Look at verse 35, Acts chapter 8, verse 35. Then Philip opened his mouth
and began at the same scripture, and what? And remember, okay,
remember this, the same scripture. Did they have the New Testament?
Nope. They're preaching Christ from
the Old Testament, aren't they? That's all they had. Whenever you see the scriptures
in the New Testament like that, that's talking about the Old
Testament. Always. Look at this. Then Philip opened
his mouth, well just mouthpieces, right? God's preachers, just
mouthpieces. And began at the same scripture
and preached unto him Jesus. So he was reading in Isaiah,
the eunuch was reading in Isaiah, and he said, I don't understand
this. So then Philip took it and preached Christ to him. And as they went on their way,
they came unto a certain water, and the eunuch said, see here
is water, why doth not hinder me to be baptized? Now look at
this, this is interesting. So he says, well there's water
there, let's go down and get baptized, baptize me. Now, a Church of Christ person
who believes that you have to be baptized to be saved would
say, let's go! And that's wrong, because there's
no regeneration in baptism. How do we believe? We're born
again, right? So we're born again by the Holy
Spirit of God. We believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and then
we're baptized. We're going to see that right
here. So he says, well, what's hindered me to be baptized? Is
there anything that hinders me? Now, look what Philip says to
the eunuchs. This is absolutely beautiful. So this is why we
believe in believer's baptism. Look at this. Acts 8, 37. And Philip said, if thou believest
with all thine heart, thou mayest. You may be baptized if you believe
in Christ. Do you see that? The eunuch said,
let's just go in the water. He says, do you believe? Isn't that beautiful? It's wonderful. And the eunuch said, look at
this. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Woo, my, he's
been born again. He didn't have an understanding
Philip preached Christ to him. He says, I believe. It was that man's appointed time
of love, wasn't it? And God sent him a preacher.
And notice there's just one man there. I'll tell you a story. Why the
model of my ministry is just one sheep. Long time ago, I was talking
to Donnie Bell, and what I mean by just one sheep, if there's
just one sheep, I'll preach the gospel. Donnie Bell told me one
night, he was Went to church on a Wednesday night, him and
Mary, him and Marvel. My ear fell off here. They went
to church. One other person showed up. One
other person showed up and him and Mary. And he said, I was a little disappointed. He says, I got home and I'm all
down in the mouth. Mary says, well, what are you
doing? He says, I'm going to go feed my cow. At that time, he had one cow.
I'm going to go feed my cow. So he's walking up to the gate,
and he just gets impressed upon him. Donny, you're going to feed
one cow. And he looked at me, and he said,
just one sheep, Wayne. There's one sheep who preaches
the gospel. Just one. A whole bunch of us
here, right? But even if there's just one,
you preach like there's a thousand. And here's Philip preaching to
one sheep. One sheep. Oh, look at that. Look at this.
He's born again. This eunuch's born again. He's
been given faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And he
confesses, he confesses, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God. Does he know all the tenets of
the faith? Nope. But he knows this. I believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now he's going to grow in grace.
He's going to learn things. as he's being taught by the Holy
Spirit of God, but he just believed. Does a baby know much when they
come out of the womb? No, but they grow up, don't they? And
they learn. See, when we're born again, we're
just little infants. And God grows us as he sees fit. In believers, baptism, again,
is to be completely immersed in water, which symbolizes the
death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
go down into the watery grave, symbolizing that we died in Christ. When Christ was buried, we were
buried with him. Remember, Paul said, I'm crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. We live by faith now, don't we?
Oh my. And then he arose from that grave.
He didn't stay in the grave, he arose. So when we come out
of the water, it's a symbolization of being born again. There's
no saving power in that. But we're confessing that we're Christ.
That we're Christ. That he's our master. That now
we have a sincere desire to follow him. That he's lord of our life. And we want to live for his glory
now, don't we? You ever notice that too? We don't want to live
for the glory of God before he saved us. No, that was the last
thing on our mind. As a matter of fact, did you
even think about it? No. Now we desire to live for
the glory of God. So rejoice, beloved, at the great,
think of this, the great honor that God has bestowed upon we
who are his people. Number one, he chose us in Christ
before the foundation of the world, based upon no merit in
us. And number two, the honor of being partakers of the divine
nature. Listen to this. Second Peter, chapter one, verses
three and four. According to his divine power,
hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.
Where are all things that pertain unto life and godliness? In Christ,
in the word of God, right? Through the knowledge of him,
that have called us to glory and virtue, whereby we are giving
exceeding great and precious promises. Do you know we have
exceeding great and precious promises in Christ? Isn't that
wonderful, Brother Tom? It's wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. That by these you might be partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption of the
world through lust. And then think of this, we have
the honor of calling the great Jehovah my father. My father. Can you say that? God is my father. He's my creator, and he's my
God. He's my father. And then we have the honor of
being in a living union with Christ. Remember Paul was persecuting
the Christians, and the Lord Jesus Christ said, Saul, Saul,
why persecutest thou me? He's the head, and we're the
body. When you hit your finger with
a hammer, your head lets you know you did that, right? And your head feels it too. Oh my. See, he's the head, we're
the body. And he says this, I love this.
Without me you can do nothing. Nothing. So think of this. God
has given us eternal life for the glory of God, for the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our risen Savior. Let us leave
here rejoicing, rejoicing in Christ Jesus our Lord, who saved
us by His grace, who has loved us with an everlasting love.
And as God gives us an opportunity, let us tell others of our great,
wondrous Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. My, oh my, what a King,
what a Savior is the Lord. Brother Dan, can you close us
in