“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, 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, was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias 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 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? 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? 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 both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. 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. But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea.” Acts 8:26-40.

We have a picture before us of an open air Bible School. A Bible School that is being held in a chariot. One is the student and the other is the teacher, which is representative of us today.

Philip is the teacher, preacher and evangelist. The type that the world is crying out for today. The Ethiopian is the student.

Let us look at the student—this very busy man, this colored man, this big Ethiopian. What I like about this man was that he was a busy man. A lot of us think we are busy people. “You don’t know how I had to snatch time to come here today,” you say. I am glad you are here, it shows you have put first things first.

“Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”

This eunuch was a busy man; he was the manager of all the affairs of the state; a man of great affairs; yet a man so interested in understanding the Word of God. He was so desperately keen on taking time to read the Word that he took it with him and read it on his journey. I wonder if we take time to read the Word. This man was hungry after the truth. He was longing after the light. He was longing for the peace of God in his soul. So longing to know it was right, that he was right, and that all was right, that he had to read the Word of God wherever He went and whenever he could get the chance. He took it with him and was reading it in the chariot. That is one thing we get to value more and more as we go along and that is the Word of God. What we need today are men and women who really want to know about the word. We all know of people who say “I want the baptism in the Holy Ghost,” but they never come out to seek it. I haven’t much faith in people like that. “I want to know more about the Word. I want to understand it better,” but you never see them spending any time reading it.

Here was a man, a busy man (I want to emphasize that!), he found time for his Bible study. Praise God!

Are you so busy you don’t take time to feed your soul?

 

I am going to aim an arrow right here, where you are not expecting it to come. It is going to be aimed directly at the target. It is for Christian workers and preachers. Do you know you can be so busy you don’t give yourself time to feed your soul? Do you know you can be “so busy” that you have no time for that Book? You can rob your soul of the food that is needed. You can be just as busy about your church work as you can about washing dishes. You can be a Christian worker and be so busy with your correspondence, with your visiting, and other things that you don’t give time to feed your own soul! You are busy? I am glad you are, but don’t be TOO busy for this.

Here was a man who was so busy. The first thing he was busy, second, he was hungry. This man was so hungry, he had to read the Word whenever he got the chance. Whenever he could snatch the chance he would get a bit of help. He was hungry and what a wonderful thing it is to have—SPIRITUAL HUNGER? How universal it is all over the world today. Human hearts are hungry everywhere. Praise God we are. What a wonderful thing it is—Spiritual hunger? Many folks have the wrong conception of the baptism in the Holy Ghost. They think after they are baptized it stops them from being hungry. It satisfies, but it doesn’t stop the hunger. You are all familiar with the quotation Brother Wigglesworth made, “when you are filled with the Holy Ghost you are satisfied with an unsatisfied satisfaction.” One of the saddest things you can meet is somebody who has had the baptism in the Holy Ghost and sits down and just says “it has arrived.”

In England they sing a little chorus “I’m over on Canaan’s shores, I’m over on Canaan’s shores.” It is good to sing it if you are over but I see some after they get over fall asleep. You can even hear them snoring. They are over, but that is all there is to it. There is very much more to be possessed and to be learned. Don’t think if you have talked in tongues you are a finished product. Pardon me for saying it, but you are just raw material.

Oh, to be hungry. This man was so hungry. This is another reason that makes me happy to be on the journey I am. This man was reading it but not understanding it. It is possible to read the Word and not understand it. His words are so powerful and piercing to our hearts. Philip said “Understandest thou what thou readest?”

And the eunuch said “How can I, except some man should guide me?”

Oh, the joy to unlock things to souls that have never seen them before.

 

How needful it is to have someone explain it to us. We read so much but do not have a key to it. There is so much there, and when someone does explain it and we see it, it is like knocking the lid off a box it is so wonderful. There is so much we haven’t seen yet. I am on the lookout for anybody to give me a key to get more out of it. “How can I, except some man should guide me?” Reading the Word, but not understanding it. How happy I am for the work God has given me. I wouldn’t change places with President Hoover or King George of England, I am so happy in the place God has given me. Oh, the joy to unlock things to souls that have never seen them before. Then when others are shown I must keep going to the Lord for Him to show more to me so that more can be given out.

This man was so hungry. The Word of God was precious, but it was letter and not light. I remember the time when I read the Word and it meant nothing to me, but then God graciously shed light on portions of it and it means something to me now. These portions are light today but years ago they were letter. Today they are Spirit. They were letter and dead, but today they are alive and Spirit. When I look back on what has been quickened I look forward to what is going to be quickened. Some is still letter to me, but the day is coming when they will be quickened and will be life. That is a wonderful moment when God by the Holy Ghost teaches us something of the Word and it springs into life. God give it to some of us this week. It is a wonderful thing when something you have read hundreds of times suddenly lives and is quickened. It was the same with the Ethiopian. Something he read sprang into life. What a wonderful moment.

In Acts 10:36, when Peter goes to the house of Cornelius, lots of people think God sent Peter there to preach the Word to a people that had never heard it before. That isn’t so. Cornelius and those others around him knew the Word, and Peter didn’t go to tell them something they had never heard, but what Peter was called to do was to preach the Word to them in the power of the Spirit and to change that which was letter into life. This is the kind of preaching so many countries are needing today, especially countries like America, Scotland, Great Britain and other lands. They have the Word, but they need it changed from letter to life. Of course with lands like China, Africa, and others, that is a different proposition. We need somebody in the power of the Holy Ghost that can make the Word spring into life.

The eunuch immediately grabbed the opportunity of having somebody help him.

 

This eunuch was reading but not understanding. I love him for this. When the chance came and Philip came along, he immediately grabbed the opportunity of having somebody help him. It is a glorious thing to be teachable, to be ready to grasp help from anybody who can give it to you. There are some people who think they don’t need any help; and you can’t help them. There are others who think they know it all. They do, all they ever will know. Oh, to have a teachable spirit; to grasp any help that crosses our path. It is a delight to God, it is a delight to man, and it is the despair of the devil. How lovely is the spirit of teachableness.

Here is a hasty picture of the student. A busy man, although not too busy to grasp time for spiritual things. Spiritual things meant more than temporal. He was a great man regarding the affairs of his country. He filled a big position, but yet, he sought first the kingdom of God. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” He had time to read spiritual things, and at the same time he was a hungry man. He was reading, but not understanding, not quickened, not enlightened.

Philip arose and went, in response to God’s word.

 

Now let us look at Philip. Philip is one of my favorites. I like Philip. Philip was married, (and I am married), and not only married but had a family. We need to take notice of these things for there are lots of things that are going around that are impure and smelly. This was a beautiful family. They had four girls, all of them saved, everyone of them baptized and everyone a prophetess. How I would have loved to have had a vocation in that family. What a time with all of them! I love Philip, he was a beautiful character.

Here he is before us. 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 he arose and went.” Oh, for more preachers like that today. If we could only learn today to put more emphasis on quality and less on quantity. There are numbers of ministers on the home fields and on the foreign fields who have not the emphasis on quality but on quantity. May the Lord give us more ministers and missionaries who are full of the Holy Ghost. I do not mean to say we can do without the missionaries and ministers, but I do say we should have more quality and less quantity. An incompetent preacher costs as much as a competent one. An incompetent missionary costs just as much as a competent one. There is lots of the Lord’s money that can easily be wasted if we are not careful. One preacher who preaches in the power of the Spirit, either home or abroad, can accomplish more than twenty preachers without the Spirit. There are some preachers who are wonderful people. They are good, clean, righteous people, but they are not called to the ministry. They have not received a Divine call from God. Over in England if a young man goes to Bible School, he comes right out and thinks he is a preacher. Some of them would make far better electricians than preachers, and if you are not called to preach, you will be just as much received in the heavenly mansion if you are an electrician. It is quality that counts more than quantity. I believe we have wasted hundreds and thousands of dollars all on account of quantity instead of quality.

One preacher who preaches in the power of the Spirit, either home or abroad, can accomplish more than twenty preachers without the Spirit.

 

Philip was a model preacher and teacher, about the initial believing when you get salvation, but it is the step by step of growing as you say “I believe, I believe, I believe,” and keep on until thank God, you will believe yourself into glory. How glorious!

Faith is a result of the Word of God. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” The eunuch was not wasting his time, but he was reading the Word, and reading the Word lays the foundation for real faith. He was enlightened, then he could say “I believe.”

The second result is “obedience.” When faith comes along, obedience follows. “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?”

“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.”

Instant obedience is a glorious thing.

 

That is lovely obedience. Follow on the spot, that is what God wants. When some folks get the light on water baptism, they ponder over it, and it makes me laugh because I was the same way. For a long time after I heard it I was convicted, but still I excused myself “until God showed me.” When God shows us something, and as soon as we get a change we obey it. Philip was explaining those wonderful words of Peter’s “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” Philip was making note of all this while rolling along in the chariot, when suddenly, “Stop the chariot.”

“What is the matter?”

“Here is water.”

“What about the water?”

“Didn’t you say I could be baptized on the spot?”

(I suppose Philip was so taken by surprise, just like a lot of us. We have very little faith at times.)

“What doth hinder me to be baptized?”

Philip, no doubt, looked at him in amazement. “If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

Thank God, Philip was ready to arise to the occasion. “And they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.” Hallelujah! Brothers and Sisters, obedience, instant obedience is a glorious thing. Many of us have been having controversy for weeks and months over some step God is dealing with us about. You are becoming doubtful, shaky and unbelieving, and I don’t wonder. When you know what God wants, obey Him and obey promptly and quickly.

Now for the last result of this Bible School. The first was “Faith”, second “Obedience” and the last “Joy”. This finishes up with the best of all, Hallelujah! “And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, and the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing.” What a different man!

When Mrs. Eunuch opened the door, she said “what has happened to you? He left home with a burden; and came home with the burden lifted. He left home groping in the twilight, crying for light; he came home walking in light. He left home longing to understand things that puzzled him; he came home saying “Now I know.”

The end of it all was joy. The joy of the Lord is strength. Don’t you want God to give us desires like that? May the Lord help us to have the experience of the eunuch and the experience of Philip. We will find our “faith” will grow exceedingly; our “obedience” will be swift and sure; and our “joy” no man will be able to take away from us.

Praise the Lord!

Thomas and Hannah Lowe in Colombia

Thomas Ernest Lowe delivered this message to assemblies in Maryland in the early 1930’s before leaving long-term for the mission field in Colombia in 1936.

Mr. Lowe, an able and zealous minister, seeing the great abundance of Gospel opportunity for North Americans and realizing the scarcity of that same opportunity for millions in South America, set out in the 1930’s for Colombia, to survey the spiritual landscape, and was joined there by his wife, Hannah. They worked together until Mr. Lowe, still a relatively young and most vigorous man, died in the capital city of Bogotá in 1941. Mrs. Lowe, vibrant in service to her Lord until her final days, died at Jerusalem in June 1983, having spent a year in the beloved City.