We welcome you to the service this morning.
We invite you to take your hymnal. Turn to hymn number 23, Immortal,
Invisible, God Only Wise. Let's stand as we sing. In heaven, in his heaven, the
only one. Oh, my dear victorious, I gratefully
praise. The Brutalist in blood By justice,
by government By story, by law Thank you may be seated as we
take our bulletin here. A song unto the Lord we sing,
and a song to the tune of the doxology. Sing all creatures of the Lord
Sing all creatures of the Lord Sing all ye to the Son the Lord,
accepted in the Christ below. Sing every sinner saved by grace, Sing, I've remembered some before,
And may his wonders evermore. Good morning. We welcome you this morning and
we rejoice in the grace of God that has enabled us to gather
again and his spirit who brings us. And we pray that in all things
he would receive honor and glory. I want to keep praying for Roger
and Vicki and others that are sick, have been sick. My daughter
continues to recuperate. I hope you'll pray for her. Pray
for Brother David who's here this morning who lost his father
of late and we pray that God will help him in all he has to
do and that is a lot right now. So we're just rejoicing everyone
who's gathered here this morning and I want you to turn in the
book of Jeremiah chapter 31. Jeremiah chapter 31. I want to
read some precious verses to you. Jeremiah 31, 1. At the same time, saith the Lord,
will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they
shall be my people. Thus saith the Lord, the people
which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness,
even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest. The Lord hath appeared
of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. Again I will build thee, and
thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel. Thou shalt not again
be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances
of them that make merry. Thou shalt yet plant vines upon
the mountains of Samaria. The planters shalt plant, and
shalt eat them as common things. For there shall be a day that
the watchman upon the Mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let
us go up to Zion unto the Lord our God. For thus saith the Lord,
sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chiefs of
the nations. Publish ye, praise ye, and say,
O Lord, save thy people, the remnant of Israel. Behold, I
will bring them from the north country and gather them from
the coast of the earth. And with them, the blind and
the lame, the woman with child, and her that travaileth with
child together, a great company shall return thither. They shall
come with weeping. and with suffocations will I
lead them. I will cause them to walk by
the rivers in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble,
for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn. Hear the word of the Lord, O
ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say,
He that scattered Israel will gather him and keep him as a
shepherd doth his flock. For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob
and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than
he. Therefore they shall come and
sing in the height of Zion and shall flow together to the goodness
of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the
young of the flock, and of the herd. And their soul shall be
as a watered garden, and they shall not sorrow any more at
all. Father Richard's gonna pray for
us. Heavenly Father, as we come to
you just now, we are thankful that you have given us this opportunity
to be here, Lord, to worship thee, to sing thy psalms, to
hear thy word, and to be challenged by thy word, and to be encouraged
by thy word. And we pray just now for Brother
Gary as he brings your word unto us. Give him those words to say
that each of us stand in need of, and may we use it to touch
our hearts to the Lord, to understand thy word before thee. We do pray
for those that have been mentioned that are sick. We think of Stephanie
and Brother Roger and so many others. We pray for those of
our membership whose families are anticipating surgery this
week. We pray, Lord, that you would just be with them, be with
those surgeons as they wait upon them, and that it may be successful
if it be in thy precious will. We are thankful, Lord, for the
way you take care of us, for the way you encourage us and
keep us. We're thankful, Lord, that you are our sovereign God,
and that there is none other. No matter what we hear proclaimed
around us, Lord, you're the one true God and that you are truly
in control. And though everyone may say the
world is in chaos and the world is out of control, it is certainly
not. This is part of your plan and purpose. And we pray, Lord,
just now to help us to understand that. Help us, Lord, to understand
that you called and chose us before the beginning of time
and that we're here until you have time to take us home. Thank
you, Lord, for all that you do for us. Thank you for the way
you take care of us. Thank you for the way you look
after us. Thank you for your love and grace and mercy upon
us, Lord, that you supply us each and every moment of each
and every day. And we're thankful, most of all,
for the gift of thy precious Son. In his blessed name, we
do pray, amen. In your humbles, once again,
28. our grave hour. And then Brother
Tim, if you will wait on the congregation. I see the stars, I hear the rolling
thunder I bow to all, the universe displayed Who sings my soul? I say you're God to me When through the woods and gorgeous
plains I wander And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees Then teach, my soul, my Saviour
God, to thee. How brave thou art! And here I think, I thought his
son was married. Say him to the dog, I scarce
can take him in. to take away my sin. It seems my sin, my sin forgot
to me. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! It seems my sin, my sin forgot
to me. I'll be the hope, I'll break
the wall. When Christ shall come, and shall
hold that commission, and take me home, a joy shall fill my
heart, and I shall know In whom no adoration can ever claim,
My God, how great Thou art! When saints would say, when saints
would call to me, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! When saints would say, I'm afraid not. so Now, Janice was just singing
that, playing that song on the piano. I couldn't help but say,
well, hallelujah, what a savior. Oh, this song here, I had it
on my mind during the night and this morning. And the council
holds a heaven for the foundation of the world. God saved his people. God might have mercy on this
boy. beyond my comprehension. Beyond my comprehension. But
I thank Him. I thank Him. There has never been a time He
didn't love me. There has never been a time Christ
didn't care. Oh, His eye has never strained
from watching o'er me. I stand perfect, I'm reconciled,
I stand in Him, I stand in Him. Christ is my Mediator. He loved me long before. I knew His name, the Father's
pleased, His Son has sealed my pardon. I have life, I'm not condemned,
I stand in Him. I was lost in sin and shame,
still He loved me. I was blind, haunted, lame, but
still Christ cared. He saved me by sovereign grace
in Christ alone. Cleansed by His blood, I will
always stand in Him. I stand in Him. My Mediator. He loved me long before I knew
his name. The Father's pleased. His Son has sued my pardon. I have life. I'm not condemned. I stand in Him. The Father's pleased. The Son
has received my pardon I have life, I'm not condemned, I stand
in Him Oh, I have life, I'm not condemned, I stand in Him I want you to open your Bibles
this morning to the book of Acts. The book of Acts. Chapter 16. I thought about it, how we ought
to pray for one another. Because that old lion, the devil,
the adversary, he's always going about seeking who he might devour, whom he might draw away from
the grace of God, blind the eyes of some to the
truth. Acts chapter 16, and I'll begin
reading in verse six. Now when they had gone throughout
Phrygia and the region of Galatia and were forbidden of the Holy
Ghost to preach the word in Asia, After they were come to Mesia,
they assayed to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them
not. And they passing by Mesia came
down to Troas, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night. There stood
a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, come over into Macedonia
and help us. And after he had seen the vision,
immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly
gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto
them. Therefore, loosing from Troas,
We came with a straight course to Samothracia and the next day
to Neapolis. And from this to Philippi, which
is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony. And we were there, we were in
that city abiding certain days. And on the Sabbath, we went out
of the city by the 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 worshipped
God, heard us, whose heart the Lord opened. that she attended
unto the things which were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized
in her household, she besought us saying, if ye have judged
me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide
there. And she constrained us. I thought about it it would be almost strange to read in verse nine of this
text as it says that Paul saw a man of Macedonia in that vision
saying, come over and help us. And yet the first one that we
read about is not a man, but she's a woman. She's a woman
loved by God. That's the title of my message. A woman loved by God. You know, womanhood has been
blessed by the grace of God. Because we read in Christ, there
is neither male nor female. It was to a woman that God spoke
that first promise of the Messiah in Galatians 3, where he told
her of the blessing of the woman's seed. Of course, he was referring
to Christ, because woman doesn't have a seed. She was to supernaturally,
this woman was to give birth to the Savior. And she was that
one who was blessed to be the instrument
by which the Savior came. He was born of this virgin. And we read in the scripture
of many women who were loved by the sovereign everlasting
love of God. And we read of this woman named
Lydia. who was one of those loved by
God. She was loved individually. She was loved particularly because
it identifies her not just as a Lydia, but a certain woman
named Lydia. God chose Lydia to salvation
before the world began. When Christ came into this world,
he came into this world to die for Lydia, to suffer in her place,
to redeem her particularly. And you might ask, How do you
know that? How in the world could you ever
know that? I know that because the Spirit
of God brought her and revealed to her this good news. You remember what the word was
to the families of Israel, true Israel that we read about in
Jeremiah 31. Those words are, I have loved
thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, therefore, with loving
kindness have I drawn thee. Everyone who is loved with his
everlasting love of God will be drawn by the Father, as Christ
says there in John 6, and which he tells us to be drawn by the
Father is to be taught by the Father. They all shall be taught of God. And everyone who learns of the
Father, learns by the Spirit of God, what do they do? They
come to Christ. They believe this good news. They believe on the Lord Jesus. And what we have read in this
text is that providentially, I believe there was an old preacher
who said, Providence is the handmaid of salvation. Everything in her
life, everything that was going on in this world, all those things
together were bringing her individually and specifically and particularly
to an hour. The Spirit brought these messengers
to her. Oh, they wanted to go into one
area. The Spirit forbade them. Then
they turned to go in another area, but the Spirit forbade
them. Why? Because the Lord was bringing
them on their journey as his messengers, first of all, into
this place called Macedonia, and he was bringing them to cross
the path of this certain woman, Lydia. It wasn't faith. It wasn't chance. It was the particular purpose
of God for her They were being sent to her. They were being
sent to a place. They were being sent exactly
on time. And they were being sent with
a particular message. It would prove glad tidings to
her. It would be good news to her. It was a message that she had
never heard before. Even though she had identified
with the Jewish religion, evidently she was a Jewish proselyte. She had left probably some of
the idolatry of the past, learned of this true living God of Israel. But she did not know this blessed
truth that they were about to convey to her. She was just simply
a proselyte to the Jewish religion. You know what the scriptures
say. Christ said, woe unto you scribes
and Pharisees and hypocrites. That's what they were. They were
hypocrites. They were Pharisees. And he said,
but they were evangelistic, as all false religion is. He said,
for ye can pass land and sea to make one proselyte. And when he is made, ye make
him twofold more the child of hell than your sins." They spread
their self-righteousness. They spread their salvation by
works. They spread their identity religion. And she was a proselyte of this
religion, this separatism, but she was a merchant. She was a
merchant. And she was from a place called
Thyatira, where they specialize in the dyeing of this purple
cloth, and they sold it everywhere. And that's what she did. She was probably in Macedonia
on business. And it says here in verse 14
that she worshiped God. That's enough for some people. That's enough to know that they
have some kind of worship, or that's enough that so-and-so
has some kind of worship. They're worshiping God, not necessarily. Because it says in Acts 8 that
Philip rose and he went and joined himself to this this eunuch there
in the desert. And he rose and went, and behold,
a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of the great authority under
Candace Queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasure,
he had come to Jerusalem for to worship. He was in the same
boat that Lydia was. But when he went to Jerusalem,
in Jerusalem itself and all that was going on there, he wasn't
worshiping. He didn't know God. That's why
this messenger was sent to him in the desert. It says also in
Acts 10 of Cornelius, he was a devout man and one that feared
God with all his house which gave much alms to the people,
and prayed to God always. But he didn't know the gospel.
God had to send him Peter, this man religious who had himself
been converted. He sent Peter with this message
of grace, this gospel of Christ, and he sent him to him. And everywhere
you look all through the book of Acts, there is the gospel
being sent to these people who were already supposedly worshiping. They thought they were worshiping
God. They thought they were doing
that which was right. They're sent to, you can read
it over and over again. And you can read about this woman.
Turn over to John chapter four. And listen to Christ talking
to her. Guess what? Another woman. A
woman who was at a well. A woman who had five husbands
and was not living with her husbands. A woman who was so shameful of
her life and everything that she wouldn't even go and face
the other women at the well when it was time to draw. But listen
to what it says in verse 20. This is her conversation with
Christ. She said, our fathers worshipped
in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place
where men ought to worship. She thought they worshipped.
She thought the Jews worshipped. They just had different ideas
about God. They just had differences of
detail about who worshiped and when and where and all these
things. And Jesus said unto her, Woman,
believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain
nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. Doesn't have to do
about this particular place. It has to do with this particular
God. You worship, you know not what. We know what we worship, for
salvation is of the Jews, but the hour cometh, and now is,
when the true worshipers, if there are true worshipers, there
must be false worshipers. when the true worshipers shall
worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father
seeketh such to worship Him." He's not looking for these worshipers. He's seeking His people to bring
them to worship Him. Because God is a spirit, or God
is spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit
or by the Spirit or spiritually and in truth. The true worship of God will
always be spiritual, and I'm not talking about emotional.
I'm talking about guided by the Spirit, It will always be, as
Christ said the Spirit would do, a revelation of the things
of Christ shown to us, and it will always be because of and
accordance to the truth. The truth. If we worship God,
we must worship Him spiritually, by the Spirit and in truth." She worshipped God just like
all the other Jewish proselytes worshipped God. She didn't worship
God in spirit and in truth, but she would. She would. But if she had been a true believer,
if she had been a genuine Christian according to the Bible sense
of that word, if she had really known the truth, if she had already
heard the good news and the glad tidings of the gospel of grace,
if she already knew the true Christ and what he'd done, he
wouldn't have gone to this trouble. to all this trouble to bring it to her and her to the gospel. Can you imagine the details of
providence that had to be carried out in order for this to take
place? Paul and these brethren were
brought to this place because God was working all things together
for his glory and her good. And she is described here as
this certain woman whose heart the Lord opened. You know, religion likes to paint
this picture of Jesus standing, knocking on your heart's door.
How utterly foolish. He opens the door. if the door is ever to be opened.
The scripture describes this sovereign Lord and King as the
one who opens and no man shuts, and who shuts and no man opens. Here is the Lord of glory. Here is the God of Gods, the
King of Kings. And he opened her heart. He didn't simply knock. Because
if he had simply knocked, she would have never let him in. You can't open your heart. She would never have, as they
say, opened her heart and let Jesus come in. He had to open it. And that means
it was shut. She didn't know her heart was
shut. She thought it was open to all
that would be said about God, all that would be taught about
God. She thought she had already opened
her heart, but it was closed and it was shut. And simply her identifying with
a religion or making a decision and a choice or practicing a
form of religion. She was gathered on the Sabbath
day. And she was gathered by a river. I suppose that's about the most
unlikely place for a person to meet God. Not
in a cathedral. She wasn't in the temple. She
wasn't anywhere in organized religion. But it was there that the Lord opened her heart. She was even praying. But you can't pray just like
you can't believe on a God you do not know. That you do not know. Because that closed heart, that
mind without understanding, that rebellious mind, that ignorance
of unbelief, It's like a fortress. And if God does not charge the
fortress, if he does not break down the door, if he does not
give understanding and willingness and faith, it'll never be opened. But Christ said of his sheep,
he said, other sheep have I that are not of this foe, them I must
bring. I must bring. How do we know that the Lord
opened her heart? Did she shout hallelujah? Did she jump in the river? Did
she do some of the things that false religion tells us that
will happen to us if we make our decision? What exactly happened
to make us know what this opening of the heart has to do with? We know he opened up her heart
because in verse 14 it says she attended unto the things which
were spoken of Paul. Not reformed her life, not joined
the church, Not any of those things that
are supposed to symbolize a person that's born again. Simply this, that she attended
unto the things which were spoken by the Apostle Paul. I had to search out and find
out exactly what that word attended means. And it means something that holds
the mind. It means to pay attention to,
to be cautious about, to apply to oneself, to adhere to, to
be given to, to have regard for. She attended to, she had regard
for, she thought about the things of, she focused her attention
on, and she identified with the gospel. Paul preached the gospel. Turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter
4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Look at verse 3. Paul Writing to the Corinthians says,
but if our gospel be hid, and it's hidden to the greater
part of this race. If our gospel be hid, it is hid
to them that are lost. in whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine unto them." It's darkness. Paul says, for we preach not
ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants
for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face,
or person, of Jesus Christ. She found out who Christ was. She found out what Christ came
to do. She found out how that His finished
work was all of salvation. She found out that the man Christ
Jesus that they had just crucified in Jerusalem, he was the Messiah,
the King, the one who the prophecies of the Old Testament said would
do it all to save his people. That he would
not fail, that he would do justly and at the same time show mercy
and grace, he would pay their debt, he would redeem them. And that he did redeem them,
that's the message that was set forth in the Old Testament. And
Peter tells us also, he says, we have a more sure word of prophecy,
whereunto ye do well that ye Take heed, you do well to take heed to,
as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day
dawn and the day star arise in your heart. When God opens our
hearts, he simply makes it like a closed room that was nothing
but darkness but he opens the light and the door of our understanding
and causes the light of his truth to shine up, which reveals the
glory of God in Christ. Amen. Christ and him crucified. That's what Paul was speaking. He wasn't engaged in all these
morality lessons and he wasn't engaged in all these denominational
things and all these activities. He was preaching Christ. He said,
I determined to know nothing among you save Christ and Him
crucified. He was showing what Christ did. One old preacher said of this, whose heart the Lord opened,
which before was shut and barred with the bars of ignorance and
hardness and unbelief. The heart of a sinner before
conversion is like a house shut up and holy in darkness. And
whatever degree of natural or moral light is in it, There is
none in spiritual things. It is empty of the grace of God,
of the fear of Him, and love to Him, and without proper inhabitants,
without Christ, without God, without the Spirit, and is the
habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, who
delight in dark and desolate places. It's barred and bolted
with unbelief, and walled up and even petrified and hardened
with sin, and is gardened and garrisoned by Satan, and his
goods are kept in peace by him." And this was the case with Lydia. She was a fine lady. She's a
businesswoman, so she had to be polite and courteous. She was a religious lady. But she was a lost sheep with a closed heart, an evil
heart of unbelief. And only divine power could reveal
the truth to her. Look over in Luke's gospel, in
Luke chapter Says the Lord opened Lydia's heart. Verse 25 of Luke 24. This is when Christ met these
after the resurrection. Then said he unto them, O fools,
and slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses
and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures
the things concerning himself. the things concerning himself. And later when they were talking,
in verse 32, and they said one to another, did not our heart
burn within us while he talked with us by the way and while
he opened to us the scripture? For the Lord to open our hearts
is for the Lord to open to us the scriptures. And that means it's about Christ. Look a little farther. When Christ
came and revealed himself to those who were gathered in that
upper room. Verse 44 said, and he said unto
them, these are the words which I spake unto you while I was
yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were
written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms
concerning me. Then. opened he their understanding
that they might understand the Scriptures." What is it in the Scriptures? It is written, and thus it behooved
Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day and
that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in
his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." Christ. What he did, the things concerning
himself, the things that were spoken of
Paul. You just can read that in the
book of Acts. You can read it in all the epistles
that bear his name. They all say the same thing. Christ is all. And he is the
one who has made sin for his people that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. That He finished the work of
salvation. That His is the glory in salvation
alone. That He is the Savior that actually
saved us. He's the Redeemer who actually
redeemed us. He's the King that actually rules
over us. If she was a Jewish proselyte, she was a works believer. And she was broad. As Paul said, all of the Jews
were. She had never submitted to the righteousness of God in
Christ. What had she been doing? She
had been going about, like we all do by nature, going about
trying to establish our own righteousness and not submitting ourselves
to the righteousness of God. She found out about His love
for His people, His predetermination of all things to save them, His
choice of them, Christ's reason for coming and dying for them,
His determination to show mercy to them, to be gracious to them, And I know that because that's
what Paul always spoke about. And when her heart was opened
and she was given understanding of the gospel, it was manifest
in this first obedience to the Lord's command. He said, Paul, baptize me. Wow. Well, wasn't that good enough
in old religion? No. Baptism is believer's baptism. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. All the identification with Everything
that's false is false. And here, even though she was
said to be a worshiper of God, even though she was said to be
praying, even so that she attended on the Sabbath, even though she
was a Jewish proselyte, she was lost until the Lord opened
her heart. And when her heart was opened,
and she was baptized, she opened her house and all her substance,
and she begged, that's what that word constrained really means,
she begged Paul and those men to come into her house. Now think
about this. Here she is, a business lady,
No doubt if she was a seller of purple, she was wearing some
of that purple and some of those goods that she sold. And she
would not have associated with these men. She was gathered with
the women. So she's not by nature gonna
ask a bunch of probably dirty, dusty,
ragged looking travelers, men, to come to her house. Why would she want that? I'll tell you why. To hear more
of what she had just been told. More of just what she had been
told. And she loved Paul. There's no
doubt that she loved Paul and these brethren because they told
her the truth. They were the least likely. Why did God do all this? Some
of which at first may have seemed hard to Lydia. Maybe business was bad. So she had to come to Macedonia
to sell. Why did God tear up, tear down
her false religion? Disturb and disrupt her comfortable
mind? Why did he reveal her ignorance
and her unbelief because he loved her. He loved her from old eternity. And as they say, come hell or
high water, he was going to save her. And if God is gonna save you,
if he's loved you with an everlasting love, It doesn't matter what
kind of a maze of religion or immorality or whatever it is,
all the circumstances. He's bringing you to this certain
point of time and to hear this message of truth and to break
in on you, give you light. He loved us. and he gave himself
for us. He loved us, and he chose us
to salvation. It's all about his true love,
and this was a woman that God loved. Boy, he sure must love his people,
hadn't he? And they fall, and they fail, But they never disappoint Him. Because He's always led them
in Christ. It's not gonna change. It's a marvelous thing to be
loved by God. Because if we've been loved by
God, We're going to be saved eternally by God. He's going
to have his love with him. All other loves may fail. They
may prove to be not have been love at all. But his is unchanging and everlasting
and always in Christ. We thank you, Lord, this morning
for your mercy and grace, for the fact that you save your
people from their sins. You love these Jacobs with an
everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness, you draw them, you bring them. You teach them. You open their
hearts. And they find Christ alone to
be their salvation. We thank you in his name. Amen. To me? Gary, how much are the
books here? How much are your books? Hey, I'm Brother Richie.