Well, good morning, everyone. If you care to open your Bibles with me to Psalm 117, Psalm 117, as you're turning and make a couple of announcements, um, a couple of weeks ago, I told you, cause that, uh, bonds, uh, sister-in-law Jim sister was, was very ill and she passed away this week. So we want to remember Cozetta in our prayers and, uh, I found out yesterday, Moose Parks has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. He's been having some difficulties from that, and they're gonna perform a surgery on the 16th of December, and we want to remember Moose and Sandy and their family and that congregation in prayer.

Psalm 117, just two verses, but very instructive. Oh, praise the Lord, all ye nations. Praise him, all ye people. For his merciful kindness is great toward us. And the truth of the Lord endureth forever. Praise ye the Lord. Here's what I suspect. If we've gathered here this morning to praise the Lord and to worship him, we will. And we'll get a blessing. I hope that's why we're here.

All right, let's stand together as Shawn leads us in singing our call to worship.

? Thy works not mine, O Christ ?
? Speak gladness to this heart ?
? They tell me all the work is done ?
? They bid my fear depart ?
? Thy cross not mine, O Christ ?
has borne the awful load of sins that no one else could bear but our incarnate God.
Thy death not mine, O Christ,
has paid the ransom due. Ten thousand, thousand deaths like mine would have been all too few.
Thy righteousness, O Christ,
alone can cover me. No righteousness can satisfy, save that which is of Thee.

Okay, if you would turn in your hymnal to song number 441, Love Lifted Me. 441. I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore. Very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more. But the master of the sea heard my despairing cry. From the waters lifted me, now safe am I.

Love lifted me.

Love lifted me.

When nothing else could help, love lifted me. Love lifted me. love lifted me. When nothing else could help, love lifted me.

All my heart to Him I give, ever to Him I'll cling. In His blessed presence live, ever His praises sing. Love so mighty and so true, merits my soul's best songs. Faithful, loving service to, to Him belongs.

Love lifted me.
Love lifted me. When nothing else could help, love lifted me. Love lifted me. Love lifted me. When nothing else could help, love lifted me.

Souls in danger look above, Jesus completely saves. He will lift you by His love out of the angry waves. He's the master of the sea, billows His will obey. He, your Savior, wants to be, be saved today.

Love lifted me.
Love lifted me. When nothing else could help, love lifted me. Love lifted me. Love lifted me. When nothing else could help, love lifted me.

All right, let's open our Bibles for our scripture reading to Acts chapter eight. Acts the eighth chapter. We'll begin reading in verse 26. 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 man of Ethiopia, and eunuch of great authority under Candese, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, and 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 Philip that he would come up and sit with him. And the place of the scripture which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb done before his 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 answered Philip and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this, of himself or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him, Jesus.

And as they went on their way, they came into a certain water and the eunuch said, see, here's water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still. And they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch. And he baptized him. And when they were come up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord caught away Philip that the eunuch saw him no more. And he went on his way rejoicing.

But Philip was found as a, at a Zotus, and passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea.

Thank God for his word. Let's bow together in prayer.

Our Father, we come before you again this morning, seeking a blessing that you might be pleased to give us from your storehouses of mercy and grace. Father, I pray that as we look into your word this morning, that our Lord Jesus would be preached, that we not preach the doctrinal stance of men and the religious ideas of men, but that Christ be preached.

And Father, as we just read this message that Philip preached to the uni, Father, we pray that in a similar way that this morning you might be pleased to bless your word that as it's preached, you would give faith in the hearts of your people, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that we would see him, believe him, and cling to him.

Father, bless us for your great namesake. How desperately we need the forgiveness of our sin. How desperately we need to be made righteous. How desperately we need to be cleansed and washed and born again by the spirit from above. Father, this is the greatest blessing that could ever be bestowed upon a sinner. We recognize we're asking a great, great blessing, but we're thankful to ask this great blessing from our great God, our great Savior.

And Father, would you be pleased, we beg of you, to glorify the name of your Son in saving us here this morning, that you'd save, that you'd that you edify your people and strengthen your people, comfort your people by pointing us all to our Lord Jesus Christ.

Father, we're thankful for a place that we can meet together, peace and unity and worship together. Father, I pray that you'd protect it, that you would preserve and protect this congregation as a lighthouse in this town. where sinners can always come and hear of the Savior.

And Father, we also hold up to Thee, those that need you in a special way right now. We pray for our sister, Cosetta, that you'd comfort her heart at this time of loss. We pray for our brother, Moose, and Sandy, and his family, that you'd comfort them and that you'd be pleased to use this surgery to heal him and bless him and that congregation. In a special way, we pray. Others who need you especially, Father, you know. You know your sheep, you know what we need. Father, we hold them up to thee. We hold them up to thee, thankful to know that your grace is sufficient, that the judge of all the earth will do right in every situation. And Father, we pray for the grace and the faith to be able to leave it there, to content ourselves with your will, whatever it may be. Father, it's in Christ's name, for his sake and his glory, we pray, amen.

I've titled the message this morning, Of Whom Speaketh the Prophet? You could ask that of every single passage of scripture, every verse in scripture, of whom speaketh the prophet? And the answer's always the same. He's always speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what I want us to be able to see this morning.

I think it's kind of interesting the way that the scripture is laid out here. There are three men mentioned in these passages. We'll look at all three of them in consecutive messages, the Lord willing. First, there's Simon the sorcerer. We looked at him last week, who seemed to have an experience of religion, didn't he? It also is evident he was more fleshly, or more interested in the fleshly things, the outward than the inward spiritual, we don't know if the Lord ever gave him a heart that's right with God or not. We hope so, but we don't know. You cannot presume on God's grace, can you?

Then this morning, we're gonna look at the eunuch. Next Sunday, Lord willing, we'll look at Saul of Tarsus. Now these two men had very different experiences, didn't they? They had different backgrounds, different experiences of how it was that they came to hear of Christ, But they both heard of the same Savior. They both received the same grace from God, and they both were given faith in the same Savior, even though their experiences were very different.

So this morning, we're gonna look at this eunuch. And the first thing I see here is this. This is the experience that this eunuch had in coming to hear of Christ and believe on Him. When the Lord's gonna save someone, He always sends them a preacher. Verse 26. Says, and the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, arise and go toward the south under the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is a desert.

You know, Philip had been preaching in Samaria, and there was a big revival going on. I mean, you just, how the Lord was blessing, and people were thankful and undoubtedly excited to see the Lord working in such a way. And Philip's there preaching, you know, and suddenly the Lord tells him, Leave the revival and go out there to the desert. Now why would the Lord send his preacher out there to the desert? Because there's one man out there. There's one man that belongs to the Lord. He's as precious to Christ as all those people coming to believe on Christ in the great revival going on in Samaria. There's one. He's out there in the desert. And boy, doesn't that describe the way we are spiritually out in the desert? And God's been pleased to save us. He sent us a preacher to the desert. He sent us a preacher to where we are so that we'd hear of Christ.

And this thing of preaching, the preaching of Christ, the preaching of the gospel is so important. It's so important. There is nothing more important we do every week. that meet here on Sundays and Wednesdays for the preaching of Christ. Because there is no salvation without the preaching of Christ. There's no growth in grace. There's no edification without the preaching of Christ. There's no salvation without it. Paul said in Romans 10 verse 14, how shall they believe on him in whom they've not heard? We can't believe on Christ till we hear him. Somebody's got to preach him to us. And someone says, well, well, couldn't God save someone without hearing the preaching of the gospel? Couldn't I just, he just, poof, you know, make me know Christ and believe on him? God absolutely could. He absolutely could. But he won't. He won't because it's not pleased him to save sinners that way.

It's pleased God by the foolishness of preaching. What the unbelieving world calls foolishness. by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. That's the way God has willed to reveal himself to his people, is from hearing the gospel from the lips of another sinful man. We're all just alike, just like you. Somebody that knows what it's like to be a sinner, who knows what it's like to go through this world struggling with all the things that we struggle with, of unbelief and doubts and fears and trials and heartaches and sorrows, who knows what it's like to be lost, who knows what it's like to need the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the preacher I want to hear, someone who's just like me, who needs Christ. There's nobody better to tell us about the glory of Christ than someone who's experienced it.

And the Lord sent his preacher to this particular man at this exact time because the Lord loved him, because Christ died for him. Now you think what a blessing that is. I mean, we think what a blessing that is to that man. How about what a blessing it is to us? What a blessing it is to us that God sent us a preacher. And God hadn't just sent us one preacher, he sent us several, hadn't he? He sent us preachers. What a blessing that is. God sent us a preacher to tell us about Christ. Oh, I don't know who it was, if one of those old preachers that we're familiar with said the greatest blessing God ever gave a town is when he sent his preacher to that town. Let's not take it for granted. Let's go back to the lesson we learned from Simon. Don't take God's grace for granted. Let's be sure to thank God for it, to preserve it and protect it and guard this carefully. God sent us this blessing of the gospel being preached in our town, just like he sent it to that union.

The second thing is this, when the Lord's pleased to save a sinner, he's gonna make that sinner seek the Lord. He's gonna make us beg God for mercy and seek the Lord.

Verse 27 says, he rose and went, And behold, a man of Ethiopia and eunuch of great authority under Candice, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure and had come to Jerusalem for the worship, was reading and sitting in his chariot and read Isaiah the prophet.

Now this man was seeking something. He was seeking something that he didn't have. And I'm just pretty confident of this. He didn't know what he was seeking. He didn't know what. Whatever kind of religious stuff was going on there in Ethiopia, maybe at one time, it satisfied him. But now it doesn't. He doesn't know what is the truth. He doesn't know what is the way of salvation. He doesn't know what his soul needs, but he knows he needs something, and he's seeking it.

And he's heard about this man, Jesus. He's heard about this religion going on in Jerusalem, and all the pomp and circumstance and ceremony that the Jews had going on there. And he went, trying to find something. He went to Jerusalem. He went through the feast day. He saw all the ceremony. He saw all the priest and his get up and all the stuff going on. But there was nothing there. And he left. I'm sure he was disappointed. He left just as empty as he was when he came. He didn't, and how could he leave there with eternal life? How could he leave there with faith? Because Christ wasn't being preached there.

He saw the ceremony. He heard people talking about, you know, preachers or priests, whoever they were, talking about lots of stuff. He heard somebody talk about, how do you be a better Christian? How do you be a better husband? How do you be a better wife? How can you use religion to have a happier, wealthier, more successful life. He heard about how to be saved, how to be saved. Now, he didn't hear of Christ, but he just heard all these steps, how to be, how to, how to, it's a self-help book, you know, a self-help convention. But he didn't know Christ because nobody was there preaching Christ.

But as this man is desperately grasping for something, I need something from my soul. He went to the bookstore and he got him a scroll. He got the most important thing somebody can have in their possession, the word of God. He got a hold of the gospel of Isaiah and he was reading it.

Verse 29 says, 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. This man was reading aloud. I didn't find that interesting. Was he reading it so the driver of the chariot could hear and say, let me figure out what this means. Listen to this. I don't know, but he was reading aloud because Philip heard him.

And Philip came to him and said, understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, how can I? Except some man should guide me. And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. And the place of the scripture which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb done before his shearer, so he opened not his mouth. In his humiliation, his judgment was taken away, and who should declare his generation? For his life is taken from the earth.

And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of himself, or of some other man? He's talking about somebody, but I don't know who it is he's talking about. Can you tell me who this is talking about? And isn't that our experience too? You know, you can read the scripture, you can memorize the scripture, but we can't understand it. We can't believe it. We can't believe Christ from it until God sends us a preacher who preaches to us Christ, not about Christ, but preaches Christ to us from the text.

And that is the job of all of God's preachers. God's preacher is not to be a social reformer. He's not to be a conduct reformer. He's not to be the conduct police. His job is to preach Christ from every text. I don't care what text it is. If I don't see Christ from that text and I don't think that the Lord's given me the message to show you Christ from that text, I'm gonna skip it and come back to it later. Our job is to preach Christ from every text and stay right there. To never think that we go on to something beyond Christ. We're gonna preach Christ and Christ alone. By God's grace, that's what we're gonna do. Because that's the message of this book. The message of this book is the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, just thinking of the blessing that God sent us a preacher, how about that God gave us his word? How about that God has given us his word? There is a time in history, men were put to death for publishing this word so that we could read it, so that we could have it in our laps and have it in our homes and read it and study it. God's given us his word. And this is the only message that God will ever bless. It's the only message God will ever use to save his people, to instruct his people, to feed his people, to cause them to grow in grace. It's the message of Christ from this book.

That brings me to the third thing. Every one of God's preachers will always preach Christ. That's how you can identify God's preacher. He preaches Christ.

Verse 35, then Philip opened his mouth. It began at that same scripture and preached unto him Jesus. Philip preached Jesus. He preached a person. He wasn't telling how to be saved. He was telling who is our salvation, who has accomplished our salvation. He wasn't saying how to be righteous. He preached Christ our righteousness. He wasn't preaching how to walk as a Christian. He preached Jesus. If you see the Lord Jesus, you'll know how to walk. You'll follow him. He preached a person. He told him who he is. He told him what he's done, why he did it, and where he is now.

And I'll tell you something else Philip must have preached to him. Why is it that you should believe him? I want you to know this, that every time I preach, I want to preach so that you know, you know why you should believe him. This is not just a religious lecture. So we can go home and say, well, we heard, you know, a religious lecture. We, you know, we were heard something, whatever we preach so that people know why you should believe Christ. This message of God's grace, this message of Christ is for you. Why should you believe Christ? And that's what this eunuch wanted. He said, somebody needs to guide me. I can't know what this means unless somebody guides me. And we've got to be guided to Christ, don't we? We don't have to be guided into the Jewish way or the Calvinistic way. We don't have to be guided into the right doctrinal steps and how to be a better Christian, we have to be guided. God's preachers are called under shepherds. Shepherds lead the sheep, guide the sheep. God's preacher is gonna guide you to Christ, lead you to Christ so that you see him and so that you believe him.

And Philip said, oh, I'm so glad you asked that question, because I know him. Let me tell you about who this man is. Look over to Isaiah chapter 53. This is the message, the passage of scripture that this eunuch was reading. And he said, this is speaking of someone. Who is he? Philip said, let me tell you. This one, this man that you're reading about, he's God. He's almighty God who became a man, who came to earth in the flesh. Verse one says, who have believed our report? Who believed our preaching? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he should grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we should see him, there's no beauty that we should desire him. This man that you're asking about, he's the son of God. But he became a real man. He was born of a virgin, and he grew up just like we did. From a baby to a toddler to a little boy to a young man to an adult man, he grew up. He grew from the house and lineage of David. The house and lineage of David at that time, the time that the Lord was born, it looked dead. I mean, did anybody even know who was related to David anymore? There certainly wasn't any kings. There wasn't any princes. There wasn't any princesses. Dead, meaningless. You know, one time the house of David meant something. At the time the Lord was born, the house of David meant nothing.

He's David's son. Now he did, he is born from the line and lineage of David. He's David's son, but he's also David's Lord. He's David's son, but he's David's God. He's David's son, but he's David's Savior. He's the God-man. He's both God and man. And God became such a real man. We didn't know he was God. Everybody just thought he was a man. People saw him as, we know you. We know your brothers and your sisters. How can you say you're God? There wasn't any glow or halo about his head that set him apart from other men of the flesh. He looked, there's no form. There's nothing special about his bodily appearance that would let us know he's God. The only way you can know He's God is if God gives you faith to see Him and faith to believe Him.

And the Son became flesh so that He could save His people who are in the flesh. He has a sinful people who are in the flesh and He came to save them and He came in the flesh with their nature so that He could be their representative. Bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. He's a real human being like we are. Except he never sinned. He didn't have a sin nature. He's born from a virgin. He's not born from the seed of Adam. He's born from the seed of the Holy Ghost and in the womb of a virgin. So he had no original sin in Adam. He's sinless. And he's our representative. What he did, all of his people did. When he obeyed the law, all of his people obeyed the law in him. When he established perfect righteousness by his obedience, he made his people righteous.

And he became a man so that he could die as a sacrifice for the sin of his people. This man came to die. God can't die, can he? But a man can. So God became a man so he could do what the law demands. There's got to be death for sin. He came to die as a substitute for his people. And his sacrifice, he offered his precious, pure, sinless blood to the Father as payment for the sin of all of his people. And that blood paid the debt in full. That's who he is. This is the most amazing man that ever lived. I'm trying to tell you of his glory. I'm trying to tell you about the glory of his person. I'm trying to tell you about the depths of his love for his people. And I feel foolish trying to do it because I fall so short. There's no way to tell his glory, but this is the most glorious, most amazing man that ever lived.

Because the story of salvation by grace for sinners that's through the obedience and through the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ is the greatest story that's ever been told. What a story, the story of salvation, the story of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And sadly, very few people believe it when they hear it. Who hath believed our report? Isaiah, what he's really saying is, nobody has. Nobody's believed our report. What seems like, and I'll tell you why that is. Because all of Adam's race are born sinners, verse three. He is despised and rejected of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Now like I said in the lesson this morning, our actions give a whole lot of evidence of our sin, don't they? All of our actions are sinful. All of our actions give real good insight to the fact that we've got a sinful nature. But the greatest evidence that there is of our sin nature is our hatred of the Lord Jesus Christ, our hatred of God.

I know people don't hate the Jesus that they've made up or the God that they've made up. But when we hear of Jesus, Jesus Christ, as he's described in this book by nature, we hate him. It's not just we're ambivalent. It's not just that we can take him or leave him. We hate him. We hate him.

The greatest evidence of our sin nature is we feel no need for Christ, no love for Christ, no desire for him to save us. We despised him. That's why I say despised. I mean, it's not being indifferent. We despised him. We hid our faces from him. And that phrase, hid our faces, means we wouldn't make eye contact with him. We despised him so much. When we saw him, we turned away from him, crossed the street to get away from him, did everything we could. We hated him. We hate him.

And you just can't paint the depravity of man, our depravity. Us sitting right here today, you can't paint our depravity as black enough dark enough and hopeless enough. You can't paint our need of Christ as great as it is. But as great as our need is, God still saves sinners by his grace. As great as our sin is, his grace is always more. And all of that grace is found in a person, in a person.

Christ, the sinner substitute, verse four. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted, but he was wounded. He was tormented for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we're healed.

This man is God. This man that you're asking about is God. And he's got the power to take away the sin of his people. He didn't just carry the sin of his people for a little while and set it down over there. He didn't even carry the sin of his people and carry it out of sight just over there. It's still over there. It's just on the other side of the hill. He carried the sin of his people away forever. He took the sin of his people into his body upon the tree and by his sacrifice, He put it away. He took the sin of his people away from them, traded them his righteousness to make them righteous. And when he took the sin of his people away from them, he didn't just carry it in a bag, like, see here, this is all the sin of my people. He took it into his own body so that he became guilty of the sin of his people. Even though he never committed a sin, He became guilty of it.

Look at verse six. All we like sheep are gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him. He's made the iniquity of all of his people to be on the Lord Jesus Christ. He laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He's brought as a lamb to the slaughters, a sheep before shears is done. So he openeth not his mouth. This is the silent substitute. He did not open his mouth and all of the charges that were brought against him, he didn't open his mouth. The only, the only charge that he answered was, are you a king? And he said, you said it, I'm the king. But all the other charges that they threw against him, He never did. He never told a lie. He never tried to overthrow the government. He never did anything unholy. He never did anything unrighteous. And all those charges against him, he didn't do it. But he didn't open his mouth and scream, I didn't do it. I don't think anything makes me more angry and frustrated than somebody accusing me of something I did not do. I mean, I would stand just as high as I could and shout just as loud as I can. I didn't do it. You can accuse me of many things, but that one I didn't do.

Our Lord never one time opened his mouth to defend himself. You know why? Because we did it. And he took the sin of his people and made it his and he became guilty of it. He felt the shame of sin. He said, I'm not able to look up. I can't look into the face of my Holy Father because I'm ashamed of the sin that I've been made guilty of. I'm ashamed. I've been made a worm and no man. He didn't defend himself because every sin that he would ever be accused of, you and I did it. That's why he didn't defend himself. There's not one sin that you and me can be charged with that we didn't commit. Not a single one. So our Lord did not open his mouth because he was willing to be made sin for his people. This wasn't something that was thrust upon him. He willingly took the sin of his people. He bore the shame of sin. He bore the guilt of sin and he bore the condemnation of sin. He was willing to suffer and die to put away the sin of his people because Get a hold of your seat now. He loved those people.

Now who can understand that? Who can explain that? That the holy God would love a sinful man or woman like you and me. But we know Christ loved his people. Herein is love. Not that we love God, but that God loved us. And here's the proof of it. He sent his son to be the propitiation, the sin covering, the sacrifice for our sin. Christ willingly took the sin of his people because he loved them. And when he took the sin of his people, he intended to put it away by his sacrifice. And I want to tell you, he got the job done. This man that you're asking about is so glorious. He put away the sin of his people forever. He carried it away. behind God's back. He carried it away to a place that even the all-seeing eye of God cannot see it. Now God sees everything everywhere, so the only way he can't see your sin and my sin is if Christ made it to not exist. He got the job done. He not only took the sin of his people away from them, he made it so they'll never sin again. He healed all of their spiritual diseases, all of their wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. He healed.

You know, sin is not just a, you know, we break the rules, we do something, you know, that we shouldn't do. Sin's a disease. It's a defilement of the soul. And Christ healed his people by his precious blood. His precious blood is that sweet balm of Gilead that takes away the sin of his people and makes his people to be perfectly righteous so that the father will always accept them in his presence. And that leads me to the fourth point. Here's the substitute who satisfied justice. Verse eight, he was taken from prison and from judgment and who shall declare his generation for he was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, because he'd done no violence. Neither was any deceit in his mouth, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief, and thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands. This is the only man whose death prospered anything, because his death satisfied God's justice against the sin of his people.

The Father and the Son are one. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. One God, but in three distinct persons, the Father and the Son are one. They're one in nature, they're one in will, they're one in purpose. The Father has always loved the Son. Proverbs 8 talks about how the son was daily the delight of his father. Before anything was created, when only the father, son, and spirit existed, the son was the delight of his father. And when he was made flesh, the son was still the delight of his father.

He obeyed the law perfectly. He did everything that the father sent him to do. The father was so pleased from him, he spoke audibly from heaven and said, this is my beloved son. You hear him. But when Christ was made sin, the father took the rod of justice and he smoked his son. He took that sword of justice and plunged it into the heart of his fellow with no mercy. There was no light strokes given because this is my son and he didn't really do it. It's the sin of his people. He didn't really do it. He was really made guilty and the father gave him everything that that sin deserved an absolute undiluted, holy wrath against sin. So that the Son of God died, because that's what sin demands. When sin has finished it, bringing forth death, he must die, and the Father punished him until he gave up the ghost and died.

Now, he didn't give up the ghost and die until the transaction was complete, until sin was put away, but he died, because that's what God's law demands for sin. And when Christ died, The father was pleased. He was pleased. And he wasn't pleased in the sense, I got him. He was pleased in the sense his justice was satisfied. His character was pleased. Not only was his justice satisfied, but think about this, his mercy was also satisfied. The death of Christ now made it right for the father to show mercy to all those sinners that he chose to save. All of God's character was satisfied. in the death of Christ our substitute.

And when the father was satisfied with his son, you who else he was satisfied with? Everyone that Christ died for. If Christ died for you, the father is satisfied with you. With you. Now I know about you, but I'm not satisfied with anything about me. I mean, I'm satisfied by nothing. I'm not satisfied by my faith. I'm not satisfied by my knowledge of Christ. I'm not satisfied by my love for him. I'm not satisfied by my love for you. I'm not satisfied by my conduct. I'm not satisfied by my bad attitude. There's nothing I see in me to be satisfied with. But if Christ died for you, the Father is satisfied with you. So you can never be condemned. Even though you're not satisfied with anything but yourself. The Father is satisfied with you so you cannot be condemned.

The greatest story that's ever been told. There's no other gospel. There's no other way of salvation. These books that tell you how to be saved never explain this. How can God be both just and justify the ungodly? How can God be just and be satisfied with a sinner like you? It's in a person. See, we're not preaching a way of salvation. We're preaching a person. It's all in the Lord Jesus Christ. If Christ died for you, he actually died. They took a dead body down and buried it and put it in a rich man's tomb. Here's why that's so important. If Christ died for you, you can't die. Your body will because it's full of sin, but you will never die. Sin can't kill you. Sin can't condemn you because you already died in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. See what I'm telling you? You can't believe that unless God gives you faith to believe it.

But even if you don't believe Christ, do you start to get some sense? This is the most glorious man that ever lived. I sure would like to know more about him. I sure would like to believe him. He's the successful Savior.

This is the fifth thing. He's the successful, victorious Savior. Verse 11, he shall see the travail of his soul, and he's gonna be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. He bore the iniquities of his people, and he justified them. He made them without sin. So they must live. They must be given life.

He shall see the travail of his soul, Have you ever heard about a young couple say, well, we're trying to get pregnant. We're trying to have a baby. Christ's not trying to do anything. He shall see the travail of his soul. He won't have one stillborn child. Every one of his children are going to be born again because he justified them. They can't die.

At Calvary, There was a war going on. This was a war. Satan came and attacked Christ, and he crushed his head. This is the only victor, whoever won the victory, by dying. His death put Satan out of business. He took all the sin of his people away. Satan will accuse you, but he can't make any charge sick, because Christ put the sin of his people away. There was a war going on, and Christ won it. He's the mighty conqueror. He defeated sin, death, and hell, put them away for his people.

And because he won the victory, he got all the spoils. He got all the spoils. You know, in our day, it's politically incorrect for people 500 years ago who won the battle to have taken the spoils out of that country, you know. They said, well, you've got to give them back, They won the war, the spoils belong to them. Christ won the war and he took the spoils. He took them because they're his by right. He won the battle and he took them.

But he doesn't store them all up for himself. He divides the spoil with his people. Remember that story of David, they went to go back and, or was it Abraham, who was it? it was David. And some of the men were sick, some of them couldn't go on, and he left them by the stuff. And then they went and took back everybody. They defeated the enemy, they took back all the people, they took back all the stuff, all the spoils, all the riches, and all those men that came with David and fought, they expected for that spoil to be divided just to eat with them, not these men that couldn't go to the battle, not these men that didn't do anything, not these men that stayed back here by the stuff.

And David said, no, we're dividing the spoil with everybody, with all my subjects. That's what Christ says. He divides the spoil with the strong. Don't think that means he only divides the spoil with those who are strong in faith and strong and all. Who's the strong? Now who's the strong? The strong are all those who are depending on the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said, when I'm weak, when I see I can't do anything for myself, that's when I'm strong. Because when I see my weakness, that's when I'm relying totally on the Lord Jesus Christ. And Christ divides that spoil, righteousness, justification, eternal life. the blessing to be in his presence forever. He divides that spoil and gives that spoil to all of his people.

Now here again, this man we're talking about, Phillip, he's the most amazing, most glorious man you've ever seen. He doesn't divide the spoil among his people so everybody gets a little bit. He gives it all to all of his people. If Christ died for you, You've got it all. You've got all of the spoils of his victory.

And Philip must have, look back in our text, Philip must have told the eunuchs something about trusting Christ. This man I'm telling you about, we're to trust him. This man I'm telling you about, he's the savior that you can trust to save your soul. I started out by saying, who had believed our report? Well, anybody who does believe Christ, they're gonna confess him. They confess him publicly in believer's baptism.

This man I'm telling you about is so glorious, how can you not trust him? How can you not trust him? Trust him, I mean, how can you not? And when the eunuch heard that, the Holy Spirit gave him faith to believe Christ. Baptism, baptism doesn't save anybody. Baptism is the evidence that God has saved you. Baptism is the evidence, the public confession, this is how Christ saved me. By his death, his burial, and his resurrection. That's the only way my sin could be put away. And the eunuch said, I believe him. I believe him. I want to confess him.

Verse 36 in Acts 8. And as they went on their way, they came into a certain water, And the eunuch said, see, here's water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And Philip said, hold everything. He commanded the chariot to stand still, and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him, confessing Christ.

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. But he still saw Christ because he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip, he kept doing the preacher's only job. Philip was found at Azotus and passing through, he preached. And he preached that same message he preached to the eunuch. He preached Jesus. He preached Christ in all the cities until he came to Caesarea.

Now that's the man. Christ Jesus, that's the God-man, Christ Jesus. Now, do you believe him? If we believe him, we're to confess him in believer's baptism. But do you believe him? Do you believe him? I remember hearing Henry preach one time. He asked that question, do you believe him? He said, I know you believe him. Well, I don't know how he knew that, I don't know. But you know. You know, do you believe? You know whether or not you do. I pray you do. I pray you do.

And if you don't, if you don't know him, there's not nothing you can do about it. There's something you can do if you don't know. If you don't know Christ and you're not trusting, you know it. If you're in darkness, you know it. Ask God to give you faith, to believe Christ. Ask God to reveal him to you. Keep coming here when Christ is preached, because God's going to save you. He's going to do it by what we're doing right now, the preaching of the gospel. Oh, I pray that the Lord give each of us the faith to believe him. All right, let's bow together. Father, we thank you for this time. What a blessed privilege that you've sent the gospel to us. And Father, I pray that we would not leave here with our hearts unaffected by the sacrifice of Christ, by your love, by your mercy, by your grace. But Father, that you would give each of us faith to believe the Lord Jesus Christ, to see this glorious person, to trust him and him alone. Father, it's in Christ's name. For his sake, we pray. Amen.

All right, Sean. If you would turn in your hymnals to song number 296 and stand as we sing all the way my Savior leads me. 296.

All the way my Savior leads me,
what have I to ask beside?
Can I doubt His tender mercy?
who through life has been my guide.

Heavenly peace, divinest comfort,
here by faith in Him to dwell.

For I know what e'er befall me,

Jesus doeth all things well. For I know what e'er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well. All the way my Savior leads me,
cheers each winding path I tread,
gives me grace for every trial.
feeds me with the living bread.

Though my weary steps may falter,
and my soul a thirst may be,
gushing from the

rock before me,
lo, a spring of joy I see. rock before me, lo, a spring of joy I see. All the way my Savior leads me,
O the fullness of His love.
Perfect rest to me is promised
in my Father's house above.

When my spirit, clothed immortal,
wings its flight to realms of day,
this my song through endless ages

Jesus led me all the way.

This my song through endless ages. Jesus led me all the way.