If you'll turn back with me now
to Acts chapter 8. I try to listen. You know that's something we
have to learn, isn't it? To listen. We're quick to speak,
but very slow to listen. And I still struggle with it.
But I try to listen. And I try as best I can to watch
over those of you that God in his good providence has put into
my care. When I see things drawing you
away from the truth, drawing you away from the worship of
God, I do my best to reprove you. I'll work it into my message
somehow and I'll try to prove you and correct you and instruct
you in the way of God and in the way of grace and in the way
of Christ. But I also think about your children. Can I say our children? I see their faces in my study. And I see their faces all day
long. And they are as much a part of
my study as anyone in this congregation. When our Lord gave the Great
Commission, it was inspired of the Holy Spirit
to be recorded using two words to define it. You ever think
about that? Teaching and preaching. Those are the two words chosen
by the Holy Ghost inspired to be written in the Great Commission. In Matthew's Gospel, the Lord
commands us to go and to teach all nations. There is a learning process that
takes place in the heads and hearts of all God's elect. Well, you say, Preacher, you
can't teach everybody. No, you're right, you can't.
but I can at least make them understand in their head what
it is I'm saying and give a warning. Our Lord said this, and they
shall all be taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. That's what Christ said in John
6, 45. And he said it in response to
the Jews who murmured. Expository teaching is how we
are to carry his gospel into all nations. And then preaching. Why would he use these two words
to describe his command in the Great Commission? Well, preaching
describes the character of teaching. Think about it. Preaching is a declaration. That's what it is. It's not a
suggestion. Well, that preacher said what
we ought to do. No, that preacher didn't either.
He said what you ought to do. He said what you need to do.
He said what God commanded you to do. Preaching is not a suggestion,
and it's not an invitation, and it's not a proposition. It's
a declaration. Paul said, he was free from the
blood of all that heard him. He's talking to the Ephesian
church in particular. But he was free from the blood
of all his hearers because he shunned not to declare unto them
all the counsel of God. I've been charged by men and
women on more than one occasion for being too dogmatic. I think
that's your mother's problem right now. You're too dogmatic. You can't preach the gospel any
other way. It's either so or it's not. There's
no middle ground. Religion builds middle ground,
gray areas. There's no gray areas. My sister, who's dead now, once
said to me, I believe the Bible says different things to different
people. And I said to her, if it does,
then there can't be a just and righteous judgment. There cannot be a just and righteous
judgment if this Bible says different things to different people. If
it does, the commission cannot threaten those who believe not
the testimony of God's gospel. If there's some kind of optional
meaning in the word of God that it can say one thing to me and
something totally different to you, then how can the Great Commission
threaten men who believe not and say they shall be damned? To the best of my ability, I
prepare my messages so that even our children can understand what
I'm saying and hopefully that what I'm saying is in harmony
with the Word of God. I have no power to bring you
into subjection to God. I don't even try. I cannot bring
you into subjection to God. I can't bring you in subjection
to His Gospel or to me, His ambassador. I've got no power to do those
things, but the God who sent me has. And the Holy Ghost does. And my Heavenly Father does.
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3, 5, not that we are sufficient
of ourselves to think anything of ourselves. You think about it. Let me read
that to you again. We're not sufficient of ourselves to think
anything of ourselves. But our sufficiency is of God. No man is sufficient to create
a new creature in Christ Jesus. I can't do it, can you? And I
fear that's what we try to do when we buttonhole men. We're
gonna make them believe. You can't make them believe. Our sufficiency is of God, that's
the only hope I have. I preach what he commands me
to preach, the gospel. But all that power to change
and create new creatures, that's all our sufficiency is of God. No man is sufficient to create
a new creature in Christ. No man is sufficient to tear
down man's stronghold. You try to tear one down. You can't get a shingle off his
roof. Try to tear down a man's stronghold. Try to destroy his evil imagination. Or try to bring his thoughts
into subjection to the Lord Jesus Christ. And no man is sufficient
to call a dead sinner out of darkness and translate him into
the kingdom of God. But the God who sends men and
accompanies men is. And he says this, he said greater
is he that's in you than he that's in the world. Our sufficiency
is of God. Now with these things in mind,
I want you to turn back with me to the text that I read to
you in Acts chapter 8. This is one of the many accounts
of God's elect being called with an irresistible calling through
the preaching of the gospel. I want you to see what had taken
place and what was going on. Where does this thing begin,
this calling of God? I know it begins in eternal election,
it begins in the purpose of God, but I'm talking about the active
calling of God's elect. Where does it begin? It begins
with the providence of God. And that's what he's laying out
for us here. That's what he's, these things
that I read to you earlier. I want you to see what had taken
place and what was going on. Stephen had been stoned by the
Jews. Saul of Tarsus, a very devout
and dedicated Pharisee, he stood by and held the coats of them
that stoned him, giving his consent to the death of God's saint. And then after the slaying of
Stephen, Saul made havoc of the church. He found out who was
attending that church. And he went into their houses,
he sought papers for them, and he went into their houses. And
hailing men and women committed them into prison. Not because they were evil or
lawbreakers, but because they contradicted his religion. But rather than hinder God's
purpose, It only caused the gospel to spread further. It just caused the gospel to
spread further. And it caused the gospel to be
spread faster than it would have without it. Watch this down here
in Acts chapter 8 verse 4. Therefore, after Paul made havoc
with the church and the men were spread abroad, Therefore they
that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. They maybe couldn't preach it
right there, but they could preach it somewhere in God's good providence.
And this is where we pick up the account of Philip and how
he came to encounter this Ethiopian Union. Philip went down to the
city of Samaria. I don't think Philip just said,
I think I'll go to Samaria. No, I think God laid Samaria
on his heart. There was something that drew
him in the providence of God to Samaria. He was led there
by the providence of God. And he didn't know why. Still
didn't know why. But he knew that God's providence
had scattered him and that he was to go and preach the gospel,
so he went to Samaria while others went other places. And at the
first, he did what he could in a general way, preaching to any
and all that would give him hearing. And God blessed him. He blessed
him. He raised up a church right there
in the city of Samaria. The Lord blessed his preaching
to a great harvest of souls. So much so that the apostles
at Jerusalem came down, Peter and John, they came down and
preached there also. And in the overflow of that blessing,
even after the Lord's disciples, Peter and John, even after they
returned to Jerusalem, they still enjoyed an open door to minister
in the villages of the Samaritans. You see it recorded there. It
was an open door. Acts 8, 26. Now watch this. And the angel of
the Lord spake unto Philip. Whether this was a great angel
like Michael or Gabriel, I don't know. It doesn't say. Whether
he was a, I guess what you would call, I don't think any angels
are uncommon, but for lack of a better word, he could have
just been a common angel ministering spirits given to us who shall
be heirs of salvation. But no matter what kind of angel
he was, he was the angel of the Lord. Do you see one thing? These angels are ministering
spirits sent forth to minister to those who shall be heirs of
salvation. That's why he calls his preachers
angels. There's some great angels like Michael, and there's some
great angels like Henry Mahan and Don Fortner and some of these,
and there's some little angels like me. But if we're the angels
of the Lord, we carry His message to whoever He sends us. He carried a message from the
Lord of glory. Let me show you something here. Paul was an apostle who would
go on to be one of the greatest evangelists this world has ever
known. He would go on to write, by the
inspiration of the Holy Ghost, almost half of what we call the
New Testament. Paul was a great man, a great
man by the power of God. And Peter, he was a very notable
disciple and an apostle. wrote several epistles under
the inspiration of the Holy Ghost in the New Testament. And John,
who is also mentioned here, was also a notable apostle and writer
of the scriptures. Yet it was Philip that the Lord
chose to send to Samaria. And it was Philip who accomplished
this great work because he went where God sent him, and he was
faithful. Just a common preacher that the
Lord has used to bring this great work to pass. And now he sends
to him a royal messenger with specific orders as to where he
was to go. And the truth is, this is how
even the very least of his preachers receive their instructions. Somehow,
in some way, God's providence makes known to them that this
is where they are to go. God's providence, God's messengers,
and God's word. Now, he was to go to a certain
place, it says a desert place, and for the time being, that's
all he was to know. I'll never forget the day Henry
Mahan called me and told me, he said, you need to sell your
house and quit your job and move up here to Ashland. I've rented
you a house in the parking lot. had two kids at home at the time. We were struggling week to week
to pay the bills and this man of God calls me and tells me
to quit my job and sell my house and move 50 miles up the river
where I had no promise of work. This is what he's telling Philip.
Philip's in Samaria and the Lord's caused a great revival to take
place in Samaria, and souls are being saved, and the apostles
are coming down, and conferences are being held, and all the work
of God is here. Now Philip, leave Samaria, leave
Samaria, leave Samaria, and go down here to a desert place.
Go down here to that road that leads back from Samaria to Jerusalem. You go down there in the road. That's all he was told. And for the time being, that's
all he was to know. You know what it says in verse
27? He arose and went. Well, not us. We got to know
all the why's and wherefore's and all the what's. He just rose and went. God's providence is a strange
thing at times. It draws us in such a way that
we must go, but it don't give us any details. Now, when he got there, verse
27, Behold a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under
Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, one who had charge of all of
her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship. That's
who was there. It's most likely that this eunuch
had been at one time a servant of a Jew, and had been proselyted
into the Jewish religion because he went down to Jerusalem to
worship. That's where the Jews went. They
went during all of the feast days and the holy days, they
would go take this pilgrimage and go to Jerusalem. He'd been
to Jerusalem to observe the holy days and was now on his way back
to Samaria. Now what he was doing in Jerusalem
was what he thought and what he was taught to be the worship
of God. And truly, at one time, there
were believers who saw these things and who took part in these
things who did believe. That's what it says in Romans
3 24. He's talking about Christ being set forth in the Old Testament
scriptures. And when he talks about the remission
of sins that are past, he's talking about those Old Testament saints
and their sins. They saw Christ in that lamb. They saw that coming Redeemer
in that lamb and they saw their sins being put away in Him. And they had faith in His blood. So what He was doing in Jerusalem
was what He thought and was taught to be the worship of God. And yet, had He understood what
those things symbolized, Had he seen the Lamb of God pictured
in the substitutionary sacrifice, his heart would have been lifted
with joy, and he'd have been singing psalms of thanksgiving
going home. But instead, he rode along in
his chariot, reading the Word of God, and being as confused
as much after his worship as he was before. Now I wonder if some of you here
this morning have been to worship so many times and go home yet
ignorant of what I've read and what I've said. This was the
case with the eunuch. For lack of a better explanation,
he'd been to church. He went down to Jerusalem, went
down to worship God. And he went down there and he
saw all the types and the symbols. They were illustrated, they were
sent, God had sent them forth, they were illustrated right before
his eyes. He got back into his chariot, somewhat feeling that
his duty was done, and now he was on his way home and he was
reading the scriptures, but he was as ignorant as he was before
he went down. I wonder if this is not the case
for some of us. There were some in Jerusalem
who understand what the sacrificial lamb represented. They understood
the importance of his shed blood and his dying on the altar of
God. They knew what that was teaching. But there were some
who didn't. They went through the motions,
they outwardly fulfilled their duties and they went out to return
back to the Lord as ignorant. as they were before they went
down. Now what about you? As I read the scriptures to you
and teach the gospel, do you understand what I'm saying? Do
you truly understand what I'm saying? Do you see the glory
of God in the Lamb? Do you see the grace of His appointment
Oh, God's grace appointed him. Long before the world was ever
created, God appointed a savior. Do you see the necessity of his
death? Do you see the sufficiency of
his blood? Do you see yourself reconciled
to God? Do you see all that you need
in him? If you do, When you do, you'll
embrace him. You'll embrace him. The eunuch
had seen all these things set forth in the Lamb and was reading
one of the clearest passages in the Old Testament about the
Lamb, Isaiah chapter 53. And yet he had no understanding
and no joy and no peace at all. He was reading Isaiah the prophet,
verse 29. Now this is back in Acts. I'm
not quoting from Isaiah 53. He was reading the prophet in
Isaiah 53. Now back in verse 29 of our text,
the spirit urged Philip to draw near to the chariot. Can you imagine this man? He's out in the desert. And this
guy's riding along in his chariot. And I've seen horse-drawn wagons,
and they move a little faster than what you can walk. So he
had to be kind of jogging along. And the Lord said, Philip, he
said, you go over there close to the chariot. So Philip ran
thither, verse 30. He went thither to him. And he heard him read the prophet
Isaiah. And he said, Do you understand
what you're reading? What prompted that preacher to
say that? Is that something you'd say?
You go to a Nazarene church somewhere and somebody's standing up and
reading scripture. Is that what you do? Pop up and say, do you
understand what you're reading? What prompted him to say that?
Well, I really don't know what he heard that caused him to ask
the question. The eunuch may have read that
passage over and over. He might have just heard him
reading that passage over and over and trying to read it in
a little different way or maybe trying to make a question out
of a statement or whatever he was doing. Or maybe he read it and expressed
his ignorance of the passage. What in the world is this talking
about? Sitting there talking to himself,
reading this. Whatever it was, Philip heard him and he asked
him if he understood what he was reading. I always read the Word of God
to you. I don't like to have a worship
service without the reading of the Word of God. I don't feel
like it's a worship service at all. I always read the Word of
God to you in every worship service we have. My question is, do you
understand what I'm reading? When I read, the Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want. Do you understand what he's saying? When I read that he is the propitiation
for our sins, do you understand what I'm reading? The eunuch
had a Bible and he was reading his Bible, but he did not understand
what it was talking about. My dad was an avid reader of
the scriptures. I don't know how many times he
read it. Now, he was in a religion that's... I don't even know how to describe
it. Self-righteous. He read it through two or three
times on his knees. He read it through just all kinds
of different ways. But he was very knowledgeable
of the scriptures. You talk about the... even the
lineages. He could tell you who was what
and when and how. He read it and he read it and
he read it. He was an avid reader of the scriptures. But he didn't
understand anything at all. Do you understand what you're
reading? And here's the third thing. He said, how can I? Except some man should guide
me. Huh? I had a foreman on one of the
carpenter jobs I was on one time. And somebody asked me some questions. I was trying to answer them.
And this guy was disagreeing with me. And we were going back
and forth. And I was getting ready to just stop. said well what makes you so sure
that you're right? I said well that's what it says.
Well he said I'll tell you what I'm going to do. He said I'm
going to go home this weekend and read the Bible. This weekend. That's a lot of reading for a
weekend. And well I'm going to come back Monday and we're going
to talk again. I said okay. Well he came back Monday but
he didn't come back talking anything about the Bible. He didn't understand.
He said that's That book, that's the strangest book he said I've
ever read. He didn't understand anything.
And that's where this eunuch was. He had a Bible, he was reading
his Bible, but he didn't understand it. And then he said, how can
I except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that
he would come up and sit with him. There comes a time in the
providence of God that chosen sinners shall be stripped of
their wisdom. That's where you're headed. Boy,
I got all interested in the Bible. Somebody mentioned
something about the sovereignty of God, and I'd never heard such
a thing. And I got in here and got a hold
of a little old concordance, and I started looking up the
sovereignty of God. I'd never heard anything. I mean,
my dad used to set me up on feed sacks at the mission churches.
We went to church almost every night my whole young life. And I never heard one preacher
ever mention the sovereignty of God. Never. I declare the end from the beginning
and from ancient times the things that are not yet done saying
my counsel shall stand and I'll do all my pleasure. I guarantee you if he'd have
read that in that Nazarene church I grew up in you could hear a
pin drop. That's so contrary to what they
pray. He ruleth in the armies of heaven. and among the inhabitants
of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, What
doest thou? God's sovereign. He's sovereign. And there comes a time in the
providence of God that chosen sinners shall be stripped of
their wisdom and shut up to the grace of God in their calling
and conversion. He's going to make you to understand
and acknowledge that you don't know anything. That's where he's
gonna bring you. I don't know anything. I thought
I knew. I thought I had an understanding.
I thought I could go in here and take this bread and eat it. I thought I understood what this
book said. Then I read it for the first
time. Now how can I understand? How
can I understand it? Somebody's going to have to guide
me. Somebody's going to have to teach me. God strips us of our wisdom,
strips us of our ability. What kind of ability did we have
before God regenerated us? None. None. And I'm telling you in as clear
words as I know how to tell you, the gospel of the sovereign grace
of God in Christ Jesus is not something you can simply read
and reach a conclusion. It's not going to happen. God's going to have to send you
a preacher and you're going to have to hear what he has to say. But men believe that they can.
Men believe that they can. But if that's so, then thousands
gave their lives for the preaching of the gospel for no reason whatsoever. I'm not trying to discourage
anybody in here from reading the scriptures. They are they
which testify of Christ and His glorious work of redemption.
I'm simply saying that this is the purpose of God. And this
is the will of God, and it's what's going to be done. And the more you're acquainted
with the Scriptures, the more you're gonna be able to comprehend
when God does give you eyes to see. I tell you, the Apostle
Paul, he knew the Scriptures forward and backward. He was
a Pharisee. But what he lacked was understanding.
When God gave him understanding, man, think of what that man already
had in knowledge of the Scripture. Timothy was the same way. His
grandmother knew she couldn't convert him, but she could read
the Scriptures to it. No scriptures are able to make
you wise. That's where the testimony of
God is. And this man, when Philip came
up beside his chariot, the eunuch didn't see Philip as a breach
of his rights or his so-called free will. He wanted him to preach
to him. He wanted to understand. And
Philip seemed to have some understanding of the scriptures, and he said,
come right up here. Now, we're talking about somebody
who was somebody. This was a man that the queen
had turned over all her treasures into his care. He was somebody.
And here's Philip. He's a nothing. Philip, come
up here and sit with me in my chariot and teach me. Guide me,
tell me what this scripture in Isaiah 53 really means. Here's the fourth thing, 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 done before his
shearers, so opened he not his mouth. In his humiliation, his
judgment was taken away, and who shall declare his generation?
For his life, taken from the earth, he died. And the eunuch
answered Philip and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet
then? Of himself, or some other man? Sheep have a threefold purpose
in their being. God created sheep to be sheared,
to make a covering, make a covering for men. And secondly, he created
sheep to be slaughtered for their meat. And thirdly, to picture the person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and especially his work of redemption.
You remember when John the Baptist saw Christ coming in the way,
he cried, behold, the Lamb of God. The Lamb of God. Philip, verse 35, back in our
text, opened his mouth and began at the very same scripture and
preached unto him Jesus. He was led, who was led? the
Lord Jesus Christ. He began at that same scripture
and he preached unto him Jesus. Who was cut off out of the land
of the living? Christ was. By whose blood are
we redeemed? Christ's blood. John said, this is the record
that God has given to us eternal life and this life is in His
Son. This is where it's at. I've got nothing to preach to
men but Christ. I don't care where they go in
the Bible, I'm going to preach Christ to them if I can. To him give all the prophets
witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall
receive remission of sins. That's what all of these Old
Testament prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, this is
what they're all talking about. Daniel. And from one end of this book
to the other, God has sent forth his son as the propitiation for
our sins. And all true preaching, all true
teaching points its hearers to Christ. And by virtue of who
he is and what he's done and where he is now, he's able, the
scripture said, to save to the uttermost those who come unto
God by him. And one more thing, and I'll
quit. Philip was preaching completely from the Old Testament scriptures.
I don't know if this man had an entire Old Testament or if
he just had the scroll of Isaiah, it doesn't say. They didn't have
books back then, they had scrolls. I don't know, he was a rich man,
he may have had all of them, I don't know. But he was reading
from Isaiah, so he had a scroll there and they were reading from
Isaiah 53. But everything that Philip had
was Old Testament. The New Testament had not yet
been written. This is all he had. And in particular,
he was looking at Isaiah 53, verses 7 and 8. And when he was done, when he
was done preaching to this eunuch, preach Christ to him, as soon
as he was done, the eunuch wanted to know what did hinder him from
being baptized. Isn't that something? How many
messages do we preach and just leave baptism out? Philip preached,
didn't even have a New Testament. Word baptized wasn't in there
anywhere. But when he finished with his eunuch, this eunuch
knew that baptism was necessary. The first thing he wanted to
know was what hindered him from being baptized. Huh? Isn't that something? Now, I'm
gonna tell you something. I can't lay the blame anywhere
except right here. But I'm telling you, in our day,
I see so much carelessness and
indifference in our day, even in grace churches toward baptism,
that it just breaks my heart. Baptism is the first and the
most important confession of your faith. Baptism. You go down here to join the
military, before you get to do anything, before you get to go
to boot camp, before you get a uniform, before you get to
do anything, you're going to stand up before a man and you're
going to hold up your hand and you're going to say, to defend
the Constitution of the United States, you're going to go through
that whole thing. And you're going to publicly
confess your intention. And you will with Christ, too.
And the means of that confession is baptism. It's the first and
most important confession of your faith. It's a new creature
in Christ testifying to the world that a work of grace has taken
place. I'm not what I was. I was without
God in the world. I was without any hope, without
any Christ. I was an idolater. But God did
a work of grace in my heart, and I want to confess it. And
I want to confess him. And it's a privilege. Oh, what
a privilege. It's the privilege of a saved
sinner to declare his union with Christ. Oh, my soul. Are we ashamed of that? We're
ashamed to say, my only hope is my union with Christ. Are
we ashamed of that? And even more, it's the answer
of a good conscience toward God. Oh, my soul. He sprinkled the
blood on my conscience, and it's clear. He put away my sin. The calling of God to lead begins
with a gracious providence. Oh, what a gracious providence.
And then it continues with the provision of means. God has a
preacher for you somewhere. Somewhere. He's going to cross
your path. Sooner or later, if you're one
of His, He's going to send you His gospel. It continues with the provision
of means that please God through the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. It's made effectual by the Holy
Spirit of God. You can preach from now to the
end of time and nothing's gonna happen until God the Holy Spirit
makes it happen. And it's evidenced by a good
confession. I can't find a single example
in the New Testament, other than the thief on the cross, of anybody
hearing the gospel believing the gospel who was not immediately
that you got you don't read the bible see if i can't tell you
to read the book of acts that jailer that libyan jailer he
heard the gospel at about one o'clock in the morning as soon
as they got done he was baptized in his own way Two or 2.30 in
the morning or whatever time it was, him and his whole house
was baptized by prisoners in his jail. And that church at
Philippi was established. You can go on and on. Pentecost,
3,000 souls were added to the church and they were all baptized. I can't find a single example.
And yet today, it's just, well, when I feel like it. Boy, you
wouldn't say that if Christ was standing here where I am, would
you? No, you'd run for the water. Just like that eunuch, he looked
around and he saw the very first pool or river or whatever, lake
or whatever it was, he saw it. And he said, before you go any
further, What stands between me and that water? Philip said,
well, if you believe with your whole heart, he said, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He said, let's go down
in the water.