the account here of a man whom
the Lord was pleased to save. We don't have any information
about this man prior to this occasion, and I don't think any
information after this occasion, just here. But it's certain that he was
one of God's elect. that this man came to know Christ. This is in the Word of God. And
there's something here for all of us. And I want us to listen
carefully, and as I read, then I'll come back and comment. Acts
8, beginning with verse 26, And the angel of the Lord spake unto
Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south, unto the way
that goeth from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went. And behold,
a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority, under Tendasi,
queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure,
had come to Jerusalem to worship And he was returning, sitting
in his chariot, reading Isaiah the prophet. He was reading that
scripture, the Lord, reading from the same prophet the Lord
read from in Luke 4 in Nazareth I talked about this morning.
He was reading Isaiah the prophet. And then the Spirit said unto
Philip, you go near and join yourself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him,
and heard him read the prophet Isaiah. And he said to him, Do
you understand what you read? And he said, How can I? Except
some man should guide me. He desired Philip that he would
come up and sit with him. in the chariot. And the place
of the scripture which he read was this, this is Isaiah 53. He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter, and like a lamb done before her shearers, so opened
he not his mouth. Now you're more familiar with
the verses preceding that. You know, Isaiah 53 said he shall
grow up Charts out who hath believed our report, to whom is the arm
of the Lord revealed. He shall grow up as a tender
plant, as a root out of a dry ground. He was wounded for our
transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him by stripes where
He was. That was the scripture this man
was reading. And verse 33, these verses here
are further down in Isaiah 53. And in his humiliation, his judgment
was taken away. And who shall declare his generation? For his life is taken from earth. And the eunuch answered Philip
and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? Who
is this tender plant, this root out of dry ground? This person
wounded for our transgressions. This person who was as a sheep
before she was as dumb as a lamb led to the slaughter. Of whom
does he speak? Is he talking about himself?
Or is he talking about some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth
and began and began at the same scripture preached unto him the
Lord Jesus. And how much time elapsed now
between that verse and this verse, who knows? They may have traveled
for miles and miles and miles and miles, because Philip began
at Isaiah 53. And he went through a lot of
Scripture, the Old Testament. He began there, preached Christ. And as they went on their way,
they came under a certain water. And the eunuch said, see, here
is water. What does hinder me to be baptized? Philip had covered a lot of subjects.
He covered Christ. He even talked about confessing
Christ and baptism and these things. They traveled a long
ways together. I'm sure this man was reluctant to let him
go. He was having questions answered that he had on his mind a long
time. What does hinder me to be baptized?
And Philip said, if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. A man is not to be baptized who
is not a believer. Do you believe? Do you believe
Him whom I have preached to you? And he answered and said, he
knew what Philip was asking. If you believe, you may. Because
he replied immediately, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, I believe
that. 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. And when they would
come up out of the water, in other words, when they walked
to the shore, they were out here in the river or lake, whatever
body of water it was, not when The eunuch came up out of the
water after being baptized, but when he and Philip walked out
of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, and
the eunuch saw him no more. But I'll tell you this, he went
on his way rejoicing. Now, I see five very outstanding
things here that I've looked at carefully. in regard to this
matter of salvation, this matter of relationship with God in Christ. And the first thing I see here
is there is an interest, there's an interest, there's an interest
on the part of this man in the things of God. That's where this
whole thing starts. is here's a man going on his
way rejoicing in Christ, but Philip didn't surprise him. This
man was already interested in the things of God before Philip
ever came along. That's right, before Philip ever
came along, this man was interested in the things of God. He didn't
know God, he didn't know Christ, he didn't know the gospel, but
he was interested How do you know that, Preacher? Well, look
at verse 27, "...and he arose and went. Behold, a man of Ethiopia,
a eunuch of great authority under Candacy, queen of the Ethiopians,
who had the charge of all her treasures, had been to Jerusalem
to worship." This man had taken a long journey
to inquire about God, to find out something about God. I want
you to turn to the book of Book of Joshua, a moment. The Book
of Joshua, before the spies ever came to Rahab, Rahab had some
interest in God, the living God. She had, I don't know what her
knowledge was, I know her interest was there, don't you listen to
what she says. Now this, she just, these spies didn't come
up to her house and and surprise her with the fact there's a God,
she knew that already. Listen to Joshua chapter 2. This
is when she hid these fellas up on the roof, Joshua 2 verse
8. And before they were laid down,
she came up to them upon the roof and she said to these men,
now I know that the Lord's given you this land. Now here's a woman
of the world. A woman of the streets. A businesswoman,
but in a shady business. But she's got an interest in
God. And she's in Jericho, in one of the most wicked cities
in the world. But she said, I know God's, the
Lord's given the Israelites this land, and that your terror has
fallen upon us. We're finished, I know that.
And all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. They
melt. We've heard how the Lord dried
up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt.
We heard what you did to the two kings of the Amorites. that
were on the other side of Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly
destroyed. And as soon as we heard these
things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any
more courage in any man because of you. For the Lord your God,
He is God." There that is, Tom again. He's God. And I'll tell you where He's
God, where He does business, in heaven and earth. A lot of
folks think He's God in heaven. But this woman is smart. She
knows if he's God in heaven, he's God on this earth. Most
preachers don't know that. They think he's God in heaven,
but he depends on us to keep things going down here. This
woman knew that. Now watch it. This is not a saved
woman. This woman doesn't know Christ. This woman doesn't know
the gospel. This woman hasn't met the gospel.
But she's interested. What about Cornelius? Turn to
the book of Acts, chapter 10. Now here's a man by the name
of Cornelius, a Gentile. Before he ever met God's preacher,
before he ever learned the gospel, he had an interest in God. In
chapter 10 of Acts, there was a certain man in Caesarea called
Cornelius, a centurion of a band called the Italian Band, a devout
man, one that feared God. with all his house, which gave
alms to the people. He helped folks. He prayed to
God. He saw in a vision, evidently
about the ninth hour of the day, an angel of God coming in to
him saying, Cornelius. He looked on him and he was afraid.
And he said, What is it, Lord? And he said, Our prayers and
thine alms have come up for memorial before God. What am I saying? I'm saying hear people. who do not know Christ, who do
not know how God saves sinners, who do not have faith in the
Lamb of God, the Substitute, but they have an interest and
a concern. And I'll tell you what this is.
This is that Spirit of God awakening and dealing with men back here
in regeneration or They belong to God, to His elect. Long time
before God saved you, God loved you. And He dealt with you. As a small boy, I had an interest
in the things of God. Didn't you? Some of you? Some
of you may not. God deals in different ways with
different people. But I'm saying that the people of God... Now,
when God actually begins a work in His elect, I don't know. But
I do know that when the gospel comes, the ground is ready to
receive it. Now that's just so. You're not
going to slip up on many people. The sower went forth to sow.
And when he sowed the seed, some of it fell on fallow ground.
Some of it fell among the weeds and thorns. Some fell upon the
stony ground. But some of it fell on prepared
ground. Who prepared it? God did. Well, when did he start preparing
it? A hundred years ago, I don't
know, twenty years ago, he prepared it back yonder, Cecil, back yonder,
back yonder. Now that's right. So that's the
first thing I see here. I see that this man had gone
there to Jerusalem to worship and he hadn't found what he was
looking for. He went up there and found religion, but he didn't
find what he was looking for. All right, let's read on. And
then verse 29 says, "...the Holy Spirit said to Philip..." Now,
who's Philip? Philip's one of God's preachers.
He's a true preacher of the gospel. He's a man who knows the gospel.
He's a man who's been taught the gospel, the gospel of Christ.
And the Spirit of God said to Philip, you go near and join
yourself to this chariot. Now here's the second thing I
see in this story. There's first an interest. There's
an interest. And the people here tonight who
are going to receive the Word of God and believe it and be
blessed by it are those who have an interest. But secondly, there's
an encounter. There's an encounter with someone
preaching the Gospel. Now this man had a copy of the
Scriptures and he was reading it. But he didn't understand. This man had been to Jerusalem,
and he'd met the priests and the rabbis. He'd seen the sacrifices
and the ceremonies. He had attended the temple. He'd
seen the Temple of Solomon and all these things, but he still
didn't know the gospel. I'll tell you what's necessary.
It's an encounter with somebody who does. That's right. Now, the scripture says, whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. The name
of the Lord, His name is who He is, who He actually is, not
who we think He is, but who He is, shall be saved. But how shall they call on Him
in whom they have not believed, and how shall they believe in
Him of whom they have not heard, and how shall they hear without
a preacher? Now, I don't know very much about time or place,
but I'm going to tell you something. I know the time and the place
when I first heard the gospel. I know that. I don't know the
time or the place when God spoke peace to my heart. He's still
speaking peace to my heart. But I do know, Frank Tate, when
I heard the gospel. Some of you have been blessed
to hear it all your lives here. But I didn't have that blessing.
I was raised in religion. I was raised in the church. I
had a Bible. I was raised in the church. I made a profession
of faith. I joined the church. I taught
Sunday school. I went to a preacher's school.
I was in religion. I preached. I led the singing.
I came up here and I was your assistant pastor for a while. And Philip came along. Philip
came along. His name happened to be Ralph.
And I was sitting there in that meeting in April of 1950, 43
years ago. I heard something I'd never heard
before. I heard the gospel of redeeming
grace. I heard the gospel. Now, I'm
not saying God, Richard, saved me at that moment. No. I'm saying
that that's when I heard the gospel. And this man here, this
eunuch, he had a Bible. And he had been to the biggest
church in the world, Jerusalem. And he had met with some pretty
prominent fellows in religion. And he had seen the sacrifices
and the lamb slain and all these things. And he was driving home
from this meeting, and God sent an anointed, called, dedicated
preacher of the gospel of God's redeeming grace, the gospel of
the glory of God in Christ Jesus. And this man heard God's preacher. And I do say this, let's turn
to Ephesians 1. That's when a man will be saved.
That's when God will enlighten his heart in true faith
is when he hears the gospel. In Ephesians 1, it says in verse
13, in whom you also trusted after you heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation. in whom also after you believe
you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise which is the
token, the pledge of our inheritance unto the redemption of the precious
possession unto the praise of his glory. What happens when God saves a
sinner? There's an interest. There's a burden. There's a concern. What was he doing up in that
tree? He wanted to see who Jesus was. He was interested. And this eunuch had been to Jerusalem,
he was interested. And I was sitting there in that
church, playing religion, playing church, because I was interested.
I was interested. But my questions had never been
answered until that day. I've never heard the true gospel,
who God is, who Christ is, what happened in the garden, what
happened on the cross, how can God be just and justify? I've
never entertained those things. I didn't know them. I heard a
preacher. All right, thirdly, what's this
third thing? Then there's some understanding given. There's
some understanding. Look at verse 13. You young people,
even right here, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 years of age. You know what I'm
talking about here. There's an interest. And thank God there's
an encounter with someone who knows what he's talking about.
And thirdly, there's an understanding. Here in verse, this man had some
questions. Verse 30, Philip ran thither
to him and heard him read the prophet Isaiah, and he said,
Do you understand what you read? What good is it if you don't
understand it? He said, now, let me ask you
questions Job asked. How can man be just with God?
How can God be just and justify the ungodly? How can he be clean this morn
of a woman? How can the holy law of God be
satisfied? How can we have a righteousness
that exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees?
How can the justice and holiness of God be satisfied? How can
truth and mercy meet together and righteousness and peace kiss
each other over you and me? Those are mysteries. I didn't know the question, let
alone the answer when I was a pastor of a church. They didn't know
the question. I never read those questions.
My professors never dealt with those questions. They dealt with
how to promote a Baptist church, how to win souls, how to get
professions, how to keep people, how to conserve your results. In other words, how to use methods
and means and ways to get people down the aisle to make a profession
and then how to keep them in the church. Keep them giving,
keep them going, keep them happy. Keep them together. That's promotion. Psychology. We never dealt with
questions how a holy God can be just and justify. How can
I have a righteousness that God will accept? A perfect holiness. I was going about to establish
my own. I thought I had a pretty good one. And this Philip said, do you
understand these things, these mysteries? And he said, how can
I? Can I, except some man should teach me. And he desired Philip
that he would come up and sit down with him. And the place
where he read, he read the Scriptures. Let's turn over there a minute
to Isaiah 53. This is what he's reading. Oh,
I tell you, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest
in the flesh. Scene of the angels. justified,
vindicated by the Spirit, preached to the Gentiles, believed on
in the world, received up into glory, a man received up into
glory, a man, the God-man seated at the right hand of God, our
forerunner entering within the veil. Oh, verse 53, chapter 53, verse
1, who hath believed our report? To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? Who knows what we're talking
about? He'll grow up as a tender plant, a root out of a dry ground. Well, I don't fool with those
things. Just push Jesus. This is Jesus, boy. This is Jesus. This is the Jesus
of the Bible. That one you're talking about
is one that came out of somebody's imagination. This is the Christ. This is the mystery of godliness.
This is that little head from generations and generations.
This is what the old prophet desired to look into. He'll grow up before him as a
tender plant, as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form
nor comeliness. When we see him, there's no beauty.
We should desire him. He's despised and rejected of
men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. That sweet little
Jesus you're talking about? No, this is the persecuted, hated,
despised Redeemer here. This is the one bearing our guilt
and our shame in his body on the tree. We did esteem him stricken, or
rather, and we hid our faces from him. He was despised. We
esteemed him not, but he hath borne our griefs and our sorrows. We did esteem him stricken, smitten
of God? I never entertained anything
like that in my wildest imagination that God crucified Christ. But I found out he did. I found
out that Christ on that cross wasn't an accident. That that
was the purpose and plan of God from before the foundation of
the world. That these wicked men who crucified Christ did
what God ordained them before to be done. That they simply
carried out the will and pleasure and purpose of God the Father. God laid Him to the cross. by
the hands of wicked men. Is that right? As our substitute. Pleased God to bruise him. I declare, listen, he was wounded
for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement
of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.
We are not healed if we do certain things, we are healed. This is
a gift of God. There's nothing left for me to
do. By His stripes I'm healed. The preacher told me back yonder
that Christ done all He can do, now it was up to me. He told me that I had to do certain
things to make this effectual. But this says it, by His stripes
I'm healed. It's a proclamation, not an invitation. It's a declaration. You understand those things?"
Nope, he said, I don't. I really don't. A man doesn't have to be a theologian
to be saved, but he's got to have some understanding of what's
involved in the salvation of sinners. Isn't that right? He's got to have some understanding. A man, a person who's, and these
boys and girls do, you say this is too deep for young people.
No, it's not deep, it's just so. It's just so, it's just true. These young people, young young
people, listen to me and see if you understand what I'm saying.
God is holy. Immaculately, infinitely holy. He can't change. He's not going
to change. You and I are sinners. We cannot in the flesh please
God. Nothing we do pleases God in our flesh. We are sinners,
totally unable to do anything for ourselves or to satisfy God's
law or God's justice or present ourselves before God as righteous.
If anything is done for us, somebody is going to have to come down
from up there, down here where we are, and do something for
us. And that's what he did. God sent his beloved Son into
the world, and he was made in flesh like me. born of a woman
as I was, born under the law, made under the law, but the God-man
in human flesh walked this earth in perfection, in holiness, and
obeyed God in every jot and tittle, and gave to me, his child, a
perfect righteousness. Then he went to that cross, and
there, by God's purpose and by God's will, he bore our sins
and paid for them, and put them away. Almighty God comes, just
like I'm saying now, and creates in me a hunger to know Him, an
interest in Him. An interest. Here's a dumb sinner
who's interested in a holy God. And he knows, I'm not going to
find, can you by searching find God? No. Well, what's he going
to do? He sends me a preacher. He sends
me a preacher. He sends me somebody He called
and He taught and He anointed. He sends me a preacher. You know
what that preacher does? He takes the Word and God gives
me an understanding. Turn to 1 John 5, 20. Gives me
an understanding. No, I don't claim to be smart,
don't claim to be a theologian, don't claim to know a whole lot,
but I do know who Christ Jesus is and what He came to do and
why He did it and where He is now. I'm like that old boy driving
William J. I do know the way to London.
In 1 John 5, 20, listen, And we know the Son of God is come,
and hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is
true, and we're in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ,
and this is the true God, and this is the eternal life. Do
you know that? I know that. You do too. I have that understanding. You young people have that understanding,
don't you? You know that. That salvation
is in Christ. It's through Christ, it's by
Christ, it's for Christ's glory, it's completed in Christ, it's
the free gift of God to the sinners by God's grace. You know that?
Well, how do you know that? God gave you an understanding.
And fourthly, there's a revelation. Look at chapter 8 of Acts again. Chapter 8 of Acts in verse 34.
And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I pray, of whom speaketh
the prophet? I like what he asked there. Of
whom? The Jew. This is a person. Himself or
some other man. So Philip began right there at
that scripture and preached unto him what I'm preaching to you
now. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Philip
began at Isaiah 53. I guarantee you he took him back
through the word, the seed of woman, bruised the serpent's
head, the Passover lamb whose blood was put on the door, the
serpent lifted up to whom the people looked, the Messiah. He began at this scripture, preached
unto him Christ Jesus. Now I'm not prepared to tell
anybody he is saved or he's not saved or when he was saved. That's
not my field at all, or yours either, but I do know this. Those
whom the Lord saves, He gives to them a revelation of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that person, the object of his faith is not
his mama's prayers. I hear mama's prayers have followed
me. No, I love my mama, but my mama's prayers didn't have anything
to do with saving this sinner. of putting away my guilt. Christ
did that. I love Brother Barnard who came
that day and preached to me, an ignorant preacher, the gospel
of God's grace. But Brother Barnard didn't have
anything to do with putting my sins away. That was by the blood
of Jesus Christ. And I love you who have supported
this ministry and prayed for me and held me up for 42 years
now to send here and there preaching the gospel. But you don't have
anything to do with my relationship with God Almighty. That's in
Christ. I love my dear wife, and these dear elders, and my
dear children. But I tell you, Christ is my
salvation. First, last, Alpha and Omega
and all in between. I'm looking to Him and Him alone.
And I'm not holding Him, He's holding me. And that's a revelation. That
came to me one day. The gospel is concerning his
son! His son! Is that clear? And I'm going to come to the
end of the road someday, and they're going to read in the
paper, well, the man has a heart attack, and they're going to have his
funeral next Sunday, 13th Street Baptist Church, and somebody's
going to say, well, he was a good man. Don't you believe a word
of it. Well, they say, he'll have a
great reward in heaven because he preached for 42 years. Don't
you believe a word of it? Don't you believe a word of it? Don't you believe a word of it?
I'm like, there was one old man dying, I forget who it was, John
Flannery, probably remember one of them, and they kept talking
about Dr. Owen, that's who it was, Dr.
Owen, Dr. Owen, Dr. Owen, they kept coming in the
room, Dr. Owen, how you been? He said, well, somebody! Start
talking about my Lord and don't talk about me. He is my salvation. And I didn't
learn that in school. I learned that out in the school
of the Holy Spirit. God revealed that to me. Turn
your eyes on Jesus. You look full in His wonderful
face. And if we ever do, the things of this world will go
strangely deep in the light of his glory and grace. And that's
what Philip did to this boy. He took him to Christ. That's
the best thing that you can do for anybody, take them to Christ. All right, here's the last thing.
Is this not true? There's an interest. There's
an encounter with God's preacher. That's where he said, blessed
are the feet of them that preach the gospel. Man, that's good
news from a far country. For a fellow to come walking
in town preaching the gospel, that just sends cold chills up
and down my back, preaching the gospel. He passed by a lot of
towns and visited mine. He passed by a lot of people
and came to me. And he gave me an understanding
an understanding. I see third-glass dimly and I
know in part, but I tell you this, I know whom I have believed. And He gave me a revelation of
who He is, and that just makes me want more, doesn't it? What
He did and why He did it. Now, there's a confession. There's a confession. And I want
somebody to listen to this now. There's a confession. I'm going
to wait until I know everything. No. I'm going to wait until I
have a better understanding. No. There's a confession. And they went on their way. They
came to some water. And Enoch said he's anxious to
tell somebody what God's done for him. He's anxious. He wants
those fellas driving the chariot and coming up behind all of them
to know what's happened, what God's done for you. Here's why!
What does hinder me to be baptized? Philip didn't say if you know
the five points of Calvinism. He didn't say if you've passed
the test given by the elders and deacons. He didn't say if
you think you've had the right experience. He said, if you believe
with all your heart, you may. Do you? But I'm just 15 or 14
or 13. He didn't ask him how old he
was. Age got nothing to do with it. But I hadn't been here but a
while. Phillip hadn't been here but a while either. Do you believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? And he answered and said
without a moment's hesitation, I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. I believe that. Now what is it
to confess Christ? I'm going to give you this one
more time. Number one, it's to own Him in my own heart. I can't confess what's not true. To own Him, to confess Christ
is to confess Him for heaven between me and God. I believe
that thy Son is my Lord. is to publicly own Him before
others. That's why He gave us baptism.
People want to know how to confess Christ. Well, how do I confess
Christ? He gave us baptism to confess Christ, to show death,
burial, and resurrection, our identification with Him in His
death, burial, and resurrection. That's what it is. You bury dead
people, and we baptize people who Crucified with Christ and
risen to walk in newness of life. All right thirdly It's to identify
with the people of God Ruth said your folks are my folks where
you live I live where you go I go and your God's my God and
I'm gonna be that way the rest of the time and that's you'll
find some people that love God and You'll cast your lot with
them Lock stock and battle. They're not perfect, but neither
you And you'll get your feelings hurt, and you'll hurt some feelings.
But our main objective is not to make each other happy, it's
to worship God. And you'll hang out with those
folks. Birds of a feather just flock together, don't they? You'll
just hang out with them. We'll hang out with the boys
on the corner. No, we'll hang out with the boys in church.
Yeah, we'll like them better. Third, fourthly, is to walk worthy
of my calling. And that'll come. That'll come. That'll come. And then it's to
continue in that faith. And some of you, in a few years,
when some of us have been gone a long time, somebody else will
be standing up here who's been here 40 years or 30. Because
God's people, they just stay. They don't leave. They don't
quit. They stayed. They didn't come to quit. I didn't
come here to deny my Lord. I didn't come to quit. I didn't
start this journey to quit by His grace. Because I found Him
whom my soul loved. What are you looking for? I'll put you nothing. I found
Him. I like what that fellow playing the bass fiddle. He's
playing the bass fiddle up with a band. Had this long bass fiddle,
you know, great big thing, you know, with the neck up here and
his hands, he just kept his hand dead still. And he'd plunk that. And he went through the whole
recital that way, whatever they was doing. And after it was all
over, a fella came up to him and said, have you ever watched
anybody else play one of those? He said, yep. He said, well,
didn't you watch how they moved their left hand and played different
notes? Yep. Why don't you do that? He
said, they're looking for the note. I found it. And that's the reason when you've
heard me, you've heard me. I found it. It's Christ. That's the note. I found it in
1950. I found Him, whom my soul loved. And I've just never gotten tired
of talking about Him. And here I got up and preached
again tonight, same thing I preached back yonder. It's Christ, Christ,
Christ. And everything's in Christ. You
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? I do. And I believe you do. Alright,
let's sing a closing hymn, Mike. Won't you come and... How about
that 221 that you were going to sing? Thank you, Lord. Is
that for saving myself? 221. 221. We'll stand while we
sing.