morning. We're going to be in
the 16th chapter of Acts this morning, both hours actually. There is so much in these few
verses that I want us to look at. Pray the Lord will enable us
to worship at the feet of his holiness. We just sang of our
God being holy and how very hopeful we are that he has promised to
inhabit the praise of his people and to show forth his grace and
his glory when we come together to worship him. So Let's join
our hearts together in prayer and ask for the Lord's blessings. Our Heavenly Father, we're reminded
of thy prophet who saw the Lord Jesus high and lifted up, and
the seraphim hovering over his throne, crying, holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God of hosts. heaven and earth is filled with
thy glory. Lord, we pray that you'd be pleased
this morning to open our hearts. Open that which no man can shut.
Open the windows of heaven. Open the mystery of the gospel.
Open your word. Enable us to sit at thy feet
and to glory in your holiness. and in your grace, your love
and your mercy toward your people. We pray that thy dear son, the
Lord Jesus Christ, will be lifted up and that we would be brought
to see him as all our righteousness and all the hope of our justification
before thee. We ask it in his name. Amen. you have your Bibles open to
Acts chapter 16, we'll begin reading at verse 6 and read down
through verse 15. Acts 16 verse 6, now when they
had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, both of
those places are in Asia Minor if you think of the map, modern-day
Turkey is where these cities are located. Paul is on his second
missionary journey and he's taking the gospel to places where it
had not been preached. And the scripture says they were
forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia. After they were come to Mysia,
they assayed to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them
not. They said, well, let's go here,
and let's go there, and let's preach the gospel, and they made
their plans, but the Holy Spirit forbid them to preach the gospel
there. And so they passed by Messiah
and came down to Troas, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night,
and there stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him, saying, come
over into Macedonia and help us." So the Lord gives the apostle
Paul this vision of a man pleading with him to come to Macedonia,
which would be modern-day northern Greece, so they have to cross
the Aegean Sea from Troas over to Greece to preach the gospel. And after he had seen the vision,
immediately we endeavored to go to Macedonia, assuredly gathering
that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.
This is very significant when we get to the story of Lydia
because the scripture tells us that Lydia was from a city by
the name of Thyatira. Thyatira is in the very area
where the Lord forbid them to preach the gospel and sent them
to Philippi. Look at Verse 11, therefore, loosing
from Troas, we came with a straight course to Sumatres, and the next
day to Neapolis, and from thence to Philippi, which is the chief
city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony. By a colony, that
means that it was a Roman city. And we were in that city, abiding
several certain days, And on the Sabbath, we went out of the
city by a riverside where prayer was wont to be made. And we sat
down and spake unto the women, which resorted thither. And a certain woman named Lydia,
a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshiped
God, heard us, whose heart the Lord opened." Now that's the
subject, that's the title of both of these messages this morning.
when God opens the heart. Our hearts, by nature, are unable
and unwilling to be open to the things of God. If our hearts
are going to be open, God has to do it. Scripture is clear. It is not of him that willeth
nor of him that runneth. It's of God that showeth mercy.
You and I are dependent. upon the Lord to open our hearts.
And there's some things in this story that are very encouraging
about the circumstances that the Lord uses to open the hearts
of His people. She was of Thyatira, which worshiped
God and heard us, whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended
unto the things which were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized
and her household, she besought us saying, if you have judged
me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide
there. And she constrained us. The Bible says that the Lord
Jesus Christ has the keys to the house of David. And that
same passage goes on to say, what he opens, no man can shut,
and what he shuts, no man can open. You and I lack both the
power and the will to open the windows of heaven, to open the
mystery of the gospel, to open our hearts. We are completely
dependent upon the Lord for that work of grace. And we're here
this morning believing that he has promised to do just that
for his children. God has written his word in such
a way as to give the unbeliever enough rope to hang himself.
The scripture says they rest the scriptures to their own destruction. And but for the grace of God,
some of us were doing just that. When we took passages of scripture
like John 3 16 and said, whosoever will, And we thought, well, we
have to make a decision. We have to decide. We have to
be willing to allow Jesus to come into our hearts. And we
would take passages of scriptures like Revelation 3, verse 20,
where the Lord said, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and
open up to me, I will come into him and I will sup with him and
he with me. And we believe that heretical
painting that has been made of that verse of scripture, where
this long hair bearded man is standing outside of an old wooden
door with no doorknob on the outside of it. And the picture
was to illustrate the truth, or the lie, of Revelation 3.20,
where the handle to the door was only on the inside. And that that was supposed to
be, I guess, Jesus, and he was knocking on the door of our hearts
and pleading with us to let him come in. But we had to make the
decision to do that. John, you read this morning in
the men's study from Ephesians chapter 2, where the scripture
says, you hath he quickened who were dead in your trespasses
and in your sins. Men left to themselves will remain
spiritually dead, spiritually blind, spiritually unable to
open anything. The Lord's the one that has to
do the opening. And so we said, well, how do
you explain these verses then? Well, I explained them like this.
What God requires, God must provide. Does he require us to believe?
Yes. Does he have to provide faith in order for us to believe?
Yes. Does he require us to say, oh Lord, save me? Yes. Does he provide for us the heart's
desire to cry out for that mercy and for that grace? Yes, yes. Did we open up into him? Yes. We have to hear his voice though,
don't we? That verse says, behold, I stand at the door and knock,
if any man hear my voice and open up into me, I will come
into him. God has to give us ears to hear
his voice. The Lord gave Lydia ears to hear. And so this is the work of grace
that we depend on the Lord to do for us in order for him to
open what no man can shut and in order for him to shut what
no man can open. The Lord opened Lydia's heart. If the Lord gives us any understanding
of this truth, you and I will find ourselves crying out to
him. Oh, Lord, open my heart. Lord,
reveal more of thy grace and glory to me. Lord, be pleased
to save me. Lord, give me ears to hear. Give
me a heart to believe. Give me faith. What you require,
you're going to have to provide. Now, the reason I wanted you
to think about the map and every word of this passage of scripture
that we just read is so precious and so glorious. You know, the
scripture says that God's word is perfect, and he doesn't waste
words like you and I do. If we had if we had enough faith to see
everything, we would see that every single word of God was
precious. And it's all inspired of Him
to reveal more and more of His grace and glory to His people.
And is the Lord just giving us a... If you look back a few pages
in your Bible, you'll probably see that the title of the book
of Acts is the Acts of the Apostles. Now that's not scripture, that's
just what the people that printed the Bible put up there as a title
for this particular book. And I think it's a misnomer because
it's really not the Acts of the Apostles, it's the Acts of the
Holy Spirit. The Apostles are being led about,
as we just read, by the Spirit of God. Paul said, well, let's
go to Galatia. Let's go to Asia. Let's go to
Thyatira and Messiah and let's preach the gospel there. And
as they're going or when they arrived, the Lord forbid them.
He shut their mouths. And then he sent them a vision
from Macedonia to come over there. What is the Lord doing here?
He's showing you and me that he knows where his sheep are.
And he will turn the world upside down in order to get the gospel
to each one of his elect children. That's exactly what he's doing
here. Lydia lived in Thyatira, but
she wasn't there at the time. She was a businesswoman, the
scripture says, a seller of purple, and she had traveled across the
Aegean Sea over to Macedonia and happened to be in Philippi
and was meeting with some other women, but down by a river, having
prayer, and the Lord sent Paul. All those people in Asia, they didn't hear the gospel.
Because there was one woman in Philippi that belonged to the
Lord. The Holy Spirit restrained Paul
from preaching the gospel in Asia and sent him to preach the
gospel to one woman who was from Asia. Here's the good news, brethren.
Our God is the first cause of everything and everything that
he's doing in this world. is for the good of his people.
Everything. It's the only thing of any eternal
consequence happening in this world. What happens in the small
events of your life and my life and what happens in the big events
of international government is of the Lord. We say with Eli,
when you remember when Samuel went before the Lord, or the
Lord spoke to Samuel, he opened his heart and he gave Samuel
a message of judgment against Eli and against his family. And after Eli knew that it was
the Lord that had spoken to Samuel, he said, you tell me what that
message was. And Samuel did. And what did
Eli say? It is the Lord. Let him do what seemeth good
in his sight. That's our response to everything,
isn't it? You know, we naturally get frustrated over
this pandemic that we're in. And I
heard a brother referring to it as the Wuhan virus, you know,
and that, you know, it's probably true. But here's the truth, God
sent it. He sent it. Not anything that
happens in this world that the Lord's not doing. And so, you
know, we think, well, there's conspiracies happening in the
government. Perhaps there are, but they're not happening apart
from the Lord's purpose, apart from His will, apart from His
perfect design to call out each one of His people. That's what
he's doing. The Lord just left the ninety
and nine and went and found the one sheep. Did he not? Exactly
what he did. And that's what he's doing for
every one of his people. What's happening in this world
is of very little significance to him, except that we know that
all things, all things work together for good. for them that love
God and those that are the called according to his purpose. This world exists for his church
and everything that he's doing is for the purpose of bringing
his people to himself and saving them by his grace. That's, you
know, The unbeliever hears us talking like this and they say,
boy, you sound awfully proud. They say what those false prophets
in the Song of Solomon said when they said, well, what makes your
beloved more special than ours? What do you think, you're the
only people of this world that are of any? If God teaches you
this truth, it is the most humbling, Most humbling thing. Lord, why
me? Why would you do this for me? But that's exactly what he's
doing. It's not a, it's not a matter of pride. It's the most humbling
thing. Why would God show mercy and
grace towards anybody? Why especially would he, would
he do it for me? Why would the Lord turn the world
upside down for me? He will. He will. He said, I know my sheep. They
hear my voice and they follow me and I'll not lose one. Not one. Before this world was
ever created, God in his perfect sovereign will chose a particular
people in the covenant of grace. And then he created the world
in order to provide for them this This life we have and, and
he's, and he's calling them out one by one. That's exactly what
we just read. The Lord sent this preacher to
Philippi because that's where Lydia was. And that's where that
Philippian jailer was. And the Lord purposed to save
them. Did the Lord not say to those
disciples when they wanted to go around Samaria, he said, I
must needs go through Samaria. Why? Because I've got some lost
sheep there. And the Lord said, I have other
sheep that are not of this fold. Speaking to the Jews, he said,
I have other sheep that are not of this fold, them I must bring. And there will be one flock and
one shepherd. I must bring them. I must save
them. That's what I've come to do.
The Lord Jesus came into this world to save his people from
their sins. That's why his name is called
Jesus. And it's the, you know, all the
things that we get so concerned about and so worried about and
so fretful over. God is on his throne. Our God
is working all things together for good. You know, we often
say to one another, would you have a good day? There's no such
thing as good and bad to the believer. There really isn't. It's all good. It really is. Now, there's a difference between
hard and easy. Some days are hard. Some things
are hard. And sometimes in God's providence,
He ordains very difficult things for His children to go through.
And then other days, He allows them to have an easier time. But it's always good. It's always
good. This is what our Lord's showing
us here. He is sovereignly ordaining the
events of time to accomplish his purpose, the salvation of
his people. I believe that. The Lord sent a flood and wiped
out the entire human race in order to save eight people. He sent a famine to where Jacob and his sons lived
in order to get them down into Egypt. The Lord turned the nation of
Egypt upside down in order to bring his people out. Everything
our God is doing, everything is moving towards the marriage
supper of the Lamb. That's the culmination of it
all. When God gathers together all of his sheep, and brings
them into that glorious wedding feast with the bridegroom. And everything else, everything
else is a means to that end. The Lord will move heaven and
earth to call one of his lost sheep. We have this example over and
over in the scriptures, don't we? where the Lord sent Philip
from a revival meeting. Most of it, the scripture says
in Samaria, the Lord was saving a lot of people and Philip was
helping in that work and the Lord plucked Philip out and sent
him down to the desert called Gaza. Why? Because there's one
Ethiopian unit traveling back home that was one of God's elect. and he was going to get the gospel
to him. People say, well, you know, what
about people who live in parts of the world where there is no
gospel? How are they going to, if they're one of God's elect,
God will get them to the gospel. He'll get the gospel to them,
right? There's no question about it. No question whatsoever about
it. Lydia wasn't in Thyatira, so
the Lord sent the gospel to where she was. The Lord sent, you remember the
story of Onesimus, that runaway slave in the book of Philemon,
and the Lord sent Onesimus all the way to Rome, put him in jail
in Rome. So he probably in the same cell
with the apostle Paul, got him to the gospel. Hmm. Here's the glorious truth, brethren. One day, one day, God's going
to turn the tapestry over. Right now, we see a lot of confusion
on the backside of that tapestry, don't we? A lot of knots and
colors out of place, and the Lord's weaving together all the
events of your life, my life, and the history of this world.
What's He doing? He's putting together glorious
picture of Christ and his church. And one day we're going to see
the other side of that tapestry and it'll all make sense then.
Right now we walk by faith. This is what I'm trying to say
to you this morning. Right now we're walking by faith, believing
that our God reigns, believing that he hath done whatsoever
he wills, believing that he does all things for the good of his
people and for his own glory. and that he's not gonna lose
one of his sheep. Sometimes those events of providence
can be very difficult, but they're all according to his will and
purpose. And that's exactly what we just
read. The Lord's not just giving us a travel itinerary here of
the apostle Paul. He's showing us that this woman
who lived in Asia had gone to Philippi and God was going to
save her. So the Lord restrained Paul, all those people in Asia. He said, well, what about all
those people in Asia? Aren't they important? The scripture says
that the nations are a drop in the bucket to our God. They are but a speck of dust
on the scale. Now that's what God says. That's
what God says. The only, the only people that our God
is Purposed to show mercy toward is his people. And the scripture
refers to the entire rest of the world as vessels fitted for
destruction, that the vessels of his mercy might glory in his
grace toward them. Go back with me to our text. Look at verse 13. And on the
Sabbath, on the Sabbath, when God is pleased to open the hearts
of his people, there are no circumstances that
can limit him or restrain him or keep him from showing mercy
towards any one individual of his children. And the second
thing we learned from this passage of scripture is that when God
is pleased to open the hearts of his people, he does it on
the Sabbath. You say, now, wait a minute,
preacher, are you saying that God can't open my heart when
I'm at home on Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday? That's not what
I'm saying at all. The Sabbath was the fourth of
the Ten Commandments. And the law of the Sabbath was
that one could not work on the Sabbath. If anyone was caught
laboring on the Sabbath day, the Sabbath in the Old Testament
law was the seventh day of the week. And it was an acknowledgement
of what God had done in creation when he rested on the seventh
day because his work was finished. Okay? Work was finished. So,
on the seventh day, the Israelites were to acknowledge the accomplished,
finished work of God by not laboring on the Sabbath. And if anyone
was caught working on the Sabbath, they were to be put to death.
Now that's the Old Testament economy. Now you can go back
and look at this. The fourth commandment is the
only of the 10 commandments that's called a sign. It's referred
to as a token. Men who try to keep the Sabbath
today by not working on Saturday or on Sunday, however it is they
acknowledge the Sabbath to be, are in fact violating the Sabbath
by their attempt to keep it. They're looking to what they're
doing or not doing on a certain day of the week as the hope of
their salvation. What is the Sabbath? Turn with
me to Hebrews chapter four. Hebrews chapter four. Verse one, let us therefore fear,
lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any
of you should seem to come short of it. This is the rest that
we're to enter into. Doesn't have anything to do with
going to work on Saturday or Sunday. Doesn't have anything
to do with going to church on Saturday or Sunday. It has everything
to do with resting in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Did he do it all? Did he actually
accomplish the salvation of his people by the sacrifice of himself
or he's dependent upon you to do something in order to make
what he did work for you? That's what the Sabbath is all
about. That's why God called it a sign.
He called it a token. It's pointing to something. What
does a sign do? A sign points you in a direction,
doesn't it? And so the Old Testament Sabbath
is pointing us to the Lord Jesus Christ. And God's saying to us
here, don't be like those Old Testament Israelites who didn't
believe God and they refused to enter into his rest. Look
at verse two, for unto us was the gospel preached as well as
unto them, but the word preached did not profit them, not being
mixed with faith in them that heard it. for we which have believed
do enter into rest. As he said, as I have sworn in
my wrath that they shall enter into my rest, although the works
were finished from the foundation of the world. Now, from the foundation
of the world means before the world was ever created. And what
God is saying here is the work of redemption, the work of salvation
was finished before the world was ever made. How is that? When
the Lord Jesus Christ entered into that covenant relationship
with his father and promised to be our surety. And the scripture
refers to our Lord as the lamb that was slain before the foundation
of the world. And so this work was accomplished
before the world ever began. It was finished. In the purpose
of God, the Lord Jesus Christ came in order to work out in
time what had already been established in eternity. And might I say
this in reference to my first point, everything that happens
in time has already happened in eternity. Get a hold of that. This is not,
these things aren't just circumstances or happenstance or believers
don't talk about, you know, luck and well, you know, it just happened,
no. No, everything is happening according
to his purpose. Verse four, and he spake in a
certain place of the seventh day on this wise, and God did
rest from the seventh day from all his works. And in this place
again, if they shall enter into my rest, seeing therefore remaineth
that some must enter therein. And they to whom it was first
preached entered not in because of unbelief. They wouldn't believe
God. They wouldn't rest in the finished
work of God. They had to do something. They
got all bound up in the law. And they thought that their performing
of the law was somehow going to earn them favor with God. That's exactly what the Lord's
telling us here. Verse seven, and again, he limited
a certain day saying to David, today, after so long a time,
as it is said today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your
heart. For if Jesus had given them rest, and that word also
can be, it's a reference to the Lord is the one who didn't give
them rest. But it's a reference to work
of Joshua, isn't it? If Joshua had given them rest,
then would he not afterwards have spoken of another day. There
remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that
has entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own
works as God did from his. You know, the hardest thing to
do And being saved is nothing. Is nothing. The gospel of God's
free grace in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ leaves
us with nothing that we can do to enter into his rest. He's
already done it all. But that's what men want. They
won't have a gospel like that. They're going to want to take
some credit and some glory for having done something. So, I go back to say that when
God opens the hearts of His people, He
always does it on the Sabbath. He always does it on the rest
of Christ, what he did. We enter into his rest by ceasing
from our labors as he ceased from his. The Lord Jesus Christ
did all the work, all the work, necessary for the salvation of
his people, so that when he bowed his mighty head on Calvary's
cross and said, it is finished, it is finished. It is finished. And we rest in that. Oh, we dare
not add anything to his work. We dare not take anything away
from it. The Lord Jesus Christ gets all
the glory, doesn't he? He gets all the glory. This is
so contrary to the freewill works gospel that's being promoted
in the world today. What liberty, what freedom, what
hope we have. Here our Lord sent this gospel
preacher away from millions of people, I suppose, that were
in Asia. sent him across the Aegean Sea to a little town called
Philippi. Why? Because a woman who lived
in Asia was over here. And that's what our God's doing.
And he will turn the world upside down. Our God, I'll say this, our God
would send a pandemic for the salvation of one of his children.
There you go. He said, are you serious? Yes. Yes. That's how precious
his people are in his sight. And that's how insignificant
the rest of the world is. And when he saves and opens the
heart, he always does it in the finished work of the Lord Jesus
Christ on the Sabbath. Father, we pray that you'd bless
your word to our hearts and enable us to rest our hope in thy dear
son, the Lord Jesus Christ, for it's in his name we pray.