amazing and instructive for us to read the word of Jesus when he ascended up to heaven he had given the commission to the apostles and told them that they were to take the word of God and to preach in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. And if you read in the book of Acts that's exactly how that progressed. It began in Jerusalem and it spread throughout the country there of Judea. And then now we see that the gospel is left there and has gone into Samaria and later on it went into all of the known world. But how did God begin this gospel spreading? It was through persecution. Persecution drove the disciples out of Jerusalem. But as they went, everywhere they went, they went preaching the gospel and preaching the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, when Philip got down to the city of Samaria there and began to preach unto them, the Lord blessed the ministry and they had a revival there in Samaria. There were many that came to know the Lord and followed the Lord in baptism and there was a great, great work that was going on there. Another lesson that we can take from this is that we go where we're sent and that may not always be where the crowd is. Because Philip, by the direction of the Holy Spirit, he left a revival and a crowd of people in Samaria to go out into the desert to preach to one man. And that one man we read about as we come down here in verse 26, And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went, and behold, a man of Ethiopia, and eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship. Now I want you, we're going to go further down, but I want you in your mind perhaps to underline that phrase there that he had come to Jerusalem for the worship because that's very important. I think you'll see that as we get later on in the message. But he was returning and sitting in his chariot reading Isaiah the prophet. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and 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. The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb done before his shearer, So opened he not his mouth. In his humiliation his judgment was taken away. And who shall declare his generation? For his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of himself, or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus. I would like for whatever reason the God chose not to reveal the sermon that Philip preached that day. I would like to have heard the sermon that Philip preached to that eunuch. I believe that when we, well the scriptures tell us that when we leave this earth and when we go out into eternity that we are going to be known even as we are known and I believe we'll know one another and I believe we'll know all the saints of God and I believe that I'm going to know Philip and if one of the things that I would look forward to, that's not the only thing, the main thing I look forward to in heaven is seeing my dear Savior. But I also look forward to fellowshipping with the saints of God and for them to relate to me how that God had worked in their life and the things that God had done. And I believe that we'll, myself, be able to do this. And if that's the case, I want Philip to tell me what he preached that day. I'd like to hear him preach that sermon. But I want to go over to the text that Philip was preaching from. And the text that he was preaching from was from Isaiah, the 53rd chapter. And we're not going to read all of that chapter, but we're going to look at some portions of it and spend some time there because very important scripture. No place in the Bible that tells us about Jesus and his sufferings more that I know of than in this 53rd, 52nd, actually it starts in chapter 52 and the 52nd, 53rd chapter of Isaiah. It is definitely rightly called the Old Testament or the New Testament in the Old. But he, the eunuch was reading his text from there. He was reading the Bible. And as he came upon this text in verse 7, that's where he was reading from, he was oppressed. Now I want you to think, I want you to think in your mind and try to put yourself in the mind of the eunuch. We have grown up our whole life, most of us, and we have heard the gospel priest. We have heard about Jesus Christ. We know that he is the one that came from heaven and took flesh upon himself, assumed our human nature and died on the cross and rose again. And we take those things for granted probably sometimes. But I want you to put yourself in the mind of this eunuch because you see he had not been privileged to hear these words that you and I have heard all of our lives. But he was reading in the Bible, and this is the passage of Scripture that he was reading. And as he was reading, he was troubled because he couldn't understand what this was talking about. So if you can put yourself in his place, and you're reading this, and you've never heard about this man Jesus Christ, what would you think as you read the Scripture? He was oppressed, and he was afflicted. he openeth not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shears is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression of my people was he stricken. And can't you understand why the eunuch asked Philip the question? Who is this prophet talking about? Is he talking about himself or is he talking about some other man? And Philip, it tells us that he began from that very scripture and preached to him Jesus. Well, I want to look and I want to try to preach a little bit to you about Jesus from this text this morning. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. yet he opened not his mouth. Now this is a description of when Jesus had been taken by the soldiers before he was to be crucified and they had taken Jesus and they had brought him before the Jewish, the Sanhedrin, the Jewish chief priest and so forth and they had brought him before that to accuse him. Now normally And the way it should be when you have a trial, when you try somebody for something, you try to find out whether or not they are guilty or innocent. But what they did when this was a, what you might call a stacked court or a kangaroo court, they had no intention of finding him innocent. They had already convicted him in their own mind and they had not convicted him because of anything that he had done. because he never did anything wrong. The only man that ever lived that did not commit one sin. He was a perfect man. But they brought him there for that mock trial not to find out whether he was guilty or innocent but to try to in some way or another convict him. They wanted to get rid of him and so they brought him there And it said that he was brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shears his dome, so he openeth not his mouth. Jesus did not open his mouth and try to defend himself before these people. He answered them. When he did answer them a question that they would ask, he answered it truthfully. But for the most part, he just let them talk, let them accuse him of the things they accused him of. What they finally thought and the charge that they finally brought against him was they asked him if he was the son of God and he said, Thou sayest. And they said, well, that's good enough. That's blasphemous. If you're saying that you're the son of God, then that's blasphemous. And that's what they accused him of. But they had no crime to accuse him of. He had done nothing wrong. But yet he suffered and he endured the humiliation that he had to go through there at that time. I think of this and how a lesson that that is to us and a lesson that I often need to learn. I think of what Paul said in the book of Philippians when he wrote to the brethren there in that second chapter. He said, Do all things without murmurings and disputings. How often and how prone are we to murmur and complain about the things that come upon us? And often times the things that come upon us are not of our own doing and it may be at times that these things come upon us like they were with Jesus where we are accused of things that we are not guilty of. But he said that we are to do all things without murmurings and disputings. We could say first of all how wonderful world we live in if people had that attitude. But they don't. But let's bring it closer to home. How better will we be in our churches if we don't have murmurings and disputings? if we can follow the example of our savior in our everyday life, in our families, if we can do things without murmurings and disputings. And he goes on to say why. He said that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom you shine as lights in the world. I think of other people in the Bible that we read about that perhaps had a reason to murmur and complain. You remember that when Abraham came out of the land of Chaldea and he brought his nephew Lot with him and their herds increased and they were not able to have enough pasture for all of them and Abraham told Lot, he said, We're going to have to divide up. There's just not enough pasture here for all of our flocks. But he said, you take whichever direction that you want to go in, and that will be where you go, and I'll go in the other direction. Well, Lot chose the very best. He chose the very best. He chose the best pasture. And Abraham, Abraham, perhaps we could say that he had a right to murmur. because he had actually brought a lot out. He had been his mentor and had cared for him kind of like a father because he was actually his son's son, but Abraham didn't complain. If that's what you want, that's fine. I wish and pray that I'll have that kind of attitude. We live in such a world and and we get caught up in it and it's part of our flesh that we always want what's ours. I want what's mine. I have a right to this and so forth and so on. But we need to have the attitude that we don't murmur and complain but we just accept whatever God has for us. You know, we read about all of the things that Joseph went through of how that he was sold into slavery down into Egypt and how that he was falsely imprisoned. And for many years, we don't know exactly how many years, but for several years, he suffered. But we don't read anything in the Bible that Joseph ever murmured about that. He accepted that because that was what God had for him. Daniel and the young men who were captured and brought into Babylonia and were made eunuchs. But we never find that they complained and murmured about the situation that God had put them in. I hope that we would have that attitude. I think about our Savior, what Peter said about Him in the book of 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 2. He began by talking about how that we are to have this kind of attitude of not murmuring. He talked about the servants in verse 18. He said, servants be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle but also to the froward. For this is thankworthy if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it if when you be buffeted for your faults, you shall take it patiently? But if when you do well and suffer for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. Now I'm thankful that we don't live in a day, what he was talking about here primarily I think were slaves. If you were a slave and He said that you were to be subject to your master, and not just to the masters that were good to you, but also to those that were mean and cantankerous. He said, what good is it if you do something wrong and you suffer for it? How is that bringing glory to God? But he said, if you do well and you suffer for it, he said, this is thankworthy. This is something to be thankful for. I think of this and I think of the story that some of you may have read about in the biography of Wilson Thompson. Wilson Thompson was an old Baptist preacher that came from Kentucky down over into southeast Missouri back in the early 1800s. Old Bethel Church was the name of the church and I've been able to visit the original site of where that church was to see and by being able to be there and see that can picture some of this story better in my mind. But he told a story about a man that lived there in that community and his daughters would come to church. He was not a believer but his daughters would come to church. He would let them come and he had a slave named Dick and he would let Dick drive his daughters to the church. And he said that Dick came to him, I guess maybe came before the church and said that he wanted to be baptized. Well, his owner put out the word that he didn't want anybody baptizing his slave. He put that word out and the church said that they didn't think they ought to go against the master if that's what he wanted. He owned the slave and that was his desire. Now, Wilson Thompson didn't agree with that, but for the time being he submitted to the church. Dick kept coming. He didn't come in the building, I don't think. He would just stand outside and listen to the preaching. And one day, One Sunday, as Wilson Thompson was preaching, he looked out the window and he saw Dick and he saw that he had brought some clothes with him, a bundle. And he asked him, he said, Dick, did you bring those clothes with you today because you want to be baptized? He said, yes, I did. And he told the church, he said, I can't refuse to baptize this man. And so they baptized him, but the daughters, didn't tell the father what had happened. Nobody else told him. Well, things went along there for a little while and one day they had sat down to a meal and this man told his daughter, she said, you know, he said, Dick has always been a faithful slave. He said, I've never had a bit of trouble out of him. But you know, he said, here lately he just seemed like he was getting better. I just don't know what it is, but he said, he is just a joy to have this man. I just enjoy him so much. And the daughters couldn't refuse then. They said, well, father, we'll tell you why. We'll tell you why. Because he loves the Lord, and he followed the Lord in baptism. He's obedient to the Lord, and that being obedient to the Lord, he's more obedient to you. That's the kind of attitude you see that we are to have. But that story, I may have gotten a little off track on that, but he goes on then in explaining this in verse 21, he said, For even here and too were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps. Who did no sin, neither was God found in his mouth. Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not. Now you think about that. As Jesus was sitting there and under the being humiliated by these Jewish Pharisees who were hypocrites, even suffered them walking up to him and slapping him in the face. And you think about who Jesus was. He was God of very God. He had the power to have done anything at that moment that He wanted to do to those ungodly men. But He suffered and He threatened not. But He committed Himself to him that judgeth righteously. Who His own self bear our sins and His own body on the tree. that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. For you were a sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls. Christ has set us an example that we are not to be murmurers and complainers. I know there's times that we are able to come out from under unjust thing when we are done unjustly, but let us first of all remember that we're servants of Christ and that God is taking care of us and not to have this attitude that I'm going to get even with you because of what you've done to me. Love our enemies. Well, that's what Jesus did. He opened not his mouth, he brought his lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before shears is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation? Now they led him from the, well actually if you read the account there in the Gospels, those Jewish people would not go with him to the judgment hall, But they had the soldiers that took him to the Judgment Hall and took him before Pilate and eventually he was of course condemned to death on the cross. But he was taken from prison and from judgment and who shall declare his generation for he was cut off out of the land of the living. He was cut off out of the land of the living. I've got a grandson. That's graduating from high school this next week and probably some of you have some relatives who will be graduating. The first time I came to visit here, this grandson came with me. I don't know if y'all remember or not. I kind of jokingly, I've got two sons. I kind of jokingly and kind of not jokingly, I guess. I have two sons. My oldest son does not have two children, but he has two daughters. And then my youngest son has three children, has two daughters and a son. And that is the only son that I have, or the only grandson that I have, that, so to speak, would carry on my name, the name Hoggart. And I have joked with Max, my grandson, at different times. I've joked with him, I said, now Max, You know you've got a lot riding on you because you've got to carry the name on. You've got to carry on the family name. I'm depending on you. Of course, I do it in jest. That is exactly, I believe, the interpretation of this scripture. Who is going to declare His generation? You think about that. You think about a man that was the age of our Savior Jesus Christ when He went to the cross. He was a young man in his early thirties. And we often think about that. We hate to hear about anybody that dies, but when you hear especially about a young person that dies, and often I've heard the phrase used, you know, he was taken when he was in the prime of his life. He had so much to look forward to, so many things ahead of him, and he was taken out of this life. And that's kind of what the idea is here, that he was cut off as a young man. He was cut off out of the land of the living. Who's going to declare His generation? Because He didn't leave anybody behind, so to speak. We're going to see how that plays out here in the verse, but that's the question that was asked. Who shall declare His generation? He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare His generation? For He was cut off out of the land of the living. But he wasn't cut off because of anything he had done. It was for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked. You know that when they crucified our Savior, they crucified him between two thieves, two common criminals. That's how the Jews wanted to see him pictured as a common criminal. And they intended what the result would be when a criminal died like that, that usually there was nobody to claim the body. And so the body was just taken and I don't know if they buried the body. I've read some accounts of where they just throw them in a burning pile. His grave was to be, he died like a criminal and he was to be buried like a criminal. But there was a man named Joseph of Arimathea. And Joseph, the scriptures tell us if we turn and read the accounts there that Joseph was a disciple of Jesus but he was secretly for fear of the Jews. Because he was actually a member of what I understand, a member of the Sanhedrin. He was high up in the Jewish hierarchy. But he was a disciple that was secret for fear of the Jews. But there's something that happened to Joseph on that day. One of the account, I believe it's in Mark, that said Joseph went to Pilate boldly. Boldly went to Pilate. and ask him for the body of Jesus that he might bury him and give him a proper burial in a tomb. So that's what that means. He made his grave with the wicked. That's where his grave was intended to be. But he was with the rich in his death because he was buried in a rich man's tomb. Because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. Now here, he was cut off out of the land of the living. Remember what we said just a few minutes ago. But he said, when thou shalt 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. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied by his knowledge, shall my righteous servant justify for he shall bear their iniquities. Now, what that is talking about, first of all, that he shall see his seed, and then it says in verse 11 that he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. Now, the language that is used there is in reference to a woman that gives birth to a child. Now, I know that most of you men here know a lot more about women than I do. I know Brother David sitting back there, he knows a lot about women. Brother Jim, I'm just joking, of course. We all, none of us men, know very much about women. But men, one thing that we certainly cannot know, we cannot know the pain that a woman suffers when she gives birth to a child. We can't know that. We cannot tell her that we know how she feels because we don't. It's pain. I know it's painful. I've heard women and heard expressions said that that's the closest thing to death, that you come without dying. It's when you give birth to a child. But you know when a woman suffers that pain, after the The pain is over and after the child is delivered, she forgets all about the pain because of the child that is brought forth. I want you to think, and that's what this is talking about here, I want you to think about our Savior and what He suffered. What He suffered for you and for me and He did it willingly. But after the suffering was over, he forgot all about the suffering because of what he gained. And what he gained was you and I, his children. But he's satisfied. I'm going to tell you a story, a very personal story. And I guess it is fitting that we tell this on Mother's Day. And I may have told this, some of you here before. If I have, well, bear with me. My mother was born in 1913. Of course, I've lost her several years ago. My mother was born in 1913 in Oklahoma. In the sticks, I guess you'd say, she told me she could remember when she saw her first airplane. She remembers when she saw the first moving picture that she ever saw. That tells you how far back that was. And around 1930, the boll weevils got all the cotton in Oklahoma, and her family came to Arkansas to pick cotton. And that's where she met my dad. They were married. 1933, had a long marriage, a lot of children. When I was a little older, and I was the third child from the youngest, when I was a little older, my mother had a Bible and had all the children's names written in the Bible of when they were born, and she had a line down there It was sometime in 1940, I can't remember the exact year, and it was some day in April, I think April the 22nd. And I remembered that because that was two days from my birthday. And you had a name down there and you just said, Baby Hoggard, born, so and so year, April 22nd. I was always curious about that. My mother had nine children that lived, gave birth to nine children that lived. And this was one that she had that was born dead. When my mother was older, the last few years of her life, she stayed in a retirement home. And I used to go visit her. And when I'd go, she would talk to me and we would talk about, she'd tell me about old times, about things that happened years ago. And I always enjoyed that. And one day I was there and we talked about this child that she had had that was stillborn. And she told me about how that had gone. And she said how that a few days before that she gave birth that she knew something was wrong. Now they lived in a very backwoods place there in Arkansas. My dad The year I was born in 1947 was when he bought his first automobile. She was telling me the story about how when that child was born. My mother liked to sew. She sewed for our family and sewed for a lot of other people just for free. She didn't do it for money. And she told me that she was not able to go to the service that they had for that little baby. But she said, I had a piece of cloth that I had bought to make something out of, a pretty piece of cloth, and said I had a blue ribbon. Now they didn't use Undertaker or anything like that, and she said that I told your dad to wrap the little boy in the cloth, to tie that ribbon on him. and lay him in the grave. You know, as I thought about that, that was many, many years later after that had taken place. But after all those years, as my mother told me that story, I could still see the sadness in her eyes because she brought forth a child, but she was not satisfied. because she didn't bring forth life. Brothers and sisters, I want to tell you something about our Savior, this Savior that prevailed in birth for his children. Every one that he prevailed in birth for shall come forth unto life. Not a one, not a one will be lost. And this is the text that Philip preached to that eunuch Like I said, I don't know all that he preached. I hope maybe someday that I can hear that sermon. But he preached that sermon to the eunuch. Now, as they were driving along there in the desert and Philip was preaching, somewhere or another, in there, and this makes me know that Philip was a Baptist because he somehow or another talked about baptism, didn't he? He was a Baptist preacher. And as they went on their way, it says in Acts chapter 8 and verse 36, they came unto a certain water, and the eunuch said, See, here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Now I have heard men, I think, do some damage in my mind to this scripture because they don't take the full context of what it's saying. I'll say this first of all, that if God the Holy Spirit quickens a soul and gives them the gift of faith, the easiest thing they'll ever be able to do in their life is to believe on Jesus Christ. It's the easiest thing that they'll ever do. But I'll tell you something also that if the Holy Spirit has not quickened a man, he can't believe and he won't believe. But this believing that he talked about here, that Philip talked about, and it's pretty evident in the text. This believing that he talked about here was not just a head knowledge of knowing who that Jesus Christ was. You remember the story when Jesus came in the land of Gadarene there, met that man Gadarene that had the legion of demons in him? You remember what those demons said when they saw Jesus? They knew who he was and they confessed that he was the Son of God. They cried out and said, Jesus, thou Son of God! What have we to do with thee? Have you come to torment us before our time? The point is that the devils know who Jesus Christ is and those demons confess that he was the Son of God. But that's not what Philip's talking about when he said, if you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. James, when he wrote his epistle, He said, Thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble. You remember that I had spoken earlier when we began reading this text and I told you in your mind maybe to underline a verse in verse 27 or a portion of that verse in 27. This Ethiopian had come to Jerusalem for to worship God. He believed in the God of Israel. He was a Jewish proselyte, what we would call a proselyte. He was a Gentile, but he had come to embrace the Jewish religion. And he understood that and he had made this trip all the way to Jerusalem for the worship as they made the sacrifices there and all that they did in that worship there at Jerusalem. He had participated in that So when Philip asked him the question, if thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest, he was not just saying that I believe that Jesus is the son of God. He was saying I'm turning my back. I'm repenting. That's what repentance actually means. Repentance can mean a sorrow, a sorrow for sin, and we do have sorrow for sin when we repent, but it's also a turning, and he was turning from that form of religion to the Lord Jesus Christ. What this man was saying that I am putting my confidence, all of my trust in Jesus Christ. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He came to die for me. A good friend that I have, his wife told me the story a few days ago. We were in his home and he was talking about how that he struggled when he was coming to faith in Jesus Christ. He said he was going to a church that was not preaching the true gospel. But God was dealing with him and he said, I would go to the church. They'd call me before the church and they'd pray for me and they'd tell me everything is all right. He said, but when I'd get up and leave, I was in the same shape I was when I got there. And his wife said one day, he was a farmer, she said one day he came in from the farm, came in the house and he told her, He said, if Jesus Christ doesn't save me, then I will never be saved. That's what this eunuch came to see. If Jesus Christ doesn't save you, you'll never be saved. There's no other way, no other hope that we have than salvation in Jesus Christ. Well, now what did he do? This man, it says that he commanded the chariot to come to stand still. And they went down both. And we could spend a lot of time here, but I think it's very evident to us we won't do that today. But it's evident that baptism, the way we baptize, is the scriptural way to baptize because they both went into the water, and Philip baptized him, and then they both come up out of the water. There was none of this getting some water out sprinkling or pouring on him, but he followed the Lord in baptism because he wanted to acknowledge that Jesus Christ was his Savior. I thank y'all for the opportunity I've had to be here today and for y'all letting me to speak to you for a few moments. And I hope that you can say with this Ethiopian And I believe that you believe in all of your heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He is your Savior. And I hope that if you haven't before, that you will follow Him in baptism and acknowledge and proclaim that Christ is your Savior.