wash us as white as snow. It's one of the awesome things about salvation is complete cleansing and all that sin that is in our past life taken away by the grace, grace of God. Do you remember, as you were growing up, listening to your mom and dad as they told stories? Some of you over at your house, you know, and visitors are there, and then the stories start, and that's always kind of a fun time as a child. You're sitting there listening to mom and dad talk about those things. I loved hearing my dad tell about growing up on a dairy farm out in Colorado. I think maybe one of my favorite stories, you know, they had the dairy farm there, but they also had chickens and a chicken coop, And, I mean, just old, where my dad grew up was rustic. I mean, wood barn, wood building. I'm not sure the toilet was inside in the beginning. I don't know exactly that. But, I mean, it was very, very rustic. But he had an older brother, and then a sister, and then a younger sister. And the boys decided to play war with the girls. And so they had forts and they had eggs. And they put the girls under a tin roof that was perfectly set up so any egg that hit that, everything would come down onto them. And then they chose their fort. So the girls are there, and they gave the girls the fresh eggs, and they kept the rotten eggs. And so then they had their little war, and Grandma obviously found out about it, because you can't really hide the smell of rotten eggs in her daughter's hair. And Grandma wasn't amused, didn't think it was that funny. And so my Uncle Pharrell, my dad, got to wash my aunt's hair and help them out. And I'm sure that was a lesson to my dad and my uncle. My dad would also use illustrations about the farm for church, and my favorite illustration growing up was of the fact that grandma and grandpa were very faithful to church. They were dairy farmers, and then grandpa would later work for the county, but they were godly. They had family devotions. They had a family altar in their home every day. They'd spend time in the word of God. Grandma was a great prayer warrior, and it's very fun to listen to stories about just her prayer life. But they would not miss church. It was 20 miles away. They'd be there for Sunday school, Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. And it didn't matter the weather that was there. They had snowstorms and things there in Colorado, very bad weather, but they would get there to church. the cattle got out. And they got out of the pasture, they got into some weeds that could kill them, and it was time for church. It was a Sunday morning, and my dad and uncle said, Dad, we'll stay here and put the cattle back in. You guys go ahead and go to church. And Grandpa said, nope, it's Sunday, we're going to church. So they got in the car, went to church, and I'm sure all through church, the boys are wondering what's gonna happen when we get back. They lost one sickly cow that died. But I've shared this before, all four of my dad's siblings went into full-time ministry. My uncle, he was a missionary to Brazil, and then came back to the San Francisco area and started a Portuguese-speaking ministry there in San Jose. My dad pastored for 50 years. His older sister, She married a preacher that started a Baptist church in Albuquerque, New Mexico, pastored that for some 45 plus years. And then my dad's younger sister, she still works for a ministry that works with the Jews, but when her husband was alive, they smuggled Bibles behind the Iron Curtain into Germany. What would that be, West Germany? I'm not sure which one the wall was around. Forgive my lack of geographical knowledge. and into Russia, and into China, and into other places like that. They have amazing stories of God's grace. God bless the heritage of that to my family. My brother became a church planter out west. He's a faithful deacon in the church that he's at now. I'm in full-time ministry, and my sister, her husband is dean of men at a Christian college, as you know, Ambassador, where Kaylee goes to school. And so, but I loved hearing those stories about the farm, and I'm kind of envious of my dad. As a preacher, it'd be kind of nice to have farm stories. I'd love to have that in my CV, to be able to pull those out and talk about the farm or something like that. I don't have that, and neither do you, unless you grew up on a farm, right? You have to grow up on a farm to have stories like that. You know, what I want to preach on this morning is not a story that's unique to any one person. It's a story that we all need to have. It's a story that if you don't have this, you need to have this, because if you don't have this, you're not prepared to die. You're not ready to enter into eternity if you don't have a story like the story we've got in the Bible here this morning. And it's called being saved, or being born again, or being converted. There's different terminology that we might use to refer to this point of change that takes place, but it's all the same thing, isn't it? It's that point where somebody is brought into the everlasting life of Christ. Salvation is the point at which you're no longer on your way to hell, but you're on your way to heaven. And it's not a process, it's a crisis, right? It's a point in time where that takes place. And you're on your way to heaven because God has forgiven you of all your sin. Now, I just wanna very quickly share the gospel, the main truth that we would share with somebody. If we're gonna witness to somebody, this is what we need to speak to them about to help them understand the gospel. And the first thing is basic, you're a sinner, right? The Bible says in Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And people need to understand that because there's a lot of people that think they're not a sinner. They think that they're a good person. So it's good to open up the law maybe and say, have you ever lied? Have you ever lusted? Have you ever coveted? Have you ever said something you shouldn't have said? You ever get upset at your parents? You know, pretty quickly, it's pretty easy for us to go, you know what? I'm a sinner. But the problem with that is that the punishment for our sin is eternal burning in a lake of fire called hell. And it's a real place and God is not there. Romans 6.23 says, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So we're all sinners. What we earn because of our sin is death. And there it is speaking about hell because it's speaking about the second death found in Revelation 20, verse 14. Where it says in death and hell were cast into the lake of fire This is the second death and whosoever was not found written in the book of life Was cast into the lake of fire. That's real and that's eternal that explains something that explains why Jesus died If hell, if there is no such thing as hell, if annihilation is true, Jehovah's Witnesses teach annihilation. You know, you die, that's it, you're in the grave, that's God's judgment. It's kind of like, man, if that's judgment, why do so many people seek that through suicide? That's not judgment, that's escape, you know? If that's true, I can get away from it all, all the punishment, all the judgment, all the justice that God would mete out. I can just escape from that by death, but that's not it. It's a fire. It's eternal. God is not there. And that means God cannot rescue anybody from hell. He can now. But once somebody's in hell, that's it. There's no chance to die again. Nobody gets to come back and say, well, I wanna do over when it comes to that. That is the point where we enter into eternity. So we need to understand that, that that's a very serious thing, the punishment for our sin. The Savior died to deliver you from the punishment of hell. Romans 5.8, but God commendeth his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. You know the neat thing about God is God is not like this. God is like this, right? Some people have this idea about God that God is pushing them away. Well, listen, if they feel like that, it's because they're pushing themselves away. They're pulling themselves away. God did something so wonderful for them is that he looked at them, said, I love you so much. My son is gonna die to pay the price for your sin. That's glorious, right? We're gonna focus on that a lot today as we have a baptismal service, that work of Christ on the cross paying for our sin. And because he did that, God judicially has an opportunity to give us a pardon. God can now look at us, and by the way, Islam teaches that if you say sorry, Allah says okay. Well, the problem with that is this, you say sorry to Allah, which Allah is not God, but you say sorry to Allah, Allah says, your sin is okay, I forgive you, is what he's saying, if he can truly say that. He's saying, your sin is fine, because I say your sin is fine now. But that's not justice, justice has to punish the sin. And so God did that on Jesus Christ on the cross so that as God the Father, we go to him and we say, I wanna be forgiven of my sin, God looks at us and say, I can do that because my son paid the price for your sin. It's judicial forgiveness. He paid it all, as the song says. Romans 10, 13, then can tell us, for whosoever, anybody who, shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Acts 16, 31. And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy house. Romans 10, nine. Excuse my voice today. That thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Now that's glorious. God says, put your faith in Jesus Christ and guarantee, guarantee, you'll be saved. Now, praise God for that. Those of us that are saved came to that point of understanding the gospel, that we're a sinner, the punishment for sin is hell. Jesus Christ died for our sin, and that by faith in Him, trusting in Him, God gifts us everlasting life. And so praise God for that. Now, we all need a story of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. Have you been forgiven of your sins by faith in Jesus? You know, that's the question every one of us ought to ask ourselves. We're gonna witness a baptism today, and there's gonna be some precious pictures in that. But we ought to ask ourselves, have I got a salvation story? Have I trusted in Jesus? Have I received God's gift of everlasting life? Again, our text is Acts chapter eight, In verses 26 through verse 40, it is a story of salvation, how God worked in a man's life to bring him to saving faith. So let's pray. As the Spirit of God speak to our hearts, we look at the story to consider our story. Do we have a story of saving faith? Let's pray. Father, may the Spirit of God help us now as we come to the Word of God. We're very excited about the baptism today. And Father, for these that are newly saved, having trusted in Christ this year, we rejoice and we say praise God. But Father, there are others that need to get saved. Jesus, you died so that they could have salvation. It is real. They need it. Without it, they'll spend eternity in a literal lake that burns. And Father, people can boast about it. They say, that doesn't scare me. But Father, if I made a fire in my garden and asked them to go ahead and step into it, they would not. If they saw somebody in it, they would be horrified to watch that person burn. And Father, that's the reality of hell. And I pray that the Spirit of God would awaken hearts and minds through the preaching and teaching. We dearly long to see everybody saved. And Father, we ask that the Spirit of God would speak to hearts about that. But Lord, those of us that are saved, there's important truth in this story for us as well about our life and our responsibility and what we need to do for God. And so, Father, use this story in everybody's life today. We pray for the kids in the kids' class. May they have a sweet time. Would you quiet their hearts before you and minister grace to them? And Father, for those who are unable to be here due to illness, we pray that you minister grace to them as well. and meet their needs. And Father, you know that my voice is weak today, and I give you thanks for that. I give you praise for that. Your strength is made perfect in weakness. And so, Father, maybe just a little bit as a still small voice today, may the Spirit of God speak to hearts. And Father, we pray that you'd be glorified as we do this study now. We commit it to you. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. All right, so you need a story of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. And so we're just gonna look at it like a story this morning. So the first thing we see as we come to this text, in Acts 8, we see the God who orchestrates salvation. All right, God's working there behind the scenes, making it possible for a man to come to saving faith. Acts 8, verse 26. It says, Okay, we've read the story this morning, so we know that he's going to a man that needs to get saved and that it's all about salvation. The reason that God is sending him on this trip. You know, because of what God has called me to do, I've got the privilege of being involved in this kind of thing. Daniel and Emily are excited about it as well and excited about the evangelism opportunities that they have coming up. It's a wonderful thing to get to observe this and to see God actually working to orchestrate things to bring somebody to saving faith. I like the term divine appointment. Right? That means this. God, it was no accident that the gospel came to that person. It was no accident that that door was knocked on. It was no accident that the flyer was handed to them. It was no accident that they had that opportunity to be engaged in the gospel. Why? Because God, there behind the scenes, orchestrating that very thing. Now the Apostle Paul was saved by God's divine appointment with no other witness but primarily that of the Lord Jesus Christ himself as he confronted him on that road to Damascus. He's on that road because he's going to go kill Christians. He's not somebody that you look at and say, hey there's a great prospect for somebody that's going to get saved. You look at them and say, they're the last person in the world that I expect to come to saving faith in Jesus Christ. But God was working on reaching Saul. Acts 26, verse 10, Paul tells the story, his testimony. He says, which thing I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priest, and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme. And being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities. Whereupon, as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priest, at midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun shining round about me and them which journeyed with me. And when we are all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And I said, who art thou, Lord? And he said, I'm Jesus, whom thou persecutest. but rise and stand upon thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of those things which thou hast seen and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee, delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee. Okay, Paul's conversion is interesting, it's powerful. I mean, he's going from hating Christ and antagonistic to for Christ and serving God. Verse 18. to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them, which are sanctified by faith that is in me. Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision." Okay, what's Paul saying? Paul says, I responded. Why? Because Jesus gave me that opportunity. I didn't miss the opportunity. And interestingly, when it comes to divine appointments, there's two really important people that are involved in that. There's the person that's sharing the gospel, and there's the person that's hearing the gospel. The way they respond is vital. They're both vital. In this case, it was Jesus himself sharing the gospel with Paul. That's unusual. That's not normally the way it is. Normally there's a human witness, as we'll see in our story today in Acts 8, there's a human witness that's speaking the gospel, and there is the person themselves needing to respond to the gospel. And so let's look at those two people. The man who needs salvation. Verse 27, it said, Behold a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority, under Cana, queen of the Ethiopians. who had the charge of all our treasure and had come to Jerusalem for worship was returning and sitting in his chariot read Isaiah the prophet. Okay, so this is a very specific man that God was interested in. That's precious, isn't it? To stop and think today that Jesus cares about the individual. There's loads of people, but there's not a lot of people in the desert. There's this one person in the desert, and God cares about this man in the desert. Now, I wanna think about some things about his life, because there's things about his life that are admirable. We'd say those are, hey, good on you, that's a great thing, but these things that are admirable did not save the man, didn't save him. So let's think about it. The man of Ethiopia is powerful. He's powerful. The Bible says a eunuch of great authority under Candace. He's got a lot of power. You know, Putin's got a lot of power. Boris Johnson has a lot of power. There's some powerful people in the world that you look at. I mean, those are powerful people, but you know, that power does not transfer to heaven, you know? They're not gonna stand before God and say, God, let me in because I'm a powerful person, don't you know? It doesn't matter kind of the prestige or position that somebody might have. This man, he's a powerful person in that kingdom of Ethiopia, but that didn't save him. The man of Ethiopia is wealthy. It says in the scriptures here, he had the charge of all her treasure. Now I say he's wealthy because I don't think you're gonna put somebody that doesn't have some significant wealth in charge of your treasure. The temptation would be pretty great to kind of take some of that treasure to himself. I think in that position of watching her treasure, he's probably pretty well paid. He's got finances. But we understand this today. Somebody could live their life for things of materialism and achieve a lot in life and have great possessions. They could be the wealthiest person in the world and afford to buy Twitter or something like that. But even that ability does not give them the ability to stand before God and say, well, God, what will it take? What do you need? Just let me know. I'll write the check. They have no ability to purchase their soul out of hell and save their soul. Matthew 16, 26, what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Can you imagine? I mean, I believe this. Someday people are gonna stand before God and they're gonna wish they had something, something to give to God. and say, God, take this, take this, let me into glory. Or even this, think about this, God, take this, let my family into glory. Remember that man in hell, the rich man? He says, send Lazarus back, so he can warn who? My brothers, that they not come to this place. Not only was he in hell, but because he didn't have a testimony of saving grace by faith in Jesus, his family was gonna spend eternity in a lake of fire. I think at that point, that person's thinking, I wish I had something, but they've got nothing to offer to God for their soul. The man of Ethiopia is a moral person. I say he's moral because he's got a high position of trust. He's way up in that, you know, he's gone through all the ethics tests and everything, you know, to see if he could have this possession. I think he's a very good man. I think he's an honorable man and trustworthy. But again, his morality didn't save him from hell. There's a lot of people trusting in their goodness. I think most people that you would speak to, even if they're an atheist, they believe this, someday if they stand before God, they will say to God, God, don't you know, I have lived my life as I desire other people to live their life towards me. I've tried to follow the golden rule and been very good to people, and therefore they expect, even though they don't believe in God, atheists say they don't, that God somehow, when they stand before Him, is going to accept them into glory. But you know, the Bible is not gonna back that up, is it? You know, the word of God is, if God said to the law, law, you know, here I've got Ben, and let's imagine I'm not saved and I'm at this judgment, and I'm standing there at the great white throne. And I say, you know, I'm a good person. And God says, all right, if he would say this, he knows I'm not, but if he'd say, Law, come here. Has he lied? Has he lusted? Has he coveted? Has he disobeyed his parents? Is he stubborn? Is he rebellious? I mean, it just starts through that. What's the law gonna do? The law's gonna go guilty, guilty, guilty. The law is not gonna exonerate me. And so when that book is opened, as the Bible says in Revelation 20, verse 12, I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And the books were opened. Another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works When you stand before God someday, what will that book say now listen? It's either going to be a clean slate wiped clean by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ Or it's going to be a list of condemnation And so what's that, what is that gonna say someday? You know, the Bible says about our righteousnesses, Isaiah 64, six, but we are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And we do all fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. Listen, filthy rags aren't gonna get us into heaven. We gotta have a white robe. How camest thou here, friend, not having on the wedding garments? We've gotta have that white robe made clean by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Without that, we're standing in filthy rags before a holy God that's gonna still have to deal with our sin. So the man of Ethiopia is moral, he's wealthy, he's powerful, then he's a religious man. He's gone to Jerusalem to what? Worship. He's there to worship, the Bible says. He's reading the Bible. He's got the Isaiah scroll out in front of him. He's a devout man, you could say a religious man. And praise God, he's sincerely seeking God, but until he finds God, his religion isn't going to save him. Galatians 2, verse 16. says, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law. Justified means to declare righteous. It's what God does to a sinner that allows a sinner to go to heaven. He says, you are now righteous. It's imputed. It's taken from Jesus Christ. It's gifted to us. Our sin is taken from us and it is put, as it were, on Jesus Christ at his crucifixion. And so the Bible says by the works of the law, by being moral, by being baptized, by being religious, by doing all these religious things, that nothing in that can make me justified. Because it's not of works, the Bible says. But by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified, declared righteous by the faith of Christ. not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. And so the man that needs to be saved, you look at him and you think, man, he's a pretty good guy. I mean, I would love to have this man for my neighbor. I would probably trust this man to do some work and do things. He is powerful, he is wealthy, he is moral, he's religious, and he's on his way to hell. It's amazing to think about. He needs to be saved. And God is not interested in him because he's powerful, he's wealthy, he's moral, he's religious. The rich and poor meet together, the Lord is the maker of them all. The Bible speaks about the fact that God cares about the littlest, poorest, most insignificant, most sinful, most wicked person. And a person like this that we look at and say, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but this man is an unusual man that God has a work that he's gonna do in his life. But the thing is this, God is reaching out to people like that, sinners in need of salvation. And so the God who orchestrates salvation and the man who needs salvation, and then the third thing that we see here this morning is the man who witnesses of salvation. It says in verse 29, And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Isaiah, and said, And he said, how can I except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with them. And so the man that witnesses is a man who obeys God's spirit. It's somebody that's gonna listen to the spirit of God. Spirit of God says, hey, go, I want you to go speak to this person. They respond to that. remind us this morning, God planned salvation, Jesus purchased salvation, men proclaim salvation. Okay, God, it was God's plan. Jesus fulfilled it on the cross, but it's our opportunity to go to others and tell them about what Jesus did. 1 Corinthians 1.21 says, for after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Our world is wise in their conceit. but it takes a preacher to go to him and say, listen, I just want you to know that's not right, that's not true. There's a God in heaven, he died for you and salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus. Romans 10, 14, how then shall they call on him in whom they've not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? Now, if everybody is silent, the gospel ceases. because the gospel is to be communicated. That's how it gets out. People have to say it to others. Mark 16, verse 15, he said unto them, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. You know, in this text, we've got the spirit of God, we've got the angel of God, and then we've got the man of God. It's not the spirit of God that witnesses, it's not the angel of God that witnesses, it's the man of God that goes to the Ethiopian eunuch and said, I want to join myself to you as the Spirit of God led me and speak to you about Jesus. You know, are you sensitive to the Lord's leading when it comes to evangelism? I've shared this story before, but it's one of my favorite stories about divine appointments. I was at the New College Library in Edinburgh on a Monday morning just reading my Bible and some other things, and after that I wanted to do some evangelism. So I had my flyers with me, and so I went out at the New College Library. I went down to the crosswalk behind there to cross the road down by the art gallery down into Princess Street Gardens, if you know that area. And so I'm standing at the crosswalks, and a lot of times, it's just a little awkward to try to evangelize somebody that's standing with you at the crosswalk, because if you offer them a flyer, and they say no, then there's just that cold silence while you stand there beside them. If they receive it, you kind of feel like the green man's gonna go, and they're gonna be walking, and you're not gonna be able to really talk to them, and Satan goes, don't take the opportunity. But I'm glad, I took the opportunity, I handed her the flyer, and she said, you know, I'm only here today, I'm going back to Ireland. And I said, oh, it's not about, you know, sometimes people think it's about tourism or something. I said, it's actually about Jesus Christ. And she said, well, I'm actually here studying the Huguenots, which were kind of like the Reformation in France. And I said, well, that's interesting. I said, you know, Reformation was about religious liberty, it was about the gospel, by faith in Jesus Christ. And so we're having this conversation, the green man had gone by this point, we're walking, And she's got a little suitcase and we're coming up to the stairs that go down in Princess Street Gardens. We're going down the stairs talking. She's from Ireland. We get down along the archery and I said to her, I said, you know, where are you in Ireland? I've got some friends over there. And she said, just south of Dublin. I said, well, are you near Bray or another village that I was aware of? And she says, yes, I'm very near Bray. I said, well, look, I've got some good friends there. There's a little Baptist church that's there. And the man's name is Dan Pero. And I mean, she kind of looked like I shocked her or something. She just kind of jumped and looked at me and said, who did you say? I said, Dan Pero, Dan and Sharon Pero. She said, they're my neighbors. And so her name's Mrs. Coffee. Pray for Mrs. Coffee's salvation. But the thing about it is this. How could you explain that without a God? How can you explain that I witnessed to the neighbor of a believer that's praying for their neighbors to get saved, how can you explain that without God? I used that in my witnessing that day as I witnessed to other people in Princeton Street Gardens. I said, let me tell you a story about God because this is what God can do. But what if I hadn't taken the opportunity? I wonder, you know, we don't know who's praying. And I've seen this over and over again that I witnessed to somebody that's like, oh, they know somebody that's born again. They know somebody, maybe family, close family, that are praying for them to get saved. And God orchestrates something, but we gotta step in there to be used of God to share the gospel. You know, the man who witnesses is a man who obeys God's Spirit. The man who witnesses is a man who makes opportunities to witness. It says in verse 30, and Philip ran thither to him. God said, go, Philip, all right? He's like, yes, Lord. You know, he's off to do it. How do we know? Because, I mean, the Bible says he ran. And again, how quick am I to look at that opportunity and say, okay, God, I wanna witness. And God goes, well, here's the opportunity, and we've got a choice. Am I gonna take it or not? Am I gonna run to that opportunity? So the man who witnesses does that. And then the man who witnesses is ready to answer questions of unsaved men. It says in verse 30, and Philip ran thither to him, he heard him read the prophet Isaiah, and he said, understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, how can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. All right, so you understand what you're reading, he's reading the Isaiah scroll, and he goes, no. How can I understand this without somebody explaining it to me? And so what Philip's gonna do, he's gonna get up in there, he's gonna answer his questions. And I wanna encourage you, because sometimes I think this might keep people from doing evangelism. They feel like, well, I don't know, you know, maybe all the answers. But I wanna remind us, we don't need to know all the answers from the Bible to be able to share the gospel with somebody. You know, the UK Coast Guard has Sikorsky S-92 and Leonardo AW-189 helicopters that they use in their rescues. And I've enjoyed watching some of the documentaries of these great men and women that go out and facilitate these rescues of people. And you know, the winchmen. It's the guy that goes off on the winch, you know, and lowers down. And I looked that up. I knew that was the case, but I looked it up and the guy that actually does it, he says, we just call him the dope on the rope, you know, but he said, if you want to be polite, it's the winch man. He's going down there and he gets down to that person. Well, he can't maybe point up and go, that's a Sikorsky, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, or, you know, or even explain the mechanics of the winch. But what he does know is all that's necessary to save the person. All you gotta do is put this around you. And they'll do all the work, all right? Just let this go around you. Put all your faith completely in that. That will save you. And see, that's the thing about salvation. We make it too difficult in our minds. Well, I don't know what to say, Pastor. Well, all you gotta be able to say is maybe what God did in your life and how God has worked in your life. You remember that man, that demonic of Gadara that was out of his mind and naked in the tombs and cutting himself, and they couldn't bind him with chains, and then Jesus came and set him free, and when he was set free, he wanted to go with Jesus, and Jesus said, no, no, no, I want you to stay here. Go to Decapolis, these 10 cities, and go home to thy friends. and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee. Just tell them what I've done. And you know, people can take it or leave it, and you might feel like they're not gonna believe me. Well, leave that with God. Leave that with God. But be faithful to say, Lord, I'll be that person. Because somebody needs to tell others about Jesus. And so the man who witnesses of salvation And then fourth, the truth that brings salvation. The truth that brings salvation. It says in verse 32, 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 humility, his humiliation, his judgment was taken away. He didn't have justice. And who shall declare his generation? For his life is taken from the earth. You know, do you think it's a coincidence that the Spirit of God comes to the man? He's got his Isaiah scroll open. I mean, a scroll you've gotta read beginning to end, you know, and he's at that part, Isaiah 53, a great prophecy about Jesus Christ. And he's reading about the Savior and what the Savior did on the cross for his sins. And turn to your Bibles, please, Isaiah 53, and if you have a church Bible, it's page 773, 773, or Isaiah 53. And I want to look at the scripture just briefly that he was looking at. And so if you look at verse three, This is what he was reading. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement, the punishment of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes, his whipping, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way. And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Okay, I could show that scripture to somebody that's a non-believer, all right? I knock on their door, they say, I don't believe in God. And I could read that scripture to them, and I just ask them, I say, you know, can you tell me who that's speaking about? And I would say this, maybe 75% of them would know enough to say that's Jesus. And you know what, they're right. That is Jesus. But you know what's amazing about that? Is it's from the book of Isaiah, which was written between six and 700 years before Christ came. That spoke very specifically about the death of the Lord Jesus Christ for our sin. I've been to the Dead Sea in Israel, to Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. And there's a complete Isaiah scroll that they found. Guess what? It's from the time of the Ethiopian eunuch. It's from the time of Christ. It was about six, 700 years old at that point. He's reading this story, and it's about Jesus, and he's interested in who is he talking about. So he asks him the question, and I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this, of himself or of some other man? And Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture, and he preached unto him Jesus. And so it goes to that passage in Isaiah. And this is what people need to hear. Jesus is the one. He's the one that died on the cross for our sins. And the Bible does speak so clearly about the crucifixion. And let me just read it for us this morning. Matthew 27, verse 35, it says, they crucified him. And parted his garments, casting lots that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet. They parted my garments among them. Upon my vesture did they cast lots. That's Psalm 22, a thousand years before the crucifixion. And sitting down they watched him there. and set up over his head his accusation written, this is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand and another on the left. And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, and saying, thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself, if thou be the Son of God. Come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priest mocking him with the scribes and elders said, he saved others himself, he cannot save. If he be the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross and we will believe him. He trusted in God. Let him deliver him now if he will have him. For he said, I am the son of God. The thieves also which were crucified with him cast the same in his teeth. I can't show you the crucifixion. But I can say this, if I nailed a cat to this wall and abused a cat, that that would be grievous to our congregation. We can't begin to understand what Jesus Christ went through as he suffered on the cross for our sin. But he didn't stay in the grave, praise God. He's risen again for our life. And so this story, just imagine it's taking place and he's saying, Eunuch, Jesus did that for you. He loved you so much. He was stripped naked, crucified as a thief, mocked. He did that for you, but he didn't stay in the grave. He rose from the dead. Matthew 28, six, he is not here, for he is risen, as he said, come see the place where the Lord lay. And that message that he's giving to the eunuch, he's speaking to him about Jesus Christ is a vital message because the truth is this, all roads do not lead to heaven, all religion is not the same. There is one way and then there's the other way. The one way is Jesus Christ, all the other way is the works of men and the achievements of men and the thinking of men and it's vain, it's empty, it's nothing. Acts 4 verse 10 says, be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead. And then it goes on to say, I'm just going to skip ahead in the story. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there's none other name under heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved. Now I want to remind us the gospel is a command. God says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We must be saved. Now we can reject that. We can despise that. We can mock that. We can push that away. But it is the only way anybody will get saved. Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. And so for somebody to be saved, they gotta come to that point where they look at the cross and say, Jesus did that for me. Jesus paid the complete price for my sin. There's nothing for me to pay because he paid it all. He said on the cross, it is finished. That means paid in full. He didn't stay in the grave. He walked out of the grave. So on the cross, he showed he paid the price for my sin. Out of the grave, he showed that he has the power of everlasting life. And we humble ourself and we say, you know what? I believe that. And that point of belief, that point of faith is the point where somebody gets saved. How do they get saved? By believing the truth, the gospel of their salvation. And then the last thing that we want to look at, very important to what God has for us as a church today after this service, the baptism. And so the baptism, that testifies of salvation. It says in verse 36, 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? Now again, he had been in Jerusalem, and he had observed Christianity. I don't think Philip preaching to him Jesus was the first time he had heard about Jesus. I think he had seen it when he was there. It was happening. Believers were being baptized publicly, And in that, they were repudiating Judaism, which was what this man was involved in, and they were casting that aside and saying, I'm gonna be a follower of Jesus Christ. The Judaists crucified Christ. That religion put Jesus on the cross, and that was a, so to identify with Christ was to identify against that, which could potentially take your life, as we see in the life of the Apostle Paul as he goes to kill Christians. So it's a very serious thing to identify with Jesus in his death, his burial, his resurrection. But this man said, I wanna be a follower of Jesus. I wanna be baptized. And so notice what Philip says when he asks to be baptized. And Philip said, if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. If you can say, I have put my faith in Jesus Christ, then yes, you could be baptized. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Now, quick question, if christening or baptism saved, would Philip withhold baptism? No, but it doesn't save. I mean, he would have said, no, no, you can get baptized, yeah. But he says, if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. Why, because before you can get baptized, you gotta personally put your faith in Jesus Christ. You gotta be born again, you gotta be saved before you get baptized. Verse 38, 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 had come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing. He went on his way excited. Why? Because the debt of his sin was gone. Sometimes people wonder why is there such a great experience with salvation? It's because the burden is gone. The doubt and the fear are gone. There's a settled peace that you know for sure that if you died, you're going to heaven. And then not only that, but he followed the Lord in believers baptism and he was rejoicing in that because all of his servants that were there, they had watched their master follow after the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's great delight in that, clearly identifying with Jesus Christ. A great picture that we'll look at in just a little bit as we have the baptism at our house. Now, have you ever had that experience? Do you have that story? You might not have grown up on a farm, you might not be able to tell farm stories as fun as it would be. But you don't need a farm story. But everybody very much needs a story of salvation. My story, I've shared it with the church before, but my story as a little child, I sat, I was sitting on this side of the auditorium maybe three rows back at our church, Rock Lake Baptist in Lake Mills, Wisconsin. My dad was preaching a message on hell, that it's a fire that's eternal, that it's separation from God, that the sounds that you hear in hell is weeping and gnashing of teeth, that it is a place of darkness, it is a pit, you are falling, there is no escape from there, all those things. As a little boy, I sat there thinking, man, I don't wanna go to hell, but I knew I was. And nobody said to do this, But after the service, we had a basement at the church, and my dad was down there with the deacons. And I got down there, and I went into my dad's study, and I remember the deacons were there. I got up past them. I went to my dad. I said, Dad, I'd like to get saved. I was just a little boy. And so he had the deacons go out, he sat down on his green couch there in his office with me and showed me the gospel. I'm a sinner, I'm on my way to hell, Jesus Christ died for me. That by faith in him I could be saved. As a little boy I didn't even know how to pray. But I followed my dad in prayer. Not that a prayer saves, but by faith, right? I'm sure my dad emphasized it to me. It's not a prayer, it's that faith. You gotta trust in Jesus. But as a little boy, I just prayed, dear Jesus, I'm a sinner, but you died for me. Would you please forgive me of my sin and save me? And I'll tell you this, even as a child, I walked out of there, and I mean, I remember jumping after I went out of there. I just felt light. I went up to my mom, she was up the stairs, at the top of the stairs at the church, and I said, Mom, I got saved. I felt like she wasn't as excited as I was, you know? And it anchored in my mind, it's like one of my earliest memories, God did that. Because something genuine took place. And if you don't have that, I just encourage you today, let today be the day that you get a story of salvation. The day that you look at the gospel, what Jesus Christ did for you, and the need you have to receive God's gift, where you humble your heart and get on your knees and say, God, I'm sorry that I haven't received you, but I need you. Would you please forgive me of my sin and save me? Anchor it down. If you're not sure, anchor it down. Get on your knees and pray, okay? It's okay. If you're not sure, you think, man, I don't know if I'm saved or not. Get saved today. I think that's an okay thing, to say to God, okay, God, if I'm not saved right now, because I don't feel like I'm saved, maybe because of real conviction, and maybe you're not saved, to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior. But then for us that are saved to think, you know what, by God's grace, I don't want to miss an opportunity. There's people all around us that need Jesus Christ. Lord, I want to participate with you in that. And maybe like today, it might be baptism and needing to be baptized and saying, okay, Lord, I'm going to step forward. I'm going to identify with Jesus Christ. It might be church membership. I'm going to join with the local church. The Lord added to the church daily. such as should be saved, but to say to God, God, I want that story. I wanna be able to tell people, this is how God worked my heart about salvation. This is how God worked my heart about baptism so that we could lead those other people to Christ. May the Spirit of God take the word of God and put it deep into our hearts this morning. Let's pray. Father, I pray that the Spirit of God would do just that. It might be that somebody in their heart, they're just wrestling because the Spirit of God's saying, you need to get saved. And Father, I know the faithfulness of the Holy Spirit. I know that it would be impossible to think that He not communicate that to the heart of somebody right now that needs Jesus Christ as their Savior. And Father, I pray there be no delay and no waiting. But Father, an earnest response that today would be the day of their salvation. They might be listening in online and just hearing our service today. But I pray for them to obey the gospel. And Father, it might be somebody's not been baptized, but they've been saved. They don't know the joy they're missing out of identifying with Christ and joining with the local church. That's really twofold. It's both a testimony as well as an opportunity to be brought into connection with the local body of Christ. So we pray for that. We get to do that today and how exciting that is to us. We're grateful for that. And Father, I just pray that you'd have your way through this message. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen. Amen, we'll stand and we'll sing just a couple verses, okay?