Well, it meant a lot to me. And I appreciate you too, buddy. I talked to people all over this
country that tell me how much they appreciated this church,
this pastor. And I'm serious when I say I
don't know of anybody Nobody I know that I'd change places
with, I can tell you that. And to be able to be in a place,
I've told many of you what Brother Paul Mahan told me when I first
came here. He said, you're coming to a place
that has been faithfully taught for 50 years. He said, a church
where God has settled a group of people and comforted them. He said, raised up a man that
would be right there and kept him there 50 years. He said,
when you're gone, you have a man to fill in for you, and it's
Scott Richardson. He said, what do you want? I
said, nothing. That's enough. Let's pray together. Our Father, truly, we are all
reminded how thankful that we ought to be, though we're not
thankful as we should be. But, Lord, we are thankful. You've given us a heart to be
thankful. And, Lord, we're thankful that
we can talk to You right now in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we know that You hear us
because You hear us for His sake. You said you do. The Lord said
you hear Him. And Lord, we only approach you
in Christ's name. We ask you to bless the services
this evening and help us, cause us to hear, truly hear and rejoice. And Lord, I pray that you'd bless
this message. Bless it to our understanding.
Bless it, I pray, to the salvation of your people. And we ask these
things. for Christ's sake. Amen. Turn with me, if you would, to
the book of Acts chapter 21. Acts chapter 21. I'd like to
look at verses 7 to 14. Just going through. I've told
you so many times, I love just going through Scripture verse
by verse by verse. Word by word by word. The wonderful
thing This is the way the Spirit of God wrote it. Acts 21. Before we look, I had a scripture
that I wanted to share with you. I've entitled this message, The
Will of the Lord Be Done. In Mark 10, the Lord Jesus Christ
is speaking. Verse 28 to 30, it says, Then
Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all and followed
thee. And Jesus answered and said,
Verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house,
or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children,
or lands for my sake. and the Gospels, but he shall
receive a hundredfold now in this time houses and brethren
and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and
in the world to come eternal life." You know, not only do we see
a promise in that quote from the Lord Jesus Christ of the
spiritual blessings. What the Lord said is nobody
ever gives up everything for the sake of Christ. No one ever gives up all of the
things of this world. No one ever gives them up and
loses anything. Never. The Scriptures reveal that not
only is there a spiritual blessing, you that sit here this evening
and have, as I have related to you this past weekend, family, who in this room this evening
that believes Christ would take Their father, mother, house,
lands, brother, sister, on and on and on. Who would take them and forsake the gospel for them? Nobody. Nobody. You love your family. You love
your neighbors and stuff like that, but you would not take
them over Christ. The Lord asked Peter and some
disciples. He said, Will you go away also? And Peter said,
Where are we going to go? You have the words of eternal
life. Where are we going? The Lord said, Not only does
man give up the temporal goods of this world,
but he shall receive also in this life houses, family, lands,
a hundredfold, he said, in this life. I like what Brother Henry
said one time about giving it all up, you know, giving it all
up. He said, you know, the world
has this mindset. Well, I got to do all that I
can, you know, for my family. I got to work. And works, they're
God. Well, I'm doing this for my family. I want to give them the finer
things in life." And he said, you know, he said, I discovered something
a long time ago. He said, having a heart to forsake,
going after all of those things, working and giving myself totally
to that for the sake of having that. He said, I've got houses
all over this world. He said, I've got brothers, sisters
all over this world. How many places, Brother Scott,
do you think you could go In this nation, where God's people
are raised up, that you couldn't go and have a house to stay in
tonight. Brother Henry said, I've got
houses all over this world. How many brethren do you think
would just... Last weekend, Linda, myself,
Brother Carl, and I, Lou, went over to Ashland. And I called
Brother John Chapman. We'd just come down Friday night,
you know, down to Ashland Saturday morning. I called him, I asked
him, I said, could you give me, if you got any motels over there
and we'll just call and get us a reservation. He said, let me
make a couple of phone calls. He said, I'll take care of this.
He called back just a few minutes and he said, got you a place
lined up. Got a family right here, we've
been knowing them for years. Went over there and spent the
night with them, Friday night. Just had a wonderful time. I
mean, just opened up their home. I mean, just family reunion,
you know, just got houses, got houses in Ashland, got houses
here, got houses there. How many people? The Scripture
says in Acts 21, 7, and when we had finished our course from
Tyre, we came to Ptolemaeus and saluted the brethren and abode
with them one day." Paul said we were greeted by the brethren
in another place. We left this place and we went
to another place and we stayed there by God's good pleasure,
providence, provision. And then the Scripture says in
verse 8, We that were of Paul's company departed and came unto
Caesarea. We entered into the house of
Philip, the evangelist, which was one of the seven, and abode
with him." You know, it's so wonderful to be able to be with
God's people. The Lord provides and has a place
to stay, and then also there's the fellowship. I mean, you just,
it's wonderful. to be able to be with God's people. That's who you want to be with. Two things I see here. Not only
in that second verse, that verse 8, not only do we have another
example of the sustaining grace of God to provide and have a
place, a place to stay, but also the preserving grace of God that
keeps God's people. This man, it said here the next
day, was Philip the Evangelist. Do you know who this guy was?
Turn back Acts 6, Acts 6. Let me tell you about this fellow,
Philip, right here. Acts 6, 1 to 6. In those days when the number
of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring between
the Grecians against the Hebrews. The Gentiles and the Jews, because
of their widows, were neglected in the daily ministration. Then
the Twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them and
said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God
and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye
out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost
and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will
give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of
the word. And the saying pleased the whole multitude. They chose
Stephen, a man full of faith, of the Holy Ghost, and Philip,
and Procorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas,
a proselyte of Antioch, whom they sent before the apostles,
and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on him. This
man, Philip the evangelist, This is where we find out about Philip. God had done something for this
man, called him out of darkness, kept him. Later, this was the
same Philip that met the Ethiopian eunuch. Came up to him and asked
him, said, you know what you're reading? He's reading the book
of Isaiah. God said, really not sure, unless some man teach me,
tell me. And he preached. He took the
spot that that that unit was reading, and he preached unto
him Jesus. And the Lord revealed himself
to that Ethiopian, and he said, What doth hinder me to be baptized?
And Philip said, Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ? I believe.
I believe. And he baptized him right there.
And here now, years later, here's this man right here. God's kept
him. That's the wonder. and the evidence
of God's grace that God keeps His people. There are some people
who have been sitting here for years and years and years by
the grace of God. This Philip, well, it says in
verse 9, the same man, Philip, he had four daughters, virgins,
which did prophesy. Well, here, first of all, is
the fulfillment of the Word of God. through the prophet Joel. Joel 2.28 says it shall come
to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh. At Pentecost that happened, Jew
and Gentile. And your sons and your daughters
shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and young
men shall see visions. Now, this group of ladies, four
daughters, virgins, and they did prophesy. Now that word prophesy,
it means speak under inspiration, to speak under inspiration. And
the scripture says that they did prophesy. Now that is the
same word that was used by some ruffians that were abusing our
Lord at that trial before the high priest in Matthew 26, 67
and 68. Then did they spit in his face
and buffeted him, and others smote him with the palms of their
hands, saying, Prophesy unto us, thou Christ. Who is he that
smote thee? They mocked him, is what they
did. And what they were saying, that word was, Speak under inspiration
of God, and why don't you tell us who hit you?" It was a mock
to them. But that's what the word means,
to speak under inspiration. So these daughters, the Scripture
says, did prophesy. So we know that they did speak
under inspiration. Though they did speak under inspiration,
the scripture is clear to their role. Now, this is where you
need to be very careful whenever someone takes and if you you
talk about taking a scripture out of context. These these women
that are running around here standing up front, you know,
call themselves evangelist and and they're not called of God. They're they're they're not called
of God. They're false prophets. How do you know? Well, the Scripture
distinctly deals with this. Now, I know that these four daughters
did prophesy. And I'll tell you what I think
that they were doing. But Paul dealt with this concerning
women preachers. I know that they weren't women
preachers. 1 Timothy 2.12, I suffer, I allow
not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority of the man, but
to be in silence." Concerning standing in a pulpit, a woman
on the authority of the Word of God has no place whatsoever
in leading and standing before a group of people, a congregation
like this. How do you know? Because God
forbids it. It says 1 Corinthians 14, 34,
let your women keep silence in the church, for it's not permitted
under them to speak, but they are commanded to be under obedience
as also sayeth the law. What does that mean? They can't
say anything whatsoever. No, it means they can't teach.
They can't preach. God does not call women to preach. That's it. And if someone says
God's called me to preach and it's a woman and she's standing
up there, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. She said God
called her, and God said I didn't. But to what extent does the Scripture
reveal how a woman may prophesy or speak under the inspiration
of God, because it says here that they did. They did. Well,
turn with me to Titus 2. Titus chapter 2, and let's look
at A few scriptures Titus 2 1 to 5. Titus chapter 2 verse 1 to 5. But speak thou. The things which
become sound doctrine. Paul was saying is when you when
you when you speak. Make it according to the scriptures.
That the aged men. Be sober. grave, temperate, sound
in faith and charity and patience. That the aged women, now that,
it doesn't mean necessarily in chronological, I mean age as
far as numbers of years, maturity. Aged women, likewise, that they
be in behavior as cometh holiness, not false accusers, not given
to much wine, teachers of good things, that they may teach the
young women to be sober, wise, to love their husbands, to love
their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good,
obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed."
So I know this. The Scripture does not forbid
a woman to teach, an aged woman, a taught, wise woman, to teach
Younger women to teach him what teach him, teach him the wisdom,
teach him to love their husbands, love the children, discreet.
There's nothing wrong with a woman teaching the younger women. You know, you teach him, you
teach him by scriptures, by the word you just you know. So I
know this. I know that to speak under the
inspiration concerning these virgins, women, I know that that
younger women In the faith, not necessarily age. If they're they're
taught by women that God is taught, you learn from you learn. All
right. Secondly, look at 2nd Timothy
1, 3 to 5. 2nd Timothy. Chapter one. Verse
3, 3 to 5, 2nd Timothy 1, 3, I thank God whom I serve from my forefathers
with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of
thee in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see
thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy,
when I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee,
which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice,
and am persuaded that in thee Also, now just look at 2 Timothy
3. Paul is writing to Timothy, 2
Timothy 3, 14 and 15. He tells Timothy, Continue thou
in the things which thou hast learned, and hast been assured
of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them in that from a child.
Thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise
unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. Listen
to me. Teach your children. Teach your
children the Scriptures. And teach them the meaning of
the Scriptures. You've got opportunities, these
kids, when you're around them. When things come up, relate to
them the Word of God and the significance of the Word of God. I remember, boy, I guarantee
you if you'd asked one of my kids, What's the Scripture? What's one of the Scriptures
you remember when you grow up? Ephesians 6.1. Children, obey
your parents in the Lord. This is right. Teach them. This is right. This is right. This is right. You learn obedience. Learn to be obedient to your
parents. You learn obedience to God. Teach the Scriptures.
That's what Timothy was told by the Apostle Paul. Recognized Timothy from a child
and raised up. So so ladies, you teach the younger
ladies, you teach the children. Then look at Acts 18. Acts chapter
18, here's a here's an example of a woman that did speak under
inspiration. Acts 18. Verse 24, the scripture
says a certain Jew named Apollos, born of Alexandria, Eloquent
man, mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man was
instructed in the way of the Lord. Being fervent in the Spirit,
he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing
only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the
synagogue, whom when Aquila and Priscilla, a man and his wife,
had heard, they took him unto them and expanded unto him the
way of the Lord more perfectly. Now, here was a woman that the
Scripture says was with her husband. Now, I have no idea how much
she said or anything. I do know that they were both
there, but the point of the matter is she was under the authority
of her husband. So there's times when I can definitely
see that this scripture right here, it had four daughters.
They did prophesy. Though the Spirit of God doesn't
reveal. the details of this particular
group of women. We know, obviously, that they
spoke under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, but I know
that it was according to the revelation of God's Word concerning
the bounds of what they were permitted to do. So don't take
Scripture and just say, well, you see, these weren't right
here. These were preachers. No, they weren't. It doesn't
say that. It says they spoke under inspiration.
And we looked at some scriptures that dealt with that. Verse 10,
And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judea
a certain prophet named Agabus. And when he was come unto us,
he took Paul's girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said,
Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind
the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the
hands of the Gentiles. Now, no doubt, and we mentioned
this last time, we're reminded of the surety of God's Word and
the sustaining grace of God toward his people. You remember the
Spirit of God had instructed Paul to go to Jerusalem, that
was in Acts 20, 22. And now, behold, Paul said, I
go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall
befall me there. But also, we looked last time,
and here is another scripture that bears this out, the Spirit
of God that told Paul that he was going to go to Jerusalem. The same Spirit told some of
these other prophets Tell Paul that he's going to suffer persecution. That's what they're saying. They're
telling him, you're going to suffer persecution. And this,
the Spirit of God, by this, the Spirit of God proved His sustaining
grace to His people. Paul, you're going to go. This
is what is going to happen to you. But Paul was going. To go
to Jerusalem, he said, I'm going bound in the spirit. But let
me ask you this. Don't we do the same thing? We,
we, we know that we're going to suffer persecution. Second,
Timothy 3, 12, yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution. Now we know that we will. But
as I said last time or time before, I remember making this statement,
though we know it. Do we fail to continue in the
faith because we know we're going to suffer persecution? They told
Paul, Paul, you go to Jerusalem, they're going to bind you. He
knew they were going to bind him. But he didn't know exactly
what was going to happen. Now, I'm going to tell you something.
We don't know what tomorrow is going to bring, but I do know
based on the Scripture I just read, all that will live godly
in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. When? I don't know. How? I don't know. To what extent? I don't know. How long is it
going to last? I don't know. But what are we
going to do? Turn to 2 Corinthians 4. 2 Corinthians
chapter 4, verse 7. 2 Corinthians. Four seven, we have this treasure,
the treasure of the gospel of God's grace, the presence of
Christ, this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency
of the power may be of God and not with us. We're troubled on
every side, yet not distressed. We're perplexed, but we're not
in despair. We're persecuted, but not forsaken. cast down, but not destroyed,
always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus,
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus'
sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our
mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us,
but life in you." We realize that Every day, I've said before,
you think back. We don't know what's going to
happen. But we can all look back and
think of trials, think of things that we've gone through and suffered. And who would not admit the Lord's
grace was sufficient? Whatever it was. I mean, we look
forward to the unknown because of our flesh and the presence
of sin. There's some anxiety there. Anybody
that will say there's not, you're not being completely truthful
about that. But looking back, you know, we'll
say this, Lord, grace is sufficient. They told Paul, you're going,
you know, you're going to suffer some problems. And Paul told
them, he said, I'm going, I'm going. Verse 13, Paul answered,
What mean you to weep and to break mine heart? For I am ready,
not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ." Oh, I read that a while ago again,
and I thought to myself, you know, for God Almighty to settle
a man or a woman's heart to where they'd settle down. And they'd
know that, you know, this is the way it is. This is the way
it is. And I'm ready. I'm ready. When I lived in Franklin, I did
a lot of study, particularly on a the battle that was fought
there at Franklin, Tennessee, during the Civil War. And it
was the end of war, toward the last few months before the war.
And there were, during that battle, there were four generals killed
in that battle. Five, really, but one died a
few days later. But four of them killed that
day. Five lost. Five Confederate generals, that
battle. There was a, the commanding general
said, he said, you know, he said, this is a, this is dire straits. We're going to make, we're going
to make a frontal assault. And, uh, it was a two mile, two
mile open, open terrain, two miles, uh, charge, uh, no artillery. And, uh, on the Confederate side,
artillery on the Union side, and they made a frontal assault. And before it started, Patrick
Claiborne, one of the generals that was killed, told one of
the men in his staff, he said, you know what? He said, it's
a good day to die. Resolved. This is it. This is
the way it's going to be. It's going to be a bad day. And
it was. It was a bad day. But the fact
of the matter is, it was resolved. Paul said, Why are you trying
to cause me to weep and break my heart? I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm ready. If God Almighty is pleased to
allow me to be there, and I die, I know this. that God Almighty
orders all things, that nothing is going to happen to me outside
of His will and His providence and His good pleasure. I am ready. What comfort! What peace! You
know, dying grace, God brings a person to that point where
their Leaving this world and they leave
with peace, comfort. I had a preacher tell me one
time he had a man in his congregation and he said the fellow was a,
I've told some of you, this is not an illustration, it's true.
Big strapping fellow and he contracted a disease and he dwindled down
and he went from 250 pounds to About 70 pounds just before he
died. The pastor went in to see him
and just talk with him. And the guy just had a big smile
on his face. And he said, I just want to thank you. He said, you've
been the best friend I've ever had. He said, you preach the
gospel to me. And he said, that's all that
matters right now. He said, nothing else. What else
matters? Whatever I had in this life or
didn't have in this life. What difference does it make?
I'm ready. Paul said, why you want me? I'm ready. I'm ready to go, ready
to die. What are you doing weeping and
breaking my heart? You know, expressions of love
are understood, but never let them interfere with a conviction
of duty that a believer has. If a believer tells you this
is what I believe, that I've got to do. And do just exactly
what they did. Look at verse 14, And when he
would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord
be done. This is what a believer wants.
This is what you want. This is what a believer desires. That's the evidence of a renewed
heart. They take God's will against
their own. Think of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, if this cup, I think, here is
the Master, omniscient God, God Almighty, in the form of sinful flesh,
praying and I'm reading the words that he said and I take them. This is the master speaking.
He who knows all things, he who set his face like a flint to
the cross and said, if this cup can pass from me, but nevertheless,
Not my will, but Thine." Now, buddy, you try to explain
that, and you might as well not. I can tell you this. His resolve
was the will of His Father. I know that. I know He said it,
and that was right. He was right. And I know this. He never doubted. He never doubted
because He was sinless. Holy, undefiled, separate from
sinners. And there he was praying for
his father's will to be done. The writer says, when we saw
that Paul wasn't going to waver, we shut up. We ceased. And he said, the will of the
Lord be done. My mother is planning to move here, Lord willing,
this next spring. And someone asked her the other
day, Well, why in the world do you want to go to West Virginia? She says, Because I want to.
That's what I believe God wants me to do. And you know that answers
all things. What are you going to say to
that? What else are you going to say? Trials are come. Persecution of certain but God's
will. Psalm 3311, the counsel of the
Lord standeth forever. The thoughts of His heart to
all generations. God doesn't change. All that
He's decreed is going to come to pass. Men are going to come
and men are going to go and lives will be here and we'd like a
leaf and just like the grass. The beauty
of men fade, but the undisturbed mind of God moves everything
according to His end. Attitudes. They change because
of the economy, the world's instability. But God's wisdom is always wise. It's what it is. Always right. Always for His glory. Always
for our good. His purpose is going to stand. The same power that raised up
Pharaoh When God said, this is the reason I raised, that same
power orders this world right now. The will of the Lord be
done. That's what we want. God's will. What do you desire? What do you
want? I've encouraged you to be praying
for the coming events. They'll be coming up in a couple
of weeks and be voting. What do you want? We want God's will. Pray for God's will. That's what
we want. I'm Gary Eakins.