Turn to Acts chapter 8. We'll
take a little break from our studies in Romans. Matt has expressed a sincere
desire to be baptized. Matter of fact, when we set the
date, he mentioned that he wished we would have set it up a little
earlier. That's a good sign. That's a good sign. But the desire
is one thing. People can desire to be baptized,
but the only candidates for baptism are those who believe the record
that God has given us of His Son and His Holy Word. I've talked
with Mr. Larson. He gave me a personal
testimony of his faith in Christ. He believes the same way I do.
And so, upon his confession of faith, we want to baptize him. Pastor Don Fortner said, and
I quote, According to the New Testament, there is but one thing
essential to baptism. The person being baptized must
have a personal heart faith in Jesus Christ. The essence of
baptism is not in the person or church performing it, but
in the heart obedience of the person being baptized. You must
have a personal faith in the person, work, and power of Jesus
Christ, the Son of God. To be baptized without faith
in Christ is as dangerous as partaking of the Lord's table
without faith. In both cases, the unbeliever
fails to discern the Lord's body. If the Holy Spirit enables you
to trust Christ alone for your complete salvation, you should
be baptized publicly calling on the name of the Lord." And that's true, and we'll see
that in this event that's recorded in the eighth chapter of Acts,
when the Ethiopian eunuch was baptized. And I've titled this
message, Grace, Grace, and More Grace. As we go through this
biblical account of a man that was baptized, I want us to not
only see the grace of God in showing mercy to that hell deserving
sinner, but the grace of God that led to that. And I want
us to, I think this is so important, I want us to identify with this
account as far as our experience of the new birth is concerned,
to see the providence of God, and the purpose of God, and the
power of God, and the provisions of God, all of these things that
we'll bring out in this account of the Ethiopian eunuch, and
see that this that this account is a pattern set for all who
are called out of darkness and translated into the kingdom of
God's dear son. There are many, many patterns.
As a matter of fact, the Apostle Paul himself said he was a pattern
to all those who would hereafter believe. And all you have to
do is give some thought to the Apostle Paul. He was Saul of
Tarsus, was not seeking Christ, hated Christ, persecuting the
church, and God, in a miraculous way, on the road to Damascus,
revealed himself to that man who hated Christ and his gospel
and he was the most effective instrument. He was more zealous
than all of the other apostles in his service in the kingdom
of Jesus Christ our Lord. So that was a pattern, but there
are many, many patterns. So I want us to see this. I know
that God Himself has purposed our salvation. We read this in
2nd Timothy chapter 1 and verse 9 that God has saved us not according
to our works but according to his own purpose and grace which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Those
who do not believe that God has purposed their salvation that
this was part of his perfect plan for each one of us, they
are calling God a liar. That God-honoring truth is recorded
for our learning. And if the Word of God tells
us that we were saved and called with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, then
that's the truth. And we should embrace that. Whether
we understand it fully or not, we should embrace it. That's
right in God's Word. This whole Creation. All of what creation entails. It was purposed by God for this
very reason. For the glory of His Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And all of those who are chosen
in Christ will come into a living union with Him. God has predestinated
us unto the adoption of children. That's Scripture. And so there's
an appointed time of love for each one of us when God will
come upon us in the power of the Holy Spirit under the preaching
of His Gospel and revealed Christ to us. This is too wonderful to even
comprehend, but I know it so that the very thing that God
has chosen for us was according to what He purposed before a
star ever twinkled in the sky. And not only that, everything
around us If you're a Christian, if your
faith is in Christ, there was a time when God moved upon you
by his divine providence, brought you on to the preaching of the
gospel. He sent a preacher your way. Your paths crossed somewhere. You heard the truth. God enlightened
your mind to give you faith to believe the truth and brought
you out of darkness into his marvelous light. This is God's
power. And that's what we want to talk
about in this account. Let me give you a three-point
outline for this morning's message. Just some hooks to hang our thoughts
on as we go through this account. God's purpose in the salvation
of His chosen people. God's provision for the salvation
of His chosen people. and God's providence in the salvation
of His chosen people. And we could add a lot to that,
but that won't be enough for what is before us this morning. First of all, God's purpose in
the salvation of His chosen people. And we've already talked about
that from that passage of Scripture in 2 Timothy 1-9. But here in Acts chapter 8, as
we go through this account, We'll see that it was according to
God's purpose. It does not mention his purpose
before the world began. That's recorded in many other
scriptures, but it is God's purpose. So starting at verse 26 of Acts
chapter 8, we read this, 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 desert." Now, Philip was preaching in Jerusalem. He was a very successful
preacher. Preachers today would just argue
with God. Well, you know, I'm successful
right here. I don't go anywhere else. Well,
Philip is God's preacher. He's not playing games, and God
spoke to him. I don't know that it was an audible
voice, but the Spirit of God moving upon him told him to leave
Jerusalem and go out into the desert. which doesn't seem, as
far as a logical aspect of this, or human reasoning, doesn't seem
that that would be any place that a preacher would want to
go out in the desert. Well, there's people here in
Jerusalem. But there's a man that's going to be traveling
through that desert, a man that was chosen in Christ before the
foundation of the world, a man that God has appointed the time
for his deliverance and the place. And that's true of every one
of us. So, God told Philip, you go out to this desert and he
arose, he didn't argue, verse 27 says, he arose and went and
behold. And that word behold draws our
attention to the very thing that we've already mentioned. A man
of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen
of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure and
had come to Jerusalem for to worship was returning He was
on his way back from Jerusalem. Obviously, he had proselyted
into the Jewish religion. He's a Gentile. He's no Johnny-come-lately. He's a man of great authority.
He's not traveling alone. He's a man who would have a great
company of people with him for protection. He's a man that the
Queen of Ethiopia has put her trust in him taking care of all
of her treasures. No doubt she has given him permission
to go to Jerusalem to worship the God that he believes is the
true God and the God of the Israelites who is well known for the miracles
that have been performed by him. The parting of the Red Sea, the
deliverance of the Israelites and many, many other things that
would have reached the ears of people in different parts of
the country. the walls of Jericho falling down and the battles
that were fought under the leadership of Moses and God giving the victory
and also under the leadership of Joshua and God giving the
victory. So this man heard and he had proselyted into the Jewish
religion. He had gone to Jerusalem for
the worship. He had a copy of the Old Testament or at least
parts of the Old Testament and he was reading that. He was no
better off after going to Jerusalem to worship than what he was before
he went. He was down there with some Christ-hating,
God-denying Jewish people who would lead him into their way
of thinking, he had no understanding of Christ. And this is exactly
what happened to every one of us. We might have been steeped
in religion, or maybe never had darkened the door of a church
ever before, but God in His infinite wisdom and His sovereign mercy
and grace, because of a love that He set upon His people before
this world ever began, He has appointed the time and place
for us to receive the Good News, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, our
Lord and our Savior. And so this man is according
to God's purpose, right where God wants him to be. Philip didn't
know this. Philip didn't know what was in
front of him. He just knew that God told him to go out to the
desert. And he obeyed God. And when he got out there, he
saw this. We read that this man from Coming from Jerusalem after
worshipping with the unbelieving Jews, was returning, in verse
28, and sitting in his chariot, read Isaiah the prophet. He was
reading out loud. Isn't that interesting? Isn't that interesting? Now,
the Spirit said unto Philip, in verse 29, Go near and join
thyself to this chariot. There were other chariots, like
I already mentioned, a company of men that were with this man
of great authority. But God told Philip, go join
yourself to this chariot, a certain chariot. God has a certain particular
people. He wrote their names in the Lamb's
Book of Life before this world was ever created. Ephesians 1
tells us that He chose us in Christ before the foundation
of the world. All of this was purposed by God. We didn't know
this. The Ethiopian eunuch didn't know
this. He didn't know anything about this. He just knew that
the God of the Israelites was a mighty God and that's the God
he wanted to worship. But he didn't understand what
he was reading in Isaiah chapter 53 So we read in verse 30, where
Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Isaiah. So he was reading out loud, and
said, Understandest thou what thou readest? Well, I'll tell
you what the Natural man would have said in
this generation, probably in that generation too if it wasn't
for the grace of God. Sure I understand, you think
I'm a dummy? I can read. I know what the word says. And
you talk to religious people who don't know Christ, they'll
argue until they're blue in the face that they know it all. You can't teach them, there's
no teaching them. When you take a man who's been humbled by the
Spirit of God, he wants to know. He wants to know. He wants to
hear what God's preachers are saying about this one that became
a man who is the creator of everything that we see and what he did while
he was here on this earth. We want to hear about him, don't
we? We sing that song, more about
Jesus, what I know, more of his grace to others. We want to know
more. We humble ourselves before God
and cry out for wisdom. I tell you folks, I've been preaching
the gospel for a lot of years and the more I study, the more
I realize how much I don't know. This is a deep book. It's a deep
book, and it tells us, and we heard it and read it in Scripture
in the men's meeting this morning, that the natural man receives
not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them,
because these things are spiritually discerned. This is a spiritual
book. It takes the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, who dwells
in our hearts, to reveal these things to us. We can't have any
understanding apart from the Holy Spirit enlightening our
minds. And so this man was reading the Scriptures, and Philip asked
him, do you understand what you're reading? And verse 31, he said,
Can I? What a humble spirit. How can
I? Except some man should guide
me. We need to be guided, don't we? We need to be instructed in the
Word of God. We need to be taught the truth
by men who have been taught the truth, who are able to teach
the truth. And this world, and Brother Steve
read it in his Sunday School lesson this morning from the
book of Jeremiah. This world is full of people who do not
know the truth, but they speak like they know the truth. They
tell lies, and the people who are listening to them love to
hear those lies. They love to hear the things
that tickle their ears. They don't want to hear the truth.
But this man wanted to know the truth. 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. Now, we've talked about
the purpose of God in salvation. All of this was purposed by God.
Philip wouldn't have went to the desert if God had not told
him it. This was according to God's purpose.
But the provisions of God in salvation. Christ. Christ is what God has provided
for His people for the salvation of their souls. It says in verse
32, the place of the scripture which he read was this. This
is in Isaiah 53. He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter. And like a lamb done before his
shearer, so opened he 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 Ethiopian Munich read that,
but he didn't know what that meant. And so in verse 34, He
said to Philip, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet
this? Of himself, or of some other
man? And Philip, look at verse 35,
then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture,
and preached unto him, Jesus. Folks, This modern generation of religious
people who are listening to prophets of Baal are not hearing about
Jesus Christ. They're hearing about a phony
Jesus that doesn't even exist. There was a phony Jesus in the
days of the Apostle Paul. People wanted to hear about a
Jesus that they could manipulate, that they could control. A Jesus
that was under their beckoning. A Jesus that has done all that
He can, now the rest is up to you. They want to hear about
Him. They want to hear about one that is under their... what's the word? Their control, I guess. He's
done all He can, now the rest is up to you. They want to hear
about a Jesus who's wringing His hands in despair. Hoping
against hope. that someone might allow Him
to save them. Isn't that sick? Jesus Christ
is a sovereign despot on His sovereign throne of power. He
works all things after the counsel of His own will. And the salvation
of His elect is according to His own purpose and grace which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. He's
not waiting for somebody to make a decision for him. He's coming
to hell deserving spiritually dead sinners and giving them
life under the preaching of his gospel. Bringing them out of
darkness into his kingdom, into his waiting arms, into a living
union with himself. This is the power of God unto
salvation. And Philip opened his mouth,
that passage of scripture in Isaiah 53, And he preached Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. This was God's purpose. This
is God's provision for the salvation of His chosen people. Christ
Jesus who suffered and bled and died in order that we might live. God's provision for the salvation
of His chosen people is Jesus Christ, God's darling Son. When
Philip opened his mouth, had began at the same scripture and
preached unto that Ethiopian eunuch, Jesus Christ and him
crucified, he told him, Philip told him things about Christ
that nobody in their natural mind would have been able to
see from that passage in Isaiah 53. Now, the message isn't recorded,
but we don't have to guess what Philip preached. He preached
the same message all of God's preachers preach. Philip preached
the deity of Jesus Christ. He told that Ethiopian eunuch
that this man that the prophet was writing about is God's son,
the second person of the Trinity. We believe, all Christians believe,
in the great triune God. There's only one God. Don't misunderstand
me. There's only one God. But there
are three divine persons that make up one glorious, majestic
God. And Philip preached to that unit,
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is equal in essence and power
and purpose with God the Father. The Word of God teaches that
Jesus Christ is our Creator. He created everything that we
see by the Word of His mouth. The Scripture tells us in 1 Timothy
3.16. I wonder why people don't memorize
that verse as well as they do John 3.16. 1 Timothy 3.16 says,
without controversy. That means there's no arguing
this. Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh. And it goes on to say justified
in spirit and other things. But this is without argument. God was manifest in the flesh. That man that was born in that
manger The Christ child that the Virgin Mary gave birth to
was God in human flesh. Did you know the Bible teaches
that all of the angels of God were commanded to worship that
baby when he was born? All of the elect angels worshipped
him. They worshipped the baby, Jesus
Christ. Now God will not share his glory
with another. We are not to bow down to any
other God but the true and living God. Well, Christ is the true
and living God. And Philip preached to that Ethiopian
eunuch, that this man the prophet was writing about, that was the
man that was to come, that was the God-man that was to come,
that was the Messiah that was promised from way back when Adam
and Eve sinned and they were told that from Eve would come
the Messiah, that prophecy and right on through all of the prophecies
where the Messiah was prophesied to come. These men were speaking,
writing, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, telling all
of God's people who were enlightened by the Spirit of God that there's
a day coming when God's going to come to this earth, and He's
going to have a human body, He's going to walk on this earth,
and the fountain for sin and uncleanness will be opened. And
so Philip, he would have preached the deity of Jesus Christ. He would have preached the incarnation
of Christ. He would have told, like I've
already mentioned, he would have told that eunuch that Jesus Christ
is a God-man. God did become a man. Jesus Christ
is 100% God. He's 100% man. Skeptics tell
us that's a mathematical impossibility. But they're not familiar with
the mathematics of heaven and that is not an impossibility
because Jesus Christ is 100% God and he's 100% man. There's
a glorified man in heaven right now. His name is Jesus Christ
and he's sitting on his sovereign throne of power. He is very God
of very God and we bow down to him and we worship him. So Philip
would not have kept that out of his message. He would have
preached that and he would have preached why Jesus Christ came.
He would have taken that passage of scripture from Isaiah 53 and
pointed that Ethiopian eunuch to the perfect redeeming work
of Jesus Christ our Savior. He would have told him that Jesus
Christ came to save all of his elect. He might have even quoted
Matthew 1.21 when the angel of the Lord told Joseph who was
Mary's husband, who was going to put her away privily because
she was pregnant. The angel told him, don't be
afraid to take Mary to be your wife. That which is conceived
in her is of the Holy Spirit. And the angel told Joseph, thou
shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from
their sins. not going to try to save them.
He's going to save them. He didn't make us savable. He
saved us. Philip would never have said
anything to that eunuch about His free will being in His hands
to determine His eternal destiny, He would never have said anything
like that. He would have told that unit, when Jesus Christ
died there at Calvary 2,000 years ago, He didn't make His people
redeemable. He redeemed them. He redeemed
us. He purchased us with His own blood. He would have told
that eunuch that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from
all sin. He would have told him, Jesus
Christ by Himself purchased our sins. They're gone, gone, gone. As far as the East is from the
West, God has removed our sins from us and He remembers them
against us no more. We're free! Free because Jesus
Christ has established a righteousness for us that's ours. What Jesus
Christ did, which was pleasing to God the Father, we did that
in Him. Now, please don't misunderstand
that. We're hell-deserving sinners
and in our unregenerate state, there's not one thing that's
pleasing in the sight of God about us. Not one good can come
from us. But Jesus Christ is our representative
as the One who represented His people as He walked on this earth. Every step he took was perfect.
Every thought he had was perfect. Every word he spoke was perfect.
Every deed he did was perfect. And in him, we were doing that. In our representative, we were
pleasing God. God looks upon us in Christ just
as if we had never sinned. Does that bless you? that Philip would have been telling
this man about that he would have been preaching the perfect
redeeming work of Jesus Christ our Savior and telling him that
we've been made accepted in the beloved and God accepts us in
Christ and nobody's going to be accepted that's not in Christ
I'm confident that Philip preached these glorious truths that gives
God all the glory but he wouldn't stop there he would have preached
the resurrection of Jesus Christ that the grave couldn't hold
Him. Now, He came out of the grave on the third day and our
Lord tells us in His Word that He had the power to lay down
His life. I might speak on that a little bit before we come to
the table this afternoon. But nobody took His life from
Him. At the appointed time, when God's fury and His wrath was
poured out on His darling Son, And he, our Savior, drank every
bit of the wrath of God until the cup was completely exhausted.
When that was completed, he uttered these words, it is finished. The work of redemption was done.
And he pillowed his chin right down on his chest and gave up
the ghost. It was wicked. and cruel hands
that crucified the Lord of Glory. They were murderers, but He gave
up the ghost. He laid down His life willingly. He said, I have the power to
lay it down. I have the power to take it up
again. So when he came out of the grave, he came out of the
grave by his eternal spirit, himself, raising himself from
the grave. It was God the Father that raised him. It was God the
Holy Spirit that raised him. It was Jesus Christ who raised
himself. You cannot deny that. You say, well, that just doesn't
make sense. It does if you know that there's only one God. And
so he, Philip, would have been preaching to that unit the resurrection
of Jesus Christ. And he would have preached Christ
as our great high priest. As our heavenly advocate. Man, we have a lawyer that represents
us. I'm so thankful. But he's also
the judge. And I don't know of any lawyer
that would lose any case if he's also the judge. Do you? So He grants a full pardon to
all of those who believe on Him. And He's just in doing so, because
He redeemed them with His blood. He, the Lord Jesus Christ, satisfied
the holy justice of God, so that He can say, as Brother Lance
brought out last Wednesday, live, passes by us when we're polluted
in our own blood, says, live, and gives eternal life. He doesn't
offer it, He gives it. He's the only one who can give
it. And if you believe the Word of God, you'll believe that Jesus
Christ has the power to do that. And he gives eternal life to
as many as God the Father gave him. So we have a lawyer in heaven
who pleads our case for us and he will not lose a case. Not
one for whom Christ died will be lost. He says so. And so Philip
would have been preaching that. He would have preached that it's
God who sends his preachers. Philip wouldn't have gone out
to that desert if God hadn't sent him out there. And we read
in Romans chapter 10, how can we call on Him whom we have not
believed? And how will we believe if we
don't hear? And how can we hear without a
preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sinned?
So God sends his preachers to different areas. They preach
the gospel. Preach the gospel to those that
God brings under their preaching. And God, in his own appointed
time, saves his people by his sovereign power. Paul said, I
am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. To the Jew first,
and also to the Greek, to us Gentiles. For therein, in the
gospel, is the righteousness of God revealed, as it is written,
the just shall live by faith." So we hear about the righteousness
of Christ, which is our righteousness that makes us acceptable in God's
sight. It's not what we do, it's what
Christ has done for us. Philip would have preached that,
and he would have preached the imminent return of our Savior,
and he would also have preached baptism. It's what we're going
to witness this afternoon. he did not hold that out and
the reason I know that is we read here in verse 36 after he
preached unto him Jesus and as they went on their way they came
unto a certain water and the eunuch said see here is water
what doth hinder me to be baptized Now, we read over things and
we don't give any thought to them like we should. They're
out in the desert. They're out in the middle of
a desert. And all of a sudden, there's water deep enough for
the Ethiopian unit to be baptized. Now, we know that they would
have been carrying water on their chariots and had provisions for
going across the desert. So, they had plenty of water.
If sprinkling was the mode of baptism, but sprinkling is not
the mode of baptism. The word is baptizo, it means
to immerse. You cannot be baptized unless
you're immersed. So we read where he said, What
doth hinder me to be baptized? And he answered and said, Philip
said in verse 37, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. Here's the only candidates for
baptism. Those who believe. Infants do
not believe. Infants that are baptized, infants
that are sprinkled, they are not going through what we call
believer's baptism. It's for those who believe. Right at the close of one of
our conferences, I had baptized a couple of people. There was
a man from down in the Los Angeles area by the name of Matt Vincent. He was way in the back. And he
came running. I was just getting ready to close
in prayer. He came running down that aisle
right there. Pastor Gene wanted me to be baptized. He literally ran up these stairs
in suit and watch, wallet, everything. He was ready. He wanted to get
baptized. I said, if you believe, Matt, you've told me that you
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. These are the
candidates for baptism. Those who hear the Gospel, receive
Christ by faith, believe on Him according to the Scriptures. 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. Putting Him equal with God the
Father. Did you know that the Jews took
up stones to stone Jesus Christ because He made Himself equal
with God? They thought He was blasphemy.
He wasn't. Jesus Christ is God Almighty. And we read in verse
38, he was probably, would be the eunuch who had command of
the chariot. 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, the eunuch, went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was
found at Azotus, and passing through, he preached in all the
cities till he came to Caesarea. So Philip continued on with the
ministry that God had called him to, but the Ethiopian eunuch
went on his way rejoicing. Now, he took the gospel back
to Africa with him. He was on his way back to his
homeland. And he took that gospel back with him and he took it
back with him with a rejoicing spirit. And I leave you with
this question. Are you in that number who worship
God in spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the flesh? I believe Matt Larson is in that
number. I would not baptize him. Matt, I don't ask that you come
at this time.