The outward movement of the gospel is demonstrated through the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts chapter 8. Following God's direction, Philip encounters the eunuch, who is reading Isaiah and seeking understanding. Philip explains the scriptures, preaching Jesus, leading the eunuch to faith and baptism. This event highlights God's plan for individual salvation and the expansion of His church beyond Jerusalem.
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Thank you, Mrs. Unmark, Mrs. Clark. I'd like to say at this stage, I'm very happy we are to have some visitors here with us this morning, and we welcome you. We're glad to have you with us, and we'd like you please to sign our guestbook. You'll find that on the right side as you go out. Give us your name and address and zip number. We would like to keep you in touch with our program of conferences and so on. We have just completed our... conference program, the, what's this, a copy ready to send for the, to the printers for next winter's conferences.
We're going to have, there'll be a, the women's missionary conference here in October, the last weekend in October. And we'll put a copy of this preliminary thing up on the wall this afternoon, so you'll have it there. And then we're going to have a Thanksgiving's conference with our brother Morgan coming, Philip Morgan, and then the winter Christmas conference, Christmas Day through New Year's Day with our brother Dr. Miller. And then our winter conference will start on the fifth of February and run through to the third of April.
And there'll be eight different speakers. So be praying about that. Let your friends in the north know so that they'll come back and join us as usual for the winter months. Now for you visitors, we're around a few this morning. Normally we'd have more people, but a lot of our people are still in the north. But as the weather gets a little colder up there, they'll be coming back here for the sunshine and the fellowship. and we shall soon be filling up and in the winter we're pretty full so if you we hope to see again come as often as you can I know some live far away but you enjoy you will enjoy the fellowship here now we're going to sing again before we bring the message thank you number three hundred and thirty eight three three eight Love divine so great and wonders.
Now, Mr. Robert Willie. Now I would like to turn again to the eighth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. Carry on for where we were last Sunday morning. The eighth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. And we'll read from verse twenty-five. Acts eight, verse twenty-five. And they, when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem and preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.
And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise and go toward the south, unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went, and behold, a man of Ethiopia, and eunuch of great authority, under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, was returning, and sitting in his chariot, read Isaiah the prophet. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself unto this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read, the prophet Isaiah, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?
And he said, How can I accept some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come and sit with him. And the place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb, dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth. In his humiliation his judgment was taken away, and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this, of himself or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus.
And as he went, and as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water. And the eunuch said, See, here is water, what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 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 were come up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord called away Philip that the eunuch saw him no more. And he went on his way rejoicing.
But Philip was found at Azotus. And passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Samaria. May God bless the reading of his own precious word. We seek his face again, please. Blessed Lord, we thank you for this portion of thy word which has been read so many times and preached about so many times. This portion of thy word which thou hast used so many times to win precious souls to thyself and to teach us thy plan for the spreading of the gospel. We pray that once again the Holy Spirit this morning might take the word of God and apply it to our hearts.
We have no, we don't wish to have wisdom of our own here but thy wisdom and we ask, Lord, that The Spirit of God might work in every heart for thy glory. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Now in our studies in the Acts of the Apostles, we were picking up the threads last week, after being away for some time, of course, we were picking up the threads in the eighth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. And we said this, just a little recapitulation. We said, as we have said on several occasions, whilst we've been studying in the Acts of the Apostles, that there are three movements in the Acts of the Apostles. In chapter one, an upward movement.
In chapter two, a downward movement. In chapter eight, an outward movement. In chapter one, the Lord Jesus ascended back into heaven. That was the upward movement. In chapter two, the Holy Spirit came down on the day of Pentecost. That was the downward movement. And in chapter eight, in verse four it says, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. That was the outward movement. Now this was God's plan. We have said over and over again that just as God gave Moses a pattern in the mountain, a pattern for the building of the tabernacle, So God has given us a pattern for the building of his church.
And personally, I look upon the Acts of the Apostles as the pattern which God gave us. Here we get the story of the New Testament church, the first century church. Here we get the story of the original church as God had planned it, and this is our pattern. Now, down through the ages, of course, we have departed from his pattern very seriously in many ways and yet I'm happy to say that the gospel is still preached after two thousand years nearly the gospel is going out today as it did in those early days and we thank God for it but we want to get back to the originals here to see how God planned it We referred last week, as we have several times, to the eighth verse of the first chapter where the Lord Jesus said, Tarot Jerusalem, it shall be endued with power from on high, and then he said, I want you to go out and be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the other most parts of the earth.
Starting at Jerusalem. And we pointed out last week that the disciples stayed at Jerusalem. I think I wouldn't criticize them. That was their sphere. That's where God put them. And God told them to start at Jerusalem. And they did a wonderful job. Because it tells us in the last verse of the fourth chapter that the number of the disciples had reached five thousand men. Men. Now you've got to add women and children to that. So there were thousands of people now in that early church. I don't know where they could meet. They must have had various meeting places. But we do read over and over again in the New Testament of the church which is in thy house. So I think they used their homes largely.
If their homes were big enough, you'll find in the Acts of the Apostles reference to the home of Mark. It seemed that Mark or Mark's mother or somebody there had a large house. I rather think that that's the kind of center that they largely worked from. You remember in the twelfth chapter, when Paul was in prison, and it says in verse twelve, when Peter was released from the prison, when he considered the thing, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark.
where many were gathered together praying. That's where a lot of them met in that house. Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark. Maybe that's the very house that they met in the first chapter where they met together and waited for the Holy Spirit for the day of Pentecost. And it says, when they were coming, verse twelve, when they returned after the Lord ascended up on high, They returned unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey. And when they were coming, they went up into an opera room, and there are both Peter and James and John and Andrew and Philip and Thomas and Bartholomew and Matthias and Matthew and James, the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Lotus and Judas, the brother of James.
These all continued. What a big house this must have been for all these people. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. And it says in the next verse, the number of the names together were about a hundred and twenty. Now this is before the day of Pentecost. Hundred and twenty. And they all continued in prayer, waiting day by day, until the Holy Ghost was given on the day of Pentecost. Now the command was then, that when they get this, when the day of Pentecost would come, ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you, ye shall be by witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the other most parts of the earth.
And they did a great job, I say again, in Jerusalem. But it was God's plan that they should go, starting at Judea and Samaria. And a great persecution came upon the church at Jerusalem. God wanted to scatter them. God wanted to spread them out. And it says, at this time, verse one of chapter eight, at this time there was a great persecution against the church, which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered abroad. Where? Just where the Lord told them to go. Throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. The apostles stayed at Jerusalem. And Philip went down.
to Samaria and preached Christ and we followed that last week what great rejoicing there was in the city down there Samaria he preached Christ the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake hearing and seeing the miracles which he did there was great joy in that city what a wonderful gospel campaign Philip held down there in the city of Samaria great joy in the city and it says in verse They believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, and they were baptized men and women.
So the gospel now is going outward. Now, there are different methods and ways of spreading the gospel. There's the vast, the big, what should I say, the citywide campaign. That seems to be what... happened down in Samaria. And how many of us can look back over years when we've had citywide campaigns? I mean, in the old days, before Billy Graham came up, you think of days before we were born, most of us, when Moody and Spurgeon and these great men had great campaigns, and God always blessed.
I have been to the tent hall in Glasgow, a large hall which was seat, what? thousand people I suppose and they built it back in the eighteen eighties after Moody had been there and he had a big tent in the city of Glasgow Scotland and hundreds and hundreds were saved and to carry on the work the temp was taken down it's too cold in the winter there for tents but Moody went back to Chicago but they built the tent hall and they carried on gospel services to this day and I have preached in the tent hall Glasgow where Moody preached and thousands have been saved and still are being saved there. The only time in my life I ever shook hands with Billy Graham was in the Tent Hall Glasgow when he was a young man, before he was famous, before his first famous campaign out there in Los Angeles.
I met him there. He came with a Youth for Christ group and that work is going on. That city-wide work. Then how many of us can remember, many here today can remember Billy Graham's great campaign in New York City. That's the Square Gardens. I was there on several occasions, and what a thrill it was to be having something to do with it. Many of you, of course, were in the choir and taking part and counselors and workers, citywide work. God blesses that. One of the most successful way of winning souls to Christ, citywide work. Somehow you can get the people in. And when the Spirit of God descends upon the meetings, souls get saved.
But there are other ways. Sometimes God works in homes and families. As I mentioned before, the church which was in thy house. And today God is using very singularly what we call the coffee hour. Ladies are inviting other ladies into their homes. giving them a cup of coffee, a few cookies or something, and gathering them around the Word of God, and they have a lady. We have that here. A lady teaches them the Word of God, and this is being singularly blessed. I remember when I lived in Birmingham, Alabama, there was a lady there, and she did such a great work for God.
Many, many of the leading society people of the city of Birmingham got saved. And then their husband said, we want to hear this too. And God used. And some of these people have gone, the particular lady I'm speaking out now is out in Singapore, working for the Lord. The great group went from Birmingham with the Campus Crusade out of Singapore to carry on the work there. God is using these ways. But there is one way which we're going to get now. We get in chapter eight, the first part, the citywide campaign. But when we get down to verse twenty-six, it's an individual business. Now after all, you can have masses of people.
And it may be that hundreds get saved in one evening. I had the joy once. The first time I ever used the Greek language in Greece, where I lived for ten years, God gave me twenty-five souls that night. But twenty-five souls are not saved together. Two people can't be saved together. Salvation is an individual matter. And just as Nicodemus came to the Lord alone at night, and just as the Lord sat on the wellside at Samaria in this very city here, or near here, and led that Samaritan woman to Christ, so every one of us had to come to Christ alone.
Now the night I was saved, my brother Tom, who went to heaven two or three years ago, three years ago, my brother Tom was sitting by my side. But I got saved, he got saved later. But he didn't know I got saved that night. It was an individual matter between me and the Lord. And the night you got saved or the day you got saved, it was an individual thing. You had to have personal dealings with the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. His last message to the church in Revelation three, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I'll come in.
Not if hundreds together, but if any man hear my voice and open the door. And what we have to do is open the door of our hearts. The story is told, of course, as you all know, that when Holman Hunt printed that wonderful picture, which I have seen in the It's seen in St. Paul's Cathedral in London, that picture, the light of the world, the Lord Jesus, standing at the heart's door and knocking. And the story is told that when Holman Hunt printed that picture, a great friend of his came to him and said, that's a famous picture. You will ever be a famous artist as a result of this picture. And this picture will travel all over the world and thousands will see it. But he said, Homan, you made one mistake.
He said, what do you mean? I've spent hours and weeks and weeks and months painting this. What mistake? He said, you haven't put a lock on the door. What's the good of a door without a lock? You can't get in. And Homan Hunt is supposed to have said, that's the secret of the whole painting. The lock of the door is on the inside. Now the Lord Jesus is not going to open your heart's door. He knocks. He says, if any of you hear my voice and open the door, I'll come in. And if there's someone here this morning not yet saved, I don't know you all. If there's someone here not yet saved, you've never had that great experience of being born again, of coming into the church of God as a born again saved believer.
You've got to open the door yourself. The Lord knocks. He'll knock this morning as we're speaking. and he'll bid you to let him come in. But you've got to let him in. It's individual. And whether, as in Billy Graham's case, a thousand or several thousand come out to find a way of salvation, everyone had to be dealt with individually. I've been in those wonderful counseling classes of Billy Graham campaigns and How wonderful it is to go over those verses they have selected for dealing, those six verses for dealing and leading the souls of Christ. For the final one, the one I'm talking about now from Revelation, if any man hear my voice it will open the door.
But every one of those, you'll find that as you see them come down on the television, The first people to move usually are the counselors. You can usually tell them because they've got a Bible under their arm and that sets the thing going and they come down to the front and then those who are leading it, they arrange for a counselor to deal with each person individually because Billy Graham and all his team knows it's an individual matter. Now then, in our studies in the Acts of the Apostles, We've seen a great work in the city of Jerusalem. We've seen a work in the city of Samaria, but now God's going to show us something else.
He's teaching us how he wants to build his church. He's giving us a pattern, the divine pattern for building his church. And in chapter eight, we get the story of the Ethiopian eunuch. In chapter nine, we get the story of Saul of Tarsus. In chapter ten, we get the story of Cornelius. individuals who found the Lord Jesus Christ. Not masses, but individual people. And it's always amazed me if there was great rejoicing in that city of Samaria, it's always amazed me that the Holy Spirit should say to the Philip, Arise and go down toward the south.
I find that I can hear Philip saying, Lord, what do you mean? I've got a great mission going on here. Souls being saved, great rejoicing. You mean I've got to leave all this and go down into the desert? No, you didn't say that at all. Philip did just what Abraham did. Abraham, a way back in the eleventh chapter of Genesis, dwelt in one of those great cities, Earl of the Chaldees. You know, it says they were building in that eleventh chapter, they built skyscrapers. They thought they built a tower right up to God and up to heaven. And they were building these great skyscrapers and great building schemes in his day. And suddenly, God said to Abram, come out of this thing.
Get out of it. Leave the skyscrapers. Leave these great condominiums. Get out of it. And from now on, you're going to live in a tent. And there's going to be two things to characterize your life, Abraham. an altar and a tent. It says in the twenty-fourth chapter of Joshua that he dwelt, that he worshipped idols. The other side of the flood, that's the other side of the Euphrates River. He worshipped idols. But God called him out of that thing and he said, You're going to be my man. And what's he say? I love the way he's put it. It says in this Chapter twelve of Genesis and verse one he says, Now God had called Abraham.
He tells you about the call in the eleventh chapter, but verse one of chapter twelve, Now the Lord had said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house unto a man that I will show thee. Verse four, listen to it. God said in verse one, Get thee out. Verse four, So Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken unto him. Now let's go to Acts eight. The angel of the Lord, verse twenty-six, spake unto Philip, saying, Arise and go toward the south, unto the way that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza, which is desert. What happened? Just like Abraham. He arose and went. He arose and went. Now that is the secret of blessing in your life and my life and in God's service generally.
When God says go, Don't argue about it, go. God said, Arise, go down to the south, and to the way that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza, which is dated, and he arose and went. God could look out for the work at Samaria. I remember many years ago God gave us a wonderful work in the city of Hull in Yorkshire, England. We had two tent missions and we had souls saved and blessed and baptized and the thrill, the thing was going, we just building a lovely chapel and The thing was, we were right amid it. And suddenly the Lord said to me, Go to Athens, Greece. And we had to leave it all.
And we left it all. That work went on. I didn't go back for seventeen years. And when I went back to preach one Easter conference there, the chapel was still full up, still going on, seventeen years later. But there comes a time in our lives sometimes when God says, Leave this and go there. That's when we've got to obey. But I tell you what, in my estimation, is wrong. When I say, I'm going there. Lord, I don't like it here. I want to go there. That's not the way it's all in my judgment. And I find so many people, I met some in Great Britain when I was home there, now this summer, a few weeks ago, I met several young men that, well, I'm going there.
Well, who told you to go? Well, I want to go there, and I've asked the Lord to bless it. Well, all right, but I can't see it that way. When the Lord says, go, then go. Till he says, go, stay. Stay where you are, stay put. In the history of the children of Israel, you'll find it says, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mountain, and then the pillar of cloud moved from that mountain, moved somewhere else, and then they went. Don't go until the Lord sends you. But when the Lord sends you, don't hesitate, go. He didn't argue, arise, go down to the south, unto the way that goes down from Jerusalem unto Giza, which is desert, and he arose and went.
God had a plan and a purpose. And if he had disobeyed God, where would the Ethiopian eunuch have been? He didn't know there was a eunuch down there. He didn't know he was going to meet a man and lead him to Christ. All he knew is that God's plan was go there. And he went. Now, I can assure you I've been down around these parts of Israel, and I know this part. It's a gazer. It's a desert. But the road that leads, it says, Go toward the south unto the way, or the road that goeth down to Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.
The road was desert. And that's where he met the eunuch out there in that desert road. That's where the beautiful, wonderful green verdure, the green coming up there, let me put it this way, when you come out of Egypt and go across the desert and then you go get to Beersheba and go into Palestine and see everything green and beautiful out to the desert sands of Egypt, it's just wonderful. But if you go south, when you get down around towards Giza, the grass is getting more and more and more and more sparse and more and more sparse until there's nothing left but sand, desert. And that's where he says, Leave Samaria where there was lovely green pasture and verdure and so on, and go down into the desert.
Sometimes God's got to take us into the desert to teach us and use us for his glory. He arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia and eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasure and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, was returning and sitting in his chariot where he says the prophet. Let's think a little bit about this eunuch. He had a huge job, you know. He had charge of the treasury. and he made a visit to Jerusalem.
Now, my own personal opinion about this man is that he was seeking God. Although he was a heathen and came from Ethiopia, he must have heard about the God of Abraham and the God of Israel and the wonders of the God of Israel. And of course, in his position, he knew about Jerusalem and the history of the Jews, and he went up to Jerusalem For to worship. You mark the words? For to worship. This heathen man went to Jerusalem to worship. But he wasn't saved. He wasn't saved. I believe he was a very sincere man. He was seeking for God.
He was seeking for the right way. And he went up to worship. He said, I'll go up and worship God. I believe I would be right in saying that this very morning, was it, the eighteenth day of September, nineteen seventy-seven, hundreds and thousands of men and women have gone up to worship. They've gone up to their cathedral, up to their church, up to their altar. What for? To worship. Well, they're not saved. They're not saved. What do they know about worship?
And yet God is somewhere in their heart for the desire towards Him. I love to think that there are men in the world today in this world that's rejected the Lord Jesus and this world that's so full of its own power and strength and might and what we've done. There are men and women still who are seeking God. And I have never yet met a seeking sinner but what there's been a seeking Savior to meet the seeking sinner. And here's a man that went up to Jerusalem to worship, trying to find the right way. And what did he find there? Religion, religion, religion. He went to the temple, but all it's religion. But he didn't get it.
The time was spent and he had to go back home. But he wasn't satisfied. And he found a copy, a scroll, a copy of the prophet Isaiah. Now that must have been a copy taken from the, what they call the Septuagint, which was the Greek version of the Old Testament. Because he could read it. And as I said last week, Alexander the Great forced all the world to learn the Greek language. So he could read Greek. And that's why some of these quotations here do not quite agree with our version of Isaiah fifty-three, because he's reading it from the Septuagint, that Greek version, which was made some years before the Lord came here, of course.
And he's in this chariot. Don't think this man was traveling over the desert all alone. That would be folly with all the brigands and robbers and so on. He had a whole retinue. He was a man of great position. He had a retinue. He had outriders and so on and camels. But he was riding in his chariot, if you please, just like Joseph did, because he was a man of repute and high standing. He was traveling in his chariot. He wasn't driving the horses. He was reading the book, reading the scroll. He had somebody there driving the horses. And as he traveled across the desert, his heart was still searching for God, searching for God. And he got the most wonderful thing.
He got the word of God. And if there's someone here this morning that's searching for God and searching for the way of salvation, let me tell you what to do. Read the book. Read the Bible. God has wonderfully given us this book, translated into our own mother tongue, so that we can read His plans for your life and mine. His plans for the world, His plans for the universe are all written in this book, and all His plans are going to be fulfilled, and all God's schedule is going to be brought about in His own time. But God's great plan today is to build a church. God's great work today is to save men and women and build a church.
And that's what we're talking about in the Acts of the Apostles. And that's the pattern he's given us. And he's going to add one more man to the church this day. The Ethiopian unit was a man who was seeking God. Now, let me ask you again. Are you seeking God? Is there someone here you don't know God's will, God's plan for your life? You don't know the Lord and you're seeking him? Do what this man did. He got a copy of the prophet Isaiah's. I would advise you to get a copy of John's Gospel. That's the book I love. Get it and read it and read it and read it until God reveals it to you. And you'll get saved. That's the way. Because the entrance of thy word giveth life. And here he is reading.
Now, Philip wasn't going on his own. The angel of the Lord sent him there. He sees the Ethiopian, he saw this residue coming out across the desert, and he picks out the eunuch there in the middle. And the Spirit of God said to him, Go near and join thyself. Now, in the Greek, the word, it's got cola right in the middle of it, which is the Greek word for glue. Go and stick yourself to it. That's what I mean in the Greek. Go and stick yourself to this chariot. Now, this is very important. When God lays the soul upon our heart, then we've got to go and stick to that soul. We've got to work on that soul. We've got to seek to win that soul to Christ.
I feel we're so much out of touch with the old gospel work we used to enjoy so much here in Parker Palms. We have a wonderful time, but we're not so winning as we should be. And this man, God moved him a long way to do it. But when he said, go and stick to that land, stick to him to do it. He won him to Christ. And he ran along by the side of the chariot and he heard him reading aloud. The meaning of the Greek word here is that he was reading aloud. He heard him read the prophet Isaiah. Since the fifth third chapter he was reading, Understandest thou what thou readest? He said, How can I accept some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.
This was something, wouldn't it? A man in his grave position. He said, come right up into the chair, sit down, tell me something. How can I accept some man tell me? Now I love to see, I love to meet people that have been won and saved just by reading the Word of God. The Holy Spirit of God can reveal the Scripture and save people. That's why I say, read the Word of God. Read John's Gospel. Keep reading it till the Spirit of God reveals it to you. But the Lord also uses His servants to help us. How can I understand it?
Some man tell me. And you think of the thousands I mentioned just now who've gone to worship today. Their minds, their eyes are blinded. Their minds have been... Well, they've... They think the thing is to go and worship and that'll get me to heaven. They're blinded, they don't know. They're in darkness. They've been taught that it's a matter of good works to get to heaven and so on. And someone's got to tell them that is not the way to get to heaven. You can't get there by anything you could do. You can go to Jerusalem. You can go to the temple area.
That won't save you. You can only be saved by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there's some doubt in the the theologians have some doubt as to whether that wonderful verse down there, if thou believest with all thou heart thou mayest, whether that was in the original writing. It isn't in my Greek Testament, it's not there as a matter of fact. But it shows that in some of the translations It shows what those who were making up or translating and writing the word of Christ shows what they believed. They believed this. If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
There's nothing wrong with that when it was in the original. No, it means that those who are writing in those days, that's what they believed. You've got to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He said, how can I accept some man's show me? And the place of the scripture which he read was, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened He not his mouth. In his humiliation his judgment was taken away. There's no doubt in your mind or my mind as to whom the Lord was reading about. We know who he was reading about. He was reading about the Lord Jesus Christ.
He didn't know it. That's why he said, how can I accept some man? Show me. In his humiliation his judgment was taken away. Who should declare his generation for his life is taken from the earth? And the unique answer to Philip said, I pray thee. I won't speak as a prophet this of himself or some other man. And Philip opened his mouth. Okay, listen. He opened his mouth and he began at the same scripture and preached unto him, What do you preach about? Communism, some of the great religions of today? No. He preached unto him, Jesus.
Jesus. Can you think of a better sermon? He preached unto him, Jesus. Well, that's a big story. He probably told him all about his birth. He probably told him all about his eternity. In the beginning was God, oh, he was the eternal Son of God. He probably told him, oh, he came down from the glory of heaven. Ah, but most of all, he told him, that the one who was dumb like a sheep before his shears was the Lord Jesus Christ who stood before Pilate and answered not a word. That's the one he talked about. He told him, oh, the Lord Jesus Christ was led out bearing his cross.
and taken to the place called Golgotha and nailed to a cross and crucified. And he must have told him how God covered that scene in darkness when he meted out on his Son the punishment of his all. And when the Lord Jesus bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that's the gospel. He preached under him Jesus the glorious story of how the Son of God came down from heaven. and went to the place called Calvary and died for my sins according to the scripture. And the Spirit of God was with him. And the Spirit of God revealed to the Ethiopian eunuch what Philip was trying to tell him. And as they went on their way, they came to certain water.
Now, you know, when the Lord Jesus gave the, what we call the Great Commission, going to all the world and preached the Gospel, Make disciples of all nations and baptize them, he said. And in accordance with the Great Commission, part of the gospel is baptism. We do not preach the gospel if we leave out baptism, in my estimation. Now, a lot of us leave it out. We go on preaching the gospel and forget. But part of it was baptism. And we say, well, now go on six months. Let's see if we really save them. We'll baptize you. That's not what they did. They believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. They were baptized right away. That's what they did. And that's what this man did. He came to certain water and the eunuch said to him, See, here's water, what does hinder me to be baptized?
Why? Philip must have told him about baptism. And perhaps up in Jerusalem he might have heard about it. I don't know. But he said, What does hinder me to be baptized? He must have told him what baptism means. Separation from this world. Death with Christ. And he wanted to say, I have accepted Christ as my Savior. I want now for all these servants of mine. to see me be baptized where I will witness to the fact that I've accepted Christ as my Savior and I've died with him. They came to the water and here's the mode of baptism. They went down both into the water. He didn't take a few spots and sprinkle on him. He didn't make a sign of a cross on his forehead as I've seen it done.
He didn't do that. They went down both into the water. That's very simple. Like we do when we baptize in our lake here. went down both into the water. Both Philip and the eunuch, he baptized him. And when they were come up out of the water, how clear. They went down into the water, they came up out of the water, that's what baptism means. I go down into death with Christ in a figure, and I come up, raised in newness of life, resurrection life to live for him. And when he'd done that, what more did he need? He didn't need anything else. See what happened. When they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away, Philip, and the eunuch saw him no more.
He went on his way rejoicing. God saved him. He was baptized. He realized what he meant. And now in the strength and power of the Holy Spirit, he went on his way rejoicing back to Ethiopia. And who knows the result. Final result of that one man being one to Christ. Maybe there's someone here this morning, as I've talked to you, who've done just like this, accepted the Lord as your own personal Savior. Maybe there's someone here and God is speaking to you, calling you to arise and go somewhere, do something tomorrow morning, see somebody, visit somebody. Seek to win someone to Christ. May God lead us. May we learn some lessons from his word today for his glory.
Shall we pray? Blessed Lord, we bow before thee. And thank you for this pattern thou hast given us in the Acts of the Apostles as to how the Church of God should be built. We thank you for this individual work that we are witnessing now as we go into these eighth, ninth, and tenth chapters of the Acts. We ask, Lord, that thou show us more and more of the wonder of thy word and speak to our heart. And if, Lord, there are those here this morning to whom thou hast been speaking, may this not fall just void. We pray that we might make decisions and mean them to decide to serve thee better. We commit us to thee and seek thy parting blessing in our Savior's precious name.