Hi, everybody. Would you turn to Acts chapter
8? Verse 36. 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? And Philip said, If thou believest with all Thine
heart thou mayest. Believing with all your heart. Now what does that mean? Believing
with all your heart. I don't know how many times I've
asked myself that question when I read that passage of scripture
or heard it preached on. What does it mean to believe
with all your heart? Does it mean that you're believing
with your heart now and not just your head? That 18 inch drop
has occurred and now you believe in your heart what you said you
believed in your head. Is that what that means? Does
it mean you now believe sincerely? I mean you believe with all your
heart, not with half your heart or three quarters or 99%. You
believe sincerely with all your heart. Does it mean that you
have a faith without any doubts? No room for doubt. I believe
with all my heart. What does it mean? to believe
with all your heart. Have you ever feared that you
believed only with your head and that you didn't have a true
heart faith? Now, I'm sure all of us have
feared that, but do you know that's something the scripture
will not support. What you really believe in your
head is what you really believe in your heart. The problem with many people
is they don't really believe what they say they believe. What do I mean by that? Well,
it's one thing to give agreement to the doctrine of total depravity.
You see it in the scripture, but perhaps you don't really
believe or don't really comprehend that you yourself are totally
depraved. If you really believe that you're
totally depraved in your head, That's what you believe in your
heart. And what you believe in your heart is what you believe
in your head. How many times have you thought
with regard to your faith, I'm not sincere enough. My sincerity
does not measure up. I see so much insincerity. Sure,
you've thought that about your faith. And as far as believing
without having any doubts, has there ever been a time when you
didn't say, Lord, I believe Help thou mine unbelief. That is the experience of believers
every single day. What does it mean to believe
with all your heart? And that's my prayer that we'll
understand that by the end of this message. In verse five of Acts chapter
eight, then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached
Christ unto them. And the people with one accord
gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing
the miracles which he did, which came first, hearing, hearing,
and seeing the miracles that he did. For unclean spirits cried
with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with
them, and many taken with palsies and that were lame were healed
and there was great joy in that city. What kind of atmosphere
must that have been? There was great joy in that city
seeing what the Lord was doing. 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. Now he's called upon to leave
this place where there was great joy and go down to the desert. Why? One of God's elect was there.
That's why. And so God sends Philip. to preach
the gospel to this man. Verse 27, and he arose and went,
behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace,
queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all of her
treasure, had come to Jerusalem for to worship. Now, Ethiopia
is at least 1,200 miles from Jerusalem. The Queen of Sheba
was from Ethiopia. You remember how she came to
hear the wisdom of Solomon? This man had some kind of light.
He had gone to Jerusalem to worship. He knew his religion was no good.
He knew it was insufficient. And somehow he had some light
from the scriptures that true worship was in Jerusalem with
the God of the Bible. And he came there with the express
purpose to worship. He didn't know what worship meant,
but he knew that the only true worship was there. He had some
kind of light, didn't he? And he makes this long, difficult
trip to go to Jerusalem at the time of the Passover to worship. Now, this man was a wealthy man. He was a powerful
man. He was an influential man, whatever
those things mean. When I call a man a powerful
man, I think, no, Lord says, Scripture says, power belongeth
to the Lord. There's really no such thing as a powerful man,
but men who think they're powerful, he was one of those. And he was
from Ethiopia, and I think it's interesting, the Scripture points
out that this man was a eunuch. He could not produce life, and
he knew it. I wonder if anybody here knows
that about themselves. Life cannot come from you. It must come from
outside of you. He was convinced of that, and
he's gone to Jerusalem to worship. I think that he must have been
wealthy because he had a copy of the Bible. And you had to
be very wealthy just to get access to scriptures in those days.
This was before printing presses. And it was a very valuable and
unique and rare thing for anybody to have a Bible. But for some
from Ethiopia, maybe he bought it while he was in Jerusalem,
I don't know. But he's returning back to Ethiopia. And I feel
that he's feeling more empty than he did when he got there.
He was wanting to come to worship. He was leaving knowing he hadn't
worshiped. He hadn't worshiped the living
God. And he felt very frustrated as
he is leaving. Verse 27, he rose and went. Behold,
a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candacy,
queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasures.
What responsibilities? and he had come to Jerusalem
for to worship." Now I'm thankful, you know, the scripture says,
not many wise men after the flesh, and this man was one of those.
Not many mighty, not many noble are called, but I'm thankful
it says not many, it doesn't say not any. Here's one that
he called, this Ethiopian eunuch. Verse 28, he was returning and
sitting in his chariot, And he read Isaiah, the prophet. Now, it's always a good thing
to read the Bible, isn't it? He didn't know what it meant.
He knew he didn't know what it meant. He knew God wrote it. He believed in the inspiration
of the scripture. And he's reading Isaiah, the prophet. He was still seeking the Lord
in his words. Verse 29, and 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 Philip said, do you understand
what you're reading? That's a good question, isn't
it? Do you understand what you're reading? Now, if somebody would
come up to me and said, do you understand what you're reading?
I'd say, well, yeah, here's what it means. Or I might say something
really stupid, like, here's what it means to me, as if it makes
any difference what it means to me. I don't care what it means
to me or you. What does it mean? But this man's
answer, I think, demonstrates such humility. Most people would
say, like I said, well, here's my take on it. Here's what I
think. What's this man say? How can I? except some man should
guide me." He understood that he could not figure this out. And he says, how can I? No, I
don't understand what I'm reading. How can I? Except some man should
guide me. And he desired Philip, verse
31, that he would come up and sit with him. The place of the
scripture, which he read, was this. He was reading what we
would call Isaiah 53. Is there a more important passage
of scripture in all the word of God than Isaiah 53? The great
chapter on the substitutionary death of Christ on the cross,
he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our Iniquities,
the chastisement of our peace was upon him. By his stripes
were healed. We all, we like sheep, have gone
astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all. He was reading Isaiah 53. The place of the scripture, verse
32, which you read, was actually the seventh and eighth verse.
what we would call the 7th and 8th verse. They didn't have verses
back then. It was just a big scroll, but it's what we would
identify as the 7th and 8th verse of Isaiah 53. 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 a shearer, so open not
he 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 Enoch answered Philip, and
said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of himself or of some other man? Verse 35, then Philip opened
his mouth and began at the same scripture
and preached unto him, Jesus. Now that's as good a definition
as I know of what preaching is. It's origin, the scriptures.
He began at the same scripture. If I don't begin with the scripture,
it's not preaching. Whatever else it is, it's not
preaching. And the subject of his preaching
I love the simplicity of this. He preached unto him, Jesus. I would like to think about what
he might have said when he read in verse 32, the place of the
scripture which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter and like a lamb before shearers, so opened he not his
mouth. I like to think about what he
might have said. He might have gotten right into
Genesis 3 where the Lord slew the animal and took the coats
of skin and covered them where they tried to cover themselves
with their own fig leaf righteousness. He might have talked about Cain
and Abel. Abel brought unto God a more
excellent sacrifice, the lamb. I have no doubt that he mentioned
that Christ is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
that this has always been God's purpose, for Christ to die on
Calvary's tree. This was the reason God created
the universe, for the death of the Lamb of God. And he probably
talked about how God had respect to Abel and his offering. If I have the Lamb, the God of
glory has respect to me and respect to you. Isn't that an awesome
thing to think about, God respecting me? through the offering. I think he might have pointed
out how Cain, in his offering, the fruit of ground, he had no
respect. He had contempt for it. But oh, the offering of Abel. I like to think of him going
into Genesis 22. Remember, he began at that same
scripture and preached unto him Jesus. I would have loved to
have been a fly on the wall to hear that message, wouldn't you? But
I can hear him talking about God told Abraham to take Isaac
and offer him up as a burnt offering to me. on a mountain I'll show
you of." And Abraham, I doubt that he told Sarah about it.
He got up early in the morning in exact obedience and went on
his way toward that mountain. And during that time, he knew
that in obedience to God and him killing his son, that his
son would come back because he said, I and the lad go yonder
to worship and will come again to you. He believed that in killing
his son, God would raise him from the dead because God promised
the Messiah was going to come through that boy. And at some
point, Isaac said, Father, see, here's the wood, here's the fire,
where's the lamb for a burnt offering? And then Abraham replied,
my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.
Then he said to that Ethiopian eunuch, you can't provide anything.
God does the providing. And he said God had to provide
for himself for him to do something for me or you. The lamb was for
God to satisfy his justice, to satisfy his holiness, to satisfy
his purpose. God had to do something first
for himself before he could do anything for me or you. God himself
is the lamb. God is the lamb that God provided
for himself. Oh, I can think of all the things
that he must have said. He said who led him forth. Notice how it says he was led
forth as a sheep to the slaughter. Who is the one leading him? God
was. You see, he was delivered by
the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God. And God was the one leading
him to this place. Why didn't he open his mouth?
You know, if I'm accused of something I didn't do, I'm going to open
my mouth. I'm going to Protect myself. I'm going to try to justify
myself. If I didn't do it and you accuse me of it, I'm going
to open my mouth. I'm going to try to defend myself.
Why didn't he open his mouth? Because he was guilty. The sins of God's elect became
his sins. It wasn't an innocent victim
that died. It was someone who was guilty. He took my sin and my sorrow
He made it his very own. He bore the burden to Calvary
and suffered and died alone. I think of that scripture, Romans
3, 19. Now we know that whatsoever things the law saith, it saith
to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped
and all the world become guilty before God. His mouth was stopped
at that time. That's why he didn't try to defend
himself. He knew he was guilty and there was no defense. Look in verse 33, in his humiliation,
he became, he humbled himself and became obedient to death,
even the death of the cross. In his humiliation, his judgment
was taken away and who should declare his generation for his
life is taken from the earth. Now, what God? has against me
and you is the death of his son. That's the real issue. It's not
how bad you are, although you're bad and I'm bad. The issue is
what we've thought of his son, what we've done to his son. We
have been guilty and this Even if you don't feel this, believe
it, because it's what God says. You have been guilty, I have
been guilty of the murder of his son. You know, in Isaiah
chapter 53, it says this about us. We esteemed him not. What greater crime could there
be? We esteemed him not. And you can be sure that Philip
told the eunuch what he accomplished by his death as the lamb. He
shall see the travail of his soul. I'm sure he went into Isaiah
53. and be satisfied by his knowledge, shall my righteous servant justify
many, for he shall bear their iniquities." Oh, I can hear him
talking about the accomplishments of the Lamb of God. I love Luke
9, verse 31, on the man of transfiguration where Moses and Elijah were talking
to the Lord Jesus Christ when his face shined like the sun
and his raiment was white as light. The scripture says they
spake of the deceased, which he should accomplish. You see,
he accomplished something by his death, the complete glorification
of his father, the complete salvation of all of his people. When he
said it is finished, my salvation was finished. He opened his mouth
at that same scripture, Isaiah 53, and preached unto him, Jesus. And I have no doubt that he talked
about baptism. Baptism is so important. Baptism is such a clear picture of how
sinners are saved. When Jesus Christ lived, I was
in him. I lived. That's my righteousness. His obedience. That's my obedience. His zeal. That's my zeal. His faith. That's my faith. When he lived, I lived. Thus
it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. When he died,
Paul said, I was crucified with him. When he went to the cross,
I went to the cross. I was in him. My sins were put
away. That's what he accomplished.
When he was raised from the dead, that's what happens in baptism.
You go under, there's the death. You come back out, there's the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. When he was raised from
the dead, I was raised to. That's all my hope is simply
being in him. That's why my constant desire
is, oh, that I may win Christ and be found in him. That's all
I want. I want to be found in him so that all God sees when
he sees me is his son, Jesus Christ. He told him about baptism. Okay. Verse 36. And as they went on
their way, they came into a certain water, a pool of water. And the
eunuch said, see, here's water. What does hinder me? I want to
know. Is there a reason why I shouldn't
be baptized? Evidently, he was suspicious
that there was. You tell me. What does hinder me? from being
baptized? I want to know. Would you tell
me? You know, he used such respect
toward Philip. He prayed him to come into his
chariot. The humility he demonstrated. How can I, except some man should
guide me? What hinders me from being baptized? I'm suspicious
of myself. I realize there might be a million
things you let me know. What hinders me from being baptized?
Why should I not be baptized? And that's when Philip said,
if you believe with all your heart, you may. Now, what does that mean? What
does it mean to believe with all your heart? Now, like I said, it doesn't
mean you believe with no unbelief at all, because we always say,
I believe, help thou mine unbelief. It's not talking about the sincerity
of your faith, because when have you ever thought you were sincere
enough? Of course not. It's not referring to that thing
we've made up of, well, I believe in my head, but I don't believe
in my heart. That's really... You can't support that view in
the scripture. I know where that comes from. Somebody is a preacher,
see somebody living in such a way that he doesn't, he thinks, well,
this is wrong. The way they're doing this, you must believe
that he just believes in his head, but he doesn't really believe
in his heart. And he says that, and somebody out in the congregation
goes, oh, that's me. You know, that happens every time. I'm
afraid that's me. I'm the one, the scripture does not support
that. What you really believe in your head is what you believe
in your heart. What you really believe in your heart. is what
you really believe in your head. So what does it mean to believe
with your heart, with all your heart? Well, turn to Romans chapter
10 for a moment. I'm going to read up to verse
eight without making a whole lot of comment, but notice it
says in verse eight, The word is nigh thee even in thy mouth
and in thy heart. That is the word of faith, which
we preach. Now, let me ask you, is that
faith that's nigh you in your heart, is that the heart that
God saw was deceitful above all things and
desperately, incurably wicked? Who can know it? Did faith come
out of that heart? And God saw the wickedness of
man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the
thought of his heart was only evil continually. Is that the
heart this faith came out of? You know the answer to that.
This is the new heart he gives. A new heart will I give you. This is the clean heart that
David asked for when he said, create in me a clean heart, oh
God. This is the pure heart the Lord
spoke of. Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God. This is the new nature. You see,
faith comes from the new nature. It doesn't come from the old
nature. Let me repeat that. Faith doesn't come from the old
nature. Faith comes from the new nature,
the new heart. Now keep that in mind as we get
to verse eight, but let me read these verses to you. Brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. They weren't, and I want them
to be. I greatly desire their salvation. For I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, for they being
ignorant of God's righteousness. Now, saving knowledge is an understanding
of God's righteousness, His righteousness in my condemnation and His righteousness
in my salvation, how He's made the way to be just and justify
the ungodly. They're ignorant of God's righteousness.
They don't know any of that. And going about to establish
their own righteousness have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believe it. Do you hear
that? Christ is the end, the goal, the purpose of the law
for righteousness. to everyone that believeth. For
Moses described the righteousness which is of the law, that the
man which doeth those things shall live by them. Here's law righteousness, perfect
obedience all the time by you. Anything short of that cannot
be accepted. Continual doing, perfect righteousness. But, verse six, The righteousness
which is of faith speaketh on this wise. It tells us what not to say.
Isn't that interesting? Here's what it says. Don't say
this. Say not, in thine heart, who
shall ascend into heaven? That is, bring Christ down from
above. Don't say in your heart, what can I do to get him to come
down and save me? Don't say that. You said it,
I've said it. What can I do to get him to come
down and save me? Verse seven, or who shall descend
into the deep that has to bring up Christ again from the dead?
Don't say, what can I do to make what he did work for me? What can I do to make his death
and resurrection applicable to me? Don't say, what can I do
to get him to come down and do something for me? Don't say,
what can I do that will make what he did work for me? Get
rid of doing. Just get rid of what you can
do. But what sayeth it? Verse eight.
The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That heart that he is given,
the new heart. That that is the word of faith,
which we preach that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth,
the Lord Jesus. He's Lord. And believe in your
heart, that new heart, that God raised him from the dead. And
you know why he raised him from the dead? Because he accepted
what he did. It was successful. Everybody he died for is justified. God raised him from the dead
because he completed the work of salvation. He never saw decay
because he satisfied the father. The father's completely pleased
with what he did. He raised him from the dead.
If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe
in thine heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt
be saved. Look at verse 10. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
to salvation. You see what you believe in your
heart, it's going to come out in your speech. Now what is meant by this thing
of believing with all your heart? Now we know it's the new heart.
It couldn't be the old heart. If somebody thinks that a natural
man can believe, why, that's a denial of the gospel. That's
a denial of total depravity. That's a denial of human sinfulness.
What does it mean to believe with the heart? What does it
mean to believe with all the heart? Now, you and I both know that
that's not talking about this muscle that pumps blood through
the body. The heart is the whole man. The heart is the understanding. The heart is the affections.
The heart is the will. That's the whole man. That's
what we're made of. You know, as far as our experience
goes, we have these two natures, but they come out in one mind. And you can't really, it's, one
consciousness. It's not like I've got this consciousness
of the new and a consciousness of the old. I've got this one
man with these, I've still got the evil heart of unbelief that
doesn't believe and I've got this new heart but it comes out
in this one consciousness and I understand as much as I can. I mean as far as that goes We
don't completely understand anything we believe. We just believe it
because God's word says it. I don't understand how God can
be one God and three distinct persons, but I believe it. I
don't understand how I can be eternally united to Christ. There's
never a time when I wasn't in Christ. I don't understand that,
but I believe it. A lot, a whole lot that I don't comprehend that
I believe. But I do understand this with
what understanding, spiritual understanding I have, the righteousness
of Jesus Christ is the only righteousness I have. Do you understand that? Now, not only do I understand
that the righteousness of Jesus Christ is the only righteousness
I have. With my affection, I love Jesus
Christ being the only righteousness I have. I love that. Not only
do I love that, if I'm given the choice, would you rather
have your own personal righteousness or the righteousness of Jesus
Christ as your righteousness before God? Here's what I choose,
the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I believe with all my heart.
I believe with all my understanding. I believe with all my affection.
I believe with my will. Now that's what it means to believe
with all your heart. Now go back to Acts chapter eight. Verse 37, and Philip said, if
thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered
and said. Now let me say what he didn't
say. This is important. He didn't
say, I believe I'm one of the elect. He did not say, that I know for
sure that Jesus Christ paid for my sins. He didn't say, I know I'm saved
and nobody can tell me different. He did not say, I know I've been
born again. He did not say, well, I have
works and enough of a change of life proves to me God's done
something for me. I can see that by my changed
life. He didn't say anything like that. What did he say? I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. I do too, Mr. Ewing. I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. You see, the content of saving
faith is knowing who he is. He's God the Son. He's the Creator. He's the Second
Person of the Blessed Trinity. He's incapable failure. Whatever
He does must be successful because of who He is. You see, somebody
that doesn't see their own sinfulness, it's simply because they've never
seen who He is. That's the key to seeing your sinfulness and
your need of Him when you see who He is. I believe that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God. Do you? Do you? That's called saving faith. Believing He is the Son of God. Now, I believe with all my heart. With what understanding I have,
I understand that He is God the Son. I love Him being The Son
of God equal with the Father. I think it's so powerful. I think
it's so glorious. The Son of God. I love to think
of Revelation, chapter five, where. Who's worthy to open the
book and loose the seals thereof, and no man was found worthy.
John said, I wept. And one of the elders said, Weep
not, behold, the line of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed
to open the book, and we read with a lamb came to Him who sits
on the throne. He didn't ask for the book. He took the book. Only the Son of God can do something
like that. And we love Him being the Son
of God. We want Him to be the Son of
God. Now let me close with this scripture. If you'll turn to 1 John chapter
5. Whosoever, I love that word. That's better than if it said
Todd. There's a lot of Todds. It might not have meant me. I'm
whosoever. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. And everyone that loveth him
that begat loveth him also that's begotten of him." By this, we
know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep
his commandments. And that's the commandments of
the gospel, believing the gospel and loving one another as he
gave his commandments. And in Christ, we have kept all
the commandments. For this is the love of God,
that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not
grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world,
and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our
faith. Who is he that overcometh the
world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? Do you believe that Jesus is
the Son of God? then you have overcome the world.
God has given you this faith. What hinders me from being baptized?
If you believe with all your heart, you may. I believe that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God.