All right, let's take our Bibles
and turn with me to the book of Acts, chapter 16. Acts, chapter 16. I'd like to look at a very familiar
story, a very familiar passage of scripture. It's found in verses
14 and 15, and it's about the conversion of a woman named Lydia. Lydia. Now, what was brought
up to this point right here was there was a couple of preachers
that, well one, I'm sorry, one preacher, and in particular it's
mentioned here, and it was the Apostle Paul And he was providentially
moved. He had wanted to go different
places. He wanted to go to Asia. He couldn't
go to Asia. The Spirit of God restrained
him from going there. Later he could. He could go back.
But there was a woman that was to be at this particular spot
in a town called Philippi. And the Apostle Paul was to meet,
by the good pleasure of Almighty God, this woman. So I want us
to look at two verses of Scripture. Oh, what a marvelous passage
it is. The Scripture says, in verse
14, and a certain woman. There was a particular woman. A woman that was particular,
to the Lord Himself. A woman that was particular to
the Lord Jesus Christ. A woman that He knew. He knew
in electing grace. He knew from before the foundation
of the world. And the Spirit of God had moved
this woman to this spot. Her name was Lydia. Lydia was
her name. It was a certain woman, and the
scripture says that she was a seller of purple. She was a business
woman. And she would go and she would
sell her wares wherever her business would take her. She was a seller
of purple. Purple was a color of royalty. It didn't say she wore it. She
said she sold it. And this woman was from, according
to the scriptures, the city of Thyatira. Now, Thyatira holds
your place here in Acts chapter 16, but turn over to Revelation
chapter 2. Revelation chapter 2. This particular
city was one that that the apostle John was instructed by the Lord
to write a letter to. John wrote seven letters, seven
churches. And Thyatira was one of them. Look in verse 18. And unto the angel of the church
at Thyatira write, These things saith the Son of God, who hath
his eyes like unto a flame of fire, his feet like fine brass. He said, I know thy works. and
your charity, your love, your service, your faith, your patience,
and thy works, the last to be more than the first. Notwithstanding,
I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman
Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to
seduce my servants, to commit fornication and to eat things
sacrificed unto idols." Now, this was kind of a the history. It was kind of the
epitaph, if you would, concerning this place where Lydia came. She was from a place that there
was a church, but there was some things raised up in that church
that was disrespectful. That woman referred to as Jezebel,
probably meaning just false religion. at the great whore of false religion. It had gotten a hold in that
place. And this woman, Lydia, was from
that city of Thyatira. But here's what the scripture
says concerning Lydia, back in Acts 16, 14. She worshipped God. Now, what that set forth, because
as of this point right here, The Lord has not called her out
of darkness. She's a woman that obviously had left the idolatrous
worship of the Gentiles and had been a proselyte to Judaism. Probably this woman was a Jew
and what she did was she worshipped God according to the law. She worshipped the God of Israel
as the Lord set forth. She worshipped God in that form
of the law, that form of worship that the Lord had set forth for
the Jews and had a great affection for that religion. But obviously
at this point she had no heart for Christ. She knew the forms. She knew the shadows. She knew
the types. She wasn't a worshipper of Baal. She worshipped the God that she
knew, the only God she knew. She worshipped and believed. She worshipped. Exactly. But now here is a woman. who
the Lord has providentially brought to this place. And this woman
is a sincere woman. Obviously. It doesn't say she
falsely was doing that out of show or anything. She truly believed
what she was doing. But let me ask you this. Is there
really any difference between Lydia or any other person? that truly is sincere in their
heart concerning the God, the liturgy God, that they worship
before the Lord calls them out of darkness. They've got a hope.
It's a false hope, but it's a hope nonetheless. And this woman truly
believed. She'd come out of paganism, and
she had embraced Judaism. And I personally, for myself,
I can remember coming out of a denomination that I truly am
convinced now is not right. It's wrong. And I came out of
that religion and went into another religion. And it was just as
wrong. But I was sincere. I truly believed that what I
had done, what they were telling me was right. And I was doing
everything I knew to do. But this woman, out of Thyatira,
she worshipped God, is brought to this particular place. Here's a group of women. The Scripture says, look back
in verse 13, Chapter 16, verse 13, on the Sabbath. Here's the
Apostle Paul relating this story. On the Sabbath, we went out of
the city by a riverside where prayer was wont to be made. We
sat down and spake unto the woman which resorted thither. Now here was the Apostle Paul,
providentially brought to this riverside. Paul the Apostle. And here's a woman that from
the city of Thyatira, a pagan city, where pagan worship was
done, and this woman now has come and she's worshipping God. Now this is grace before grace. Provenient grace. Think about
the life of some that are mentioned in the scriptures. of grace before
grace. God moving, ordering the steps
of those that He's going to show mercy. And here's this woman,
and she's like Zacchaeus. How did Zacchaeus get up in that
sycamore tree? He came in and got himself a
job, you know, being a tax collector. Now he's rolling in high cotton,
he's got it made. in the shade, but he's got an
interest. He wants to see this Jesus of
Nazareth, but he was short in stature. And so to overcome that
being short, he climbs up in a sycamore tree. And grace before
grace, because the Lord is going to pass by there. How about that
thief on the cross? Ain't no telling what that guy
went through. There's no telling what kind
of life he led. He probably grew up a young boy,
ruffian, and just troublemaker. Probably caused his parents all
kinds of trouble, and he was always in trouble, I'm sure,
with the law coming. He just grew right up, and he
was a thief, and he was caught. captured by the authorities and
he was tried, he was convicted, and now he's sentenced to die.
And he's hanging right on the cross, right beside the Lord
Jesus Christ. Grace before grace. He was railing
on the Lord just like the other one was. And then, before you
know it, God did something for him and he starts correcting
the other thief and he said, don't you fear God. We're getting
exactly what we deserve. How about that Ethiopian eunuch? Here he is, he's got him a job
in the royal court, and he's been in Jerusalem, and he's in
his chariot, and he's riding back in the middle of a desert,
and he's reading the Scriptures out of Isaiah, and he doesn't
more understand what he's reading, and the Lord sends a Philip out
there in the middle of a desert, Philip asked him, he said, do
you understand what you're reading? He said, how can I? Unless somebody
explains it to me, I don't know what I'm reading. Doesn't make
sense to me. And starting in that spot, Philip
preached unto him Jesus. Scriptures set forth, Philip
preached the gospel to him. And here's a woman, she's just,
she's a business woman. on the Sabbath day, and the scripture
says that she's come to that riverside, she's come down there
where their group of women are meeting, and Paul is preaching
to them. And Lydia, the scripture says,
back in verse 14, Acts 16, heard. Notice, us is in italics. She
heard. Here was a woman that heard,
yes, Paul preaching, those preachers preaching, but the message at
first meant nothing to her. How many sit under the sound
of the gospel and they hear the same gospel that God's people
hear? And they hear it, they understand
the words, they understand the language that I'm speaking, they
understand. But they don't truly hear. They don't hear in the heart.
It just doesn't mean anything to them. Oh, they could give
you a good argument. If you ask them, say, what do
they preach over there at Katie Baptist Church? Well, they preach
sovereign grace. That doesn't mean anything to
them. She heard. She heard. Paul says she heard. Now, many hear with the ear,
but they don't have spiritual ears to hear. But here was a
woman in the right place, hearing the right message, but her heart
at that point was shut. And she didn't mean anything. It was dead, trespasses and sins. But listen to this. Here's what
happened. All whose heart, whose heart, her mind, her spiritual,
that heart, the Lord, the Lord opened. I was thinking while
I was going over reading that, how many of those women that
were there. It doesn't say, it just says
back in 13, there was a prayer was wont to be made, you know,
and they sat down and spake with some women, there were some women
there. How many heard that day? I don't
know. I know one. I know one. This woman heard. And why did she hear? Well, it's
because the Lord opened her heart. The Lord gave her understanding. Lydia didn't open her heart.
Paul didn't open her heart. Paul preached the gospel to her.
But the Lord, the Lord on purpose, according to His everlasting
covenant of grace, the Lord opened that heart that was barred shut
from birth. That heart that was ignorant,
hard and unbelief, totally in darkness, no matter how much
moral light there seemed to be concerning that woman. This woman
though, she went through the motions of worship. She said she believed, but the
scripture declares that her heart was shut. She didn't know God. And then all of a sudden, here
was a woman that formerly was worshipping the God of her imagination. It seemed she was doing the right
thing. She was like that woman at the
well of Sychar, who the Lord went through when he had to go
through Macedonia. The Lord told her, she said,
well we worship over this mountain. The Lord said, you don't know
what you worship. You don't know what she worshipped. She was...
This woman, just like those at Mars Hill, when Paul went through
there, he noticed all of these statues, you know, all these
gods. Then he noticed this one monument
there, it said, to the unknown God. I mean, they were so careful,
you know, just in case we've not covered all the bases. Paul
said, I'm going to tell you about this unknown God, one you don't
know. And he preached to them. And
here was this woman, and she was empty. She was empty of God's
grace. And the scripture says that God
came and opened her heart. You know, that heart that was
a stronghold of rebellion. And God caused the light of the
glorious person of the Lord Jesus Christ. God commanded. As He
commanded the light to shine out of the darkness in the beginning,
in the creation, He commanded light to shine in her heart. And by grace, she began to see
something. She realized what she was by
nature. That's what happens when God
opens a heart. We see the wretchedness. That's what Paul continued to
confess. Oh, wretched man. That old man
that never leaves. separated from while we're in
this life. And she began to see something. She saw the wretchedness of her
condition, her insufficiency to do anything about her miserable
ways. And she saw her works and she
saw that everything that she was trying to do to justify herself
before God and saw her need of the Lord, of His righteousness,
that salvation was by grace and that old stony heart was removed
by the Spirit of God and a new heart was put in, a heart of
flesh. And the Scripture says, and it's
by faith, it's the only way she could. And she heard when the
Lord opened her heart and she attended unto the things which
were spoken of Paul, she attended, she understood the weight of
her soul was laid bare and now all eternity that had rested
for this woman that hinged on this one thing, the grace of
God. God Almighty was pleased to save
this woman by grace, this religious woman, probably a good woman,
probably just, I mean, fair and treated her, she worshiped God,
she was doing everything, but here is a woman that the Lord
opened her heart, and He did it through the preaching of the
gospel, and she attended unto The things which were spoken
of Paul. I thought about those things. Oh, whenever the Lord's pleased
to teach us that we were ruined in the fall. You know man by
nature doesn't believe that. He doesn't believe that man by
nature's ruined in the fall. Men by nature believe that there's
a little good in everybody. that all we have to do is exercise
our faith, therefore they believe that everybody got faith. But these things that were spoken
by Paul, ruined in the fall, redeemed by the blood, that there
was a cost of our redemption, that there was a price to be
paid before God's broken law. The wages of sin is death. Well, what's it going to take
for the law to be honored? Well, Christ is going to have
to be made what we are. He's going to have to be made
sin. They said, well, I don't believe He was actually made
sin. Well, if he was not actually made sin, if he's not actually
made what we are, made sin, and God killed him. Unless the Lord was pleased to
bruise him, and he wasn't actually made sin, God wasn't just. God did something that was unjust. He slew an innocent man. He was
made what we are. He who knew no sin was made sin
for us. And Paul was preaching that man's
ruined. He's ruined in the fall. He's
redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and regenerated
only by the Holy Spirit, by the grace of God. That God must come
to him. God offered salvation to everybody. And it was up to man to accept
it. I thought that that was, well
then that's works. That's salvation by my works. But now Paul was
preaching free justification by the righteousness imputed
of the Lord Jesus Christ. What does justification mean?
No guilt. No record? No record. Pardoned by His blood? Oh, how the Lord pardons His people
since we believe. Has anyone ever sinned since
we believe? What's the basis for forgiveness
of that sin? The blood of Christ. When I see
the blood, I'll pass over you Oh, full and free salvation,
eternal life. Never leave you, never forsake
you. And the scripture says that she heard us. And the Lord opened
her heart. And she attended. She believed
Him. She understood Him. I understand
what you're saying and I believe that. I believe that Christ that
you're preaching. Oh, and the scripture says, Here
was the evidence that God had done something for her. When she was baptized in her
household, you know the Lord was pleased to save her and to
save her household too. He doesn't always do that. But
He was pleased here. He saved her in obedience. obedience to the Lord's command
because of that new nature, because of the love of Christ, the love
of Christ that constrained her. She wanted to be baptized. I
want to follow after the Lord's command. Baptism didn't save
her, but baptism was her confession. You know, we confess the Lord.
We confess Him with our mouth. You know, we say, we speak to
each other and we confess our love, we confess Him, you know,
in our heart, to our heart. We're speaking to ourselves,
you know, with a good conscience. You know, the Lord has done something
for me. We believe God. But we actually confess the Lord
in baptism. And she attended. She attended
to that. She wasn't ashamed of it. She
said, I didn't know God. I didn't know God before. I was
worshipping the God that I thought was the God to be worshipped.
And she said, I was doing what I was doing, trying to be faithful. And she said, I want to confess
the Lord. Salvation is all of grace. And it was not according to the
works that I was doing. And she attended unto that baptism. And when she was saying, I believe
this, I believe when the Lord died, I believe I died in Him.
I believe God chose me before the foundation of the world,
put me in Him. And I believe that when He died, He died with
me on His heart. I believe that just like that
high priest there In the Old Testament, with those stones,
he had 12 stones on his breastplate. He'd go in and he would, you
know, to be a priest before God, to answer, he had two stones.
He had six names on this stone, six names on this stone, as a
representative. She said, I believe that when
he died, he died with me on his heart. I believe that he bore
all of the needs that I would ever have before God on his shoulders. The government was on his shoulders.
I believe that when He was buried, I believe that I was buried with
Him. I believe that being part of
His mystical body, I believe when God put me in Him, I believe
that He's always kept me right there. And I believe when the
Lord died and was buried, that I went in that grave with Him.
And I believe that when He arose, I believe that I rose with Him.
You know, believers are going to say, I don't understand all
I know, what I know I believe. I believe that. I believe that
I rose with Him and I believe that He arose for me because
God Almighty had everlastingly justified me in Christ. I believe
that whenever the Lord said that He saw the Lamb slain, when God
saw the Lamb slain, He saw Him slain before the foundation of
the world. 2 Timothy 1.9, who has saved
us eternally and called us in time. She said, I believe that. She said, I believe that salvation
is all of grace. And she said, I don't believe
that salvation has anything to do with my works. I believe that
God saves and he saves his own by grace and he grants them faith
to believe it. and I'm gonna confess it, and
I'm gonna trust him. So he said she was baptized and
her household. And then she besought us. She
just constrained us, Paul said. She said, I want you, I want
you, if you judge me faithful to the Lord, I want you to come
to my house. I want you to abide there. Come live there if you want to.
For a while, Paul did stay there. And she constrained us. She had
been judged or shown to be a believer. She was baptized. And she said,
I want you to come. Why? Because she loved the brethren. By this shall all men know you're
my disciples. How? You have love for the brethren. You know, this is one of the
characteristics of a brethren. They want fellowship with the
brethren. They want to be where they are. We're going through,
as I said last time, I believe, we're going through a tough time
right now. We're not able to assemble as
we once did. But oh, hasn't this time of separation
caused our hearts to grow tender and to see and to appreciate
what the Lord has given us in having a fellowship, in having
a place to come together and worship together. She said, if
you judge me to be faithful to the Lord, not faithful to Paul,
not faithful to... but if you judge me to be faithful
to the Lord, if you believe that God's done something to me, come
to your house. Come to my house and I want you
to stay. And she constrained us and they did. Whenever the
Lord is pleased in closing to save one of his own. God's purpose
and grace is always accomplished. His grace is distinguishing grace. God's got a people. He's got
an elect. Lydia was one of them. God's
got a people. that He's chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world. He's going to call them out.
So God's grace is always, always distinguishing, it's always accomplished
because it's sovereign. God, He's all-powerful. The Lord
Jesus Christ, all power is given unto Him by the Father that He
should give eternal life to as many as the Father has given
Him. We talk about the grace of God. It's always sovereign
grace. It's always distinguishing grace. It's always irresistible grace
because it's the Lord's grace. Secondly, divine providence always
orders everything for the salvation of God's elect. She had to be
there that day. God's providence ordered it that
way. God orders the steps of His people. He guides them and directs them
just like He has all that believe here. That God would accomplish
in them that which He's purposed to do. Thirdly, God uses men
to preach the gospel for the salvation of His elect. She heard
the gospel preached. That gospel that gives all the
honor and glory and praise unto the Lord and gives none to man. And then fourthly, only the Lord
can open a heart. Whenever God's pleased to save
one of His own, He will put them under the sound of the gospel,
the power of God and salvation. He will make that message to
be effectual. How? He's going to give them,
in regenerating grace, He's going to give them a new heart. He's
going to open their heart. And they're going to attend just
exactly like Lydia did. Salvation, as Jonas says, salvation
is of the Lord. And how beautifully set forth
is that glorious salvation in the life of this woman named
Lydia. Just a sinner, just a woman, you know, business woman, but
a woman that was everlastingly loved of God. I pray that God
bless this to our hearts for Christ's sake. Amen.