If you will, go ahead, please. and turn your Bibles to Acts chapter 8. Acts chapter 8, or you can follow along in your bulletins for that matter. We are going to be looking at verses 32 through 40, but I will eventually include verses 27 through 31 also. But for now, let's just read through verse 32, Acts chapter 8, 32 through 40. Hear ye then the word of the Lord. Now, the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this. Like a sheep that was led to a slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation, justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth. And the eunuch said to Philip, About whom, I ask you, does a prophet say this? About himself or about someone else? Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus. And as they were going along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, See, here is water. What prevents me from being baptized? And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azathus, and as he passed through, he preached the gospel to all the towns, until they came to Caesarea. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you, Lord, for that holy word. We pray, grant us understanding, Father, as we come and we approach it, Lord, with humility, Lord, with awe, with reverence, for it is thy holy word. And Father, we ask, bless it to our hearts, Lord, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. Now sometimes, actually we saw the title of the message this morning, the eunuch's confession, but I think that sometimes we're actually surprised nowadays when somebody comes to faith in Christ. Now we know that conversion is the work of the Holy Spirit of God, and so it's easy to become very lazy to think that, well, you know, Conversion is a work of the Spirit, so why should I even bother? God doesn't need me." And so we begin to think that. What use would it be for me to be involved? And well, because Jesus told us, take the gospel to everyone. So what happens then? Well, we act surprised. We act surprised when someone is converted to Christ. We are surprised almost as if, how did that happen? You know, we're surprised at all of that when it does seem to take place. Perhaps, perhaps we are surprised because we were not actively converted in spite, or they were not actually converted in spite of our inactivity or faithfulness. And is conversion the work of the Holy Spirit? Absolutely it is, of course it is. Are we commanded then to ignore evangelism and to be apathetic about it? No, not at all. The Holy Spirit can and he will use us as we tell other people the gospel. We are commanded, take the gospel to everyone. And so what do we do? To everyone we must go. We're taking the gospel of Jesus Christ to all of those that we may encounter. Now I myself am one that was converted in spite of people not telling me about Christ. I was converted despite those who assumed that I knew the gospel at all. And for years, nobody would tell me about Jesus Christ. It would be much, much later when I did attend a couple of churches on my own, by myself, and I showed up on my own, and nobody told me of Christ the whole time when I attended over there. Nobody told me about Jesus Christ. Now, later on, when I did attend a couple of others, well, let me put it this way, what happened was people were assuming, well, you know, he showed up by himself, so he must be a Christian already, right? And so, because they assumed that, They never told me about Jesus. They never told me about why He came. And so it was kind of traumatic for me as well. And it would be years later, many years later, when I would finally hear the gospel itself, when I would finally hear who Jesus is and why Jesus came many, many years later. And yes, God still used evangelism in my case, but it was for a long time nobody want to take the time to tell me the old, old story. Nobody would tell me of Jesus. And yet, by God's grace, you know, like you, you're born out of time, if you will, I have a confession of Christ, as you do. But I can say I'm Presbyterian Reformed, but it wasn't because any Presbyterian Reformed person told me about Jesus. And prior to that, I was Baptist or whatever. I was not that because anyone told me about Jesus. It would be much, much, I would hear it later on from an evangelist by himself in the midst of a group who were gathering. They never told me of Christ, but I heard an evangelist finally who did tell me about Jesus. Now here this morning, this is the seventh, this is the final message in our Confessing Christ series. And we come to the confession of the Ethiopian eunuch. It was a surprise confession of a new faith in Jesus by one who was on his way back to Ethiopia. Or, if you go back in the Old Testament, it'd be the land of Cush. All right? But this is Ethiopia, and the messenger here is Philip. Now Philip was one of the seven beacons who were chosen in Jerusalem. And like Stephen, Philip is a great man of faith and he's full of the Holy Spirit of God. And like Stephen, Philip would take the good news of Jesus Christ wherever the Lord may lead him. And he would be remembered later on as Philip the Evangelist in Acts chapter 21, verse eight. Philip the deacon, Philip the evangelist. Now, if you remember persecution here in the church, persecution broke out in Jerusalem. It broke out and Saul of Tarsus, or Paul, but Saul of Tarsus, he was a Pharisee of Pharisees, right? He was ravaging the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was having Christian men and women being dragged off to prison for their faith in Christ, like it is happening in China today. Right now, they are being hauled off because of their faith in Christ. And so Christians were being scattered everywhere because of what is taking place here by the design and by the purposes of God and Philip He's headed towards Samaria. He's headed towards Samaria. Now many gladly heard the gospel and they saw the signs, they saw the authenticating miracles that were taking place that God did through Philip the deacon, the evangelist. saw what God was doing through him. And it says that demons were being cast out, those who were lame were being healed, the paralyzed were being healed, and as a result, many of those who saw and heard the good news came to faith, and many were baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And now, All this has taken place, but there is a special assignment that needs to take place, a special engagement for Philip that God has prepared for him because there was one who had been in Jerusalem. He was probably a Jewish proselyte, a Gentile who embraced Judaism, and he must now hear the gospel, he must now hear the good news, and he will hear of Jesus Christ, and he will take this gospel with him back to the land of Cush, Ethiopia. Back to the land, and he must confess Christ there. So with that, we must see Philip seeking faith. on a desert road. And now an angel told Philip, he said, rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. Now Gaza was one of the Philistine cities that was destroyed by Alexander the Great. And this was the old Gaza road and not a very travel road at all. Almost hardly anybody actually used the road, but nevertheless, the Ethiopian eunuch and those who were with him, attending him were on the road as well. And so God will direct Philip to take this particular road. It was a road into wilderness. It was a deserted place. out there in the sticks, if you will. So Philip headed down the road, searching for the one whom God has sent him, the one that God is directing him to. And further up ahead, he looked and he saw chariots. But this chariot, now first of all we typically picture the chariots in Egypt where two people, one's riding, the other one's shooting the arrow. This is a bigger chariot. This is more like a covered wagon type of thing if you will. He was able to be on there reading in the back of this particular chariot. So it's a little bit different. There's a lot of sitting room in it. And there'll be enough for Philip as well. But there in the chariot, there was a man that God was calling. He doesn't know it yet, but God is calling, and one of Christ's sheep, one of the elect, and he must hear the gospel. He must hear the good news, because salvation doesn't come simply because your elect is comes by faith in Christ. And the elect, whoever they may be, they must repent and believe upon the Lord, Jesus Christ, because they are the sheep, and every single one of them, even if they're on some barren road in the wilderness, out there where nobody may be, they must hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so this Ethiopian He is a eunuch, meaning he has been physically emasculated to eliminate any unwanted temptations, which it was very common for those who may be serving in palaces of royalty. It is common for those who may be in charge of a harem. Or in his particular case, he was in the service of the Queen of Ethiopia herself. Candace. Now make no mistake, this particular eunuch, he had a very high position within the Queen's household. Very high position indeed. So we don't want to mistake that at all. It was a highly trusted position. A very visible position because he was in charge of her whole, her entire treasury. Every bit of it. He was in charge of it and accountable for every, we'll say, every dime, every denarius, if you will, whatever it might be, he was responsible for that. And on this trip, He had a driver, and he would probably have an entourage of some other servants attending to him. He had a very high position. But he was now on his way home, okay, after being in Jerusalem for worship at the temple. And so now he's on this long trip back to Ethiopia. And he continues his Bible study, all right? Bible study time. And in God's divine providence, the eunuch, there's no accident, there was no mistake, is in God's divine providence that the eunuch is reading aloud from Isaiah the prophet in chapter 53. That is the passage of the great suffering servant. This is the Messiah, is a messianic chapter recognized even among the Jews of this day. It is a messianic chapter teaching of Christ. Well, the timing is perfect because God determines the who, God determines the when, God determines the where of our conversion. Even if it's three years old or 95, God determines the who, the what, the when, and the where of our conversion. And here, along this quiet, deserted road, And he has plenty of time to ponder Isaiah 53, plenty of time to think about the suffering servant in the text, a lot of time to do that. And so it's very, very apropos, if you will, along this quiet desert road that the Holy Spirit told Philip. go over and join this chariot. Go over there and be a part of this. And so Philip is now starting to understand the who that he is going to reach with the gospel. So he runs over there and he begins by walking alongside of the chariot. They're not at a full gallop, they're on a long haul back. And so he begins walking alongside the chariot and he hears the eunuch reading aloud from Isaiah 53. Now understand, it was a common practice of the day for them to read aloud, all right? Philip heard him reading from Isaiah and he asked them this, do you understand what you're reading? Well, the eunuch, very matter of fact, said, how can I unless someone guides me? And so he invited Philip to hop up there in the chariot with them and sit down with them. Well, on this side of the cross, it is far easier for us to grasp the prophecy of the suffering servant than it was for the eunuch here because we enjoy the fulfillment of it in Christ. But this particular time, it has been almost 800 years since it was prophesied. That's a long time. They're like, who is this that he's speaking of? Because we're on this side of the cross. Well, it's a little bit different. This is after the cross, of course. By far as the understanding was taking place right now, he hasn't heard. Nobody understood the reference, at least not yet, for this eunuch. For the eunuch was going to struggle with the idea that someone could bear the sins of God's people, that someone could have or bear the iniquity of us all and have it laid upon him. So how could this be? We're all accountable for our own sin. How could our sin be laid upon the back of somebody else? Okay, how could that happen? That someone so glorious could actually bear our griefs and sorrows, that someone else could actually be pierced for my transgressions. And so it's mind-blowing at the time. It's mind-blowing for the eunuch. It's mind-blowing altogether, even as we ponder it today. And when I first heard myself, when I first heard of who Jesus is, and why Jesus came, what He did, yeah, my mind was blown as well, immediately reflecting as if I've told you all before, the domino effect, and all of a sudden it all made sense, all came together. Do you remember yourself when you first heard the gospel, you first heard and you believed, you understood, and you put two and two together, and it's Christ. Okay, don't put that on 2 plus 2, don't do it on the internet, I don't want to see that. But it all came together and you understood who Christ was and who He is. And your mind is blown. It was a very mind-blowing event to happen in our lives. Well, even here in America, we see such mind-blowing things being needed. We see so much taking place in our land. We have, if you will, a very large desert road across America right now that needs to hear the life-giving gospel of Jesus Christ. We need to hear it afresh across our land. And we heard about the last time about 78% of those who claim to be evangelical Christians don't know that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. And that's horrifying to hear. And we see, secondly, the word of God applied here in a barren land like ours. And so now the eunuch has a teacher with him. He has Philip with him, Philip the deacon evangelist, and he was reading Isaiah 53, verses 7 and 8, at that particular moment. Here we read again, Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe this generation? For his life is taken away from the earth. Now, the eunuch really wants to know the answer to this very, very bad. He wants to know, he said, about whom? Who is it, I ask you, does the prophet speak about? About himself or about someone else? Who is this suffering servant? He said, I'm baffled, I'm buffooned, I don't understand, I can't grasp it. because he really wants to know what is taking place here. And as Christ taught the two, remember the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, all things concerning himself from Moses to all the prophets. And so now Philip the deacon, who is now evangelizing, takes the eunuch from Isaiah into all of the gospel of Jesus Christ, showing and demonstrating how only Jesus, the Messiah, has fulfilled the long-awaited prophecy and it makes sense to him. And it's like, I understand. It makes sense. And he had that, if you will, that mind blowing reality because Christ himself is the suffering servant of Isaiah and he has come. And so Philip is letting him know this suffering servant is Jesus the Christ, the Messiah. It is him and you must repent and believe it's him that you must have your faith in, the only one. who has borne our sorrows and our griefs, the only one. who can take our sins upon Him, the only one qualified to do so. He has fulfilled all of the penalty of sin. He has fulfilled the wages of sin, which was death. And because of Him, the suffering servant is Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. Hope has come because He Himself is our hope, Christ, the hope of glory. And so salvation is here. And Philip says, And His name is Jesus. His name is Jesus. He is the answer to all of your questions. He's the answer to all of your Bible perusings, all of your Bible study, all pointing to Christ. You can almost hear the sounds of the computer keyboard kind of clicking away in the mind of the eunuch. He goes, that's it now. For the eunuch, I understand. Finally, I understand. Now my heart, my mind is opened by the Spirit of God because the Word has been applied by the Spirit of God to his heart. He has heard the gospel. He has heard of what Christ has instituted for his disciples. For the one who believes in Christ must be baptized. And he has heard this from Philip. He has heard the great commission of Jesus Christ, and he wants to follow Christ through the waters of baptism and be a true disciple of Jesus Christ. And the gospel has been written on his heart by the Holy Spirit of God, and there is a joy that is there that wasn't there before. There's an excitement in the air from his very breath that is there, as there should be in the heart of every single Christian. for who and what Jesus has done. who He is, the fulfillment. He is our hope of glory in Christ Himself. And we see the eunuch's confession by the waters of baptism. As they were going along the road, the eunuch saw some water. It didn't have to be much. It didn't have to be a puddle. It didn't have to be a pond. But he saw some water that was there, probably a small oasis out there along the road. And the eunuch saw some. Could have been a little water pooled up on a ditch along the side of the road. And he says, look, behold, if you will, behold, here is water. What prevents me from being baptized? He said, well, you need to sit through this long course of theological, no, he doesn't go into all that, but rather he says, what prevents me from being baptized? He has heard the great commission and hearing that he himself can take the gospel of life all the way back to his own people in Ethiopia. In the verse 37, Philip said, He said, if you believe with all your heart, you may. By the way, that should be, I know they have it in the bottom. I prefer they put it in parentheses in the text, because I believe that is part of the text here as well. If you believe with all your heart, you may. Now, before water baptism, the adult believer would declare his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He would be baptized into the new covenant community of believers called the church, the body of Christ. Even still today, adults who are coming to faith will give their profession of faith prior to being baptized. As for the influence of believers, they are already members of the covenant community because of their parents and so they should receive covenant baptism or infant baptism. But they must still embrace Christ in faith for only Jesus saves, not water. Only Jesus saves. And so the eunuch says here, he says, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And his eyes were open and he's filled with excitement. You can just kind of picture that was taking place there. His heart has been regenerated. He has been born again by the Spirit of God. He has a faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He has repented and he has believed for the salvation of his soul. And so he quickly acknowledges Jesus as the Son of God. He is the Christ. He is the Messiah. He is the suffering servant of Isaiah. My lips, my eyes are blind. Now I see. and my sins have been washed away. what prevents me from being baptized. And so the eunuch ordered the chariot to stop and they both, both of them walked down to the water. Okay, notice they were not both baptized. Both went into the water and both came out of the water. Okay, so he was baptized, one baptism, one Lord, one Savior, one King, and they both came up out of the water and the Holy Spirit whisked Philip away. Just that quick, whisked him away, and the eunuch saw him no more. Well, what did the eunuch do at this particular time? Said, what happened to Philip? I need some time. I got a lot more questions to ask him this. No, he doesn't do that at all. What does he do? He doesn't stop and say, well, that was really cool. That was fun. You know, I got wet, but I'm doing pretty well. He didn't stop and say, my, what a learning experience that was. No, not at all. He went home. He went back to Ethiopia rejoicing in Christ. He went back to his homeland with the gospel of Jesus Christ for Ethiopia, and there he will confess Christ. And on a profession of faith, he was immediately baptized into the church by Philither. He made his profession of faith. He's an adult. And he was baptized possibly in a, like on Old Smithfield Road, a little bit of ditch water over there. Could have been very simple, very simple, just like that. But no, no, but he was baptized immediately and he goes home taking the gospel with him to Ethiopia. But the question is though, Now the Ethiopian eunuch has made his profession of faith. He is walking by faith in Christ. He has taken the gospel with him back to the land of Ethiopia, back even to the very household of Candace and Queen of Ethiopia, all the way back there. But he has done so. Have you made profession? Have you made your confession of Christ? Have you been baptized? Do you need to be baptized? If you have, I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, then you must be baptized. And we follow our Lord in the waters of baptism. We follow Him in discipleship. We follow Him in obedience to His command. We identify with Him. He said, be baptized in the name and the authority of the Father, and the authority of the Son, and the authority of the Holy Spirit of God, or the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And we must likewise do so. And I pray that we reflect upon the coming week, what's upon us. We have the Christmas days ahead of us as well, that we will reflect and ponder our conversion, ponder what Christ has done, ponder the suffering servants themselves and what Jesus Christ has done for you. And remember the joy that the Ethiopian eunuch has, because he stands before Christ even right now. And when we go to be with our Lord, we stand to be before Him, and we will rejoice in Christ right then. Let's pray. Father, we do thank You, Lord, for Thy Holy Word. Father, we thank You for the confession here of the Ethiopian eunuch. But Lord, I pray for each one of us. Father, that we have a confession ourself. Lord, we rejoice in the eunuch's confession. Lord, that he repented, that he believed upon Christ and followed Christ in obedience to the command and was baptized and he takes the gospel back to his home. But Lord, I pray that we'd be quick to profess Christ wherever we may go. Lord, that we would confess Jesus to those that we encounter. Lord, our loved ones, the little ones, the grandchildren, our adult children, Lord, we would confess Christ to them and tell them of their need for the suffering servant, of who he is, what he did to save sinners like us. Father, we ask in Jesus' holy name. Amen. Let's all go ahead now.