I want to turn to a couple of
passages in preparation. The first is the Song of Solomon.
Keep your hand at Acts 8. For those of you who have your
Bibles, go to Song of Solomon. For those of you who don't, you
may listen to these words. The Song of Solomon is a poetic
book the theologians suggest, and it describes a very intriguing
and complex and mysterious relationship between a man and a woman. And the onlookers are a whole
group of sisters and a few brothers. And I was thinking about what
my elder said when he acknowledged that we had a few men in our
choir. And I know why we don't have many men in the church today. And this passage of scripture
is not gonna help, but I think when we get to Acts chapter eight,
it will. If you look at Song of Solomon chapter three, verses
one through four, I want you to notice a movement. There is a desire, there is a
longing on the part of the person that's speaking here. And as
you hear the reading of this word, I want you to ask yourself,
is this the way my soul is toward the Lord Jesus. By night, on my bed, I sought
him, whom my soul loves. You see that? I sought him, but I found him
not. So I'll just give up. No, listen
to it. I will rise now and go about
the city in the streets. And in the broad ways, I will
seek him whom my soul loves. Isn't she determined? Listen
to it. I sought him, but I found him
not. The watchman that go about the
city found me. Remember, it's nighttime. It's
nighttime. And she's out in the streets.
She's looking for the lover of her soul. Isn't she? This is
perilous. This is dangerous for a sister.
But she's got to have him. You understand what I'm saying?
She's got to have him. So she's up out of her bed where
it all started. And she's pursuing the lover
of her soul. And she runs across the watchman
after having two times missed him. And here's what she says.
The watchmen that go about the city found me to whom I said,
saw ye him whom my soul loves. Isn't she looking? And what was their answer? Nothing. Bunch of useless watchmen. It
was but a little while that I passed from them. Notice this now just
a little while shortly after I passed by the watchman who
did not see the lover of my soul. So they couldn't help me. The
watchman couldn't help me. But shortly after I passed by
them, watch this now. I found him who my soul love. I held him. You got it. She saw
him. She found him. She held him. But that's not all she said,
but I wouldn't let him go. Did you get that? I wouldn't
let him go until I had brought him into my mother's house and
into the chamber of her that conceived me. And what we are
describing here. Is the dynamic of the soul. When
it is being drawn by Christ. In this overture of love. And she is never satisfied until
she gets him. You got that? Until she gets
him. Now I want you to go to chapter five, because there's
another passage here I want you to see. I'm in chapter five, I'm gonna
start at verse two. She's asleep again. She says,
I sleep, but my heart is awake. You got it? I'm asleep, but my
heart... See, that's how it is when you're
in love. Did you get that? That's how it is when you're
in love, when the soul is in love with Christ, the body may
sleep, but the soul is awake. Isn't that so? Listen to it.
It is the voice of my beloved that knock it. Saying what open
to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled, I'm always
amazed at how God views me. with all of these superlatives
that are impeccable in nature. And I have enough understanding
of the gospel to know he sees me in himself. That's the only
way he can talk like that about me. And so he does, that's a
good example for you men too, I can tell you now. Just saying,
you might not wanna believe way deep down inside, but it pays
off. Open to me, my beloved, my undefiled, for my head is
filled with dew, my locks with drops of the night. And here's
how she responds. I have put off my coat. How shall
I put it on? I have washed my feet. That's
in preparation to go to bed. How shall I defile them again?
But watch this. He didn't stop. See this time
he's pursuing her. The first time she was pursuing
him. Now he's getting after her. My beloved put his hand by the
hole of the door and my bowels were moved for him. Got it? Got
it? I rose to open to my beloved
and my hands dropped with myrrh. That's a metaphor for great anticipation. Isn't that right? and my hands
dropped with myrrh and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh upon
the handles of the lock. Now watch this. I opened to my
beloved, but my beloved had withdrawn himself. Have some of you been
through that? Think about it. My beloved had
withdrawn himself and he was gone. My soul failed when he
speak, he spoke. I sought him, but I could not
find him. I called him, but he gave me
no answer. Now watch verse seven. The watchman,
remember those same fellows she asked about? Have you seen the
lover of my soul? They couldn't even respond. This
time it gets worse. The watchman that went about
the city found me. They smoked me. They wounded
me. the keepers of the wall took
away my veil. Go with me to Acts chapter eight
now. Reading that portion of scripture, if you have some understanding
of the serenade of the soul, if you have experienced that
dynamic of pursuing Christ, and looking for Him, and wanting
Him, and desiring Him. And you know this back and forth
that often takes place because of our sinful nature, because
of providence, because of worldly circumstances. You don't always
get what you want when you want it. And then sometimes God is
working on you. And he's also drawing out in
us a revelation of the level of desire that we have towards
him. As he said in the book of Jeremiah, if you seek me with
all your heart, you're what you find me. And see, this is a real
question that you have to ask with regards to, am I really
pursuant of God? See, she found him on both occasions,
believe me. But the process can often be
difficult and trying and demanding of the soul. And I want you to
watch these watchmen because they'll get you in trouble. I
want you to understand that coming to Christ, sometimes you got
to go right around the watchman because either they don't have
the answer or they'll hurt you. Have you ever experienced that?
Now, I want to talk about a man. I just got through talking in
the feminine gender about the nature of the relationship between
the believer in Christ, the nature of the relationship between a
man or woman who is being drawn by God's spirit. And that dynamic
is feminine in nature because the relationship between the
believer and Christ is depicted by a marital concept whereby
Christ is the man and we are the woman. And I don't mind in
this context being viewed in the feminine gender because that's
just the way it is. Christ is my head. I am his bride. And I love the song of Solomon
in that way because she receives him and experiences the blessings
that every believer should experience when they make contact with the
true and the living God satisfaction in the soul. But I want to share
with you another man who is also in pursuit of God. And I hope
this resonates with those of you who are in pursuit of God
today. I want, I want with all my soul for someone here to be
able to identify with the Ethiopian Yuna. And the title of our message
is understand this, what you read. Do you understand what
you are reading? That's verse 30, the latter part
of verse 30 and verse 31. He said, how can I accept a man
should guide me? Now, it happened to this eunuch,
if you were reading the scriptures, that he had just come from Jerusalem.
I don't know how many times he had gone to Jerusalem. He could
have gone to Jerusalem a dozen times. All I know is that this
time he left from Jerusalem the same way he had left from Jerusalem
again and again and again. He had left from Jerusalem disappointed. He had left from Jerusalem empty. He had left from Jerusalem confused
and totally despairing of the experience. See, he thought in
Jerusalem he'd be able to find the lover of his soul, but he
didn't. So leaving Jerusalem, he's perplexed
because after all, the Bible says God meets sinners in the
temple on the mercy seat between the cherub. And yet the Ethiopian
had gone to Jerusalem again and again and again. And he couldn't
say like the woman in the song of Solomon, I found him. He couldn't say that. See, he
had gone again and again and again. This Ethiopian was a very
unusual and peculiar subject in our text. And the spirit of
God has a lot to say about what's going on here. But the thing
that I want to impress upon you as we look at verses 26 through
28, is that this Ethiopian, while he was zealous, while he was
committed, while he was earnest and meant well, he did not know
God. He did not know God. He had gone
to church. He had learned a lot about the
Bible. He had learned a lot about the protocol in the church. He
had even gotten the songs down to memory. But he was going home
once again, the same way he had came. And this Ethiopian dreaded the
prospect as he made his way back to Ethiopia of being axed. When he finally arrived at home,
So how did it go? How'd it go? What'd you do? Well,
we sang. What else did you do? We prayed. Okay, what else we do? We offer sacrifices. What else
you do? We danced. Okay, is that it? He dreaded having to say that
was it. You see, because before he could
even get out of the walls of Jerusalem, all of the joy, all
of the ostensive euphoria, all of the energy and all of the
good feeling that he had while he was in church was already
dissipating. It is already gone. He hadn't
even started on Gaza back to Ethiopia, which would be several
hundred miles away and several days to get there before he was
getting empty in his soul again. Does anyone know what I'm talking
about? Just empty, just empty in his soul, empty in his soul. Now, how do we know that he was
empty in his soul? Because the narrative gives us and conveys
to us somewhat of a redemptive connotation. Look at verse 26.
Notice what it says. And the angel of the Lord spoke
unto Philip will get to him in a moment saying arise and go
toward the South. Unto the way that goeth down
from Jerusalem. Now watch this now unto Gaza,
which is desert. Now I want you to know that the
geography often conveys to us redemptive truth. And it's a
redemptive truth that sincere seekers need to understand. And
I've said this to you before, those of you who have been under
this ministry, I've said it to you before, because God is not
a megalomaniac. Because God is not the kind of
person that is so self-narcissistic that he can't be happy unless
there are tens of thousands of people paying attention to him,
you generally will not find God in the pomp and pageantry of
large activity. You just generally won't find
Him. You find a bunch of people, and they're doing their thing,
and they're getting down, but you generally won't find God
there. You just won't find God there. If you recall, sinners
find God in some of the most obtuse and strange places. Moses
found God on the backside of a mountain. Remember that? On
the backside of a mountain. You never knew you could find
God in the desert on the backside of the mountain, but that's generally
where you find God. Elisha found God in a cave. looking
for all the thunder, all the noise, all the pomp, he heard
a still small voice. Remember that? And then we remember
Isaiah. And we talked about this. I love
this chapter six. God reveals himself to Isaiah
at a funeral. Someone said, when did you get
saved? Well, I was at a funeral one day and somebody preached
the gospel. That might just happen. He was at a funeral of his cousin,
the King Uzziah, and God revealed his glory to him. His life was
changed. Daniel was asleep when God revealed
himself to him on his bed. Remember that? Struggling over
the issues of Babylon and Jerusalem, and Christ came to him, the pre-incarnate
Christ. And we realize that John the
Baptist met God also in the wilderness. That's where his ministry was,
in the wilderness. Follow me now. And the apostle
Paul met God on the Damascus road. See, we tell people you
got to come to church to meet God. No, no, no, no, no. Today,
most of the time you won't find God in the church. And so this Ethiopian is extremely
perplexed because he has gone to what the scripture says, the
place you go to. You know, there are some folks
who say that real estate over in Palestine called Jerusalem
is the center of humanity. I don't believe that. I don't
believe that. I believe Christ is the center
of humanity. That's what I believe. I believe that. And so he goes
to the center of humanity. We know that in that day that
there was ostensibly the place where truth was set down. We
know that in that day, if you're going to find God, you'd find
God among his people. That's absolutely true. But why
is it that this Ethiopian did not find God there? Because God
wants to teach us a whole lot of things about how a sinner
comes to Christ point number one. If you're in your outline
point number one, please remember this By searching a man will
not find God By searching, by going somewhere, you will not
find God. By saying, if I go to this particular
location, in this particular place, at this particular time,
I'm guaranteed to find God. That's not so. Job says, will
a man by searching find out God? And the answer is no. Listen
to the answer in our outline. God, salvation is the result
of God himself revealing himself to you. Now what that does for
those of you who are seeking, it instructs you to stop running
and simply start asking for God to show himself to you. That's
what that does. Because you've been here, you've
been there, you've been everywhere, and it hasn't happened. And this
Ethiopian can say the same thing. It hasn't happened. I want you
to get this now. Salvation is the result of a revelation of
Jesus Christ to the heart. John 17 3, listen to the words,
and this is eternal life. that they might know me, the
only true God and Jesus whom he has sent. Did you get that?
Eternal life is an intimate revelation of Christ to your heart. That's
what this Ethiopian is certainly going to experience here as we
make our way down the text. The other thing that I want you
to see in our outline is this, as he is experiencing this dryness
in his soul, this dry place, God's doing something for him.
Do you believe that? God's doing something. Often
we assume that if I'm going through difficult times, then God must
be displeased with me or has withdrawn himself from me. And
more likely, if you are on the path of revelation, he dries
you up before he fills you up. See, we've learned this long
ago, going through the whole Exodus account, that God suffers
his people to thirst. He dries up the soul so that
you can be hungry and thirsty for Him. Isn't that so? Blessed
are they that hunger and thirst, after what? Well, God's got to
make you hungry. And doesn't He do that? He has
to dry up that soul. He has to strip you of all your
false refuges, because you and I will lean on crutches and things
that will support us that are not God Himself. And until He
strips all that garbage away, chops it down, just strips all
the leaves and gets you where your butt naked. empty, dry,
then you call on God. Isn't that right? That's a blessing.
So you see your brother and sister struggling and going through
something and they're withering up and you wonder, you know, are they,
are they doing dope? No, God's just dealing with them. And here you ain't ready to rescue
them. Just stop for a moment. Let God deal with them. Isn't
that right? Just let God do. This Ethiopian
was tore up. He was dry and he didn't understand
what was going on. But here's a passage of scripture.
I want you to take note of Proverbs chapter 16. And here's what it
says. The preparation of the heart in man and the answer of
the tongue is from the Lord. See, we believe in the sovereignty
of God here in this place. We don't believe in any free
radicals running around in God's universe. You might, we don't.
We know God controls all things, doesn't He? Everything, every
minute molecule in this universe is under the direct supervision
of God Almighty. No animals run around free in
this world, not free as they think they run around free. And
so the disposition of the soul, the character of the soul, the
mindset, our... emotional position or instability
is all a working of God, even though we may not comprehend
it. He's doing something to prepare us to see him. And that's what
he's doing here. The preparation of the heart
and man and the answer of the tongue is where from the Lord.
So God's preparing this Ethiopian for an answer that he's about
to give him. You see it? He's preparing him
for an answer that he's about to give him. Proposition number
two. Proposition number three, rather.
Oh, number four. We are at a very poignant place
in history in your text. I don't know how familiar you
are with the Book of Acts, but I love the Book of Acts because
the Book of Acts describes for us things that have never happened
before in human history. Let me explain. We've been going
through the Book of Exodus, right? And many of us have come to understand
the importance of what we call the wilderness sojourn. Haven't
we been talking about that Saints see a whole bunch of people will
tell you those of you who are believers that you should not
go through a wilderness experience. I'm here to tell you all of us
have to go through a wilderness experience. Now. I want to lay
this foundation to give you a context a larger context to see what
God is doing in the book of Acts. The wilderness sojourn is a time
of preparation. In the wilderness, God is preparing
you. In the wilderness, God is teaching
you to depend on him. In the wilderness, you don't
have anything but God. That's a good place to be. Because
you know when you start having money and you start acquiring
things and getting positions and started knowing people, then
you start forgetting God, don't you? God already warned Israel
about that. He said, now when you get into
the land and you get all these goodies and you start growing
and becoming fat, you forget God, I'm going to tear you up.
That's my version. So as he as he's running this
1.5 million people through the wilderness, what he's teaching
them, and this is listen to me, I know in this present hour,
in this dark age in which we live, this grossly pagan religious
society in which we live, you and I are not in Canaan. I don't
care what preacher you listen to, you are not in Canaan. You're
in the wilderness. And I can tell you how you can
know you're in the wilderness and not in Canaan. Because when
you are in Canaan, you are actually possessing. In the wilderness,
you are learning to possess. And I'm still learning to possess.
And when I look out over in my sort of overarching view of the
religious condition of our world, most of us have not even learned
how to prepare. We aren't even running the race. We're still
in Egypt. Most folk call themselves free
and in Canaan. Brother, you're not even out
of Egypt yet. You're still in Egypt. You're still trapped by
your sins. You're still bound by your lust.
You're still wrapped up in your pagan idolatry. You haven't even
come out. You haven't heard the gospel
call come out yet. That's where a lot of people
are today. That's where a lot of people are. And so the Ethiopian
is in a wilderness experience, just like you and I. And so he's
being prepared for something. Now, the book of Acts is what
we call possession time. Remember, we said we are prepared.
We're being taught to depend on God in the wilderness. And
when you get into the land of Canaan, it is a time of performance
and possession. When you get to Canaan, you possess.
When you get the Canaan, you take territory. When you get
the Canaan, you remove that which despises God and does not glorify
God. Well, that happened when the
acts begin to occur. You guys missed that. You better
write it down. It's true. Old Testament Canaan corresponds
to the New Testament Acts. Old Testament Canaan corresponds
to New Testament Acts. And I've got to say this. The
possession of the believer here in the New Testament does not
literally correspond to the possessing of the children of Israel in
the Old Testament. The children of the of Israel
in the Old Testament were a type and shadow. They were a for example
of the believer in the New Testament. They were given carnal promises
with carnal privileges and carnal blessings to typify the spiritual
promises and spiritual privileges and spiritual blessings of believers
in the New Testament. Did you get that? So now I know
a lot of you who are into material things probably don't like that,
but it's just true listen to me God has given us all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Ephesians chapter 1
verse 4 And so what happened in the New Testament, once Christ
ascended to glory and sent the Spirit of God, the Spirit of
God now is working through a new Israel, a new group of people
possessing Canaan. You know what that is? The salvation
of sinners from every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. You
and I are the consequence of the Canaan victory. You missed
that, didn't you? You and I are the consequence
of the Canaan victory. When you look out over this assembly
and you see all kinds of nations here, all kinds of ethnic groups
here, all kinds of people, we have so much indifference that
if it wasn't for the gospel, we'd never talk to each other,
probably be killing each other. As it was long ago. Isn't that
true? It's only the gospel that has plundered in a Canaan typology
sinners from different cultures, different ethnic groups and have
brought them into the possession of God. Now that is the Canaan
experience. So now if you want to ask yourself,
am I possessing Canaan? Here's what you ask yourself.
Are you working together with God? Are you working together
with God for the salvation of sinners by the exaltation of
Christ and the manifestation of his glory through the preaching
of the gospel? Is that good? Is that a good
interpretation? Because that's what's going on here. See, if
you recall, we have just left the first part of Acts chapter
8, where a dear brother is coming into view. His name is Philip.
I want to talk to you about Philip now. Philip is one of those preachers
that I like. He's one of those preachers that
don't mind emptying the garbage. He doesn't mind sweeping the
floor. He will paint. He will clean toilets. He'll
do anything necessary to further the cause of Christ, because
he's in love with Christ. See, Philip will go anywhere
at any time and do anything necessary for sinners to be saved, because
in the salvation of sinners, God's glorified. He's not one
of these prissy preachers today. You know those kind. Hey, would
you pick up that napkin right there? That's how it is. I know you don't, look, I'm just
telling you the truth. Listen to me. Somebody said this
long ago. Somebody said the angels in heaven,
and I love this. The angels in heaven are so happy
to be on God's side, having not fallen because they were elect
angels, having not fallen into perdition, and then therefore
bound in chains of darkness until the great day of judgment. They're
so happy to be on God's side that whether they are cleaning
the streets of gold and glory or the ghettos of Oakland, if
they're doing it to God, they're happy. Did you get that? See,
that's tough. That's tough, but it's true.
And see, listen, I want you to understand something about these
seven deacons that were in the book of Acts that were chosen
by the apostles. These seven deacons were bad. These seven
deacons were bad. They would preach the gospel.
Whole cities get saved. These seven deacons were bad.
They preach the gospel. Folk want to kill them. So, you
know, you're telling the truth when two things happen. Sinners
get saved. Folk want to kill you. No, it's just true. It's just true. You are doing
something right. If you see people say and people
hate you. So I know I'm doing something
right. I can tell you that now. See brother Steven is about to
be killed in the next chapter. But here I went around preaching
the gospel full of the Holy Ghost as well. And so is our brother
Philip Philip just got through preaching the gospel where Samaria. Samaria sounds like my Lord Jesus. Isn't that right? I must needs
go through where Samaria now. I want you to understand what's
going on. What's going on is the fulfillment of what Jesus
said in Acts chapter 1 verse 8 tarry ye until you be endued
with power from on high and then you will be my witnesses and
you will begin at Jerusalem preaching the gospel. Folks being saved. Then in Judea, preaching the
gospel, folk being saved. Then in Samaria, preaching the
gospel, folk being saved. And then, listen to me, the uttermost
parts of the world. What you are observing right
now in Acts chapter 8 are the acts of the Holy Spirit. as he is pushing the boundaries
of the free grace of God in Christ to the uttermost parts of the
world, of whom this Ethiopian would be one of the first principles
by which the gospel would go into, listen to me, Africa. Africa
I've told this churches for long long ago Africa was one of the
first churches that was converted by the gospel Africa was one
of the first countries rather that received the message of
redemption through Jesus Christ and we have that here in extra
3 this Ethiopian is a very peculiar individual. And I wanna develop
his resume here for a moment, but you need to know that the
early church, the early church fathers, first century fathers
were the apostles. In the second century, you had
men like Augustine. You heard of Augustine, St. Augustine?
St. Augustine was black. Y'all didn't
know that, did you? Yeah, he black. The brother was black. I didn't know that for a long
time either. but I've learned something about history and how
folk write books these days. And they just left that little
detail out. Tertullian was black. You may
not know him. Arrhenius was black. Cyprian was black. Ambrose was
black. There were tons of black bishops
in the early churches who were faithful to the gospel of the
apostles. And they held fast even when Rome went apostate
and was trying to tell everybody, you got to come to Rome to be
authorized and affirmed as a legitimate gospel church. The African church
said, no, no, we'll stay over here and we'll be Episcopalian. Y'all can be popes and all that.
But we remember what Jesus said, called no man father because
you're all brethren. So we're going to stay over here
and do church the way the apostles did church. Did you hear what
I'm saying? And that all started with our brother from Ethiopia.
this Ethiopian, very peculiar individual. And I want you to
mark now, mark with me his characteristics because they're important. Look
at verse 27. Acts chapter eight, verse 27. He arose and behold,
a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace,
queen of the Ethiopians. I've told you saints before,
when you start getting a hold to these different participles
and you've got five or six participles in a sentence, pause. Philip
arose and went under inspiration of the spirit of God, right?
The angel said, go. This brother was having a great
time in Samaria. If you remember, the Samaritans
have received the gospel. He's preaching to thousands of
people in Samaria. And one night, the spirit of
God said, Philip, I want you to go to the desert. Now see,
if Philip was caught up in a megalomaniac attitude, he'd have said, Lord,
why don't you send somebody else? I'm having a good time with all
these brothers here in Samaria. But as I told you, Philip was
ready to go wherever God wanted him to go. I want you to hear
this too. God told Philip to go and didn't
tell Philip what he was doing. Do you hear me? He told Philip
to go and he didn't even let Philip know he was going to be
preaching to in Ethiopia. God is so much smarter than us.
Isn't that right? Now, had God probably told Philip,
Philip, I'm going to have you preaching to a black man, Philip
would have probably said, Lord, I'm sick today. You laughing, but remember when
God told Peter, I want you to go speak to these Gentiles. Peter
said, Lord, I don't eat anything unclean and all that. And so
God knows how to get around all of our prejudices. And our pride,
he knows how to do that. So he stoked the fires of Philip
with a mystery. Philip, I just need you to go.
So Philip says, I'm going, because God says, go. I don't know where
I'm going. I don't know what I'm doing. But as he started
going, and the narrative tells us, there was a man of Ethiopia,
a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen. So there are
several, two or three things I want you to know. He was a
man of great authority. This is very important. because
it often depicts for us how God works before he breaks the gospel
open into other ethnic groups. He used a man of means. Now,
he didn't always do that, but in this case, he had to. Why? Remember what I said earlier
in Proverbs 61, the preparation of the heart? See, God had been
preparing this man long before what's about to happen. We'll
see this in a moment. First of all, this man was the
treasurer of the queen of Ethiopia. Now, Candace was not her proper
name. This is what is called an official title, just kind
of like Pharaoh is an official title. Candace is not her name.
Her mama didn't name her Candace, okay? Candace is just a title
for the female queens that were ruling in that dynastic period
during the days of the apostles. And history says that her son
was really the king, but because he was too young, she had to
exercise authority. So that's okay. He is serving
under Candace the queen as the treasurer. So this man has great,
great responsibilities in Ethiopia, but I want you to notice something.
He has great responsibilities in Ethiopia, but this man is
interested in salvation. This man is one of the most powerful
men in Ethiopia, but he's interested in his soul. You may miss this,
but I don't because the Bible tells us not many mighty. First
Corinthians 127, not many noble, the wise of the world. See, in
their day, it was just like our day. Religion was not a big issue
for the intellectuals. The politicians don't care anything
about the gospel or religion except as a front when it's time
for votes, then they'll get religious. Isn't that true? and they'll
say whatever they need to say to get your vote. Well, this
brother was much more sincere than that. He traveled hundreds
of miles to find out what he could find out about the true
and the living God. He was a powerful man. He was
a eunuch. This is very interesting. The
eunuch, you know, the eunuch is right brother. This is not
involved with with with sisters. He's just not nothing going on
there. Okay. Now that could have been by birth.
It could have been by the doing of the rulers of Egypt. A lot
of your a lot of your monarchies and your your totalitarian governments
would select out men and women from their youth and designate
them to be single and totally committed to the cause of the
kingdom for the rest of their life. So, you know, they would
change things around. So desire for women was taken
away. So this man is, he's a brother from Africa, very authoritative
in his position, but he's a eunuch. Now this is a problem because
under the Old Testament system, a eunuch could not enter into
the fellowship of the kingdom of God. Deuteronomy 23 verse
two says, no eunuchs can enter into the temple. They cannot
participate in the religious right of the Jewish people. So
he was a second class citizen. on several levels. First, he
was not a blood-borne Jew. And under that system and in
that day, if you weren't a Jew, you weren't much. But you see
how hungry he was for the truth of the gospel, that he didn't
let these impediments keep him from coming to what he thought
was the truth of the living God? Okay, I'm black, so what? I'm
going after it. Okay, I'm a eunuch, so what?
I'm going after it. He did what he could to find
out what he could about God. Now that's seeking God. See,
that's the soul in Song of Solomon seeking God. I want you to understand
that there's something else to remember the preparation of the
heart. Don't miss this the preparation of the heart. God gives us things
and he takes things away in preparation to bring us to Christ. Isn't
that so? On the one hand, he gives us
things, gifts and talents and skills. And on the other hand,
he'll take away things. Like some of you have been really
perplexed as to why God will allow you to be successful in
your educational pursuit, but not give you a wife or a husband.
Isn't that so? Or you know, why God was so gracious
to bless you with a husband, but y'all broke. You know, because, you know,
you get a husband, we're supposed to make some money now, you know,
so we can pay the bills. But we're broke now. Well, see, God's
doing some things because God doesn't really care about your
temporal circumstance. He's concerned about the preparation
of your heart. So he's giving and taking all
the time. That's what he did with this Ethiopian. Ethiopian
settled down with the fact that he wasn't going to be married.
He settled down with the fact that he was black because in
that day, just like in this day, but especially in that day, it
was still tough to be black. especially in Judaism. And so
he had all these impediments, but here's one very beautiful
gift that God gave this Ethiopian. And you probably missed it, but
it's in the text. You know what it says? The Ethiopian had jumped
in his Escalade and he was headed back to Ethiopia. He was in the back because in
the front his cabbie was driving, you know that. I want you to
see this. Look at this. Now this is important.
Look at it. Look at it with me now. In verse 26, he was returning
and he was sitting in his chariot. Watch this. Reading. That's our
verb form. Our present verb form is he was
reading. Do you see that? See, most of you are intelligent
and you've been able to read since birth. You don't understand
that it's a privilege for a man to be able to read in the first
century. He was reading. That means he was knowledgeable.
He was educated. What was he reading? Isaiah the
prophet. Isn't that right? Stop. He's a black man. This
is Hebrew scripture. How did he read the Hebrew? Somebody
taught him. He learned the Hebrew. Why did
he learn the Hebrew? So that he could jump over the
barriers and impediments and hindrances that the prejudices
of those who were ruling would employ to keep him from knowing
what he needed to know. See, you got to get over the
Tanah, you got to get over the Haggadah and the Halakha, you
got to get over the writings of the fathers, over the traditions
and go straight to the whale, which was the Torah. the law
of God. Do you know what he did? He says,
look, I'm going to listen to what they say, but they might
be twisting this thing. So I'm going to learn Hebrew
and I'm going to go and buy myself a Bible. Did you get it? That's what I was saying earlier.
You know, forgive me for those of you who are not part of Grace
Bible Church. I'll forgive you one time, just one time, one
time when you don't come to the church with your Bible. I know
you not you plan. You're not real with God. Don't
get mad at me. You're not real with God. Thy Word have I hid in my heart
that I might not sin against you. Through thy precepts do
I get understanding and I hate every false way. Oh, how love
I thy law, it is my meditation all the day long. And it is the
word of grace, which is able to build us up and give us an
inheritance among those that are sanctified. The scriptures
are profitable for doctrine, reproof and correction and training
and righteousness that the man or woman of God may be thoroughly
furnished unto all good works. Did you get that? So you come
to church without your Bible. Anybody can deceive you. Anybody
can this brother said, man, they're not deceiving me. I'm learning
Hebrew. I'm going straight to the source.
He went straight to the source and learned him some Hebrew.
And in that culture at that time, this is what they did. It was
the practice of the Hebrew fathers and Hebrew sons to read out loud. In that day, you read out loud.
Do us well to read out loud today, too. But the brother's riding
in the back of his Escalade. He got the window rolled down.
It's hot. And he's got the scriptures up because he's frustrated. He
frustrated. He just came back from Jerusalem
and nothing happened. They had a great time hooping
and hollering all the entertainment, all of the hoopla, all of the
balloons, all of the sacrifices. And he's headed home and he's
dry. And man, I might as well read the scriptures. So he start
reading Isaiah. And do you know God providentially
dropped him on Isaiah chapter 53? That's how God works, isn't
that right? That's how God works. God is going to do something
here. And he's setting down some elemental principles, elementary
principles for us. We have a hungry sinner because
he is. We have the written word of God,
an essential element in the salvation of sinners. Faith comes by hearing. and hearing by the word of God.
And so we have the word of God. The next thing we need is a preacher. Isn't that right? The next thing
we need is a preacher. So that we are beholding in our
text how God brings together in the preparation of the heart
and the answer of the tongue, the salvation of sinners through
the preaching of the gospel. So the Spirit of God says to
Philip, go south, young man, go south. Philip is walking in
this hot, arid desert. He's walking one way coming from
Jerusalem and God has the Ethiopian meeting him. Latitude and longitude. Think that was accident? Latitude
longitude. So the Ethiopian is rolling down
the way and the Spirit of God says to Philip, go join yourself
to that chariot. Now, they're they're in a strip
of desert and you ain't got a whole bunch of cars going down that
road. Only one car. So it's pretty easy for Philip
to begin to see what his mission was. So Philip started running. And because he had to join himself
to this chariot and it was getting down the road. So Philip was
a runner, you know, I know that because the word Philip in the
Greek means horse lover of horses and in the scriptures, the horse
represents strength. It represents vitality. It represents
warfare represents War, that's what it represents. It represents
the means by which we get the victory, the battle won. That's
why we read in Revelation concerning the white horse upon which Christ,
our savior rode and out of his mouth when a two-edged sword
with which he would smite the nations. The white horse is the
power of the gospel and Philip is a white horse. He's running
with the truth of the gospel and he latches himself a hold
to this cherry. Talk about room service. Why? Because the Ethiopian, listen
to me, the Ethiopian is begging for God. Don't forget it. See,
that's Song of Solomon. He's hungering, isn't he? He's
frustrated, nothing has happened, and he needs a revelation, doesn't
he? He's reading the scriptures, and he's trying to figure out
what this is all about. And I love the way Philip answers
him. Look at verses 30 and 31. Philip
ran thither, and he heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. You
got the picture, right? Running up on the side of the
chariot. and the Ethiopian is reading the scriptures and Philip
is listening. Oh man, he's in Isaiah 53. Isaiah
53. And notice what it says. And
Philip said to him, do you understand what you're reading? Did you
get that? Now, here's a lesson in evangelism. He didn't say, hey, brother,
are you saved? He didn't say that. He didn't say,
hey bro, are you born again? See, everybody's born again today.
Isn't that right? Hey, what church you go to? Isn't
that right? And listen to me. He didn't even
say, are you reading the scriptures? He didn't even say, are you reading
the scriptures? Because just reading the scriptures does not
guarantee you revelation. See, salvation is not the consequence
of the intellect gathering theological propositions. Salvation is not
the mere acquisition of biblical data. You know that, right? You
can learn Bible verses forever and a day and still be lost. Isn't that so? I told you about
these folk come knocking on my door. They don't knock anymore,
but they used to. And they come up and they knock
on the door and they say, can I share a Bible verse with you?
No. No, I'm not impressed that you
can read the Bible. My four year old daughter can
read the Bible. If I want someone to read the
Bible, Trinity, come read the Bible to daddy. You understand? I'm not impressed because you
can read the Bible. Here's the question. Do you understand what
you're reading? Did you get it? Do you understand
what you're reading? And here's the issue of the day.
Do you understand? Now, you know what I like about
the response of this Ethiopia? It was humble. Because most people
say, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I understand what's written. Oh yeah, I understand.
Oh yeah, I've been reading the Bible for 20 years. I understand
what it's saying. You're lying. You don't understand
what it's saying. Because if you understood what it's saying,
you'd jump right in and tell me what that book means, who
the author of that book is. See, because to understand the
book, you got to know the author. Are you with me? Listen, to understand
this book, The author who wrote the book has to make it known
to you. And so the Ethiopian eunuch was
not a proud man. He said to Philip, how can I
understand unless some men guide me? You know what I remember? I remember in Luke chapter 8
verse 15, these words, listen to it. He says, and the good
seed fell on good ground and out of a good, listen to this
word, an honest heart. See, honest people won't go to
hell. Honest people won't go to hell. People that's real with
God won't go to hell. People that's honest about their
need won't go to hell. People that's serious about the
truth won't go to hell. People that will tell the truth,
admit that they don't know. Admit that they don't understand.
Admit that they're lost. They won't go to hell. Do you
hear me? See, because God's seeking sinners, sinners aren't seeking
God. God seeking sinners. And so you got to be honest with
God. And so here comes the preacher. And the first thing he says is,
do you understand what you're reading? And he says, how can
I? And this is an amazing insight
that begins to bring us to where we need to be today. Except some
man guide me. He understood that he had to
be guided into the truth. Did you get that? He had to be
guided into the truth. How many people do you know that,
you know, well, I read the Bible and I know God for myself, me
and God, we all by ourselves, me and God all by ourselves.
You know, I have my own interpretation of things. You know, it's just
me and God. Well, how do you know you're
right with God? I just have a feeling. Isn't
that right? It's just me and God, you know,
just me and God. Do you know nowhere in the Bible has a person
ever been saved, just them and God. God always uses means to
bring about his salvation. Now he's the first cause, but
if you're going to be saved, listen to me, you're going to
be saved when the gospel is preached and you're going to be saved
when the gospel is preached by a faithful gospel preacher. That's
how it works. Isn't that right? Romans chapter
10 says, how shall they call on him? of whom they have not
believed. Isn't that right? How shall they
believe on him of whom they have not heard? Isn't that Romans
chapter 10 verse 14? God is using there what is called
interrogative questions. It's a question that's designed
to help you examine yourself. This is one of the shut you up
to the means of grace. How are you gonna be saved unless
you hear the gospel? How are you going to hear the
gospel and let somebody preach the gospel to you? And how are
they going to preach? Watch this now, except they be
sent. Isn't that right? I want to ask
you a question. Do you believe that? Because
today men are getting saved all kinds of other ways other than
the preaching of the gospel. Now, there are a whole lot of
people like the Ethiopian eunuch who are struggling, who don't
know the word of God, and they will not submit to legitimate,
authentic teachers who are real illuminaries and can tell you
the truth as it is in Christ. And so we got our own ways to
God. Today, most Christians are saved apart from the word, apart
from Christ is just a feeling or an experience that we've gone
through. And I want you to see here how God saves a sinner. He saves a sinner by first putting
a thirst and hunger in him. And then he puts that sinner
in a way of a prepared heart to hear that word that the Lord
will bring to him through his servant, Philip being the man.
Now I want you to know that it's very important, the content of
the preaching. Notice what it says over in verse
32. After that, he desired Philip to come up and sit with him.
He said, the place of the scripture, which was read is this. He was
led as a sheep to the slaughter. And as a lamb done before his
shearer, so open he not his mouth. In his humiliation, his judgment
was taken away. And who shall declare his generation
for his life is taken from him? You know what I love about these
two verses? They are quotations out of Isaiah chapter 53, and
they are in what is called the pronoun form. Him, he, he, him,
him, he. Now those get tough, don't they?
Who is the him? Isn't that so? Who is the he? Isn't that so? That's the million
dollar question. The eunuch could understand the
narrative. He couldn't identify the subject. And the difference between salvation
and a mere intellectual knowledge of the scriptures is the man
who cannot identify the subject of scripture. And so the eunuch
said. Is the prophet talking about
himself? Or is he speaking of another?
Isn't that a good question? Now, you know what Philip did?
Philip says, well, I can see that you need a course in basic
exegetical labors. I realize that your homiletical
skills are a little rough. And so you probably ought to
take some courses in theology. He didn't say that. Did he say
that? You ready? Here's what he did.
You know what he did? He took the scroll. And he began
at the same scripture. And you know what he did? He
preached Christ. Isn't that right? He preached Christ. You know
why he preached Christ? For several reasons. First of
all, Christ is the message of holy scripture. Listen to me. Jesus Christ is the message of
the scriptures. We'll get into that in a moment.
Jesus Christ is the message of the scripture. Jesus Christ is
the subject of the scriptures. Jesus Christ is the person of
whom the scriptures from Genesis 1-1 to Revelation 22 and 21 is
talking about. Now immediately that cuts off
the whole world. Because it's not about you. And
it's not about me, it's about him. Now watch this now. When
Philip began to preach Christ, what Philip knew is that in the
preaching of Christ, God the Holy Spirit works to reveal that
Christ to the heart of hungry sinners. Now that's very important. See, you can preach pragmatism,
you can preach psychobabble, you can preach emotionalism,
you can preach prosperity, you can preach all this junk most
of you are listening to, but if you do not preach the gospel,
men and women won't be saved. The saints won't be built up
in the faith. You and I need to see Christ
all the time. So, now here's how you know God
the Holy Spirit is working. Because the rule of Scripture
is this. The work of the Spirit of God is to exalt God's Son. We read it in John chapter 15
around verse 26. And when He, the Spirit of truth,
is come, He will glorify me. Isn't that right? In John 16,
He will take the things of mine and reveal them to you. Now watch
this now, the work of the third person is to glorify the work
of the second person, who came to glorify the work of the first
person. Did you get that? This is how
this works. We believe in the triune God,
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. That's
what the Bible teaches, right? Watch this now, this is very
important, very important. And these three created the world. They created mankind. They created
everything in the world. They all work together. Jesus
Christ is the Word of God. He is the means by which this
world was created. But He created man to have fellowship
with Him. Man fell into sin. Do you believe
that? Hey, now here's a truth that
comes out of Isaiah 53. There are three truths I'm gonna
share with you. We'll wrap this up. I know this is tough, but
it's very important for you to understand. If you're lost, this
is what you don't know. You don't know that you're a
sinner. If you're lost, you don't know that you're a sinner. No,
you know that you do things wrong. You know that, you know that,
you know, you mess up a little bit, but you're not that bad. Now, when you're thinking like
that, God, the Holy Spirit hasn't even begun to work. Because when
he begins to work, the first thing he does is convinces you
of sin. Listen, not sins, S-I-N-S, sin,
S-I-N. You know what that means? You
and I by nature are sin. I know it hurts, it's just true.
Listen, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. The wages of sin, Paul said in Romans 7, when the
Spirit of God had revealed this first principle to him, this
is what he said, I know that in me dwells no good thing. That's the first principle. You
cannot be saved until you come to understand there's nothing
in you worthy of meriting favor with God. This is humbling. Isn't this humbling? This is
humbling. Because see, our elder said that earlier. We fight with
God. We demand God to look on us and
pay respect to us. But if we would see ourselves
the way God sees us, we'd hide behind a rock. Isn't that true? Because we're sinners. Has God
proven that to you? Sinners. Now listen, that's the
first work of the spirit. When the spirit of truth comes,
he will convince the world of what? Sin. All have sinned and
come short. Isn't that right? Of the glory
of God, of the glory of God. So you got to tell people that
because today folk don't think that they're sinners. They don't
even think that there's such a thing as sin in this pluralistic
society. Everybody has their own truth.
Isn't that right? But God's truth says this. We're
all sinners. And he shut us up. Watch this
now to one righteousness. One righteousness. I want you
to get this. Now see every man, according to Proverbs, every
man will proclaim his own goodness. Isn't that right? That's what
we do by nature. Yeah, I stole that cookie, but
I, you know, I hadn't stole a cookie in three weeks. I hadn't stole
a cookie in three weeks. And you know, and even when I
stole it, I really knew it was wrong and I shouldn't, you know
what we're doing? We're proclaiming our own goodness. We're saying
we're not as bad as God says we are. And as long as we say
we're not as bad as God says we are, we make God a liar. Isn't
that right? We make him alive. Also, if I
refuse to recognize the extent to which I am corrupted, I will
not see the beauty and efficacy and virtue of the one righteousness
by which I can be made right with God. The necessity of me
seeing my sin makes it possible for me to see his glory, Christ's
righteousness. See, we all have got to be righteous
to stand before God. Do you know that? See, intuitively,
we all know that. Intuitively, we all know we've
got to be right. So we sow fig leaves, don't we?
We try to find ways to patch up our old raggedy life until
the spirit of God is pleased to strip us of all that garbage.
make you butt naked and say, God, what am I going to do now?
I'm naked before you. You're going to hear that today.
My daughters are going to sing it to you. I hope you hear naked
before the I'm standing. I'm coming to you for dress.
I'm coming to you for dress. And the dress of naked sinners
is God's son, Jesus Christ. And you know what that Ethiopian
was doing as Philip was doing what I'm doing with you. That
Ethiopian eunuch, his heart was breaking. Wasn't it? As he heard
Philip expounding the arm of the Lord, Isaiah 53 opens up,
Lord, who has believed our report? Isn't that right? To whom has
the arm of the Lord been revealed? That's a revelation. God's arm
is Christ. The arm signifies strength. It
signifies power. It signifies determination to
rescue sinners. And Christ is the rescuer of
sinners. And Isaiah said, who has believed
our report? It can only be believed when
it's revealed. And so he begins to develop the
humanity and the suffering of Christ as the, listen to me,
the sinner's actual substitute. And what the eunuch begins to
realize is that man of whom he was reading was his substitute. Isn't that good? He began to
realize this guy that has gone through all of this did not do
this for himself. He did it for me. He did it for
me. He made his grave with the wicked
and the rich in his death. He died for me. He made atonement
for my sin. He justified me before the bar
of justice. He clothed me in his righteousness. He raised me from the dead with
him. His heart broke. The tears began
to come. He was set free. He was set free. set free. You know why? He saw
the glory of God in that one man who had more care for his
soul than he did for himself. See, we're so blind by nature,
we can't care for ourselves. We can't care for ourselves.
We need somebody to do it for us. See, the gospel is not only
that God loves us, but he has loved us with an everlasting
love. And I heard my elder said this morning, as he chose us
in Christ before the foundation of the world, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children. Christ long ago has said his
love on me way before I had a being. He had said his love on me way
before I sin. You know what Christ said to
the father? Father, I will die for him. Isn't that love? That's good. See, that'll get
a brother's boat float. See, you know what that does
for me? That sets me free. It sets me free from a works
performance based religion because Christ was my surety before the
world began. He locked up my salvation in
himself. The father was so happy. He saved
sinners before Christ even came, knowing that Christ would accomplish
eternal redemption for us, that Christ would successfully come
to this world, successfully wrought out a righteousness that would
please God law. He would successfully come under
God's wrath and judgment and satisfy divine justice. He would
successfully come out of the grave, justifying his people
successfully. So God sent sinners into heaven
in the Old Testament on the credit of this truth. God can't lie,
God can't fail, and God can't change. Isn't that good? He can't
lie, he can't fail, he can't change. So what Philip did was
took that same text of scripture and he preached unto him what
we preach week in and week out, month in and month out, Jesus
Christ in him crucified. That's the message of this book.
Now I want you to understand something else that happened.
This is a corollary to what we're getting ready to do. Philip was
so happy. I mean, the Ethiopian was so
happy that he finally saw the revelation of the scripture,
which is God's son, Jesus Christ, as the sum and substance of everything
that God has done, is doing, and will do, that as they were
riding down the road, they came across some water. Now, here
they are in the desert. And Philip is expounding the
scriptures, and he's pointing him to Christ. And he has already
told him, the master has told us, go ye into all the world
and preach the gospel, making disciples of yourselves, teaching
them to observe whatsoever things we have commanded you. And lo,
I am with you always to the end, baptizing them in the name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And as soon as he
said that, the Ethiopians said, hey, hey, hey, there's some water
over there. There's some water over there. And here's the question
as we close this out. What doth hinder me to be baptized? See the Ethiopian believed the
gospel. God planted faith in his heart.
God gave him peace. God gave him rest. The burden
of his soul dropped off. He was sure that Christ was the
son of God after the scriptures were expounded. Are you following
me? He wasn't equivocating. He wasn't reasoning within himself.
He said, the next logical thing for me to do since God has witnessed
to my soul that he bought me with his own precious blood is
for me to confess him to the world in the waters of baptism.
See, that's what baptism is about. It's about a confession. Do you
hear me? Baptism is not a ritual. You
don't baptize people just because the water's warm and the water's
warm. I just want you to know that. You don't baptize people
because it's a nice thing to do. Baptism is a glorious picture
of how sinners are saved because the waters of baptism represents
the death of Christ. And it symbolizes how God takes
an unworthy sinner, places him into Christ. And when Christ
dies, that sinner dies. And when Christ rises, the sinner
rises. The center rises. See the Ethiopian. He has saw by virtue of interpretation
through the preaching of Philip that he was identified with the
death of Christ in second Kings chapter 13. You don't have to
go there. I'm a close with this Elisha the greatest of the Old
Testament prophets had died and they buried him in a tomb second
Kings 1330 and 31. They buried him in a tomb and
there was war in Israel at that time and brothers were very and
dead folks, right? And there was a brother that
they were getting ready to bury, but they couldn't find a place
to bury him. And so they threw him in the
suffocator with Elisha, because the enemy was coming. Do you
know what happened? When he hit that tomb and his
body hit Elisha's body, he rose again from the dead. Listen to
me, when the sinner hears the gospel and the Spirit of God
takes him and places him in contact with the crucified Christ, he's
born again. His sins are taken off of him,
placed on Christ, life is given to him, and he believes the gospel.
There is a spiritual resurrection that takes place in the preaching
of the gospel. Some of you know what that's
like, don't you? Some of you know what that's like. The Ethiopian
know what that's like. I was praying before today's
message that some of you will experience that because see that's
real salvation. That's what it's listen to me.
And once you're born again, you don't need to be born again.
And see when you get born again, you don't have to come to an
altar. Because God does it and he does it that he might get
the glory. I want you to know that the Ethiopian did make a
decision for Jesus. Listen to me, God revealed to
him that Christ had already made a decision for him. He planted
in his heart faith, because that's the issue. Do you believe that
Jesus is the son of God? And then what God did, I like
this, I'll close with this. Because Philip is like the rest
of us. We'll make a mistake if we don't just stop right after
the preaching of the gospel. Philip, you better stop, brother,
because you're done. See, and some of you wonder, all right,
after coming to Christ, is there anything else? No. I know that's shocking, but I
want you to hear what I'm saying. When God reveals his glory to
your soul, when he shows you the beauty of Christ, When he
makes known to you who Christ is and all that he is, that Jesus
Christ is the fullness of the Godhead bodily, watch this, and
that you are complete in him, that he has, watch this now,
perfected forever all those who have been set apart in Christ,
you realize Christ is all you need. If you've got Christ, you've
got life. If you've got Christ, you've
got the father. Jesus said in John 14, if any
man loved me, keep my commandment. I will come and my father will
come and we will abide in him and we will manifest ourselves
to him. And the work of the spirit is to give you Christ. And if
you've got Christ, you've got the spirit. Do you hear me? He
wondered, do I have the spirit of God? Listen to me. Do you
know the gospel? Do you believe the gospel? Does the gospel rejoice
your heart? Do you thank God that he was
sovereign in your salvation? Do you understand that by the
death of Christ, your judgment was completed, done, kneel, over
with. God can never bring you into
judgment again because of your substitute. You do understand
that that the judgment or rather justice cannot twice demand.
Not at my dying Savior's hand and then again at mine. Once
Christ died for me, that's it. Once Christ died for me, that's
it. See, that's called justification.
Now watch this, people think, well, there's more to life than
justification. Listen, when God justifies you,
he cleans the slate, isn't that right? When he cleans the slate,
you are as pure and clean as the wind-driven snow. You are
as spotless as his own darling son, Jesus Christ. God can't
wait to dump his blessings on you when you're in Christ. The
mistake, however, is that we often go beyond Christ. and get
caught up in everything else. So you know what the Spirit of
God did? Before Philip made the mistake and says, Ethiopian,
you need to come back next week so you can go into the deeper
things of God. You need to get a second blessing. Before he
made that mistake, you know what he did? The Spirit of God took
him up and took him and threw him in another city. So right
after he had baptized the Ethiopian, the Ethiopian didn't see Philip
again. The Ethiopian went back home
and all the Ethiopian had was Christ. You know why? That's all you need. Amen.