Wherever He Leads I'll Go

Known for his unique ability to simplify profound truth so that it can be applied to everyday life, Adrian Rogers was one of the most effective preachers, respected Bible teachers, and Christian leaders of our time. Thanks for joining us for this message.

Here's Adrian Rogers. Now in order to face the future, we need to understand the past. When I was a young man in high school, I felt God moving in my heart. I thought perhaps that the Lord wanted me to preach the gospel. I cannot tell you how that germ thought got, first of all, into my heart and into my mind. As a matter of fact, if there was anything I did not consider myself to be, it would be material to be a preacher or any kind of a public speaker.

As a matter of fact, the thought terrified me of standing up in front of people and speaking. Well, yet the Lord put that germ thought in my heart and in my mind. And at first it was, there's a question. I thought, Lord, do you want me to preach? And then after a few months it was more than a question, it was a thought, Lord, I think you want me to preach. And then after it became more of a thought, it became a conviction. And I began to pray, Lord, if you don't want me to preach, you better let me know.

And then it finally became a decision. I was at Ridgecrest, North Carolina. We were having our Baptist assembly there, and I was there at the summertime. And they were singing a song during the invitation, wherever he leads, I'll go. And God touched my heart and said, Adrian, I want you to preach my gospel, it's settled. And I stepped out to that invitation and said openly and publicly what I knew was true in my heart and in my life, that God had laid his hand upon me and he wanted me to preach his gospel. And as a high school boy, I said to my Lord, I said it then and I meant it, I mean it now, wherever he leads, I'll go. Now I want to speak to you on the same subject today, and that's the title of our message today, wherever he leads, I'll go. But I don't want just Adrian to have said it.

I want everybody, everybody here to say it and mean it. Wherever he leads, I'll go. Now he may not lead you across the ocean. He may not lead you into the pulpit, but he will lead you and he has a plan for you. Now I could ask today, how many missionaries are here?

And I don't want you to lift hands because it might embarrass you after I'm going to tell you what I'm going to say next. Because I want to say that every one of us who is saved is a missionary. Every one of us who is saved is a missionary. To say missionary and to say Christian is to say the same thing. Now a missionary is somebody who has been saved and sent. Now some of us are sent across the ocean and some of us are sent next door, but if we're saved, we're sent and we need to say wherever he leads, I'll go.

And by the way, if there was ever a time when we ought to say it, ladies and gentlemen, it is now. These are desperate times, folks. These are desperate times. The problem is that the times are desperate, but God's saints are not. We sit back and feel like when we come to church on Sunday morning, we've done God a favor. Oh God, what a good boy am I. I went to church on Sunday morning.

I even put something in the offering plate. Now I won't, by the time we finish this message, for you to have said it and meant it, wherever he leads, I'll go. Whatever he commands me, I will say. Now I want you to begin to read here with me, please, in Acts chapter 8 and verse 26. And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip. Now if you will remember, Philip was a deacon, one of those first seven deacons chosen back then, Acts chapter 6, a man full of wisdom and of the Holy Ghost, and he wasn't an ordained minister in any sense of the word.

He's what we would call a layman, not a missionary in the official sense of the word. And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went, and behold, a man of Ethiopia, and eunuch of great authority, under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, was returning, and sitting in his chariot, read, Isaiah the prophet.

Now Isaiah is just the way of saying, Isaiah the prophet. Now the very first thing I want to say is this, if you would be used of God, if you would say wherever he leads, I'll go, number one, you must perceive the call of God. You must perceive the call of God. Now here in verse 26, the angel of the Lord came and spoke to Philip and said, Philip, this is what I want you to do.

Now I want to be very frank with you. God's never spoken to me by an angel that I know of. Now sometimes maybe we've met angels and we didn't know they were angels because the Bible speaks of angels unawares.

I mean there are people that it may be God's angels and we didn't know they were angels. But God has spoken in my heart, and God will speak in your heart. God has many ways to speak, but God has a plan for you, and God will use you if you get usable. Some people say, why doesn't God use me? Well let me tell you something, folks.

It may be that you're not usable. You surrender yourself, he'll fill you with the Holy Spirit. I mean he will.

He will. Now even God can't fill that which is already full. I mean you've got to empty out that self and that ambition and that pride and that sin and say, Lord, fill me. And God will fill you, and what God fills, he uses. Now God will use you, God has a plan for you, just as he had a plan for Philip so long ago. And Philip was an ordinary person that God used in an extraordinary way.

Now let me say something about the working of God and how God does that. First of all, God's ways are often unknown. Philip had no way of knowing that he was going to be used of God to win, as we're going to see in a moment, a very important, a strategic man. Philip was getting ready to witness to one of the most influential men in all North Africa, and as you're going to see, a man that was used of God to open up all North Africa to the Gospel. Philip had no way of knowing that. All he knew was that God had spoken and just said, go south to Gaza. He said, yes, sir, I'll go. Now, you have no way of knowing how God is going to use you if you will obey God.

As a matter of fact, it would probably sometimes blow our gaskets if we knew what God had in plan for us in the future. About a century ago, a man named Kimball was a Sunday school teacher, and he led Dwight L. Moody to Christ. Now, who was Moody? You young people may not know who Moody is, but he was the Billy Graham of his day, but he was different from Billy Graham.

Billy Graham is very suave, very cultured, very educated, very intelligent. Moody was an orphan at the age of four. He didn't have an opportunity to get a formal education.

As a matter of fact, this may encourage some of you, in the last letter that Moody wrote before his death, there were almost 40 grammatical errors in that letter. He murdered the king's English, but he didn't disappoint the king. Brother, he loved the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings.

He was used of God to move two continents, both America and Europe for Christ. Moody went to England, and there, can you imagine this shoe clerk, that's all he was, he preached in Cambridge. And there in Cambridge was a young athlete. His name was C.T.

Studd. Now, he was one of the greatest athletes of all times. Now, over there, a cricket was to them and is to them what football is to us. He was a cricketeer. He was a star. He was in the Cambridge 11. He was a man of great ability, great culture, great charm, and great wealth.

C.T. Studd's father was a personal friend to the Queen of England and was a multimillionaire, and Studd had it all. I mean, he had the looks, he had the mind, he had the money, he had it all. He had the athletic ability. But when he heard Moody preach, God touched his life, and C.T.

Studd resigned from athletics and no longer was he a member of the Cambridge 11 playing cricket, but he got what's called the Cambridge 7, who went to China and began one of the mightiest movements in modern missions that the world has ever known. Do you know what Studd said this man so greatly used of God? Under the influence of Moody, here's what he said. They asked him, they said, what motivated you to do what you did? To leave that wealth, to leave that prestige, to leave it all. He said this, if Christ be God and died for me, there's no sacrifice I can make too great for him.

If Christ be God and died for me, there is no sacrifice too great for me to make for him. God's ways are often unknown. The man who led Moody to Christ had no idea that Moody would be used as he was. Philip had no idea that he was going to be used of God to win this strategic man, but he obeyed.

Now that's so thrilling, that's so exciting. But let me say that not only are God's ways unknown, I want to say God's ways are unexplained. God did not have to give to Philip any reason for going.

He just simply said, go, and Philip traveled under sealed orders. And perfect obedience does not need to know why. Now God may not speak to you through an angel, but God is going to speak to you. Now let me tell you how the Holy Spirit works.

It's so interesting. First of all, the Holy Spirit begins to work on an individual, an unsaved sinner. He begins to soften that sinner's heart for the gospel.

Maybe he brings influences, whatever, to that person. And then God finds a man over here or a woman over here who is filled with the Holy Spirit that he can use, and God gets the two together. Now here's Philip way up in Samaria, and here's the eunuch way down here in Gaza, and God brings the two together.

And you know, as you study the Bible and the great salvation experiences in the Bible, that happens so often. For example, Jesus said in John chapter 2, I must need go through Samaria. I mean, he felt a divine compulsion to go through Samaria. He didn't say, let's just go through.

I must needs go. And he went through Samaria, and there was that Samaritan woman there, that she had such a thirst for the Lord Jesus, and she was saved. That was a divine appointment.

You can read in Acts chapter 10, where there was this man named Cornelius, who was a Gentile of the Italian band. He had a thirst of hunger to know God, and you can read there how God took Simon Peter, and God brought the two together. I've seen it happen in my own life so many times where God would supernaturally lead me to a person who needed the gospel of Jesus Christ when my heart was right and when their heart was hungry. I was sitting on a plane in Tulsa, and I'd been praying and seeking the face of God, and there was a vacant seat near me, and I just prayed, Lord God, I make myself available. If I can help the person who's going to sit in that seat, just Lord help me to help that person who'll sit in that seat. I'm available, Lord, and I pray for the person before they ever get on the plane. Well, I waited, and after the plane filled up, that seat was still vacant.

The last person, to my knowledge, to get on that plane was the lady who came and sat down beside me, and she just plopped down. She had a big bundle of things in her hands, and she got out a Bible. I thought, well, that's unusual for a person to be carrying a Bible. I often carry one on the plane.

As a matter of fact, just almost all the time. I had just put my Bible in my briefcase. I had been studying there from Revelation 12 where it says, And they overcame him, that is the devil, by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of the testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death. I had been studying that Scripture, pondering on it, my heart was full of that particular Scripture. Now this lady gets on, and she brings out a brown Bible just like the one I put in the briefcase. I said, well, I have a Bible like that. She said, you do. She said, Mister, could you possibly please help me?

I said, well, what kind of help do you need? She said, oh, she said, is there some verse on overcoming the devil? I reached in my briefcase, got out my Bible, and showed her that verse. And do you know what she said? She said, this is the most amazing thing. She said, before I got on this airplane, I prayed that God would cause me to sit by somebody who could help me. And I thought, isn't that wonderful? Here I'm praying, oh God, let me be a blessing to this person. Here she's saying, oh God, send me somebody to help me. Now you may think that's a coincidence.

Folks, I don't think it's a coincidence. I just think that's the way we ought to be living a whole lot more of the time, how God works on both ends of the spectrum. Somebody said you get right with God, you almost have to backslide to keep from winning souls. You have to perceive the call of God.

Listen to what God is saying. And here, when Philip saw this man, he ran to this man. I want you to see how he obeyed God, how sensitive he was to the Holy Spirit of God. Look, if you will, in verse 27 here of this chapter.

And he arose and went, and behold, the man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority, and the Candaceae queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, and was returning, and sitting in his chariot, read Isaiah the prophet. And the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him. Now notice, Philip doesn't wait. He doesn't argue with the Lord. So many times we miss opportunities because they're passing us by.

Now graphically, that's illustrated. Here's a man in a chariot. Philip had to run and catch him. A few moments, it would have been too late.

Now Philip could have reasoned within himself, and he said, Well, now wait a minute. He's an Ethiopian, and I'm Jewish. We've got a race problem here. Or he could have said, Look, he's rich, and I'm poor.

There's a socioeconomic problem here. But you see, what Philip did was just to answer the Lord when the Lord spoke, and he didn't let race, races, or reading, or anything else come between. Be swift, my soul, to answer him. Be jubilant, my feet. Our God is marching on.

Now listen. You need to get yourself that sense to the Lord. You need to be walking in the stream of the Spirit because here was a man. He'd been to Jerusalem to worship.

Now he's coming back. He'd been to the most religious city on the face of the earth, and the wells of religion were dry. His soul is still thirsty. He's reading the prophet Isaiah. As we're going to show you in just a moment, he was right to the heart of the gospel. He was reading the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. The timing is exquisite.

The chariot is passing by. The man is right there in the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. He's right in that part that speaks about Christ dying for our sins. There's just a split second, just a split second.

The timing is perfect, and Philip obeys. Have you ever wondered how many opportunities you've missed? Because you're not that sensitive to the Holy Spirit of God. Oh, friend, listen, we need to say, God, help me to be sensitive. Help me to be courageous. Help me, oh God, to perceive the call of God. It's so important that you do this, my dear friend, if you would be a missionary.

Now, second thing, second thing. Not only must you perceive the call of God, but, dear friend, you must preach the Christ of God. You know, a lot of folks who call themselves missionaries today and they're building buildings and they're digging wells and they're planting crops and they're educating people and all of that. And, folks, that's good if that gives you an opportunity to preach the gospel.

But if it doesn't, it's just a colossal failure. We have some people today who are preaching what they call liberation theology. And all it is is socialism with a little religion sprinkled on top of it. And they're not preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, I want you to understand, dear friend, what a real missionary does. I want you to see what Philip did here, and it's so exciting. All right, now look, beginning in verse 30. And Philip ran thither to him and heard him read the prophet Isaiah and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? Now, just underscore that phrase because it's our job to make the Word of God plain.

That's our job. Now, listen, we are not really, in the truest sense, the soul winner. The Holy Spirit is the soul winner. Now, He is a soul winner through us, and to that degree we are the soul winners.

But you understand what I'm saying there. Our job is not to be successful. Our job is to be faithful. Our job is to make the message clear and to help people understand. And they can't understand unless we show them how.

Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? Now, incidentally, let me just say right here, ladies and gentlemen, that an angel said to Philip, Go down there. Well, why didn't God send an angel down there to tell this man how to be saved? Because angels can never testify of salvation because they've never had it. Angels never knew the joy that my salvation brings. Listen, we are privileged to do something that angels cannot do.

And I'll tell you something else. We're privileged to do something now that we won't be able to do when we get to heaven, and that's to win souls. And this man says, How can I, except some man, guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. And 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? Now notice verse 35. Then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus. We must perceive the call of God.

We must preach the Christ of God. He opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus. He didn't preach to him about race relations. He didn't preach to him about economics.

He didn't preach to him about the social and political situation in Ethiopia. He preached unto him Jesus. And there were three things he helped him to understand. And these are the three things I want you to understand today if you're not saved. And if you are saved and you want to help somebody else to be saved, it's so simple.

There are just three things. Listen, folks, when you hear somebody preach the gospel and they make it complicated, you know that probably God's not in it. The gospel is not complicated. I mean the gospel is simply glorious and gloriously simple. When you get somebody and he's preaching the gospel and you say, man, he must be intelligent. I didn't understand him. Wait a minute.

Just because the river is muddy doesn't mean it's deep. Listen, Jesus, the Bible says, the common people heard him gladly. Gladly they heard him. Here was Philip, and Philip is making known to this man, this Ethiopian, the gospel. And there are just three simple facts in Philip's message.

It would be in your message or anybody's message. Number one, Philip showed this man that he was a sinner. He showed this man that he was a sinner. He showed this man that Christ had died for his sins. This same 53rd chapter of Isaiah says, all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all. No doubt in my mind at all, but Philip took that to ramify why the Lord Jesus died like a lamb to the slaughter. He was dying for our sins. Nobody, nobody, nobody has ever been saved who has not first of all admitted that he or she is a sinner. My dear friend, listen to me today, listen to me today. There is nobody so good he need not be saved and nobody so bad he can't be saved, amen?

But we have to understand what the Bible says, that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, that Christ died for our sins. Over in England they had a beauty contest. In Shoreham, England they were using it to promote a product, and it was an unusual beauty contest because it was for women who were over 40. Now, they had a wonderful prize, but no one won the prize.

You know why? Nobody entered the contest. Not a woman who considered herself a beauty would admit that she was 40.

They couldn't get anybody in the contest because none of these women would admit if they were beautiful enough to win the prize that they were 40. There are some people who will never possess salvation because they will not admit that they're a sinner. And I don't mean just admit it, but acknowledge it before God. Oh, God, have mercy upon me, a sinner. My dear friend, you're a sinner by birth, a sinner by nature, a sinner by choice, a sinner by practice, and the wages of sin is death. And Philip made known to this Ethiopian that Christ had died for his sins.

You see, dear friend, you won't get saved until you admit that. There's an old story of a king who was visiting a slave galley ship where they chained the slaves to the oars and made them pull on the oars and people were put in those ships. They were prison ships, prisoners of the state.

People had done horrible things, crimes. This was their sentence, to pull at the oars beneath the decks to be the engines of those ancient ships. This king visited one of those ships and he asked a man, why are you here? He said, sire, I'm here. Not really my fault. The reason I'm here is I was framed. I wasn't guilty, but I was lied on in a law court. And the king said, oh, that's tragic.

That's such a shame. He went to the next man and said, why are you here? Oh, he said, your honor, he said, I am like the other man. He said, I am innocent. He said, I was simply in a crowd when a crime was committed and I was arrested with the others.

Have mercy on me. And the king said, oh, that's tragic, my man, that you should be in such a situation. And he went to one man after another and they all had some tale like that except for one man. And he said, and why are you here? He said, sire, I'm here because I'm a criminal. I have sinned against my God. I have sinned against my king. I have sinned against my fellow man. And now I'm suffering the just reward for my deeds. When the king heard that, he said, you naive. You rascal. What are you doing here among so many honest men?

Guards, release him and get him out of here. Oh, dear friend, when we protest our innocence, we condemn ourselves. But when we say, God, have mercy upon me, a sinner, we'll know the king's forgiveness.

Now, I'll tell you something else you have to understand. Not only do you have to understand, and not only did Philip help this man to understand that he was a sinner, but Philip helped him to understand that Christ died for his sins. Like a lamb to the slaughter, like a sheep before shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth, and Philip preached unto him the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. No matter what else you preach, dear friend, if you don't tell people that Christ died for their sins, you're not a missionary. You haven't preached the gospel of Jesus Christ, and he preached how that Christ died for our sins.

Have you understood that he took your place? All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him, on Jesus, the iniquity of us all. Jesus took my sin and went to Calvary.

I take his righteousness and I go to heaven. That's what the gospel is. You say, oh, that's so simple. That's exactly right, dear friend.

It's so simple that sometimes a little child will see it and a college professor will stumble over it. I heard of a woman who was a washer woman. She got saved, and she didn't have a great education. There was a skeptic, a sinner, who knew her, and he said, well, Betty, I hear you got religion last week.

Tell me what it's like to be a saint. She said, well, I'm not sure I know what a saint is. He said, well, tell me what happened to you. Oh, she said, I learned of something called the grace of God and that Jesus died for me, and I trusted him as my personal Savior and Lord, and he's forgiven my sin and saved me. Oh, he said, you're saved. He said, tell me, what does it feel like to be saved? And she said, well, I don't think I could explain it where you could understand it, but she said to me, it's as though I'm standing in Jesus' shoes and He's standing in mine.

I don't believe a theologian with an earned degree could explain it better than that. Dear friend, I'm standing in Jesus' shoes, and He's standing in mine. Christ died for our sins. Hallelujah. Now, listen, listen. The third thing that Philip taught this man is so simple. It's so simple that salvation is by grace through faith.

Look. Look at it right here, verse 36. 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, and I just underscore this, if thou believeth with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. You know what Philip had taught him? That salvation is by grace through faith.

Now, look, it's so simple. Philip taught him he was a sinner. Philip taught him that Christ died for his sins, and Philip taught him that he was saved by grace through faith. Couldn't you teach people that?

I mean, folks, you don't have to be a Ph.D. to teach that. That is so simple that we're saved by grace through faith as we trust the Lord Jesus. That's the reason the Apostle Paul said in Romans chapter 1, verse 16, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. That's the reason that Paul and Silas were able to tell that man in that Philippian jail in Acts chapter 16, verse 31, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Let me ask you a question. Can a person know that they're saved?

Absolutely. You're looking at a man who knows he's saved. Well, you say, you sure are cocky.

You sure do have a lot of confidence in yourself. No, I don't, but I know I'm saved. And the way that I know I'm saved is because salvation is by grace through faith. If you have your Bibles and you want to see something that'll bless you, just open to Romans chapter 4 here for just a moment, and let me show you what I'm talking about, how you can know that you're saved. In Romans chapter 4, now look at it. Romans chapter 4 and verse 16. Just the first part of that verse. Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace to the end that the promise might be sure.

I'm just going to stop right there. It is by faith that it might be by grace to the end that the promise might be sure. Now what does that mean? Well, you see, dear friend, if there were any other plan of salvation, you couldn't be sure. Suppose God said everybody want to be saved, read a chapter in the Bible.

Some people can't read. Suppose God said everybody want to be saved, live a good life. None of us have ever lived a perfect life, these people who depending upon their good works to get them to heaven.

They have the idea, well, if you're living good enough when you die, you're going to go to heaven. Oh, my dear friend, listen. Is there anybody who would stand up here and say, today, yesterday, or tomorrow, they're going to be perfect, have been perfect? Not a one of us. Well, you say, I've been pretty good.

Pretty good. God demands perfection. Suppose you're hanging over a chasm 2,000 feet deep and you're suspended by a chain of 100 links in that chain. Ninety-nine links in that chain are forged steel and one link is made of crepe paper. I'll say for you, when you have a proverb, a chain is no stronger than its weakest link. Dear friend, if one link in that chain depends upon you, you'll never be sure.

Just one link. I mean, it's not you and God, it's God. It's God all the way. Let me give you a verse of Scripture. Some people, they have a hard time understanding it when they hear it. It's Romans 11, 6. And if by grace it is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. And if by works it is no more of grace, otherwise work is no more work. Did that make sense to you? Sounds confusing, doesn't it?

All right, slow down now, listen. And if by grace, as Romans 11, 6, is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. What is grace?

God's riches at Christ's expense, G-R-A-C-E. Grace is God doing it all and us doing none of it. Now, if it is by grace, it is no more of works. I cannot work my soul to save that work my Lord has done, but I'll work like any slave for the love of God's dear Son. But I don't work in order to be saved.

I work because I've been saved. And if by grace it is no more of works, otherwise, listen, otherwise grace is no more grace. The minute I add works to it, then grace is no more grace. Friend, you try to add your two bits worth of effort to what Jesus did on the cross of Calvary and you'll insult the giver. The minute you add your works to it, you destroy the idea of grace. And if by works it is no more of grace, if it's by grace it can't be of works, and if it's of works it can't be of grace. Now, those of you who are trying to be saved by your good works, no wonder you don't have the assurance of your salvation. The Bible says it's by faith that it might be of grace, that it might be sure. I know I'm going to heaven, but, mister, I wouldn't trust the best 15 minutes I ever lived to get me to heaven. Did you know that?

Not the best 15 I ever lived, much less some of the worst ones. But I am going to heaven by the grace of God. Listen, what Philip preached to this man was this, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Now, folks, that's what people have to understand when he got up there and he said, Do you understand what you're reading? He helped him to see that he was a sinner. He helped him to understand that Christ died for his sins, and he helped him, dear friend, to understand that salvation is by grace through faith. One last thing, and I don't have time to develop this, but listen, not only must the missionary, not only must the missionary perceive the call of God, not only must he preach the Christ of God, but he must practice the commands of God. If you read this story on through, you find out that Philip got this man baptized as a believer in Jesus Christ. This man had believers' baptism. For you see, the Great Commission tells us not only to preach Christ, but to obey Christ. The Great Commission says, Go ye therefore into all the world, making disciples of all nations and baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. I wish I had more time to talk about that, but dear friend, when you are baptized, it's your way of showing openly and publicly that you have been saved, but you must be saved in order to be baptized, and if you haven't believed first with all of your heart, you're not ready to be baptized.

The eunuch said, See, here's water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If you believe with all your heart you may. If you were baptized before you were saved, dear friend, that's like having your funeral before you die. You're not baptized in order to be saved. You're baptized because you're saved, and true baptism follows true salvation. When this man was baptized, the Bible says, he went on his way rejoicing.

Baptism and joy are linked in the Bible, and the reason that some of you who claim to be saved don't have any joy is you've not been obedient about the matter of baptism. Now, if we're real missionaries, we're going to perceive the call of God, we're going to preach the Christ of God, and we're going to practice the commands of God. Father, I pray in the name of Jesus that today you would help people, men, women, boys, and girls, to say yes to Christ, to trust Him, to save them. If you're not a Christian today, I want to help you to receive Christ.

Now, I want to remind you of three things. You are a sinner. There are none so good they cannot be saved, need not be saved, none so bad they cannot be saved.

Okay? God wants to save you, my friend. Secondly, I want to remind you that Christ died for your sins. Your sins have been paid for.

Thirdly, I remind you that if you will trust Him right now, He will save you. You're not saved by good works of any kind, but that you're saved by trusting Jesus. Oh, you'll do good works, but not in order to be saved, but because you have been saved. Would you like to be saved?

I want you to pray this prayer right now, silently in your heart. Oh God, I confess that I'm a sinner. I've sinned against you. I need to be saved. It was for my sins, Lord Jesus, that you died. You paid for my sins with your blood. Lord Jesus, you said if I would trust you, you would save me. I do trust you, Jesus. Right now, this moment, come into my heart, Jesus.

Would you ask Him that? Come into my heart, Jesus. Lord, give my sin. Save me, Lord Jesus. Just pray it from your heart. Save me, Lord Jesus. Save me.

Did you ask Him? Then thank Him for saving you. Pray this way. Thank you for saving me, Jesus.

I don't deserve it, but I receive it now by faith, like a little child. Thank you. Thank you for saving me. Praise your Holy Name. Pray it and mean it.

Thank you for saving me. And then pray this. Lord Jesus, help me never to be ashamed of you. Help me to obey you. In your name I pray. Thank you.