During my recent trip to the Ukraine, I was discussing some biblical issues with one of the students when he began to ask what the Scripture had to say concerning unbelievers in the church. I mentioned several examples in Scripture which pointed to the fact that there will always be tares mixed with the wheat. I asked him about his own church and he stated that there was a mixture of believers and unbelievers in the membership. It was a reminder to me that the issue of an unregenerate membership is not simply an American problem. It has been a reality from the 1st century until the present time that people will align themselves with the visible church without first being born again.
The eighth chapter of Acts gives a clear example of both a false faith and a true faith. The narrative begins by telling of Simon the magician, a man who claimed for himself divinity, yet who watched the crowds that followed him disperse to begin following Jesus Christ. Simon claimed to have faith in Christ, a claim that led to his baptism. Yet the self-centered and wretched motive of his heart was exposed when he tried to buy the power of the Spirit to add to his collection of magical skills. Contrasted with this false faith is the true faith of the Ethiopian eunuch of our text. It is inevitable that both kinds of faith will exist until Jesus returns. And it is inevitable that both will be exposed, whether in this life or the life to come. The exhortation from this text is to make sure that your faith is a true faith in Jesus Christ.
A true faith is that which has been wrought by the Holy Spirit rather than constructed by man's own abilities. A true faith is wholly a work of God's grace which rests only upon Jesus Christ and is received by faith alone.
It is strange, but in our day so many people do not really care what kind of faith they have as long as they have some kind of faith. Whether it is affirmed by the Word of God or not seems to be unimportant. Just having a religious faith is the main thing! So we have a multitude of people who flood our church rolls but have never given evidence of the new birth. They have no change of character. They have no renewed mind. They have no new desire for holiness and righteousness. They are just religious people who go through all the motions of church-life, but who are strangers to the hope and promises that are in Christ Jesus.
Is your faith a true faith that rests in Jesus Christ and His merits alone?
A true faith is revealed...
I. As a sovereign work of God
Sovereignty implies the ruling or governing of the universe by the holy wisdom and power of God. It is an absolute authority, not simply imagined. One of the big questions facing Christianity is whether or not God is actually sovereign. There has been a strong movement among some theologians, who claim to be evangelical, to deny the omniscience of God and the exercise of His sovereignty. Essentially, these theologians give a little sovereignty to God and the rest to man. God is viewed as knowing only what He has decided, not what man will decide in the future. They claim that God knows most everything, but there remains some "details" unknown to God until they actually happen [The Coming Evangelical Crisis, ed. John Armstrong, 142-143].
Try telling this to Philip! He saw the sovereignty of God at work in the salvation of the Ethiopian eunuch, both from the perspective of the circumstances which led to his witness and the inner working of the Holy Spirit in preparing the eunuch to receive the gospel of Christ. Just as God sovereignly worked in the eunuch's salvation, He sovereignly works in ours as well.
1. In the circumstances surrounding it
The calling of Philip in the midst of the Samaritan awakening to go to a lonely, desert road to proclaim the gospel to a solitary man shows the sovereign work of God. No preacher would want to leave such an incredible occasion, as the power of God invaded Samaria working wonders and saving sinners. Yet, the Spirit of God is never impressed by the crowds. God will work His purpose both in nations and in the individual.
The text presents the Ethiopian eunuch as being prepared by God for the gospel, showing that he was in deep concentration while reading a scroll that was a clear prophesy of Jesus Christ. He was seeking to know and understand the truth of God revealed in His Word. In my opinion, there is no passage in all of the Old Testament that more clearly describes the gospel of Jesus Christ than Isaiah 53, the text the eunuch was reading. Philip began at this point and used the Old Testament to proclaim the gospel to the eunuch. Do you think that the eunuch just happened to be reading this Old Testament Gospel by chance? The sovereign hand of God moved upon this man and directed him to this text. At just the right time, as Philip made his way to the Gaza road, this man was reading aloud (which was customary in that era) the gospel and wanting to understand.
Whether we think of the woman at the well of Samaria or Zacchaeus in a tree or Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus Road, the Sovereign God works in the circumstances of life to bring helpless sinners to Himself in saving power! I did not realize it at all during the time, but in my own conversion to Christ, the sovereign hand of God was clearly at work. I can look back now and think of the particular people and particular situations that occurred so that I was readied to hear and respond to the gospel. Only God can do that! My friend, never despise the circumstances of life, for in these God is at work to fulfill His glorious purpose in your life.
2. In the secret places of the heart
An unbeliever not only needs the sovereign work of God in his circumstances, but also in the secret places of his heart. The heart of a sinner is both spiritually dead and spiritually blind. Paul testifies in Ephesians 2:1, "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins." A dead man has no desire for God. He cannot desire God for he is dead! There is no spiritual animation within him. He can ignore the spiritual or brush aside the teachings of the Word or think nothing of an encounter with eternity. His heart is callused to truth.
To make matters worse, Paul also tells us that unbelievers are spiritually blind. While you may try to explain the truth of God to a sinner, his eyes are blind to it and his mind is shut tight to it. "And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God" (II Cor. 4:3-4).
Now tell me, how can a dead man take action or one who is blind see the truth of God? He cannot, that is unless God sovereignly intervenes. And that is the work of the Holy Spirit in the secret places of the heart of a sinner.
It takes a work of the Holy Spirit in the secret places of the heart to bring the sinner to life and to open his eyes to the gospel of Christ. This in no way eliminates the responsibility of the sinner, for every person has the responsibility of obeying the demands of the Creator. Yet, apart from the work of God's grace, an invisible work in the heart, the sinner does not even desire the things of God.
How do we know that the Spirit was at work in the secret places of the eunuch's heart? The very fact that he left his country, which was considered to be the outer limits of civilization, to come to Jerusalem to worship shows that something supernatural was going on within him. He came to Jerusalem to worship and seek the living God. But he left without being satisfied. While there this man of great financial means (the treasurer to the queen) purchased a scroll and continued his search for God. He had a seeking heart, but only because God the Spirit had begun to work where no man can see to arouse desires that were not natural to him, desires to know God and His pardon.
You will notice that when Philip asked the question about whether he understood what he had read, the eunuch invited this stranger into his chariot and openly responded to the word which he proclaimed. This is just not natural! This eunuch would be comparable to the Secretary of the Treasury in our nation. He traveled with a regal entourage. He was accustomed to the finer things in life. Philip was not dressed in regal robes as he approached the chariot running alongside to listen to what the man was reading. It was as if the eunuch was a man brought to the point of desperation, longing with all of his heart to know the living God and to submit himself to the revelation of God. His response to the gospel proclaimed to him was without hesitation. Only God can bring this about!
My friend, if the sovereign hand of God does not work in each of us and we are simply left to our own desires and designs, then we are without hope and will perish in our sins. This is why the Bible makes so much over the mercy and grace of God. For we deserve nothing from God but His fierce wrath and judgment. Yet He sovereignly works in us to grant mercy and grace through Jesus Christ. Paul expresses this truth clearly in his epistle to Titus (3:3-7).
For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another [here is the helpless, depraved condition of every sinner]. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
It is God, by His own initiative, who shows kindness and love to undeserving sinners. It is God who saves without any merit in man to appeal to Him. It is God the Spirit who washes over the deadness of the sinner in regenerating power and renews the mind, pouring grace upon us to the saving of our souls. God does this! This is His sovereignty at work, even though we may not realize it at the time, yet it transpires to bring us into His bosom as His children. A true faith is one that is wrought by the Holy Spirit. Such faith transforms the sinner into a child of God.
The 18th century preacher, Samuel Davies, expressed this truth in clear-cut terms. "The success of the ministry of the gospel with respect to saints and sinners, entirely depends upon the concurring influences of divine grace;...without the divine agency to render the gospel successful, all the labours of its ministers will be in vain" [Sermons of the Rev. Samuel Davies, vol. III, 13].
A true faith is revealed as...
II. Through the proclamation of the messenger
We see throughout the pages of God's Word that God sovereignly uses messengers to accomplish His purpose. These messengers are to be mere mouthpieces to trumpet the truths of God's Word in order to give the life-saving gospel to sinners.
This is a proclamation which must be...
1. Grounded in the Scripture
It is the Scriptures that teach of the way of salvation through Jesus Christ. All of the Word of God points to Jesus Christ in His person and work. In John 5:39, our Lord spoke to the unbelieving Jews who tried to use the Scripture for their own purposes. He told them, "You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me." In this passage our Lord testified that all of the Word of God ultimately points to Jesus Christ. Whether you are in the Old or New Testament, the central message of the Bible is God-come-to-man in Jesus Christ to redeem sinners through the redeeming work of the Son.
Proper evangelism must always be thoroughly biblical in its content. The messenger's job is not to talk someone into making a decision, but to be a mouthpiece for the truths of God's Word. It is not our words that are to be implanted in a person's life to bear fruit for eternity, but the eternal Word of God. When Philip heard the glorious passage of Isaiah 53 being read, he "Opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him."
This is a wonderful exhortation for every believer to be versed in the Word of God. We need to be students of the Book! Some Christians know the TV Guide better than the Bible. There is no excuse for this! God did not create us and then redeem us with the blood of His Son in order for us to immerse ourselves in worldly things to the neglect of His divine revelation.
It is no small wonder that the effectiveness of evangelism in the 20th century has dropped to an abysmal level. We have plenty of evangelistic activity but little content to it. We are more interested in making the gospel appealing to the senses, than faithful to the Scriptures. For this reason many are responding with their senses, but not with their minds and hearts to the gospel message. Philip stuck by the Book! He did not give the eunuch a nice, appealing story or cleaver techniques. He gave him the Word of God!
2. Centered upon Jesus Christ
Philip preached Jesus to him as he rode in the chariot. He knew this man did not need a psycho-analysis of why he was in such a state of misery. He needed Jesus Christ! The message of the gospel points to Christ alone. Unless a sinner's faith is centered in Jesus Christ, God's Son, as the solitary way to God through His death, then the sinner's faith is in the wrong place. Saving faith rests in the merits of Jesus Christ on behalf of the sinner in both His righteousness in fulfilling the law and in His atoning death at the cross which satisfied the justice of God for sinners. Our message in the gospel is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. "For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus' sake" (II Cor. 4:5).
What does it mean to proclaim a gospel message that is centered upon Jesus Christ? This can essentially be divided into two parts. First, we much explain the Person of Jesus Christ to the sinner. He needs to understand that Jesus Christ is God Himself. That is the greatness of the gospel, that God Himself came to be the Savior of sinners. God did not send an angel or someone of His creation to do this work, but God Himself came. But we could not look at God, for God is a spirit (John 4:24) and no man has seen God or can look upon God in His pristine glory (John 1:18). So God became a man to dwell among us and reveal Himself to us. The Apostle John goes into great detail on this in the prologue to his Gospel (1:1-18) and in the prologue to his first epistle (1:1-4). He insists that we understand that Jesus was not a figment of the imagination, but one who was seen, heard, and handled of the Word of Life (I John 1:1). This same Word of life was clothed in flesh, retaining all of His deity, yet divesting Himself of His radiant glory and prerogatives as God, to dwell among us (John 1:14) as a man. And as a man he fulfilled all of the demands of the Law on our behalf (Romans 10:4).
Second, we must explain to the unbeliever what Jesus Christ did, that is, His Work. You cannot talk about His work unless you go to the cross. For it was at the cross that the purpose of Christ coming to earth was realized. As I pointed out, Jesus fulfilled the demands of the law for us so that His righteousness might become ours. But divine justice toward sinners was not satisfied merely at the righteousness of Christ in obeying the law. God's justice demanded a just punishment for the sin and rebellion of man that offended the holiness of God. So, the perfect, spotless Lamb of God went to the cross to bear our sins and satisfy God's justice and wrath (John 1:29; I John 2:2). At the cross, as all of the Old Testament sacrifices had foreshadowed, the Son of God died a bloody death as the eternal substitute for sinners. There our redemption took place! There God's justice was completed so that our Lord could cry on the cross, "It is finished!" There sinners were justified or declared to be legally righteous through the satisfaction of Jesus Christ (propitiation--Rom. 3:21-28) as our substitute. God demonstrated the efficiency of Jesus' atoning death when He raised Him from the dead.
This is our message as those who proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. Is this the truth that you have believed and embraced completely? Is your trust in Jesus Christ and His work on your behalf? A true faith rests in Jesus Christ and His merits alone. Does this describe your faith?
A true faith is revealed...
III. In the response of the sinner
Though the gospel is a sovereign work of God, every person has the responsibility to respond to God's work of grace. No one is saved without exercising faith in Christ. Every person, whether presumed elect or non-elect, has the responsibility before God of repenting of their sins and believing in Jesus Christ. It is precisely at this point where Hyper-Calvinism misses the boat! They erroneously think that the call to repent and believe the gospel is given only to the elect of God. Yet, that call is issued throughout the Scriptures for all men. That was the message of our Lord and His apostles throughout their earthly ministries. And they issued this call to sinners without exception. And so must we. Our responsibility is to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ with clarity and in the power of the Holy Spirit, offering Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord to all men. The responsibility to respond falls upon the heads of all men, especially those who hear the message we proclaim.
We can get hung up on the matter of the elect and the non-elect. The eunuch was obviously elected of God. So were the multitudes on the day of Pentecost which "the Lord our God...call[ed] to Himself" (Acts 2:39). Yet how do we know they were elect? Simply by their response to the gospel. Philip did not approach the eunuch and ask him if he was elected of God. He just preached Jesus Christ to him and called upon him to repent, believe, and to be baptized as evidence of his faith in Christ. Philip saw the response and evidence of God's sovereign work as the eunuch believed, confessed, and rejoiced in Christ.
1. He believes
The excitement of the eunuch in v. 36 shows that he understood the message of the gospel and had responded in faith. Here was a man who had been seeking to know God, so that his search brought on a journey to Jerusalem. Not being satisfied, he continued to hunger for God until Philip explained the gospel to him.
I love the way Luke records his response. "And as they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch said, "Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?" Though his regal entourage did not understand, this man excitedly proclaimed his faith in Jesus Christ. He had believed and it showed! He was ready to go on in the Christian life because his faith was resting in Jesus Christ alone.
The call of the gospel is for sinners to turn from their sin and to put their faith in Jesus Christ. No one can be saved without faith in Jesus Christ. "Nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified" (Gal. 2:16). While many are trying to cling to their merits as sufficient to justify them before God, we must do as this eunuch did and simply believe in Jesus Christ. Lay aside your faith in yourself! Cling only to Jesus Christ and His death for you!
2. He confesses (baptism)
The biblical manner of professing faith in Christ is through baptism. The idea of "walking an aisle" as the primary means of professing Christ is an addition of the past 125 years. Baptism is the outward means of expressing the reality of your inward faith in Christ. That has been the practice of Christians for 20 centuries. I would exhort any of you who have trusted Christ as Savior and Lord and yet have not been baptized since that time that you need to obey the Lord in baptism. Baptism should never be viewed as a convenient option for those who prefer it. It is the biblical pattern for declaring your faith before the world. To neglect baptism is to bring into question the reality of your faith, for who is truly saved that is so ashamed of Jesus Christ that he refuses to be baptized? Be assured that baptism has no power to save you. If you go into the waters of baptism as an unbeliever, you will come out as an unbeliever. Baptism is for believers, those who have come to faith in Jesus Christ.
Both Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch went down into the water with the eunuch's entourage witnessing the baptism. It was a clear testimony that his old life of sin had been buried through the death of Christ and now he was a new creature in Christ. His testimony in baptism gave the eunuch a responsibility before those who witnessed this event. Don't you imagine that he had a lot of questions to answer before the audience who witnessed his baptism? "What were you and that stranger doing?" "Why did you get dunked under the water?" "What is the meaning of all this excitement and then stopping to enter the water?"
Baptism still raises questions. And it should! It is a testimony that our old lives of sin have been buried with Christ, put to death at the cross as our Lord died there on our behalf. Now we are no longer the same. We are new creatures in Christ. Expect us to act different. Expect from us different attitudes. Expect us to treat people in a new manner. Everything has changed! (II Cor. 5:17)
I would imagine that there are some in our congregation today who have experienced the wonderful, saving grace of God, yet you have not taken this public stand of confession in baptism. I exhort you to join in the joy of our first century counterpart and follow Christ into the waters of baptism. The only thing that should hinder you from baptism is a lack of true faith in Christ (v. 37). If that issue is settled, then stand publicly for your Lord in the waters of baptism.
3. He rejoices
Though Philip left for more proclamation of the gospel, the eunuch continued in his rejoicing as one who had been born again. Luke tells us that he went on his way rejoicing! And he should! When you know that God has saved you from the penalty and guilt of your sins, that He has redeemed you, that He has made you a new creature, that He has adopted you into His family, you ought to be rejoicing! Continual and consistent joy in the Lord characterizes those who have been born of God.
One of the quickest ways to spot a Christian in a crowd is by seeing his joy in the Lord. This does not mean that he has a silly grin on his face all the time, but that the very countenance of his life demonstrates that deep within his being the Spirit of God dwells in him. God Himself, who is the fountain of all joy, inhabits this person. He cannot help but be joyful. Oceans of joy billow within him, for Christ, his all in all, dwells in him.
A true faith rests in Christ alone. A true faith delights in open confession through baptism. A true faith continues to rejoice in the Lord, not for a few days or weeks, but through year after year after year.
Conclusion
The Ethiopian eunuch had a true faith. It stood in sharp contrast to Simon the magician who considered faith a matter of personal, selfish consumption, rather than for the glory of God. While Simon's false faith was exposed, the eunuch's true faith was revealed.
But how about your own faith? Is yours a true faith that has united you savingly to God through Jesus Christ? Or is it a false faith of your own making and design, a faith that produces no lasting joy, a faith centered on self and not on Jesus Christ? My friend, come to Jesus Christ empty-handed and plead for His mercy. He is mighty to save!
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