Admonition Podcast

Good morning.

In ancient times.

one of the most feared weapons of war.

one of the most likely assurances of victory.

is the army with the iron chariots.

Chariots in the Old Testament were a mighty weapon.

They had some disadvantages.

They uh didn't do well in mountainous terrain.

They were better on the valley.

But in the plain, in the open field, they presented an overwhelming force.

to the enemies of the opposite army.

Egypt was known for its chariots, not always of iron, but often of iron.

They were known for their power and their prowess on the battlefield.

but in Exodus chapter 14.

the chariots were not the weapon that they thought they would be.

In Old Testament history, back in Exodus chapters three and four, God tells Moses to go to
Pharaoh in Egypt and to tell Pharaoh to let my people go.

And as Moses and Aaron go before Pharaoh, Pharaoh asked the question, who is this God that
I should hear him?

Pharaoh wants to know, why should I care?

what the God of the Hebrews says.

Pharaoh refuses to let the people go.

And Moses and Aaron will begin to show a number of signs that God had told Moses he would
show Pharaoh to demonstrate to Pharaoh just exactly who God actually was.

and to demonstrate to the world that God, Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews, the I Am that I
Am, is Lord of heaven and earth, and beside him there is no God.

to demonstrate to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians that it did not matter what God they
trusted in, that God could not deliver them from Jehovah.

And so, through the series of miracles and plagues, as we call them, that God, through
Moses and Aaron's hand, will deliver to Pharaoh, God will make subservient and make it

clear that He is superior to all other gods.

So when that last plague comes, the death of the firstborn, and a cry goes up throughout
all Egypt because of the firstborn of man and beast that dies in the night.

Pharaoh sends word to Moses and Aaron, take Israel and leave.

Now before they left, God had told Israel to go to all their neighbors, to go to all those
around them and ask of them anything that they would give them.

the nation of Egypt was plundered by choice.

handed many great riches over to Israel.

and Israel left Egypt.

As they began journeying, God takes them not the normal way.

He doesn't take them the normal path out of Egypt, the clear road that was the commerce
road, which by the way was the same road that Joseph had been brought in on as a slave

after he had been sold to the Ishmaelites and the Midianites all those years before.

No, we're not taking that road.

They go down into Egypt and they go to the edge of the Red Sea.

But after Pharaoh has determined to let them go, Pharaoh has a change of heart.

So Pharaoh and his army are gathered together and they get on their chariots and they give
chase.

Exodus chapter 14, we find the events that transpire in the remainder of the text.

You'll take your Bible and turn over there.

Exodus chapter 14, we find the chariots of defeat because the weapon that they thought
would be their victor, that would cause them to defeat Israel finally on the open road,

not in

their place where they were in Egypt, not under the power that I imagine perhaps they had
surmised that God had somehow gotten control over Egypt.

No, they were out on the open road.

They were in the place where the battle could be easily won.

They get on their chariots and they go and we read verse 6, so he made his chariot ready
and took his people with him.

Also, took 600 choice chariots and all the chariots of Egypt with captains over every one
of them.

And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt and he pursued the children of
Israel and the children of Israel went out with boldness.

So the Egyptians pursued them all, the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and
his army, and he overtook them camping by the sea beside Pyhathoron, Hyaroth, before

Baal-Zethon.

And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the
Egyptians marched after them.

And so they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord.

As the nation of Israel is camped by the sea, by the Red Sea, not the Reed Sea as all the
modernists want it to be, they weren't camped by an ankle-deep body of water.

They were camped by a sea.

They had an impassable location to one side and an army to the other.

They look behind them and they see the chariots.

They see the forces of Pharaoh and they're afraid and they cry out to the Lord and notice
what occurs.

Then they said to Moses, because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to
die in the wilderness?

Why have you so dealt with us to bring us up out of Egypt?

Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, us alone, that we may serve the
Egyptians?

For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than we should die in the
wilderness.

Moses said to the people, Do not be afraid.

Stand still and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will accomplish for you today.

For the Egyptians whom you see today you shall see again no more forever.

And the LORD will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.

And the LORD said to Moses, Why do you cry to me?

Tell the children of Israel to go forward.

You ever have somebody come to you and say,

I have looked all over the place for this object.

I have searched high and low.

I cannot find it anywhere.

and they're asking you about their glasses that are sitting on top of their head.

Where are my glasses if you go?

Right there.

God says to Moses, why are you crying out to me?

As if it should be obvious.

I brought you here.

Where's the logical next step?

Except the logical next step for God.

was insurmountable for Israel.

It was impassable for Israel.

It was a sea.

But God tells Moses, what are you waiting for?

Tell them to go forward.

Then notice what occurs.

Lift up your rod, verse 16, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it.

And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.

And I indeed will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they will follow them.

So I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army, his chariots and his horsemen.

Then the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gained honor for myself over
Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen."

and the angel of God who went before the camp of Israel moved and went behind them and the
pillar of cloud went from them before them and stood behind them.

So it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel.

Thus it was a cloud and darkness to one and he gave light by night to the other so that
the one did not come near the other all that night.

As the Egyptians arrive the day is coming to an end.

The time when camps are being set up and battle is inevitably going to come first light.

And so as Egypt is behind them, the Red Sea in front of them, God says, go forward.

And you're going to go on dry ground.

And you're going to go through the sea.

And I'm going to use the sea to make it the last point to Pharaoh.

I win.

Because I am God and Pharaoh is not.

And so Pharaoh is there, his army is there, his men are ready.

They're going to destroy this nation of the Israelites, except God takes the cloud that
Israel had been following, that had been guiding them as they've gone on their journey.

And instead of it being in front of them, He moves it behind them.

By the way, tells you that the cloud's an angel.

And so the cloud is behind them and you can't see through the cloud.

So on one side of the cloud it's darkness.

On the other side of the cloud, the cloud's giving light to all the nation of Israel.

So it's just normally dark and black as night, except the Egyptians can't see through the
cloud to see the nation of Israel.

Imagine probably they couldn't hear through the cloud either.

Text doesn't tell us that, but you get a couple million or so people traveling and moving
and you think you'd probably be able to hear it.

Not too far away.

But as the night comes, sea is going to divide, Israel is going to go through on dry
ground.

Notice what the text says.

Verse 21, Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea.

And the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the
sea into dry land.

And the waters were divided.

So the children of Israel went in the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters
were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

And the Egyptians pursued and went after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's
horses and his chariots and his horsemen.

Now it came to pass in the morning.

Watch.

that the Lord looked down upon the uh army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and
cloud, and he troubled the army of the Egyptians, and he took off their chariot wheels so

that they drove them with difficulty.

And the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fights for them
against the Egyptians.

Then the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand over the sea, and the waters may come
back upon the Egyptians and their chariots and on their horsemen.

And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, when the morning appeared, the sea returned
to its full depth, while the Egyptians were fleeing into it.

So the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.

Then the waters returned and covered the chariots, the horsemen, and all the army of
Pharaoh that came into the sea after them, not so much as one of them remained.

But the children of Israel had walked on dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters
were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

So the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the
Egyptians dead on the seashore.

Thus Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done in Egypt.

So the people fear the Lord and believe the Lord and his servant Moses.

here in the Old Testament.

Egypt thought chariots are our solution.

Pharaoh thought I couldn't get them any other way.

I'll get them with my military might.

I'll run them down with my chariots.

I'll defeat them, God says.

I'll make your chariots your weakness.

So we think through some of the episodes in the Old and New Testament of chariots.

This one stands notably before us as a picture of defeat.

What they thought was their strength became their weakness.

But then another picture, chariot of promotion.

In 1 Kings chapter 10,

We find another event.

I'm sorry, I've got the wrong verses on the slide.

Turn to Genesis chapter 41.

Go the right way.

Genesis chapter 41, I mixed the passages with the wrong title.

So ignore that promotion.

Promotion is right, passage is wrong.

In Genesis 41, we'll find another occurrence, this one again having to do with Egypt, but
earlier on in their history.

in the time where Joseph was in Egypt.

Joseph will be called upon to interpret a dream.

And in Genesis 41, we find that Joseph is going to interpret that dream to Pharaoh.

Pharaoh is going to see a dream in the night.

He's going to not understand.

He's going to be troubled by it.

He's going to look for an interpretation.

of the dream and will be completely failed in giving that interpretation by all of his
wise men by all of those who should have been able to tell him according to their own

claims what the dream meant.

But there was one who had earlier gotten in disfavor with Pharaoh and had been put in
prison who suddenly remembered that two years before when he was in prison, he had made a

commitment to a man who had interpreted his dream that when he got out of prison, as the
dream had declared that he would, he would remember Joseph and he had forgotten.

He had failed to remember Joseph.

So Joseph was brought out of prison and brought before Pharaoh and he interprets Pharaoh's
dream.

And he tells Pharaoh, there's going to be seven years of plenty.

There's going to be seven years of prosperity.

There's going to be seven years of abundance.

As a matter of fact, if you go and look at the passage and you do the math, 20 % of the
produce from the seven years was sufficient

to feed the entire nation.

for the entire year.

And yet the land produced enough that 20 % was all that they set aside to feed the entire
nation and all the nations around them in the years of famine.

So every year uh Joseph tells Pharaoh, 20 % of all that is grown and produced in the land
should be stored up.

because coming after the seven years of prosperity are seven years of famine.

And we read in verse 37, so the advice was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of
all his servants.

And Pharaoh said to his servants, can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the
spirit of God?

Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, inasmuch as God has shown you all this, there is no one as
discerning and wise as you.

You shall be over my house, and all my people shall be ruled according to your word.

Only in regard to the throne will I be greater than you." And Pharaoh said to Joseph, See,
I have sent you over all the land of Egypt.

Then Pharaoh took his signet ring off his hand, put it on Joseph's hand, and he clothed
him in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck.

And he had him ride in the second chariot, which he had.

and they cried out before him, the knee.

So he set him over all the land of Egypt." Earlier on in Egypt's history, the chariots
were a sign of the king's power.

They were a sign of the king's authority.

And as Joseph is placed in this second chariot behind Pharaoh, he is promoted from
prisoner

to second in the kingdom.

and he is paraded through the land on this chariot to make it clear to all the nation,
whatever Joseph says, you do it.

Chariots declared prominence, authority, and power.

And in this scenario, Joseph is raised up by a chariot of Egypt to declare that he has
authority.

But notice this, that Joseph's authority came not because of his greatness, not because of
his lineage, not because of his background.

not because of his education, not because of where he had been the last few years
preparing for power, but it came because of his submission to the wisdom of God.

The chariot and the promotion came as a result of Pharaoh saying, there is no one in all
the kingdom who should be given this authority except you because God has given you this

wisdom.

So while the promotion is given to Joseph, the credit as Joseph gives it to Pharaoh goes
back to God.

But then consider 1 Kings chapter 10.

and the chariot of misplaced confidence.

In 1 Kings chapter 10,

We're going to read concerning Solomon.

As Solomon grew in wealth in all the things that he had, in all the wisdom that he had, as
his wisdom brought to him the wealth of the nations around him, we find that Solomon is

going to start doing things that God had specifically told him not to do.

And one of those things is he is going to build a standing

army.

God told the nation of Israel, you don't do that.

You don't need to gather to yourselves horses and chariots.

You do not need battlements for I am your defender.

But as Solomon grows in his wealth, Solomon is going to turn against that command.

We read in verse 14 of chapter 10, the weight of gold that came to Solomon yearly was 666
talents of gold.

Besides that, from the traveling merchants and from the income of traders, from all the
kings of Arabia and from the governors of the country.

And King Solomon made two large shields of hammered gold.

Six hundred shekels of gold went into each shield.

He also made three hundred shields of hammered gold.

Three minas of gold went into each shield.

The king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.

Moreover, the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with pure gold.

The throne had six steps and the top of the throne was round at the back.

There were arm-

on each side of the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the armrest.

Twelve lions stood there, one on each side of the six steps.

Nothing like this had been made for any other kingdom.

All King Solomon's drinking vessels were gold, and all the vessels of the house of the
forest of Lebanon were pure gold.

Not one was silver, for this was accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon.

Recently, uh this last year, we saw silver spike up to a really big high price.

In the days of Solomon, it went down to nothing.

It wasn't worth a thing.

There was so much gold around, nobody even wanted the silver.

Notice we read, for the king had merchant ships at sea with a fleet of Hyrum.

Once every three years, the merchant ships came bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes and
monkeys.

So King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom.

Now all the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom which God had put in
his heart.

Each man brought his present, articles of silver and gold, garments, armor, spices, horses
and mules at a set rate year by year.

And Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen.

had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen whom he stationed in the chariot cities with the
king at Jerusalem.

The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones and he made cedar trees as abundant
as the sycamores, which are in the lowland.

Also, Solomon had horses imported from Egypt and Kiva.

The king's merchants brought them in, bought them in Kiva at the current price.

Now a chariot was imported from Egypt.

Now a chariot that was imported from Egypt cost 600 shekels of silver and a horse 150.

And thus through their agents, they exported them all.

to the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Syria.

Solomon goes against the command in the law not to build standing armies, not to gather to
Israel horses and chariots, rather to trust in God.

When you turn over to Isaiah chapter 31,

Isaiah is going to speak concerning this matter, concerning the things that had transpired
in the intervening time in Israel.

In Isaiah chapter 31 and in verse 1, notice what we read.

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses who trust in chariots
because they are many.

He says, but do not look to the Holy One.

of

Solomon is going to begin something that will lead straight to the demise of the nation.

He's going to begin their attitude of trusting in worldly power, trusting in armaments and
battlements instead of their God.

And as a result of that, he is going to bring shame and disgrace and misplaced confidence
into the life of Israel.

And instead of trusting in the one who Joseph trusted in, instead of trusting in the one
who gave the wisdom to Solomon, they rather trusted in the power and the military might

they surrounded themselves with.

But then consider another chariot in the Old Testament, this being the chariots of
deliverance.

In the days of Elisha in 2 Kings chapter 6,

We find that Elisha is not in good graces with the king of Syria.

And as a result of that, the king of Syria is bound and determined that he is going to
stop Elisha from telling all of his plans to the king of Israel.

Because everything that the king of Syria told his servants in the secret place, Elisha
would tell to the king of Israel openly.

And so the king of Syria has determined that he's going to do something about it.

So he sends his chariots, he sends his armaments, he sends his battlements, he sends his
horsemen to go get Elisha and to finish this problem.

So one morning, the servant of Elisha goes out of his house and as he goes out of his
house, he sees they're completely surrounded by the armies of Syria.

Notice what we read beginning in 2 Kings, Chapter 6.

beginning in oh verse 8.

Now the king of Syria was making war against Israel and he consulted with his servant
saying my camp will be in such a such place and the man of God sent to it king of Israel

saying beware that you do not pass this place for the Syrians are coming down there then
the king of Israel sent someone to the place of which the man of God had told him thus he

warned him and he was watchful there not just once or twice

Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was greatly troubled by this thing.

he called his servants and said to them, Will you not show me which one of us is for the
king of Israel?

And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king, but Elisha the prophet who is in
Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.

So he said, Go and see where he is, that I may send and get him.

And it was told to him, saying, Surely he is in Dothan.

Therefore he sent horses and chariots and a great army there.

and they came by night and surrounded the city.

And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army
surrounding the city with horses and chariots.

And his servant said to him, Alas, my master, what shall we do?

As the servant of Elisha comes back in, you can imagine, just picture, he walks out the
door.

turns around and walks back inside.

That says, Master, what are we going to do?

And notice the answer.

Verse 16, do not fear for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.

And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.

Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw and behold, the mountain was
full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

So when the Syrians came down, Elisha prayed to the Lord and said, Strike this people,
pray, with blindness.

And he struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.

As the king of Syria sends his army, his horses, his chariots, his overwhelming force to
get one single man.

They surround the city, they begin their advance, and as they come down into the city,
Elisha prays.

And he doesn't pray that the chariots of fire come down and wipe the nation out.

He doesn't pray that the chariots of fire come down and eliminate every last one of them.

He doesn't pray that the chariots of the Syrians lose their wheels and the horses go lame.

He doesn't do any that.

He just prays that God give them life.

So the entire army becomes blind.

Verse 19, now Elisha said to them, This is not the way, nor is this the city.

Follow me and I will bring you to the man whom you seek.

But he led them to Samaria.

So it was when they had come to Samaria that Elisha said, Lord, open the eyes of these men
that they may see.

And the Lord opened their eyes and they saw and there they were inside Samaria.

Now bear in mind that the king of Syria has been at war with the king of Israel and the
capital city of Israel is Samaria.

They just ended up with their entire army in the place the Syrian king has been trying to
get to to defeat Israel.

And their whole army is there.

they had been walked into the capital city by Elisha.

But they don't overthrow the city of Samaria.

As a matter of fact, they're going to be afraid.

as he takes them into the city.

Verse 21, now when the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha, my father, shall I kill
them?

Shall I kill them?

He answered, you shall not kill them.

Would you kill those whom you have taken captive with your sword and your bow?

Set food and water before them that they may eat and drink and go to their master.

Then he prepared a great feast for them, after they ate and drank, he sent them away, and
they went to their master, so the bands of Syrian raiders came no more into the land of

Israel.

as God delivers Israel not by defeating the other army, not by annihilating them as He
certainly had the power to do, but He delivered them by treating them with kindness.

They go home and they never come back.

But now consider another chariot, this one from the New Testament.

In Acts chapter eight, there's a man from Ethiopia.

He comes to Jerusalem to worship.

He comes to Jerusalem because as a proselyte, as one who had been converted to the Jewish
religion, that's what you do.

You sojourn to come to Jerusalem, to the temple to worship.

And that's what he's done.

And as he is proceeding home back to Ethiopia from Jerusalem, he is reading the
scriptures.

He's reading the thing that he had been converted to.

He was one who had converted to believe in the God of Israel.

And so he's opening the scriptures of Israel, the Old Testament prophets, and he's reading
them and he's trying to understand what he's reading.

And so as a result of that,

as he is in his chariot as he is going back to Ethiopia.

Philip is going to be sent to him.

Chapter 8 verse 26.

Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, arise and go toward the south along the
road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.

This is desert.

So he arose and went and behold a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under
Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians.

who had charge of all her treasury and had come to Jerusalem to worship was returning.

And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet.

Then the Spirit said to Philip, Go near and overtake this chariot.

So Philip ran to him and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and said, Do you understand
what you are reading?

Notice first that the Ethiopian was reading.

Notice second, he was reading

out loud.

because you can't hear someone reading silently.

You can see someone reading silently, but you can't hear someone reading silently.

So as the chariot is going, here is the man, he is in the chariot and he's going and he's
reading out loud the prophet Isaiah.

Notice what we read.

He says, do you understand what you are reading?

He said, how can I understand unless someone guide me?

And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him, tells you the chariot's large enough to
have seats in it.

Then the place in the scripture which he read was this, he was led as a sheep to the
slaughter and as a lamb before it shears his silence.

So he opened on his mouth in his humiliation.

His justice was taken away and who will declare his generation for his life is taken from
the earth.

So the eunuch answered Philip and said, I ask you of whom does the prophet say this of
himself or of some other man?

As the eunuch is reading from Isaiah 53, this passage that speaks concerning the Messiah,
the eunuch doesn't know and the eunuch had no answers from the Israelite religion.

Who is this one being spoken of?

Is it Isaiah?

Is he talking about himself or is he talking about someone else?

Then Philip opened his mouth, verse 35, and beginning at this scripture preached Jesus to
him.

Now as they went down the road, they came to some water.

How far down the road did they go?

Don't know.

But they kept going.

As they kept going, Philip kept teaching.

And as they're going down the road, as Philip is preaching to him, Jesus, the eunuch comes
up with a really strange question.

For notice what the eunuch asks.

As they're going down the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, see, here is
water.

What hinders me from being baptized?

The eunuch asks a question that many in the religious world today would never have asked,
because they never would have been preached Jesus.

They would have been preached man's doctrines.

They would have been preached church tradition.

They would have been preached the things that have been preached for hundreds of years,
not thousands, because they wouldn't have been preached Jesus.

But from the very prophet Isaiah,

Philip is able to teach the gospel and to preach Jesus and the conclusion of the eunuch
is, I need to be baptized.

So when he sees water, he does what anyone in authority does.

He sees an asset, he sees a resource, he sees a need, he says, hey, can we do it now?

He says, hinders me?

What is holding me back from being baptized?

Phillips answered.

If you believe with all your heart, you may." And he answered and said, I believe that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

So he commanded the chariot to stand still and both Philip and the eunuch went down into
the water and he baptized him.

Now, when they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord caught Philip away so the
eunuch saw him no more and he went on his way rejoicing.

But Philip was found at Aztos and passing through, he preached in all the cities till he
came to Caesarea.

We find here the chariot of salvation, not because the chariot saved the eunuch, but
because the chariot provided the place for the gospel to be heard.

The chariot provided the opportunity.

Imagine the eunuch had been on a horse.

You think he would have been reading?

You think he would have been reading out loud?

Probably not.

But the chariot provided the opportunity.

The chariot waited.

while he was being baptized and the chariot took him away rejoicing.

Why?

Notice the thread.

You go back into the Old Testament and you find a Pharaoh who rejected the word of God.

said, why do I have to obey the command of the Lord?

He rejected the word of God and his chariot became his destruction.

You go forward, backward in time to the next one and you find Joseph, who's promoted and
paraded around in a chariot all through Egypt to declare him to be second in charge.

And yet, Joseph simply admitted, I am just speaking the word of God.

He honored the word of God.

You have Solomon who gains riches.

through the wisdom of God, but turns it into something in opposition to God.

And Isaiah comes along and says, you're going to destroy your nation because you trust in
military power instead of the Lord.

And so you no longer respect the word of God.

And you come forward to the eunuch and the eunuch, sorry, skipped one.

You go forward to the days of Elisha, and Elisha, as he trusted the Lord, tells his
servant to look again, and he sees the deliverance, not deliverance through military

might, not deliverance through destruction, but deliverance through an opportunity at
redemption, an opportunity to do good instead of evil.

And then you go forward to the days of the unification.

And as they're traveling in a chariot, Philip preaches the Word of God.

And the eunuch doesn't say, you know what, I've got all the money I need.

I've got all the riches of the entire nation available to me.

I can do whatever I want.

I don't need your salvation.

No, that's not what the eunuch says.

The eunuch humbly looks as he sits in his chariot and says, here's water.

What hinders me from obeying the gospel of Jesus Christ?

See, chariots may be a place of power and prominence.

They may be a place of promotion.

They may be a false sense of security when it comes to military might in ancient days, but
this is one thing they're not.

They're not a way to be saved.

The only thing that can save a person is obedience to the will of God, having believed the
Word of God.

So the eunuch says, here's water.

What hinders?

me from obeying God.

What's Philip's response?

If you believe, you may.

They both go down in the water and Philip is Philip immerses the eunuch for the remission
of his sins.

And when he comes up out of the water, not by the way, when he believes, not when he
prays, but when he comes up out of the water, he goes on his way rejoicing.

If you're here this morning and you're not a member of the body of Christ, if you're not
in the place where salvation is found, if you're still wondering where

Hope is in this life.

Let me assure you, it is not in military might.

It is not in power.

It is not even in just wisdom.

It is in the submission to the Word of God.

If you have need of the invitation this morning to put Christ on in baptism, to rise to
walk in newness of life, to go on your way rejoicing the same way the eunuch did, you can

do that this morning.

There is water.

But if you're here and you're a member of the body of Christ and you've turned away from
God, know this, it didn't work out so well for Solomon.

And it didn't work out so well for Israel.

You need to submit to the wisdom and the Word of God.

If you have need of the invitation this morning, why not come now as we stand?