Who is in the Body of Christ? Philip the Evangelist

Well, now, let’s go back to who is in the Body. Because you can just keep on saying or take it for granted or assume that you’re in the Body as most of the professing church. They assume or profess that they’re in the Body. They’re not in the Body at all. So they don’t know what the Body is all about. But to begin with, we’re baptized into the Body by the Holy Spirit.

This is salvation, and we’re in the family of God. When we’re born again, we’re in His family, we’re born into His family through the blood of Jesus. Just like one is in his own family, they have the blood of that family. So we are born into a family. Family of the Lord Jesus Christ. But that’s not baptized into the Body. One is a family, one is a body. And we’re born again into the family of God through the Lord Jesus Christ through His blood. But we’re baptized into the Body of Christ, that’s how we get in. And of course there are plenty of people that say or believe or have had an experience that they have a baptism. But in looking upon it closely, we find that it also is very small compared to what we would think.

Because you would think of the whole Pentecostal movement, and they are baptized they say in the Holy Spirit. But they don’t know a thing or don’t preach about it, they mention Body of Christ. You go to the Presbyterians, they talk about a Body of Christ. The Corpus Christi is a body of Christ, that’s what it means—Catholics have churches named Corpus Christi, Body of Christ. It’s not anything, it’s a new terminology. And you look into many things, they say body of Christ. But there’s not any body of Christ there. Just the same as anything else. Some of them are not even born again. They say they’re in the family of God and the Body of Christ, and they’re not even born again. Church after church, hundreds and thousands of thousands, it’s a church, it’s a church building, it’s a denomination.

And it comes down to who is in the family of God? Jesus says plainly to Nicodemus, “except a man be born again, he cannot see, he cannot enter into heaven. He can’t see, he can’t hear as he’s blinded to it because he isn’t born again, he doesn’t have it. He’s not born again, he can’t see or hear. Jesus said blessed are your eyes, they can see. Blessed are your ears, they can hear. Let these sayings sink down into your ears. They’re not awakened to the family of God, to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so it is with people that are born again that are not awakened. Lack of teaching or wrong teaching or into something that they assume they are into, and they’re not. And that’s where examination has to come. Am I a vital member, am I functioning? Because as you say, as Andrew has said, if the toe is out, everything in the body is sending to that, the white corpuscles you could say to get out that whatever infection is there. So you have the pus. But if the foot is a false foot, or if it’s a foot something is strapped on, there are no corpuscles going to reach it. You can break it, plaster of Paris or something. But there’s nothing that the body would function.

Plenty of people have something false. In the world, there are false eyes, false limbs, false things. But the body doesn’t work with them, whatever that is that is put on there that isn’t. The body doesn’t work with that, it can’t. It only works with that which is part of it. So it’s fatal to presume or assume that you’re something that you’re not.

Because all of these Scriptures, as you say we and you’re ministering and all of that. But are you baptized into the Body, are you a vital member? Are you ministering, are you moving? Are you that which the…. Then the Lord does everything to send the need and the help to that part. As he says, one member says to the other, ‘I have no need of you,’ it can’t be, because we’re all members. You find that of course the body is one and hath many members and all the members of that body being many are one body, so also is Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:13. For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one Body…and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. But now hath God set the members, every one of them in the body as it has pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? 20But now are they many members, yet but one body. 25 And if they were all one member, where were the body? 20But now are they many members, yet but one body.

There is no schism in the body, it couldn’t function. So where you find that there are bickerings and… What does schism mean? It means division. There cannot be division in the body, it couldn’t be right. But that the members should have the same care one for another. And when one member suffers, all members suffer with it, or one member be honored, all members rejoice with it.

So I say again, say that foot is not a foot, it’s a false foot, it’s a plaster of Paris. Well, it can get cracked or it can have all kinds of things done. But if it’s not of the body, there’s no functioning to that cracked foot. But if it’s baptized into the Body, it’s part of the body.

Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular and God has set some in the church—that’s when he sets.

We had the cart before the horse, not through anybody’s trying to do it. But to go all the way back to that, take it. Are you? There’s where you would have to be sure. Are you baptized into the body of Christ? We are baptized into one body by the same Spirit. For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether it be bond or free, and have all been made to drink of the one Spirit. For the body is not one member but many.

So then we have the ministries. But, it’s to those and for those and with those and all about those that are really baptized into the body of Christ. So there’s where the calling has to be sure. As St. Peter says, make your calling and your election sure. You can assume and presume and not be in this, the body. You say, well, I’m not being ministered to or “I’m this” or “I’m in pain”. Are you in the body of Christ? Because just the same, the nearest Paul can get to it is the human body. So we can liken the body of Christ to the human body.

Christ is the head, the mind, moving, everything is in Christ. But we are members of his body, if we are. Because everything in the whole Bible is I-F. Everything hinges on the IF. So maybe. You say, I’m feeling hurt, and I haven’t had this ministry. Well, are you in the body? Have you been baptized into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit? Is that real? Because otherwise you can doubt. And there are thousands of people, thousands that speak in tongues that never have been baptized into the Body of Christ. You would not have any Holy Spirit.

Of course, there is a speaking in tongues as we know that is not of the Lord at all. But then there are people, they babble and jabber and maybe go on and maybe seen something real or something, and never have been baptized in the Body of Christ.

Because baptized into the Body of Christ, it would have to be. Your little nail is so vital, that little nail. I tore that whole nail off, not the whole nail, the part down to the quick, last week. And well, I could see stars. That little nail is so vital, that down into the quick torn off it really hurt and really meant a lot until… I was showing it to Andrew, he said, it’ll all be grown out, it’ll grow out during the night. It’s off still but it doesn’t hurt now, it’s grown past that quick part. But that little nail, you can take a little nail, that is vital.

And your eyelash, just an eyelash, it’s there, however, you have to study eyelashes or eyebrows to know just all it means. But I know that every eyelash and every eyebrow and everything you have is vital. And when you’re vital, you don’t become some lost cause, you can’t become a lost cause to the cause of Christ, you couldn’t. You’re the Body of Christ, and that body is giving out the energy and strength to give back to move upon you that you’re in your place with God. Isn’t that wonderful, that he would ever let us be vital? The marvel of it is that he would ever let you be vital or let me be vital. I could be vital to the cause.

I am so happy just to think. Just to think if I didn’t have anything else in the world, that I know that I’m a vital member and that I’m throbbing and listening and alive and moving and blinking and giving and doing. Just if there’s nothing else in the world, if I never move from this spot wherever I am, that I’m pulsating with life from above. Just the pulsation of life from God, the body of Christ. What could ever be any more wonderful? Nothing could be any more wonderful, whether you are on the front lines or wherever you are, pulsating with the life of Christ, moving, and you’re moving in his stead, as we know he’s not on earth, he’s at the right hand of God. But he has his people, and we’re his IF we don’t take for granted. Don’t take for granted anything. This is heaven and hell, this is life and death as is heaven and hell, this is forever and ever and ever.

We’re not in something as we meet here in the mornings and evenings. We’re not into something that is where we appear in prayer meeting in the morning, we rattle through something or something is going on that is not straight out. That is just hell. We are here that we’ll count, every thing that we do throughout all eternity, whether you are alone or whether two (where 2 or 3 are gathered together, I am in the midst).

No matter what it is, it is for eternity. We are moving with eternal things and with eternal values. What we do is counting for now and for all eternity. Very, very serious, very, very delightful. Delightful seriousness, to think that he would ever rest anything, let us have anything upon us to do for him and to do it with everything that is in us, in might and power. Glory to God.

Andrew: There are 2 things that should be made clear about baptism, because there are 2 baptisms that these are not, just for the sake of those who don’t know or who may not be clear on it. One is this is not the same as water baptism by immersion, which is also necessary for a believer when he has recognized that the Lord Jesus Christ died for his sins and wants to make an open and public confession of identification with the death of Jesus by following in obedience in water baptism. This is not water baptism.

This also is not baptism in the Holy Spirit by Jesus, or what is commonly and not entirely accurately called the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This isn’t that baptism. Because the baptism

In the case of water baptism, the one who does the baptism is a fellow believer. Baptizes the person being baptized into water. In the case of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, it’s Jesus who baptizes the believer into the Holy Spirit.

So there are some as Hannah said who speak in tongues who don’t have the Holy Spirit. There are others who truly have the baptism in the Holy Spirit, but who have not been baptized by the Holy Spirit into the Body of Christ.

Because in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is the baptizer, not the Holy Spirit. We don’t pray to the Holy Spirit or seek the Holy Spirit or ask the Holy Spirit to be baptized into the Holy Spirit. We seek Jesus, he’s the baptizer.

John the Baptist said, I’m baptizing with water, for that day. After me, he said, comes one who is mightier than I. He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire. So Jesus is the baptizer in the baptism in the Holy Spirit. In this case, it says by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body. So it’s the Holy Spirit who baptizes us into the Body of Christ.

And also as we see down below and see how it works here in the whole chapter that’s an equivalent phrase or an equivalent concept for the baptism by the Holy Spirit into the Body is finding one’s place in the body and to begin to function in that place. Because to be baptized into the Body means to come into your place first and then to start functioning in that place which is done by the power of the Holy Spirit.

You read ahead, now there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit and the manifestation of the Spirit. For to one is given by the Spirit and so on and so on. The fitting and functioning and working together of the Body of Christ when individual members are taken and placed in their places and endued with power to minister and to function and to fit together, that’s all by the power of the Holy Spirit. And the beginning of that is, or the initiation into that or the entrance into that is the baptism by the Holy Spirit into the Body of Christ. And that is vital.]

Philip was an evangelist. Praise God, he was baptized into the body of Christ! He was an evangelist and he was vital. Beautiful! He had been in a tremendous, I guess we could call it, campaign. He was down in Samaria and when those at Jerusalem had heard that there were so many results down in Samaria they sent John and Peter down. They were apostles. So you see how they have to work. You find an evangelist and he does not have the backing of the body of Christ. Well, he is an evangelist but he is not baptized into the body, so he goes from country to country or city to city, and he can have a nice set-up, singers, choirs, they form choirs, and prayers and offices, and all of that, but it is not “body of Christ.”

They have no teachers and the advice mainly of this evangelist – I am talking of an evangelist – is when the people ask, they say, “Well, go back to the church you came out of and see what you can do there.” Because there is not the backing, there is not any local body or any body. You don’t get the idea then that you have one big powerhouse, like the Vatican, then all that goes out, or like Jerusalem. They are local assemblies. You don’t get it that there is a big place and there is where this all goes out from. See, that’s like the Pope does, or like they have one big centralizing place.

But what we are on and what we are aiming for, that we do not have to any degree that we can see, and it is the most difficult thing that you can ask for on earth. You cannot ask for anything more difficult than to have members – really members for the body of Christ. There is nothing more difficult. Very, very few in comparison in the world, but they are there. We don’t have any idea that we are the only ones. We know that there are people further advanced than we are, we just don’t happen to know them. If we knew them, we would seek them out. We know that in God’s time He will allow us to come into contact with them.

We know that Peter was with his people and yet the Lord had him to go, say, to the Gentiles, supernaturally. We know all that, we have been all through that. So we know in God’s appointed hour we will be with some of them. I don’t know how we’ll ever be with ever, because we can also I like to liken it unto Ezekiel in the graveyard prophesying and seeing everything dead and dry, and yet the Lord told him to prophecy and the bones came to the bones. And the sinews come on the bones in God’s time, and there was that mighty army. So we know we don’t know how it will be done but God will bring somehow His people together. We will be with evangelists or apostles and all, or what.

But what we aim for and what we have aimed for – and I have aimed for years and years and years and seen so little of it – it’s a lifetime something, and you give your life and you see so little results. But it is possible. The vision is there. And though it does not come to pass, in a day or a year or 40 years, well you can see signs here and there, praise God! Which I do see. I do see signs in the making.

But Philip was an evangelist. He was not somebody who was running on his own, on his own set-up. See, these evangelists have their own set-up, big set-ups. You can take Billy Graham. He is the best that we know in the world who is going everywhere and everywhere and he is not the body of Christ. Salvation man. He does not have a body of Christ set-up. He has his singers and different ones and a wonderful, you could say, organization – Billy Graham’s organization. And the body of Christ is not an “organization,” it is an “organism.” We are not an organization, thank God. We can and should be and will to be – we don’t think we are somewhere where we are not. We are not at all deluded to think we have the whole set-up here or anything. We are very much facing facts about what we have got and what we have not. We know pretty much.

So Philip was there preaching concerning the Kingdom of God and in the Name of Jesus they were baptized in water, both men and women, but nobody had been baptized (this is Acts 8:12). Then Simon – there was a false man there, a magician, and Philip wasn’t, in this sense he wasn’t into discernment. It was just like he threw out the seine and hauled in all kinds of fish, and then when you get the fish in, the fisherman, they throw the too small ones back into the water to let them grow; just empty the net and let them grow up until they can get caught. So Philip had pulled in the whole thing and he pulled in a magician, and he didn’t see through it. But thank God, God knew that there was a magician there who was posing as something that he wasn’t, and he had the people, Peter and John who had this discernment, and also power to lay hands on people that they might receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. So it was just like he believed and Philip took him in and baptized him. “He continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs” but he was looking at all this with a double motive.

If you ever start with God and you have any other thing than for God alone, if there is anything in the making underneath – well, maybe if I do this that I can get this or this – some people say, “I will pay tithes.” And people advertise this, false evangelists advertise that and say, “Pay your tithes or send us the money and then that will be increased ten times or that will be increased nine times.” Or, “You know Abraham, he paid tithes and he was a rich man, and the land will feel your weight.” Anything you do for the Lord, anything whatever you do for the Lord and you have this psychology of thinking, “I’ll do this and then He will do that.” This is double and you are in imminent danger. You can keep on, the enemy can lead you on, but you don’t do anything only out of pure heart fervently for God, not expecting anything. What God wants to do, that is up to Him. (Tape break)

“Now when the apostles which were in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost.” So you see there was a salvation, after that baptism in water, you can see the line-up there: baptism in water and then baptism in the Holy Spirit. So they came down. “For as yet He was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.”

Now this man was not an ordinary man, he was a spiritual man. What do we mean by “spiritual?” Because when you say “spiritual man” it almost goes to it that you mean they are good people, very spiritual. But there are spiritual and spiritual. It means that their spirits… A person is tripartite – body, soul and spirit. God is tripartite – Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Well, we are tripartite. It means that they are more subject or have the propensity to grasp things spiritually than they are naturally. Some people you can appeal to them right away spiritually and naturally you could not get anywhere with them, because there is a propensity of grasping spiritual things, either for God or for the devil. Because the supernatural in general is the supernatural but there is a fine dividing line between supernatural and supernatural because the devil works in the supernatural. So you have two sides to supernatural – God and the devil. The devil does everything in the supernatural, God too. So there are people who can feel something and they have a propensity for the supernatural or for the spiritual. This man was that type of man. Other people, they cannot get anywhere spiritually hardly – they try to get somewhere spiritually. Like somebody says they can see an angel and I thank God I have never even felt a feather of their wings, because I don’t aim for something like that. I know I am spiritual but not that kind of spirituality such as looking for angels to come down or something to lift me or to get into some fuzzy place or something, this we don’t court or go out for.

But this man was a spiritual man. A spiritual with a double motive. He himself believed and he was baptized, he went through all the motions. “Then laid they their hands on them,” showing the power of impartation. I have told you about the false prophet that was up at the North Shore going around with his hands, and as I told the people, the power of imparting, that someone can give you what they have. Well, like Peter said, “Silver and gold I don’t have, but what I’m going to do, I am going to give you what I have, what I can give,” Of course, it was only God could heal the man. “Silver and gold have we none, but what I have” and he took hold of his hand and the man was healed immediately. He imparted unto him faith to believe that he could leap in the temple there.

So this man saw “that through laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money.” He was clear out of his bounds and out of the boundaries of the spiritual of God. He mixed up with money, to the very idea. You could know. You wouldn’t have to have too much discernment (although we know Peter had wonderful discernment) to know there is something off there, that he would put this in the money realm. Spiritual things in the money realm, that “if I lay my hands on somebody, if I get this…” How could he get this? And how can Catholicism – they claim that Peter laid his hands on somebody and then that made another Pope and then the other Pope made the other Pope, until we have Pope Paul there. The worst thing they could be doing, trying to impersonate and saying that he is the Vicar or that he is a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. How these human hands that were laid on people who were not in God. To begin with, as far as we know, Peter never was in Rome. We know that the church did not start in Rome, it started in Jerusalem. We can just look at the history of it and we know that it came through Constantine who was an Emperor and then tried to take over the spiritual side and it all came through all this making it all up, you could say, a farce.

So Simon was saying, “Well, if I could do this, I would give any amount of money.” I don’t know how much he offered. “Saying, ‘Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost.” What has money got to do with the Holy Ghost! How can you get into heaven by paying to get out of purgatory, with money for masses. They get money. The more money you have the quicker you get out of purgatory. That is why all of these great buildings and all the great acres of land and walls and Hudson River is filled with and everything – the dear souls – just sign here because I want the masses to go up for me, and the more masses then the quicker I will get out of purgatory. There is never any surety about this purgatory when anybody will ever get out, as you know. You never know so you keep on paying. What I say, if you have a grandmother or a grandfather or a great aunt or a great, great aunt, or a great, great grandmother and they’re there, you shouldn’t have a stitch, because that all should be turned into money to get those dear screaming souls out of purgatory. What are you doing with two pieces of things to wear? What are you doing with two chairs? You could pay this money and you could get these screaming souls.

There is a special saint down there, Mercedes or something, that you see her flying over purgatory, she has been made into a saint, and she has those scapularies or something; she has strings of them like on ribbons, and the souls in purgatory trying to grab up and grab one of those scapularies and whoever grabs one then she can get them out quickly. So you pray to that certain one and you will be snatched out. All inventions. This is an invention for money. As someone has said, “Purgatory is as deep as my pocket,” That’s how deep, like I have that pocket here. So you have all these people signing everything they have. Catholicism.

Of course, I have dealt with so many people, priests included, and one priest I dealt with I asked, “But why did you invent a purgatory?”
He said, “Well, we have to have something to get money for the church.” That was that priest’s answer to me. “We have to have something to get money for the church.” I said, “But lies! and a made-up place to get money for a church! How would God ever bless it?” He didn’t know what more to answer. He was glad to get away. But just to invent lies so they can get money for a church. There is all of this that you go in and you light your candle and the priest has the requiem mass, all of this, to get souls out of purgatory. And no one can go to heaven straight, not even the Pope, just think of it, but he has to go through because it’s purging – purgatory – so there is the purging, you have to be purged. So the blood of Jesus is not efficacious enough to save you, you have to add your money. You have to add thee screaming prayers and whatever they have.

Well, here is this Simon and he said, “Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost.”

“But Peter said unto him, ‘Thy money perish with thee.”‘ Plain talk.

“Well, would you do this to a poor soul who has just been baptized in water; I don’t think that was very kind? My, why would you do something like that? He was doing the best he knew how.” We see these nasty nice people all along and they are always talking about doing kind things to people. To take some stand in their face, oh they couldn’t do that because that would be insulting and they wouldn’t know any better than to think this was the dear Lord somehow working through them. We must be kind.

He said, “Your money perish with you, because you have thought that the gift of God may be purchased.” Well, it was a sacrilege, it was a horror, it was the demons that were right in that man and would just curse him forever, that he would ever think of such a thing.

“Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God.” Thank God for people who can look you in the eye and say, “Look, this is off. It is not right and you’ll never get anywhere with it.” Thank God there was someone there to tell him right away and he says, “Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art in…” (what that man was in was the gall of bitterness; he was so bad off that he was so eaten up inside with bitterness, that that’s what was there). “You wouldn’t think that just saying a little innocent thing like this – he wanted to do right – he wanted to help people – he wanted to lay hands and give the baptism to somebody, because he had all these intentions, he had the best intentions, what could be of better intention; why would people do such a thing as that…?” He was eaten up inside with bitterness. All that that he had on the surface, going through all the loops of the Christians was all surface and inside he was eaten out, he was an eaten out person, and Peter doesn’t give him any idea that he is ever going to get out of it. He said, “if” – he said, “Repent of thy wickedness and pray that God.” If – if – if – another if. Perhaps. Nobody can give anybody repentance, that’s for sure. God has to give the repentance. You can cry, you can mourn, you can bash yourself, you can lash yourself – but only God can give you repentance. If you have one idea of repentance, that you are sorry to the bottom for what you have done, only God did that. That is the most wonderful thing that anybody could ever have – true repentance. Praise God. Wonderful!

“Then answered Simon, and said, ‘Pray ye to the Lord for me, that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me.’” He says “ye” so it must have been both of them dealt with him. It wasn’t just Peter, though he uses his name, but when you use “ye” you mean more than one. “And they, when they had testified and preached the word,” they went on about their business. He didn’t say, “Oh, yes, we’ll be praying for you. Just kneel down here and we’ll try to do something about it and we’ll spend some time.” They went on to Jerusalem.

But the next part, where Philip was so filled with the power of the Lord, and he wasn’t just called to do the rest of the work, he knew his place. He didn’t try to stick around and say, “Well, here’s Peter now and John, I’ll see how they are going to do it.” It is the same as John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ. He laid the foundations, he made the crooked straight, he made the high low and the low high, and he said, “I’m not anybody.”

“Who are you?”

“Don’t ask me my name. I’m a voice crying in the wilderness.” But when he saw Jesus, he said, “I have to decrease and he has to do the increasing,” and they talked to him about it and they chided him and said, “Well, didn’t you know he has more disciples than you?” He said, “I always told you I wasn’t anybody. I’m finished.” And when he was in the prison, all he wanted to know was had the right one come yet, and his head was taken off. But he knew how to melt into the ministry and he wasn’t hanging around and being where he shouldn’t be or trying to be like somebody or trying to do something he wasn’t supposed to. Neither was Philip.

Philip knew, well that’s it. Then the Lord caught him away. “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. Well, he could have said, “I’ve been in tremendous things, the most tremendous campaign, hundreds of souls saved, the fish were pulled in and I’m just somebody now. I put my name right outside and get my shingle going: Philip the Evangelist, Philip the Successor, Philip the one with everything imaginable.” Well, there he is taken to a desert. “Well, Lord, what are you taking me to a desert for? I just came to the top, I surfaced, and now I have to go down now. I surfaced and now I have to go down.” There he was, one man just one man, an Ethiopian, who had charge, well he happened to have charge over all the treasures, “and had come to Jerusalem for to worship.” But he didn’t know anything about this great revival or any meeting was going on. He knew that Jerusalem was the place where people came to worship. He was returning, “and sitting in his chariot read Isaiah the prophet.”

Oh, I think this is so wonderful, that this man, this Ethiopian, a Gentile, was reading the Old Testament. And right out of the Old Testament, just reading that, and wondering about it. It was all so supernatural, because he knew when Philip joined him this was all spiritual – spiritual – spiritual awakening. He was sitting in his chariot reading…. “Then the Spirit said unto Philip, ‘Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.’ And Philip ran (ran) thither to him and heard him read the prophet.” This man was reading aloud. Isn’t this beautiful, to come across a man reading aloud – and he could not have been on a better chapter. Oh, praise God! “For He was despised and rejected of men.” Isaiah, 800 years before the Lord Jesus, and he is writing down, and the Ethiopian is reading, “He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it was 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.” They ground their heels on Him. They put Him on a cross on the ground and put the nails through His hands and feet and ground on Him. “He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid ox upon Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.” And he was listening to this, Philip, and he said, “Understandest thou what thou readest?” So he needed a teacher. Philip is an evangelist and he is a teacher. Praise God, he had some qualities. He is in the body of Christ. He was there to teach one man. 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. 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.’ And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, ‘I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this, of himself or of some other man?’” Is Isaiah portraying himself, what he’s going through? You wouldn’t want anything any better, would you? Philip the Jew was there with a Gentile and using the Old Testament, a prophet, and preaching salvation. Isn’t this a conglomeration of affairs! Praise God, it all got together, it all concorded, it was all in one. Philip the Jew. Philip the Evangelist, Philip the teacher, could minister to the Gentile and tell him.

And the eunuch said, “I pray thee, of whom is he speaking?” “Then Philip opened his mouth [that’s all he had to do because he was saturated with it.] Now, you know you don’t have to say I just want to get something now to help somebody, the body of Christ or something, and I’m here to minister, and you take so long. So long we have the pauses, so long we wait, so long we don’t know if we’re right or not, or all the backs and forths and ins and outs.

“Then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same Scripture.” At the same Scripture. He didn’t say, now get off of that a minute and let’s go here to something that would suit a Gentile better, and maybe he’s just someway right where you are, the Lord. What Philip could perceive was that the Lord led him to that Scripture, why is he going to take him off of it. Use it, he’s on it. Who is it? God’s got him this far, so I’ll just go on with it, “and began at the same Scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. And as they came on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, ‘See, here is water!”‘ Oh, he got it so well. I mean, he hadn’t talked about baptism. I didn’t read anything about baptism in water. But it all was such a flow and so spiritual, and God so in it, and they were two there agreed, two in love with the Lord. Two – he just came through to the Lord Jesus Christ. “Now, what is going to stop me now from going on further with the Lord? Could anything stop me? Look, here is water.”

And I remember my poor grandfather had this all marked in his Bible, and when I said, “Poppy, I accepted the Lord.” “Just a minute, let me read you something here: “Then Philip opened his mouth … And as they went on their way, they came to 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. And he answered and said, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’ And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down….” And I’ve got it underscored in my Bible, because all the different ways that they say you can be baptized: Stand somewhere and sprinkle here or you can have a nice cement font or something – or you can get a nice silver thing with salt and you can sprinkle – there are so many different ways. “And they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. And when they were come up out of the water…” and they were right out into the open, “the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.”

“Well, now I have to put him down on the roll of the church. He’s a baptized member now. Let’s see what we’ll do with him. Maybe we can make him a nice deacon some day or put a white carnation on him going up the aisle for the offerings or….” All that meant little to Philip because he knew there were others way out there waiting. Oh, I am always so glad that we are not attached to something that we have to give a report or that we have to say we got this many… Of course, I don’t mean this in any sense to free you because some people are glad not to have any responsibility. They don’t have to give any report for anything, whether they are moving in God or not moving, or if they moved out or if they came here to the meeting with the idea of giving to the Lord and giving of themselves. They just sit back, as I’ve said, spectators, and just take something in, because there is nothing saying, “Well, I’ll do this or I have the message or we ought to be doing something or saying we should have these” No, do something. Praise God, get going with something. He didn’t have to watch over or coddle over it and see, because he knew that eunuch was caught for life. Praise the Lord, there would be no turning back for that eunuch. You would know. It doesn’t say anything anymore about the eunuch, but you would know, God moving in heaven, having him go to the side of the water there, and having him saying the Lord was despised and rejected and all, who is he speaking of, and Philip having an angel to just come and tell him and lift him up and say, “Climb up there now in his chariot with him,” you would know that there would never be any trouble about that ever. That eunuch is safe today – so safe – so safe – so safe that eunuch, praise God. There is no idea, “Well, maybe the eunuch backslid.” He never backslid, I can tell you that! He went on with God, Hallelujah! God was so in it. God added him. As the Scripture says, “And God added to the church.” And God added to the church – and God is adding to the church. And God is adding to His church in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, the Continent, South America, North America His Church is being built up, praise God! It is being built up, whether we see it or not. I know it. I can feel it going together and it is so compact that there won’t be a space in between for the devil to get. And you don’t need all the mortar there. The mortar is the love that binds it all together and it’s being built up.

You know those pyramids that those poor Israelites had to do, they are so indestructible, they are there. They have the most beautiful pyramids in Mexico which are so remarkable and they are indestructible, they’re there. Well, praise God for the body of Christ. Those pyramids will be destroyed. Those pyramids in Egypt or wherever they are, they will be destroyed, but thank God, His body cannot be destroyed. Hallelujah! It is indestructible. It is there for ever and ever, because just as it finished here it will be transported on to heaven, the great Marriage Supper of the Lamb and Christ with His bride throughout all eternity. My lord, to be a stone in it! As Peter said, we are lively stones, we are built up around that great Foundation, Jesus Christ, the Chief Cornerstone. Praise the Lord, He started that. You ask, when did He start? AD and BC and all that? Well, before the world ever came into being, He was one who but it into being. So we are built on that foundation of Christ that was always there, is there, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever, and forever and ever. Who could fail! Who would fail Him. Who would have the least idea. Who would have the germ, who would have the thing in them? Something would be terribly wrong – sick – sick – to ever fail Jesus Christ. We cannot fail, praise God! If we trust in Him, we cannot fail, we cannot, we never fail. Praise God!

On, you find Philip going. ‘But Philip was found” the next time they looked for him, he was at a place called Azotus, “and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea.” He was just going from one city to the other, all over, preaching, Philip – that’s an evangelist! That’s a sample. Then he had four daughters that were prophetesses besides. You go to his house and four daughters step forth and begin to prophesy. All in victory, the whole house in victory. Praise God. Open the door, the beautiful girls prophesying and Philip going on. “We’re praying for you, Dad, as you go,” Praise God. “Girls, I’m with you. Keep on prophesying.” Praise God. I know they never made a mistake. No hemming or hawing about that. Just a wonderful family in the Lord. Praise God! It is just thrilling to know what it is to be in the Lord, going on our ways rejoicing. Praise God. Hallelujah!