The California Collection/TheCaliforniaCollection.cdr/his107/ss003.arj/SS003.TXT

Text File | 1990-10-23 | 27KB | 520 lines

Thank you, and, once again, good morning to students and teachers
of the word of God. Our lesson this week is called, "Messenger to
the Outsiders." And this deals with the evangelistic work of
Philip, who has gone out to the road that leads down to Gaza, to
witness to one lone, single sinner. He leads this sinner to
Christ, and this sinner turns out to be a very valuable prospect,
because this sinner goes down to Africa, and evidently has
something to do with the starting of the Ethiopic Church, the
Coptic Church--which, until the Communist revolution against
Haile Salassie several years ago, made the country of Ethiopia
open to all missionaries anytime, day or night.

Haile Salassie was a born-again believer who professed faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ. When he was attacked by the Fascist Romans
in Rome--Mussolini, who had a concordat with the heathen
religious leaders--Halle Salassie went to the United Nations and
appealed for help and got none. During the time he was king,
missionaries could get into Ethiopia any time, day or night. Some
of the priests and nuns in Ethiopia came to Haile Salassie one
time--some of the Coptic group--and they said, "You've got to
stop them, your majesty. They're down there, and they're teaching
people the Bible, and baptizing converts."

And Haile Salassie said, "Go thou and do likewise."

So this Ethiopian convert turns out to be a gem--a rare jewel.
And it is no wonder that the Lord calls Philip away from a great
revival which he's having--and he is having a great revival--down
to this way that goes down to Gaza and desert, to deal with one
man about his soul.

In this portion of Scripture we have a remarkable outline that
speaks of finding, faith, fact, and feeling. In the chapter, in
chapter 8 of the book of Acts, verse 26 to verse 31, we have the
finding. Philip finding his prospect, the unsaved man. Then we
have the fact--verses 32-36. The fact that Christ died for
sinners and was the blood atonement in their place. Then we have
the faith, mentioned in 37 and 38, and finally we have the
feeling in verse 39 and verse 40.

Now this is always the case. And this passage of Scripture is one
of the most remarkable passages of Scriptures to edify and
elucidate the doctrinal truths of salvation.

First of all, the Lord must find the sinner. "The Son of man is
come to seek and to save that which was lost." So, if I'm talking
to a man who fancies his sacraments and his commandments and his
Golden Rule and his other little play things will get him to
heaven, he's fooling himself. Somebody has to find you. In the
Bible, you're lost. The fact that you may have a $100,000 home
and income of $50,000 a year is immaterial. We have the down and
outs, and we have the up and outs. The Lord needs to find you.

Next, you need to be faced with the facts. The facts are that
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and was
buried, and rose again the third day, according to the Scripture.
The facts are, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,
of whom I am chief. The facts are, Christ died, the just for the
unjust, that He might bring us to God. And the facts given to the
Ethiopian eunuch by Philip are, that Jesus Christ was wounded for
our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement
of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we're 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.

The fact is, Jesus Christ died for sinners, and was buried, and
rose from the dead.

Now, what you think about that fact, again, is immaterial. If
some of you don't believe that, it's your funeral, not mine. If
some of you don't accept that, it's a free country. You have as
much right to believe what you want to believe as anybody else.
Help yourself. You're free, white, and twenty-one. If you want to
reject the facts, go on and do it. See where it gets you.

That's a fact.

Next, we have faith. In verse 37 of our passage Philip said,
"If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest." Quite
naturally, this verse has been knocked out of 90 percent of the
so-called new bibles--which are no more bibles than
feather-dusters. The new bibles subtract from the word of God in
152 salient places, add to the word of God in about 50 other
places, deny the virgin birth of Christ in Luke 2:33, deny the
ascension in Luke 24, verses 51-52, deny the blood atonement in
Colossians 1:14, and deny salvation by believing in Acts chapter
8, verse 37.

If you are one of the unfortunate people to be deceived into
buying a so-called "new" bible, you will find verse 37 has been
removed from your bible!

Or else, in case of the compromises, you will find it in italics
or in brackets, with a note that perhaps it shouldn't be there.
You say, "What's the authority for doing this?"

Oh, "Mary had a little lamb." "Puss in boots." The usual.

All right, we have faith exercised in verses 37 and 38, and
finally, feeling, in verse 39 and verse 40.

Now, notice how these tremendous truths always follow a proper
order. Finding, fact, faith, feeling. Let's be explicit. The fact
is, if you receive Jesus Christ, you're saved. That's a fact.
There are people in Pensacola who are saved and don't know it.
There are people in Pensacola who aren't saved, and think they
are. These days you hear so much about faith, you'd think it was
Biblical. Faith without fact is hallucination. Faith without
documented evidence is fabricated imagination. Faith without
facts is heathen speculation.

A couple of years back, up in Alabama, a trucker had the
unfortunate tragedy in his life of running over a ten-year-old
boy and gravely wounding him. And the boy was dying. The boy's
father was a Holiness preacher who believed in faith. And he
insisted, instead of calling for an ambulance or an emergency
unit, to pray for the boy, being sure God would heal him. And the
boy died.

The trucker went to the judge, and the judge issued a subpoena
against the boy's father. The trucker had tried to get help, and
the father wouldn't let him get help. The father was in a way
responsible for the death of that son of his--a kind of a
second-degree murder. That father had faith, but it wasn't placed
in the facts.

Now, it's a fact that Jesus Christ died for your sin, was buried,
and rose from the dead. Your faith cometh by hearing, and hearing
by the word of God. Therefore, faith that is not rooted and
grounded in the word of God is speculation. It is pagan
imagination. It's delusion.

You hear these days on the radio and television this constant
business about "release your faith, release your faith, release
your faith." Nobody anywhere in the Bible ever "releases" faith.
That expression occurs nowhere in the word of God, from cover to
cover. In sixty-six books, there isn't one case where anybody is
ever said to release their faith. You say, "Where'd they get it
from?" That's a psychic terminology. That terminology comes from
spiritualists and spiritism. It has nothing to do with the New
Testament.

Somebody says, "Have faith! Have faith!" Well, "Faith is this."
And, "Faith is that." Faith that is not rooted and grounded in
the word of God is pagan imagination. When a man says, "I've got
faith to believe I can do greater works than Christ did," he's
not a faithful, Spirit-filled, fruitful Christian. He's a
deceived fool. You say, "Doesn't the word of God say?" Well, if
you don't know, why do you ask? You see how people are?

When the Lord promised those things to the twelve apostles in
John 13, 14, 15, and 16, He let you know those apostolic signs
and miracles were for Israel, because they sought for a sign
(1Corinthians 1), and that's why they're called "apostolic"
(2Corinthians 12).

Now, some of you people don't care enough about what God said to
look up what I just read. That is, in your blind superstition and
pagan imagination, you don't give a flip what God says! What you
want is what you want when you want it! And, in trying to talk
yourself into doing it, you're trying to convince yourself you
have faith.

Let me tell you something. Any faith that makes a liar out of God
is ineffectual. There are men who are going up and down this
country who are encouraging people to deny 1Corinthians 1:22 and
1Corinthians 14:22 and 2Corinthians 12:12 and Mark 16:17. You're
not dealing with people who are faithful. They're deceived. And
the word of God says, "Let no man deceive himself, and let no man
deceive you." And again, "Be not deceived."

Now, your salvation depends upon the fact that Jesus Christ died
for you. Your assurance of salvation depends upon your faith in
that fact. Your feeling depends upon how you live for the Lord
after you're saved. Let's get it clear. Feeling is not the root
of salvation. Feeling is the fruit of salvation. Some religions
in America have the facts. They say, "Repent, confess, believe,
and be bup-tized." But they don't exercise any faith in what God
said.

When you talk to these people, these deluded souls, about the
eternal security of the believer, "He that hath the Son hath
everlasting life," "They hath everlasting life," "They shall
never perish," "Nothing shall separate them," "They are
predestinated to be conformed to the image of God's Son," they
look at you like a tree full of owls. Do you know why? They have
access to the facts, but they never exercised faith in the facts.
You can always tell these people, these people who exercise no
faith in the facts, and don't believe God, because when you talk
to them about obeying the gospel, they always think obeying the
gospel refers to something that you do with your body, instead of
something you believe with your heart.

Notice when Isaiah says, "Lord, who hath believed our report?"
(Romans 10:16), we're told, "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing
by the word of God." Obeying the gospel is never Acts 2:38,
because the gospel Paul preached is not in Acts chapter 2.
Therefore, if you're substituting Acts 2:38 for obeying the
gospel, you're denying God and making a liar out of God in
exercising faith in a superstitious fabrication of private
interpretation that has nothing to do with the truth at all. You
were told in Romans chapter 16 that the gospel is made manifest
and is made known unto all nations for the obedience of faith
(Romans 16:26).

And, where a man refuses to exercise faith in the gospel, he
hasn't obeyed it, no matter how many times he goes through Acts
2:38, trying to kid himself into thinking he's a Jewish proselyte
on the day of Pentecost. You were told in Acts chapter 1, verse
5, the gospel is for obedience to the faith among all nations. To
obey the gospel is to exercise faith in it.

Somebody says, "Well, faith without works is dead." Oh, come on,
now! Come on, now! You poor people have been deceived so long,
some of you, by some of these elders, you don't know where you're
at! You quoted that verse out of James 2, and you don't even know
who James is written to! If you have a Living Bible, James 1:1 is
not even written to the people it's written to!

Now, listen! If you trust Jesus Christ, you're safe. That's a
fact. If you believe what God said, that's faith--you can be
sure. That's certainty. And, if you live for the Lord, you'll be
satisfied, and have the right feeling.

Have you got it?

Fact. Faith. Feeling.

Safety. Certainty. Satisfaction.

You're not safe because of your faith. It could be misplaced.
You're not safe because of your feelings or satisfaction. It may
change. You're safe if you have received the Lord Jesus Christ as
your Saviour.

You're not sure because you feel good. There will be days when
you don't feel good. The order has always been fact, faith, and
feeling from the foundation of the universe. And nowhere is it
any clearer than in Acts chapter 8.

Let's look at the passage. 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." Imagine a call like that in the middle of a city-wide
revival, where they're getting results right and left! I mean,
look at the results they're having there in verse 12. Look at
verse 8: "Great joy in that city." Verse 6: "The people with one
accord gave heed." That fellow is having an earth-shaking revival
that's changing the face of a city. And God calls him down to do
personal work with one African going down the desert. Isn't that
something?

"And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an 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." So this man up to this point is a Jewish proselyte. Up
to this time, this is one of the many Gentiles who came to
Jerusalem at the Feast of Tabernacles or the Passover to worship
God, and recognized the Jews had the one true religion. And, as
Jesus Christ said, "Salvation is of the Jews." So he's coming to
Jerusalem, worshipping.

And 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." So he's reading out loud. "And
said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can
I, except some man should guide me?"

After all, that's what a Bible teacher is; he's a guide. When it
gets right down to it, the Holy Spirit's going to guide and lead
you into all truth. And the anointing which you have received of
God teaches you all things. He'll teach you what's right and
what's not right. All you have to do is believe what God said as
God said it where He said it.

And he comes up here and he says, "He desired Philip that he
would come up and sit with him."

Now we find the facts. Here are the facts. Now, as I said before,
facts are stubborn things. And a fact is a fact. You may not let
people know that it's so, but it's still there. You may deny that
you said it, but if you said it, you did, whether it's in print
or not. You may deny that you said it because nobody can catch
you at it. But God will catch you at it. A fact is a fact. You
can't argue with facts.

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 humiliation his
judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation?
for his life is taken from the earth."

Now, readers of the Bible are very familiar with the passage
being quoted. The passage being quoted is the great chapter in
the Old Testament on the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus
Christ, Isaiah chapter 53, where we read, "He was oppressed, he
was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was brought as a
lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is
dumb, so he opened not his mouth."

The modern, corrupt bibles have tried to find a contradiction
between verse 32 in Acts chapter 8 and Isaiah 53:7, for in Isaiah
53:7 the sheep is said to be a "she." "Her shearers." Whereas in
Acts chapter 8, verse 32, it says, "He." "His shearer." This is
typical of the combobilated mess that Christian education gets
into when it tries to set itself up as a judge superior to the
Authorized Version. Anybody who knows anything about sheep knows
the male lamb will open his mouth at the shearing, and the female
sheep won't open hers. A female lamb will, but the lamb in Acts
chapter 8 verse 32 is not a female--it's a male.

Now this shows us two remarkable things about Christian
education. When the modern Christian educator talks about the
so-called Septuagint, this mythological pre-Christian bible
written before the time of Christ, we know they're full of
apples. The quotations in the Old and New Testaments don't have
to match, and in the dirty work of the people who lie a hundred
years after the death of Christ who wrote an Old Testament to
match the New Testament quotations was done to make you think the
Apostles were quoting from a Greek Old Testament. They certainly
weren't. They were quoting a Hebrew Old Testament.

You say, "Why didn't they quote it accurately and verbatim?" Very
simple. Any author is allowed the privilege of freely quoting his
own work. The laws of jurisprudence in the United States teach
that, since the author had known what he intended when he wrote
the passage that he wrote, that he himself had the liberty of
making a free quotation of his own work. God wrote this Book, so
he can jolly well quote it any way He likes--as long as it
doesn't contradict. And here it does not contradict.

The passage, then, is a reference to the blood atonement of Jesus
Christ, and this is the first time this is mentioned in the New
Testament publicly as a doctrine for salvation. In Acts chapter
2, Simon Peter says nothing about Jesus Christ dying for sinners.
In Acts chapter 3, Simon Peter says nothing about our sins being
blotted out at Calvary. In Acts chapter 5 and Acts chapter 6 and
Acts chapter 7, you don't read one word about the gospel of the
grace of God, of Christ dying as a blood atonement for sinners.
And, the first time that shows up in your Bible as such is in
Acts chapter 8.

You say, "It's mentioned in Matthew." Matthew wasn't written
until after the events in Acts chapter 8 took place.

You say, "It's mentioned in Mark." Mark wasn't written until the
events in Acts chapter 8 took place.

You say, "It's in John." John wasn't written until after the
events in Acts chapter 8 took place.

You say, "It's in Luke." Luke wasn't written until after the
events in Acts chapter 8 took place.

I'll say it again and finally. The first time--are you
listening--I mean, some of you shut it off back there; you know,
you got too many facts there for you to handle these days. Folks
these days are very leery about facts. They like to kind of
scurry around quietly, you know, where you can't get caught. Are
you listening? The first time in the New Testament that blood
atonement and blood redemption is preached to a sinner as a means
of salvation is Acts chapter 8, verses 32-38.

So, the first man who's saved like sinners in Pensacola are saved
was an Ethiopian eunuch. Now, isn't that something? Did you ever
stop to think about this? The dying thief wasn't saved exactly
like you people are saved, because the dying thief died before
Christ rose from the dead. You didn't. Did you ever think about
this? You weren't saved exactly as Paul was saved. Paul was
knocked flat off a horse and blinded when he was saved; you
weren't. Did you ever think about this? There isn't anybody
reading these words who was ever saved according to Acts
2:38--not a man, woman, or child within the sound of my voice.
Everybody in Acts chapter 2 was a Jew or Jewish proselyte, and
you're not. They lived in a communist holding of property in a
local church, which you don't. They met on a Jewish feast day,
which you don't even meet on.

Isn't it amazing how people get their Bibles screwed up? I'm not
talking to a man, woman, or child in this writing who was saved
like anybody in Acts chapter 4, 5, and 6 was saved. The first
man--don't turn it off; be broadminded; that's what some of you
folks preach, isn't it? Yes, that's what you preach; you just
don't practice it!--the first man in that Bible who is saved by
grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ, apart
from water baptism or laying on of hands, is an African. Acts
chapter 8, verse 37.

And that's why verse 37 has been removed from your bibles!
Because it is the first clear case of salvation by grace through
faith in the finished work of Jesus before the man has been
baptized! And this Ethiopian eunuch is told, "You can't get
baptized until you believe with all your heart."

And that's why Paul said, "If thou shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For
with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and confession
is made unto salvation." Nobody in the New Testament was ever
saved when they were baptized--nobody. The Apostles were all
saved before Pentecost, and none of them baptized according to
Acts 2:38. There isn't any case in the Bible where Peter, James
or John or Matthew, Mark or Luke were ever baptized according to
Acts 2:38. Everybody in Acts 2:38 who got baptized had to get
baptized on a Jewish feast day for Israel in order for that
nation to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. And, thereafter,
every single one of them is saved before he touches a pond
anywhere.

As is the case here. Acts 8:35: "Then Philip opened his mouth,
and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. And
as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and
the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be
baptized?" He knew about John the Baptist's baptism. He knew if a
man believed what a Jew should believe about the Messiah, he
ought to follow the Lord in baptism.

And Philip says to him, "If thou believest with all thine heart,
thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God." Notice that goes far beyond Jewish
profession. That is not the belief that He is the Messiah, or the
Christ, or the Son of man, preaching the kingdom of heaven. But,
the Son of God.

"And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down
both into the water." Showing clearly that water baptism is
immersion. "Both Philip and the eunuch: and he baptized him."

Now here comes the feeling: "And when they were 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."

Now, there is the divine order that has never been changed and
never been improved upon. Fact--faith--feeling. Some people have
all kinds of feelings--but no facts. The new bibles are written
for people who feel all kinds of things and judge people by their
emotional experiences, and judge people by their spiritual
experiences--and have access to no facts at all.

There are people who have faith--but no facts. There are people
who have faith, and no feeling. And the world is filled with
scientists who have access to the facts, but no faith, and no
feeling.

Fact--Christ died for your sin according to the Scriptures and
was buried and rose again the third day from the dead. Faith--if
thou shalt believe that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto
righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation. Feeling--"These things I speak unto you that your joy
may be full. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy. You rejoice
with joy unspeakable, full of glory, receiving the end of your
salvation, even the salvation of your souls."

Now, have you got it?

Every Christian ought to be safe. He ought to be sure. He ought
to be satisfied.

Some of you Christians I'm talking to are safe, and you're
sure--but you're not satisfied. That's because you're not doing
something for the Lord. You're not obeying the Lord.

Some of you Christians are safe, but you're not sure. You're not
sure because you haven't yet taken God at His word and believed
him.

Let's get it straight. You can't be safe without receiving Jesus
Christ. You can't be sure without believing what God said. And
you can't be satisfied if you're living a disobedient life
against and contrary to the revealed word of God Almighty. And,
if your idea of obedience to the word of God is couped up in some
new version that gets you out of doing what it told you to in the
one that you understand, it's no wonder some of you Christian are
deader than a bluefish left on the beach last month.

The reason why you have these cold, dead churches that never have
an "Amen" and never have a "Hallelujah" in them is because the
Christians in them are deader than a hammer! And the reason
you're deader than a hammer is because you have disobeyed God.
And don't kid me. I don't care if the people in my church don't
know what it is; the Lord knows what it is. And when you're
making promotional and motivational efforts in line with the
world, while you're cutting corners and lying and misrepresenting
or putting the authority of the word of God aside, or exalting
your work or your ministry above that Book, or attacking that
Book in public or in private, and yet not daring to do it, you
know, universally or out in the open--you're going to kill your
services!

There are many churches in Pensacola where the breath of death
breathes over that congregation like a funeral home. And their
services are like a morgue. And even the ones who counterfeit the
spirituality and counterfeit the feeling cannot get rid of the
terrible fact that God the Holy Spirit has written "Ichabod"
across the work. If you trust Jesus Christ, you're safe. That's a
fact. If you believe what God said about your salvation, you can
be sure. That's faith. And if you live for God, you're going to
have the right feeling. And that's satisfaction.

I trust today's lesson has been a blessing to you, and you'll
these things to your congregation and students, and make these
applications clear and personal and telling, that they might
affect their lives and mark them forever, with these great divine
truths of New Testament salvation by grace through faith in the
finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ dying on Calvary's cross.

Pray for us in our work now; we'll be going out next weekend to
preach in St. Petersburg. Well, this weekend I'll be in St.
Petersburg. And in May we'll be down with Scotty Drake in Tampa.
Pray for our church building; we've started a work now. The
foundation has been laid, and the men are working, and the
building is going up. It's only a small building, seating about
four hundred or so. But we trust that we can expand later on, as
the congregation grows. Be with us if you can on opening day in a
few months. And pray for our young men and women who are
preparing themselves for a lifetime of service to God. Until next
week, may the Lord bless you, and good day.