He says in 1 John chapter 5,
the Son of God hath come and given us an understanding. God
Almighty has visited us in the flesh and he's given us an understanding
of how he can be a just God and save a wretch like me and like
you. Let's look at this for a little
bit here. One of the things that I realize
now that I've gotten older is that I realize that God is
always, always at work in the lives of his sheep even before
they know him. Long before they know him, he's
involved in their life. I mean from birth. from birth. Listen to this scripture, Jeremiah
1 5. God says to Jeremiah, before
I formed thee in the belly, you notice he didn't say before you
were formed in the belly, he said before I formed you, before
our lives of God. Life is of God. You know the
scripture says that when we die, it says the body goes back to
the dust and the spirit goes back to God who gave it. God
gave it. And God says to Jeremiah, before
I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. And that's far more than
just knowing about him. That's a relationship. I knew
thee. And before thou camest out of
the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet
unto the nations. I not only knew thee before I
formed thee, but I also ordained your ministry, your work, your
place of service. And God has ordained our place
of service, every one of us. You know, where you are, you're
serving the Lord. You're in his kingdom serving him, wherever
he's put you. You are the light of the world,
it says. You're the light. It says in 2 Timothy 2.19, nevertheless
the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord
knoweth them that are his. He knew that eunuch. He's mine. The Lord said I must need to
go through Samaria. Why? Because there's a sinner
there that's mine. There's gonna be a woman at the
well. I have an appointed meeting before the foundation of the
world, this appointment was set up. And she's gonna be there
at this time, and I'm gonna be there waiting on her. And I'm
gonna save her. She's gonna meet her real husband.
The Lord said, you've had five husbands, and the one you're
living with now is not your husband. But she's gonna meet her real
husband. Her final husband. Oh, my soul. He arranged that whole meeting.
He arranged this meeting, as we'll see. God guides his sheep. He guards his sheep. He shepherds
his sheep throughout their whole lives, even before they know
him. The family I was born to, the place I was born, And all
the particulars in my life brought me to the point of hearing the
gospel and believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. I didn't just happen
to be living and going along and then God saved me, no. No. God's guiding and guarding and
watching long before we even know him. Listen to this in John
chapter 1 verse 47-48, the Lord speaking here. Remember Philip
went and told Nathanael about the Lord and he said, come and
see. He said, any good thing come out of Nazareth, he said,
come and see. And Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and saith of him,
behold, in Israelite indeed in whom there is no God. Nathaniel
said to him, whence knowest thou me? How do you know me? Jesus
answered and said unto him, before that Philip called thee, when
thou wast under the fig tree, I saw you. I saw you when you
was born. I saw you when you was just learning
to walk. My eye has been on you. You've
been a pupil of my eye. from birth. Well, even before
that, even before the creation of the world, God saw us. He saw us. Now the first thing
I want to notice is God's providence in all this. Things are not just happening.
They're not just happening. Absolutely everything in this
world is orchestrated by God Almighty. It's directed by Him. Now here's God's providence.
Somewhere along the way, this eunuch became a proselyte. He
became a convert to the Jewish faith. He went from voodooism,
whatever their religion was, dancing around the fire, whatever,
he went from that to the Jewish religion, the Jewish faith. He was a proselyte. God's hand
was in there. He didn't know the Lord at that
time, but I tell you what he was doing. Now listen, he was
walking in the light God gave him. And at that time, he had
an interest. He became interested in what
the Jews were doing and the God they were worshiping, which was
the only God of heaven and earth, the only one God. And he became
interested in that. He became interested in the lamb
and in the sacrifices and in the blood because when he went
up to Jerusalem to worship, it was the Passover. And what I
read says, and I believe it was, it was the Passover. He's going
up there to worship, it says. And then God prepared a preacher. You see, he prepared this eunuch
years before, however long before. And now he's got Philip, and
he's prepared, and Philip is over preaching in Samaria. They
had a good meeting going on. There was many Samaritans that
believed. And the Lord says to Philip, the Spirit of God, the
Holy Spirit, and this will be important in a little bit, the
Holy Spirit says, go to the desert. Go down there to Gaza. He didn't
tell him why. We don't need why. He just said
go. Sin. Sin of God. How shall they preach except
they what? Be sinned. I think that's how you'll know
when the pastor, God, because he'll be sent of God, and he'll
speak with authority. He'll speak, and he'll be able
to take the Scriptures and interpret Scripture with Scripture, and
you'll say, that man's a God. God prepared the preacher, and
he sent him down to the desert. Now that eunuch, while he's in
Jerusalem, He gets a copy of Isaiah 53. He gets a copy of
Isaiah and he's reading in Isaiah 53. He's reading the gospel substitution. He's not reading the law. He's
reading the gospel. There is no clearer picture of
Christ crucified of the substitutionary work of Christ than Isaiah 53. It's the gospel of the Old Testament.
And that's where he's reading. God can see. Here's something,
let me point this out. Here's something that just really
jumps out at me. One of the blessings of reading
the word of God is we get to see behind the scenes what's
going on. We get to see both ends of it. The eunuch didn't
see what was going on up there with Philip. He didn't hear the
Holy Spirit tell Philip, now go down and talk to this eunuch.
He didn't see any of that. All he knows, he's going back
to Ethiopia. And Philip, all he knows, he's
going to the desert. But God Almighty is bringing
us together. And you and I get to see this.
The same thing happened in your life. The same thing, same God
orchestrating you and the gospel crossing. God sending a preacher
across your path to preach the gospel. That's not accidental. There is no accidental hearing
of the gospel. Now it's gonna be a saver of life and a life
to some and a saver of death and the death to some. That's
what the scripture says. But there's no accidental meeting
with hearing the gospel. There's no chance. Now let's
look at this. In verse 26, God sends his preacher. You see, the eunuch is a proselyte,
he's already gone up to Jerusalem, he went up there to worship,
he got a copy of Isaiah 53, and the angel of the Lord spake unto
Philip, saying, Arise, go towards the south, unto the way that
goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. What's
in a desert? A sinner. You know every sinner
whom God saves, he finds in the desert. I don't care if they
live in New York City. Spiritual desert. We live in a spiritual desert
until God saves us. But anyway, God told him to go
down there. And he's obedient. He arose and he went and behold,
behold, it's like give attention to this. See God's hand in this.
See God's providence in this. See God's working in this because
the same God works in our lives. God hasn't changed. Behold a
man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority. This man was,
he had great authority under Candacy, queen of the Ethiopians,
who had the charge of all her treasure had come to Jerusalem
for to worship. He came there to worship. And
I have no doubt this was a Passover, and when he came to Jerusalem
to worship, he saw the lamb slain, blood shed, the sacrifice, and
this is gonna come home in Isaiah 53. Isn't this beautiful? This, to me, is just so beautiful.
This is gonna come home, and when he reads in Isaiah 53 about
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, God's Lamb, this is God's
Lamb. He went up there and he saw an
animal that was sacrificed, and there's no doubt in my mind that
Philip said, that Lamb, that Passover Lamb that was sacrificed,
Christ is that Lamb. The man is the lamb. The man,
Christ Jesus, is the lamb. And you know when God's involved
in it, he's opening his eyes, and it's just like a revelation,
and he sees it. He sees it. But as Philip goes
down there, the eunuch is reading the word of God. He's reading
there in verse 28, he was returning and sitting in his chariot, read
Isaiah, the prophet. He's reading Isaiah the prophet
in chapter 53. You see, God does not save apart
from his word. God does not save apart from
his word. James 1.18, of his own will beget
he us with the word of truth. First Peter 123, being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, incorruptible
by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. God sent his preacher down there
to expound the word to this eunuch, not explain the word, expound
it. You know, we proclaim Christ,
we don't explain him. When we get into the explaining
business, we leave the preaching business. We proclaim what the
Word of God says about Him. Now, what do we have here? We
have the sinner, we have the Word of God, we have the preacher,
and now we have, in verse 29, the Holy Spirit. Now, these four are always present
when God saves. God's gonna, he's gonna have
the sinner, he's gonna have his word, he's gonna have the preacher,
and the Holy Spirit is gonna be involved in it. When a sinner's
gonna be saved, the Holy Spirit is always present. Regeneration
is the work of the Spirit. Genuine faith is the work of
the Spirit of God. It's His work. It says here in verse 29, listen. Then the Spirit said unto Philip,
go near and join thyself to this chariot. Philip is going to preach
to this eunuch. And the Holy Spirit is going
to send forth the word in power. You remember Paul wrote in 1
Thessalonians, he said the word of God, the gospel, the gospel
came not unto you in word only, but in power. and in demonstration
of the spirit. It didn't come to you in word
only. It came to you in power. And this is what's going to happen
with Eugenics. The word is going to come out,
it's going to go forth in power. He's going to see and understand
the gospel. Philip's not going to talk him into a profession.
He will not read into this in any way, shape, or form where
Philip puts pressure on him to do something. except Jesus has
his personal Savior, or he doesn't put any pressure on him to be
baptized. He doesn't. The eunuch has to be baptized. You leave that in his hands.
And then in verse 30 here, he asks, there's a good question
asked by this eunuch. It says, and Philip, I like this,
ran. Philip ran. You talk about obedience. The Lord said, go join yourself
to this chair, and he ran. He ran to keep up, to catch up
with him. He ran thither to him and heard
him read the prophet Isaiah. He was reading out loud. He's reading out loud. And it
dawned on me, and I was reading this the other day, it dawned
on me, he's reading Hebrew. This man's educated. This is
an educated man. He's reading Hebrew, and he hears
him reading out loud. And Philip said to him this,
understandest thou what thou readest? And what a humble answer. His
answer is a good indication that God's at work in his heart. He
said, how can I? He wasn't offended. Here's an
educated man. You can, you know, you ask an
educated, you ask a real educated person if they understand what
they're reading, and they usually take offense at it. But he didn't. You can't offend a sinner. You
can't run one off. I mean, you can't run one off.
The Lord, that woman was asking the Lord to heal her daughter.
Her ex was a devil and he said it's not right to give the children's
bread to the dogs. You know what she said? Truth,
Lord. I am a dog. I am a dog. I'm a dog of a sinner. You've got that right. You can't offend us. You can't
run them off. None good, no, not one. That'll make every self-righteous
person mad, but not a sinner. A sinner, so you're right. Truth,
Lord. Paul never said, oh, wretched man that I am, until God saved
him. He would've choked and went to hell before he said that.
He did not believe he was a sinner. He did not believe he was a sinful
man. They said to the Lord, the Pharisees said, we be not sinners. Isn't that what they said? They
said, we be not sinners. Well, then Christ didn't die
for you. Christ died for sinners. Christ came to save sinners.
The whole need not a physician, but the sick. They are the ones
who need Christ. He said, how can I accept some
man should, and I like this, he says, guide me. Guide me. And he desired. He didn't just,
it wasn't out of curiosity. He saw Philip, he saw Philip
was a Jew. And he knew he could talk to him about the scriptures
he's reading. And he desired him, please come
up here. Please come up here, Mr. Chariot.
Please come up here and talk to me. Tell me what this man's
saying. And he desired Phil to come up
and sit with him. He recognized his need of help. That's one of the first things
a sinner does. A sinner recognizes His or her need of help. Lord,
I need help. You know what Peter said when
he was about to drown? Went out to walk on water and
he's sinking. You know what he said? Lord, save me. Save me. Help me. That's one
of the first things you recognize is that you need help. You recognize
your ignorance, your spiritual ignorance. Lord, teach me. Guide
me is what it is. Teach me. You won't be taught this morning.
You won't be taught of God this morning, seriously. You want
God to teach you, he will if you ask. If you're serious, he'll
teach you, he'll be your teacher. Scripture says all thy children
shall be taught of God. He'll teach his children. If
you're interested in being taught, he'll do it. This book right
here, I want you to understand this. This book right here is
a closed book. until he opens it. You cannot,
I cannot understand this book. No amount of education will open
this book for you. You can go to a seminary until
you're 90 years old and it will not open this book to you. But
when the Lord opens it, the first thing you're going to see is
Christ and your need of him. You're going to see your need
of him. But it's a closed book till God opens it. And one of
the ways he's gonna open it, one of the ways that God has
ordained to open this book is through preaching. Preaching. He will send a preacher along,
and he's gonna preach from this book, and he's gonna preach the
gospel, and you're gonna open this book, and just like he had
the book open, and that's how you're gonna learn gospel. God's
gonna teach you gospel. But he says here, guide me, guide
me. If you're blind, you need a guide.
If you're blind and you know it, you ask for guidance, don't
you? You know what the Pharisees said? They said they were not
blind. Listen to what the Lord said
to them in John 9. Jesus said unto them, if you were blind,
you should have no sin. You should have no sin. But now
you say, we see. We don't need your teaching.
We don't need you. Who are you to teach you? How
northeastern man letters have you never learned? That's what
they said about him. We see, you're the one blind,
but now if you'd have said, I'm blind, Lord, open my eyes like
blind Bartimaeus did, he would give you sight, and you know
what you'd see? Him. You'd see him. And the eunuch was reading in
Isaiah 53. Turn over to Isaiah 53. He was reading in this place.
I'm not going to read all of this. We just read it to you.
I'd love to read from it, really. But it says here in verse 7. Here's where he's reading from.
He was oppressed. He was oppressed. Men oppressed
him. Satan oppressed him. He was afflicted. God afflicted him. Yet he opened
not his mouth. You know why he opened not his
mouth? The charges were true. As my
substitute, listen, as my substitute, I heard Henry say this one time,
the charges were true. As my substitute, he never opened
his mouth in defense of himself because the charges against me
are true. And he took it. He took it. I'm guilty. And he stood before
God's law guilty. He didn't try to get out of this.
This is what he came for. He said, for this hour came I into
the world. He's the only man, he's the only man who ever came
into this world to die. I didn't come into this world
to die. Did you? You and I go to the doctor as much as we can
every time we get a little sick. We head to the doctor. Why? To
keep living. A man or woman will spend every
dime they got to live one more day. He came to die. He never came to live on this
earth. He came to die that he might redeem us from our sins.
He's brought as a lamb to the slaughter. That Ethiopian eunuch
was just at the Passover. He knew. It's like, you talk
about opening someone's eyes. He's brought, listen, he's not
driven. He's not driven. You know, when
they came out to the garden to get him, and they said they was
looking for him, and he said, it is I. You know what happened? They all fell backwards on the
ground. He had to give them the strength
to get up off the ground and do their job. They fell backwards. At his word,
he said, I am. And that whole army fell on the
ground. And the Lord gives them the strength
to get back up on their feet and finish the job. It's amazing. He's brought us a lamb to the
slaughter. Here's something I realize. That clock's not working, so
I don't know how long I've been up here. But anyway, he brought us a lamb
to the slaughter. And I realized this, Jesus Christ,
God manifested in the flesh, was executed under the law of
God on my behalf, for me. He was executed, a man was executed
in my place. He was put to death in the flesh,
the scripture says. As my substitute, God's law dealt
with me in him and put him to death. You say, how can that
happen? Only God can do that. I cannot
transfer my sin to you. You can't transfer yours to me.
Jeremy, my son, cannot transfer his sins to me, and I die for
them, and it be just. It can't do it, but God can do
that, because God is the law. God is the law. He died under
the penalty, suffered under the penalty of his own law. That's
amazing, isn't it? It's amazing. God You know, Abraham
and Isaac going up on the mountain to offer the sacrifice. Isaac
said, here's the fire and here's the wood, where's the lamb? And
Abraham said, God will provide himself a lamb. Well, God, here
he is. God provided himself a lamb and
God provided himself as the lamb. God is the lamb. That's what makes salvation effectual.
That's what makes what he did effectual. My faith does not
make what he did effectual. Who he is makes what he did effectual. He's brought as a lamb to the
slaughter and as a sheep before her shearer is dumb, so he opened
not his mouth. As a willing savior is what that
is. He was taken from prison and from judgment. That was me in prison. I'm telling
you the truth, that was me in prison. and he was taken instead
of me. At his crucifixion, who do you
want, Barabbas or Jesus? Who was guilty? Who was guilty of murder? Barabbas. Who was set free? Barabbas. Who went to the cross? Jesus
Christ. That's such a beautiful picture.
And who shall declare his generation? He was cut off out of the land
of the living. He truly died. Jesus Christ truly died. And
here's why. For the transgression of my people. My people was he stricken. My
people. Now listen. God Almighty came
into this world as human. His son, he sent his son, which
is God, which is God. He's God in every way. He came
into this world, he went to the cross, died under the penalty,
a legal penalty, under the penalty of God's law, and then to think
that God's gonna leave the end result of that up to a bunch
of God-hating rebels? I don't think so. And here's
another reason, here's another thing. If God Almighty punished
him, for my sins, and then punishes me for my sins, and then punishes
me. That's double jeopardy. That would make God unjust. He
would be unjust to do that. That can't be done. He says,
for the transgression of my people. Paul said, we are the circumcision,
we are the true Israel, we are the true Jew who worship God
in the spirit and have no confidence in the flesh. You're looking
at a true Israelite. And I'm looking at some true
Israelites, spiritual. Not all Israel is
Israel, Paul said. That's what he read. And then
back to Acts chapter 8. And then the eunuch answered
Philip and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet,
this or of himself or some other man? You see the light God's
given him? He didn't say what's he talking
about. He didn't say what's he talking about. He said who. Who's
he talking about, not what. Salvation has nothing to do with
what. It has everything to do with who. Jesus Christ. And Philip opened his mouth and
began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus, this
person and his work. And then, and I ask this question
before I wind this down. Do you understand, do you understand
who's spoken up there in Isaiah 53? Do you understand that tender
plant is the Lord, the Lord of hosts? God manifest
in the flesh. Do you understand that root out
of dry ground? Do you understand who that is? Do you understand
who the arm of the Lord is? To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? That's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the power of God
unto salvation. Do you understand that the prophet
is speaking of a man who became a lamb? Jesus Christ. And it's evident here in verse
36, it's evident that Philip spoke to him of baptism. Because
as they went on their way, they came into a certain water, and
the eunuch said, see, here's water, what does hinder me to
be baptized? Philip put a pretty impression
on him about being baptized. The Lord gave two ordinances
to the church, the Lord's table and baptism, one to remember
him by, the other one to be identified by, to be identified with him
by. Neither one has any saving power
in it whatsoever. I'm gonna baptize Travis here
in just a little bit. There's not one ounce of saving
power in this water. That has already happened. Christ is the power of God unto
salvation. This is identification. This is confession. This is how
we confess Christ. You know, I grew up when I was
just a little boy. They would come down to the mourner's bench
and, you know, that's how they did it. Then people would walk
back and they would put pressure on them to come down and accept
Jesus. I've seen all that. You don't have to put pressure
on a sinner. That's the Holy Spirit's work. I need to stay out of his business.
You ever have anybody tell you to stay out of their business?
I stay out of his business. My business is to stand here
and proclaim the gospel. His business is the saving part,
regenerating, giving life, giving a new heart, a right spirit.
That's his business, that's not mine. I'm not going to put pressure
on anybody to do anything. I'll tell you what, buddy, if
he arrests you, you're coming. And you're not coming down here,
you're coming to Christ, and you're going to confess Christ
in the waters of Babylon. This is how you truly confess
Christ. is by being baptized. You identify with him. It's the
identification with the death, burial, and resurrection of the
Lord Jesus Christ, that's what it is. And he says here, what
doth hinder me from being baptized? The same thing that hinders you
from all other spiritual blessings, unbelief. That's it. That's it. The two ordinances are for those
who believe and know other qualifications. There's no other fence around
us. Do you believe? Do you believe? And he said,
he said there in verse 37, in verse 37, Philip said, if thou
believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he said, I believe.
I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. It's evident
Philip had made much of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because
if he's not God, it's idolatry to worship him. If he's not God,
it's idolatry. If he's not God, he's the biggest
imposter and liar that ever walked on this earth. Now he's either
one or the other. He's either God or he's just a liar. He's
God. He's God. And then that eunuch
said, I believe. He didn't rattle off five points
of Calvinism. He just said, I believe that
Jesus Christ is the son of God. He's the Messiah. In that statement
is the gospel. You'll learn everything about
the gospel in that statement. I believe he's the son of God.
and that he's the one that Isaiah 53's written about. I believe
that's who he's talking about, the substitute. In Isaiah 53,
you have substitution and satisfaction. That's the two doctrines that
come out of that chapter. And then, listen here, he says
in verse 38 and 39, and he commanded the chariot to stand still. And
they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch,
and he baptized him. He put him underwater. He immersed
him. He didn't sprinkle water on his face. You know, it typifies
death, burial. When you bury somebody, do you
sprinkle dirt on their face? Well, you bury them. You bury
the whole body. That's what that represents.
There's no sprinkling. You know, in another place over
in Book of Acts, it said they were baptized because there was
much water in that place. You don't need much water if
you're just gonna sprinkle. You just need a pan. And here he
went down and Philip baptized him, and when they came up out
of the water, that's pictures of resurrection, the Spirit of
the Lord caught away Philip, and that eunuch saw him no more,
and he went on his way rejoicing. You know, I have believed the
gospel for, getting near 50 years now. God saved me when I was
a young man. And I've yet to see anybody mad
because God saved them. Didn't make you mad when God
saved you. He went on rejoicing. And you'll rejoice the rest of
your life until you enter into his presence and then you'll
rejoice for eternity. But Philip was found, Philip
it says here was found at Azotus passing through. He preached,
that was his calling. He preached in all the cities
until he came to Caesarea. What a wonderful story, what
a beautiful story. But that working of God in the
life of that eunuch and all that we just looked at, the same thing
happens to everyone whom God saves. We just have the blessing
of, these things it says, read prior learning. We have the blessing
of getting to look into the book and see the hand of God behind
the scenes. Like Joe, Joe didn't see that conversation went on
beside, between Satan and God. He didn't see any of that. Well,
we see it, don't we? It's a privilege to be able to
baptize Travis this morning. It's a privilege, all right.