If you like to follow along in your Pew, Bible, or your
personal Bible, that's a wonderful thing.
If you have trouble getting around with that and stay in
with us, I'm going to try pretty much everything that you're
going to see a just going to be the scriptures found.
That's convenient on everybody staying together and to make
sure that you get a read. And no, this is what it says,
you know, one of the greatest blessings God has given to us,
is that the word of God is free to everybody?
You may say, well, I don't know. It costs about 35 bucks in the
bookstore where I and looked but you can get one free.
The Bible, God's word is literally to everybody Of All
Times, They languages that it's in.
There's no excuse for us, not to understand and be able to go to
God's word. And sometimes when I talk with
with folks, they talk about, well, it's just so confusing to
me and I want you to know, there may be things that it's
difficult for us to tie together, but this story also
gives us insight into how to navigate the confusion that we
might feel when we read. I'll draw your attention to Acts
chapter 8 and we're going to begin in verse 26.
Says, now, an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, arise
and go toward the South along the road which goes down from
Jerusalem to Gaza. This is Desert, so he arose and
went and behold a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great
Authority. Under Candace, the queen of the
okiya Ethiopians who had charge of all her Treasury and had come
to Jerusalem to worship. Now stop to say this as he comes
down and he as he's going along, there's a man of Ethiopia.
This man, there's a this calls it, a eunuch here, some
translations, call it. And I'm blanking right now.
So I'm going to keep going. He has treasury of all he has
charge of over treasury. There's one of our preachers who
calls him, the Secretary of Treasury converting, the
Secretary of Treasury. This person is someone who is no
doubt has an education level that is beyond, what would be
standard. He's someone who certainly has a
place in the government whose far above whatever would be
normal for others. He's come to Jerusalem to
worship. Is this man?
A proselyte Is he a man who was a Jew that somehow relocated
into Ethiopia can tell you in my mind, Zion and what?
I personally think, this is an Ethiopian, man, a man who has
some point was proselytized into the Jewish religion, and now,
he's going to Jerusalem, like, the Jews would do.
He's trying to learn about this new faith, that he's found in
the one God of the universe. Because prior to that, no doubt
he had been exposed to either some type of an idolatrous
concept or worldview. You that would have had one or
many. And now he's learned about the
one. We don't know how long he's been
this. Now, we don't know for sure that
he was a proselyte. I just think that about myself
But he's gone to Jerusalem to worship.
And now, as he goes back, the Bible says, he's returning now,
by the way, if I understand right, as the crow flies, Just
doesn't just straight. If you're taking an airplane,
this might have been 13 to 15 hundred miles.
If he was going by Chariot and taking it all by land without
the aid of the ship. And I'm not going to try to do
this, could have been a journey that took months.
We don't know how long exactly he's been reading, but he's
sitting in his Chariot and he's reading, Isaiah, the prophet.
Now you can look in your Bible and you can read the book of
Isaiah just like he was doing. And the Bible says, the spirit
said to Philip go near an overtake this Chariot.
I want you to get up to him and so he goes near to overtake it.
So Philip ran to him and heard him reading the prophet.
Isaiah and said to, you understand what you're reading.
Now, I don't know if Philip was just super fast if this was a
miracle of the holy spirit that he could outsprint a chariot, or
if it's just such a long Cherry trip that this Chariot is
crawling. It's just better than walking
yourself. Some have even suggested this
night might not have even been horses that were pulling this
Chariot, that it was not uncommon that it would have been
some type of fox or something like that, which might give an
image of how slowly this could have been moving.
It might not have taken a big argh run.
We don't know exactly but we know as he runs and comes near,
he hears him reading the prophet.
That means he's reading out loud.
Do you ever get to where you're having trouble understanding
something and you've been reading it and your back and
forth over it? You're in the Bible and you're
reading it and it's your mind, maybe it's going other places
you're distracted. You got all this and you think I
don't have a clue when I just read and so you read it again
and now you try to pay attention but it's harder to understand
and it was the first time if you're like me when you're
really confused. Reading something pretty soon.
You'll be Reading it out loud. Not that it's really helping
anything other than its I do it. And some of you are shaking your
head, you do that too. I don't know if this is what's
going on with this Ethiopian nobleman Or if he's just reading
it. So the other people in his
Entourage gets to hear it too. But Phil appears in reading it
and he says, do you understand what you're reading?
And he said, how can I unless someone guides me and he asked
Philip to come up and sit with him.
Now we've already been introduced to this man.
He's someone who's on the level of our Secretary of Treasury.
Most undoubtedly, a matter of higher education, amount of
great Authority. We would typically see this
person in society and say, Well, they're intelligent We look at
this guy and we say he should be an intelligent person who's
capable under to understanding things.
And yet, he's reading Isaiah and he doesn't get it.
The reason I believe erring this point is because I want you to
understand when you don't get the Bible, it doesn't mean
you're not intelligent enough to get it.
It doesn't mean that you don't have the capacity, it just means
that you need someone to help you connect the dots.
Someone that perhaps is already spent that time been there.
They've been through that confusion and had someone help
them understand it and I want you to understand what Philip
did he came. And he asked him, Phillip Came
and sit with him the place in the scripture, which he read was
this. He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter and as a lamb before Shearer is silent.
So, he opened not his mouth. This was the place, the noblemen
red in his humiliation. His Justice was taken away.
And who will declare his generation.
For his life is taken from the Earth.
So the eunuch answered Philip and said, I Ask of You, whom
does the prophet say this of himself or some other man?
Now, if you're familiar with this, this is an Isaiah chapter
53. And my intake on this is that
he's already read 52 chapters. and he still hasn't figured out
who's been talked about, Is this Isaiah, is it somebody else?
Who is he talking about and Philip opened his mouth and
beginning. At this scripture preached Jesus
to him told you as Isaiah 53, its verses 7 and 8 when I want
you to do now is go back and look at what he might have read.
We can't go back to Isaiah chapter 1, but I think we've got
time this morning to start in Isaiah, chapter 52.
And we're going to pick up in verse 13.
I want to get a running start into Isaiah 53:7.
And eight. What had he been reading up to
this point that now he's convinced that what he's saying
is either about himself or he's talking about somebody else.
If he's if he's talking about somebody else I want to
understand it. I want to get it now.
Put yourself in the place of this.
This perhaps a proselyte if it wasn't a proselyte and he was a
Jewish born and raised but he just been relocated to Ethiopia
and somehow been managed to elevate himself within that
Society not only Place of stature and within the
government to be the treasury. Somebody says, well, you know,
maybe he wasn't. Maybe he wasn't that much of a
deal, maybe he just nobody else wanted to count the money.
You know, the fact is the very fact that he owns a scroll and
of Isaiah, That he's taking it with him.
Implies many scholars to say he was very wealthy.
You see, I told you we were very fortunate.
Today, that pretty much I'm guessing everybody in this
audience has a Bible and I've already told you if you don't
and you want one and you can't afford it, you'll have one for
free this day. It wasn't like that back.
Then if you wanted a copy of the old scriptures, somebody had to
be paid to write it out. That's a scribe.
When you read about the scribes in the in the Bible, those are
people that thorough job their daily activity was writing and
copying the scripture. So there could be more copies of
it to spread around because it was such a tedious long thing as
was expensive. And yet, this man is rich enough
to own one. He's been reading it.
We're going to pick up what Isaiah 53.
What's he saying? Behold my servant shall deal.
Prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled and be very high
just as many were astonished at you.
So his visit was marked more than any man and his form more
than the sons of, man. Whoever he's reading about it
this time, he says he's going to deal prudently and he's going to
be extolled he's going to be brought very high.
And yet though many years, Donna statute, his visit is going to
be marred, more than any buddies has ever been more.
Do you know what the visages? It's the appearance.
It's his form when you look at him, he's going to be marred
more than any of the sons of men.
So he shall sprinkle many nations Kings shall shut.
Their mouths at him. They're going to be quiet and
the listen for what had not been told them they shall see and
what they had not heard they shall consider.
There's a new message coming through.
This one that even Kings will stop to listen to, we're dealing
with an agent a time when the king spoke everybody else was
quiet, you didn't dare speak and open your mouth until you were
bitten by the king. But this man's different than
what he's talking about here is when he talks to the Kings will
be quiet, he's different and they're going to hear something.
That they never considered they will consider it.
Now, Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 1 and who has believed our
report And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed.
This message, who's believed it. Now, you would think that that
could have been written in the year 2018, right?
Today, because there's a lot of people in this in this state in
this world. And perhaps in this room, there
may be one or two or maybe more who have trouble believing this
report. That's not a new problem.
People believing and being able to embrace the word of God is
nothing new. It's been a challenge you read
the book of Jeremiah, you know, some people say Darwin was the
first evolutionist, he's not read the book of Jeremiah, and
you'll find in the book of Jeremiah that when people were
confronted with their sin, That on that occasion.
The Bible says, they covered their faces, they turn to their
back to him and they wouldn't listen.
And you know what they said, they said to the trees, you have
brought us forth and to the Rocks, we came from you.
They denied being the product of a creative God and said we have
just evolved from trees and rocks.
Darling, Darwin was late to that party.
He just published more about it. Back in Isaiah 53.
People weren't believing this in many cases and he says who will
the arm of the Lord even be revealed to this one?
He speaks of here is nowra being referred to as the arm of the
Lord. What is your arm do?
Your arm reaches out. Your arm is there so that when I
want something, my hand can reach my arm, puts my hand out
there, to take it, this one that he's talking about here, he's
God's ability to reach out to man.
The arm of the Lord, he says, whose Cahoon will he be revealed
to for? He is grown up before him as a
tender plant. And as a root out of the ground,
he has no form or comeliness. And when we see him, there is no
beauty that we should desire him.
This. What he's talking about.
He says, he's before God before the Lord.
He's grown up like a tender plant.
I love to Garden. Well, I don't know if I love to
Garden, as much as I love the produce that comes out of the
garden. Because when you see those
tender plants, I see Tomatoes sea cucumbers.
I see the potential there and I can't wait for it.
But really, when it's just a little plant, it's not that
great. I guess it must not be just
little plants in and of themselves are great because
when they grow up in the grass, I pull them out.
As a matter of fact, this this this idea as a root out of dry
ground that got these fruitless mulberry trees.
I put my backyard because they grow fast and I needed shade and
I didn't have a tree on two acres and so I thought fruitless
mulberries would be great and they were great for the first
eight years. And now, you know what's going
on with roots. They got big roots and they want
to come up. And so, what I do, I get dirt
and I try to cover them up and plant grass, so it comes over,
I've kind of given up. See, I don't like that route
appearing out of dry ground. And I feel bad when I think of
it in this life, because that's how people looked at the one
that's being prophesied about. We just wanted to cover him up.
They don't want him. Who's going to accept this?
He's despised and rejected by Men.
A Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it
were our faces from him. He was despised and we did not
esteem him now specifically, contextual he's talking about
the Jews, the person whose lineage, and whose bloodline
they shared. He says, even his own family
didn't accept him for this, is it any wonder that 2000 years
later? People are still struggling with
it. Who's going to believe this
report? Surely, he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Yet.
We esteemed him stricken Smitten by God and Afflicted.
This Ethiopian nobleman was reading about this guy.
And he's saying, man, I mean this it seems like God loves me,
but everybody else hates him and people they look at him and
thought that God was afflicting him and striking him but he was
wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our
iniquities. The chastisement for our peace
was upon him and by his stripes We are healed.
How is this working? How does all this happen?
All we, we like sheep have gone astray.
We have turned every one to his own way and the lord has laid on
him. The iniquity of us all.
No wonder. This Ethiopian nobleman is
getting confusing. He wants to know who is this,
that was oppressed and he was afflicted yet.
He opened. Not his mouth, he was led as a
lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her Shearer's is
silent. So he opened not his mouth.
You can picture this. This scene of this lamb that
before they slaughter it. They want to be sure to get what
was of any value off of it. And so it would be sure.
And it just stands there without a bleep.
Ready to receive whatever happens.
He says, this is what's going on.
It's like a lamb led to the slaughter.
He was taken from prison and from judgment.
And who will declare his generation for.
He was cut off from the land of the living, for the
transgression of my people. He was stricken I know you've
heard Frank, teach on this. This idea of that he goes
through, he says he's taking, he doesn't even get his prison
sentence. He doesn't even get what I think
we would call in his, his ability to appeal, the
condemnation. He is and he is from the time
that they tell him he's going to die.
He gets no justice and who's going to talk about his kids.
Who's going to talk about the generation that he left behind
that will follow nobody? From he was cut off from the
land of the living. We had to bury a young man of
our congregation. At the end of December. 19 years
old, perfectly healthy and two months later.
He's gone. No generation and Claire for
him. It's a hard thing to deal with.
God knows, Jesus knows. The things that we take great
joy in his humans in Our Generations, in our children and
grandchildren, and get to know that either, he was cut off from
the land of the living and why, for the transgression of my
people, he was stricken Anything he did and they made his grave
with the wicked but with the rich in his death because he had
done no violence nor was there any deceit in his mouth he was
killed. He was destroyed along with
wicked men. But at his death, he would go to
the place of the ridge. Now, I'm guessing that many of
you already know where this is headed.
You already know how this story and I kind of gave it off away
in the title were preaching Jesus and you know that this
prophecy is fulfilled to a tee, you know, that pilot marveled
that he would answer, not a word When he could have, he had
showed himself very capable in the synagogue, on many occasions
with the Pharisees, or with the Sadducees, or with the scribes,
he could, he could stand before them all.
And they could not confound him and yet, when it came time for
him to die, he answered never a word.
How did they know that hundreds of years?
Beforehand, you say, well, Greg. I read novels.
I mean, look, we've got some that have written books that are
thousands of pages long. And they carry this store line
from the beginning to the end. And so yeah, the Bible could do
it but that's not how the Bible worked.
I want you to understand in the history of the Bible and I can't
go in. This isn't about this but we
have it in one tidy book, nowadays, that's not how it was
accumulated. That's not how we received it.
Do you realize that archaeologists have found Found
Scrolls of different eras of time and of different books that
have gone together to put these things.
It wasn't like it was just this boom here it is when it comes to
specially and particularly to the old Covenant and these
prophecies and you can go and they Archaeology is to this day,
still unraveling and finding and and unearthing areas.
And these Scrolls that were written Hundreds of years before
Jesus would walk the face of the Earth prophesy of things that
happen to the tee. Someone says well it's just
carefully crafted. I mean so somebody read all
those books and they just made sure they made a man to go
through all that. How do you do that?
What are you going to get the guy that's going to volunteer
for that job? And number two, how do you
really pull it off? Because the intelligent Jews
among them would have. Put it with a snip that right in
the bud. They didn't want him to be.
That's clear. Not only from the Bible, That's
clear from secular history. You see it just it goes to
cleanly. God expresses his power to us in
the universe. And when we look out and see the
things that are created, but he also expresses his power to us
in the revealed, written word that all through the history
pages of this, this Ethiopian nobleman is he's reading this
feel, it begins there. And now, I don't know if this is
what Philip went on to preach. I personally believe it is and
he's beginning to explain this. Remember, this nobleman has just
returning from Jerusalem. That's the place where all of
this took place, no doubt it still rumbles from all of that,
no doubt, they still talk about this, no doubt.
This whole issue of Christianity.
The way is, in opposition to what he had been told and he's
up. He's aware of all these things
and now Philip is able to say you see where I'm talking about.
You see how this ties together, I'm convinced he went on.
It says yet. He it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. It was the Lord's will that this
would happen. He would Bruised.
And I hope is you picture as you understand the view of the
Cross. His Visage was marred more than
any man. That means he's unrecognizable,
he had bruises already Now, usually it takes at least me.
It takes a day or two before the Bruce gets going before you can
see it. On the day of his death, his
bruises, that's how bad they beat him.
Now, the only people I've seen that have been beaten so bad.
You see their bruises that day, Or Fighters that get in a ring
and literally Pummel each other. And by the time their press
conference, come you see in the bruises already but that's
because they're just wailing or having been welded on I don't
suppose, I will ever forget some of the images.
That I saw the riots that took place down Lala. so those people
that were just brutally beaten, Immediately the bruises start to
show. This is what he looked like and
yet, it was the Lord's, will this would happen?
He's put him to grief when you make his soul an offering for
sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Why did this have to be the way the righteous will of God would
be accomplished. I cannot answer that.
But I can tell you this much. Is there any doubt in your mind
that God? Loved Jesus Christ.
His only begotten son. God.
So loved the world that he gave his only son to die, for our sin
and I'm convinced. That if God could see Jesus go
through this. And see his will accomplished.
There is more to all that we go through in life than I
understand. When it comes to tragedy.
When it comes to loss. When it comes to the things that
make the human mind, say if God really loved me, he wouldn't and
you fill in the blank. If God really loved me, he would
have and you fill in your blank. We all have our blank There's
not a doubt in my mind that God love Jesus.
And there is nothing that any person on Earth has ever gone
through. That's worse than what Jesus
went through. Now, I'm not saying it's not
bad. I'm not saying it's not horrific
whatever some people have gone through, but it's not any worse.
He loved him. now, I sent the point I was going out, but I got
sick because on my mind Sometimes people say then why
then why? And again, I don't know why I'm
going to give you a Greg. Branches half a Penny's worth.
I am not convinced when I read the scriptures and I'm not
saying it's not didn't happen, but I'm not convinced that there
was ever another Angel created after God, created Avenue me,
Adam and Eve. He may have the scriptures don't
indicate that as a way I read them.
What we do know from scriptures that there was a great
destruction and there was a great division that happened in
heaven with Lucifer. With the angels that sinned.
And the Angels were cast out. it appears to me that God decided
when he created mankind, That anymore created beings would be
created with choice. And if they chose him through
life on Earth than they would choose him through anything,
that might happen in that Eternal Realm.
If they deny him through a life on Earth than they would have
denied him in an eternal. And that will not happen again.
Now I can't tell you if that's for sure the case but it helps
me process and make sense out of some things.
Because if I can't deal with being separated or in opposition
to my family here on Earth, even though I know God's word says,
what are the other than I wouldn't do it in an eternal
realm? When something came up with
people that I was close to or with beans that I was close to.
And if I couldn't take something that I might not otherwise be
able to understand and in my comprehension agree with, but
still acquiesce to the word of God.
In this life. Then I'm going to do it the
Eternal one either. Frankie coaches football and I
know I'm convinced in my mind that he puts his kids through
some things that he knows is going to break them down.
Just to see if they'll keep fighting.
And just to see if they'll come out on the right side. and yes,
it'll make him stronger but you've just got to see where the
will is God needs to see where our will is.
And you know what? We need to see where our will is
Today, I don't know if that answers every question, but
here's what I know, it does. Say, I know that the, when Jesus
suffered in a way that son comprehensible to me, God's will
is accomplished in a prosper in his hand.
He shall leave. See the labor of his soul and be
satisfied by his knowledge. My righteous servant shall
justify many for. He shall bear their iniquities
through this process. He says, therefore, I will
divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the
spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul unto death.
He was numbered with the transgressors and he bore the
sin of many and made intercession for the
transgressors this whole process.
Brought about a Deliverance. Now, I don't know how long he
preached but for times sake, I'm going to start skipping around
on some things. My mind's eye is pretty
convinced. He must have gotten through, you
know, in the very next chapter, Isaiah 54 13.
He says all your children should be taught by the Lord and great
shall be the piece of your children in righteousness.
You shall be established. You shall be far from oppression
for you shall not fear, and from Terror, for it shall not come
near you. Isn't that what we need to know
that there is a Time coming when this won't come near me anymore?
When all these things can be put away when a time when the
children of Israel did not know peace.
He could prophesied through this Messiah through this Lord, that
peace would come that people can't take away.
Isn't that what we really need to be assured of, no matter
where, how we grow up in life in America in the United States.
And we prayed and we're so grateful to be a part of it, you
know, when we read scriptures about how the wealthy and we
tend I don't know if I tend and maybe you do too to think, oh
well, the wealthy that's like those people that live over on
the hill have that huge house and they're really wealthy
you're right, I've heard some just last week, if you have
change in your pocket, Or change in the ashtray of your car or in
a jar at home. If you have loose change, you
are in the top, 14 percent of the world's wealth.
Means there's eighty-six percent of the people that live on this
Earth are less that have less than you do.
And if you have a refrigerator, With your food in it, you're in
the top 5%. Now that's hard for me to
imagine. I thought there's rich people
all over the world and you know, there are But it's mostly
poverty. Frankie can probably attest to
that and places. He's been refrigerators a big
deal. People from most of the World
when they reach cell like this and there's a time they don't
have to be worried about the next meal or oppression.
What Deliverance? That's promising.
Maybe he got down into verse 17. No weapon formed against you
shall prosper every tongue which Rises against you and judgement
shall condemn. This is the heritage of the
Servants of the Lord and their righteousness is from me, says
the Lord, a time we only have to worry about the enemy anymore.
No weapon. And we know today, through Jesus
Christ, there is nothing anybody can do to us, to take away.
Our hope neither life nor death, nor principalities nor power
nothing. The worst thing they can do, is
kill us and set us free. This is the promise through this
Messiah. Perhaps he got into verse
chapter 55 and 60 seek the Lord. While he may be found call upon
him. While he is near, let the wicked
forsake his way. And the unrighteous man, his
thoughts. Perhaps is this point Ethiopian
nobleman saying, I get it. Yes, it does it all fit
together. And then Phillips able to say
well then seek him now. He's near you right now.
Maybe today you're at this point in this lesson you're seeing ik.
I can kind of get this I see and I believe that he is near to you
right now seek him while you can find him.
If you're, if you have wickedness, don't say I'm just
too bad. I can never make it.
Let the wicked forsake his way turn around, leave it behind
you. The scripture is full of
examples in the New Testament that say, and such were some of
you. But you've been washed and
you've been cleansed It doesn't matter, just put it behind you
and seek the Lord and the unrighteous, man, his thoughts.
Now, we have a tendency. And I'm going to talk to church
now. Church people, we come all the
time, maybe you're here, Sunday, morning, Sunday afternoon,
Wednesday, night to and you don't really do all those wicked
things but, you know, that there's a battle of your mind.
And I want you to know Temptation in of itself is not
sin. Giving into it.
Dwelling on it. That's where the problem comes.
He says, let the unrighteous man, forsake his thoughts.
Someone might say, yeah, it doesn't really matter.
It's just, it's just It's just what I think about or it's just
I would never really do it but I might fantasize.
Don't you forsake it? Number one, and most
importantly, because the word of God says it.
Number 2 and by experience. If you've been around and all
that whether it's yourself or someone you've helped work
through it, when you continue to think about it, eventually
you'll act on it and it builds a foundation, that is very, very,
very difficult to tear out. It haunts you.
There is a reason that the scriptures over and over talk
about the problem of that Sevilla Smith's and the problem
of things we see with our eyes, this happened, this I'm talking
about pornography Talking about things even when you don't use
printed or visual material anymore because you don't need
it. Now he says forsake, those
unrighteous thoughts, how do you do that?
When you catch yourself, you pray to Gods, forgive you for
that sin and and the unrighteousness of your thoughts
and pray to him to help you think about something righteous.
And you might think that sounds easy, but if you've been through
it, you know, it's still not, but you maintain that and you
begin, you try to read the word something.
If you don't know, a one passage in particular just read anything
fight through that. You can overcome the unrighteous
need to forsake that thought and let them return to the Lord and
He will have mercy on me. He wants to be merciful to you
and to our God for he will abundantly pardon, he will
forgive it and not only forgive it.
He's going to do it abundantly for my thoughts are not your
thoughts. Nor are your ways, my ways says
the Lord for, as the heavens are higher than the earth.
So are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your
thoughts. Now, I got to admit to you, they
verses 8 and 9 At least it wasn't the community.
That's another story for another time.
I memorized, Hebrews 55 verses 8 and 9.
Probably by the time I was 18. And you know what?
I memorized it on. I memorized it on a sermon about
the worship and that we need to do things the way God says,
because if we do it our own way, our thoughts are not his
thoughts and his ways are not our ways.
And as the heavens are higher than the earth says thoughts
are. There are thoughts of his ways
that I always will just mess it up and you know what I believe
that's true. But it was a long time before I
realized those verses were tied into the mercy and forgiveness
and grace of God. Because Greg branch and maybe
you too. We have a hard time forgiving
ourselves when we really mess up, we can just beat ourselves
up for the rest of our life. And if we can do that to
ourselves, we can do that to each other.
To someone that really hurts us. We can just, we just can't get
over it. At least, we think when we
finally realize we won't get over it and then maybe we got a
chance to get over it. But God's not like that God's
ways are higher than our ways, his thoughts in our thoughts.
And he says, if if you'll forsake that Wicked way, if
you'll forsake those Wicked thoughts, if you will return to
me, I will have mercy on you and I will abundantly pardon you,
because I'm not like you. I can do it, if you'll do it.
That's his promise. I'd like to think that the
Ethiopian nobleman got to hear that.
And finally, Isaiah 59:20 Redeemer come to Zion and those
who from transgression. And Jacob says, the Lord asked
for me, says the Lord, this is my Covenant with them.
My spirit who is upon you and my words, which I put in your mouth
shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of
your descendants nor from the mouth of your descendants.
Descendants says the Lord from this time and forever.
I don't know how long the world's going to stand.
And I would like to think that the Ethiopian nobleman got to
hear this. And in my mind's eye, I'm
convinced he did I'll tell you why in a second.
But he says from them, this is going to be this message and
this will go on this story. This preaching Jesus will never
stop says the Lord for now and forever.
I am not the first one to preach this sermon and I don't believe
I'll be the last and less time. It's immediately.
Because this message is going on and on, don't know how far he
went. But for time sake, I got to get
back to what he did. Do in back in Acts chapter 8,
says verse 36. Now, as they went down the road,
they came to some water and the eunuch said, see here is water.
What hinders me from being baptized?
You notice one thing we did not discuss and Isaiah is baptism.
Now, I already told you that this was a long trip, we're not
told how long the Ethiopian nobleman and Phillip were riding
along in this Chariot, is it possible that they'd even camped
out a few nights already? I don't know. but if they made
it through the book of Isaiah and then into the New Covenant
to the point that he could teach baptism to him, we never even
got to that Isaiah, but Philip had by the time they come to a
certain water, the eunuch says, well here's water, why can't I
be baptized? What hinders me?
What's stopping me? And Philip said, if you believe
with all your heart, you may he answered and said, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, by the time he got done.
And by the time they got to that pool of water, the Ethiopian
nobleman knew who was being spoken about in Isaiah 53.
And he knew now that Jesus Christ.
Not only was the one prophesied. He was indeed the Son of God.
And so he commanded the Chariot to stand still, and both Philip
and the eunuch went down into the water and he baptized him.
Now that word baptize. I feel compelled to say this
about it. It's literally just a
transliteration that comes from the Greek word baptizo.
The translators have not always agreed on how to translate that
word because if you know much about religion you know,
everybody's got a different way to quote-unquote.
Baptized literally baptizo means to immerse to dip, or to plunge
in Romans, chapter, 6, verses, 1 through 6, you'll read that and
you'll find out it's described as a burial.
What happened here? When he baptized him, he stopped
The Chariot. Philip, and the eunuch got out
of the Chariot. They both went down into the
water, both of them, and he either immersed, him, he dipped
him. He plunged him.
He buried him in that water. Now I got to admit it's a one
more thing I'm getting off on tangents this morning.
Some people say Greg, but you're making a work necessary for
salvation and I know what the Bible says that works.
Aren't that. I want to tell you this morning,
I want you to tell me in your picture of what I just told you.
What was the work of the this Ethiopian nobleman and went down
in the water with Billa. At what work did the Ethiopian
nobleman accomplish? I believed Philip was the one
that had the job to do Ethiopian nobleman what did he have to do?
He had to surrender. He had to do what is otherwise
against our nature and allow somebody.
To Duncan. And when we were kids the Victor
was the one that got a donkey. Everybody else.
You fought not to get dumped. When you come in obedience to
the gospel. The least work you will do in
your Christian life and in your life after belief is be
baptized, you surrender in baptism, and whoever you want to
assist you in that process, they do the work.
It takes work to believe because that means you're going to have
to invest some of your time and your energy and your mental
capacity to see if you'll believe when you confess and you
get the courage to say that you believe Jesus Christ is the Son
of God. Now that's putting an effort on
you. You you might call that work.
When you're asked to repent, Luke 13 and 3, Jesus said,
except you repent you will all likewise perish.
Take some work. Not works of righteousness.
It's works of faith. What's the difference in a work
of righteousness and work of Faith?
It's not like and works righteousness.
When I say that, I mean, we think, well, if I do this, then
I learn it and he'll owe it to me.
No, there's nothing I can do that.
I can earn this. Nothing you can do.
But works of faith means, I'm going to do that because I
believe that's the right thing to do.
Do I mess up? Yeah.
When you mess up what you do, you confess that fault?
Pray one for another, the effectual fervent prayer of a
righteous man availeth. Much first John 189 says if we
confess our faults, he's faithful.
And just to forgive us and cleanse us of all
unrighteousness. You don't have to just keep
being baptized Living the life that it's going to take some
faithful word. Baptism it takes surrender.
Tell me if there's not an image that more accurately reflects
what God wants out of us. When we commit ourselves to
Jesus. He says I want you to surrender
your life, I want you to be willing to do what otherwise is
against your nature to allow. In my mind, this picture of
baptism that takes place is the perfect picture of what it means
for you to be born again at Surrender, Your Life to God.
Last thing I want you to notice Philip and the eunuch went.
Now, do you realize today, there are some people that because the
preacher don't want to get his slack sweater.
Don't want to have to change clothes.
They send people in by themself and they reach over.
No, I'm not saying there aren't some situations that are trash
cans. The only option I've heard of
some pretty creative things but our pattern, they both went down
in the water and he baptized in there.
And when he came up out of the water, the spirit of the lord
caught, Philip a waste of the eunuch, saw him no more and he
went hit on his way rejoicing. I've made a lot of trips in our
car between Oklahoma or the last 30 years, least twice a year
sometimes more and I can never think of a time I would have
enjoyed getting soaking wet in the middle.
Of that trip and then jumping back in the Suburban to make the
rest of the drive. It's not something you do unless
it's important, but that's exactly what happened here and
that Ethiopian nobleman, he rejoiced the rest, his way home.
I don't know how long it took him to drive dry out, but he was
a happy man. We thank you for listening to
our podcast, put on by the Church of Christ at 22:15 plans.
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