I'll read a couple of verses
here from the book of Romans. I think I read them the other
night, and I think I'll read them again. Romans chapter 8,
verse 30. It says, Moreover, whom he did
predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also
justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we say, then, to these
things? If God be for us, there's no
question as to the truth of that, I'll never leave you nor forsake
you. He'll be with us throughout time
and throughout eternity. He'll be with us. He that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all,
all of his people. Those that he did predestinate,
those that he called his people. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with him also
freely? Give us all things. I was thinking
of Martha. She was called and justified. And when a person, a sinner,
is justified, he's free, absolutely free from all guilt and all sin. That's one of the best things
I ever heard of in my life, to be justified that God looks upon
you as though you had never sinned. And you had sinned a million
times, but He looks upon you as free from all sin. That's
what being justified is. And you're justified before Him. And that's where it counts. It doesn't count before me or
before the preacher, your best friends, your wife, your girlfriend. It doesn't count. But it counts
before God. Well, justification is instantaneous. It's right now. And it's complete. There's no adding to it or taking
from it. Absolutely free. And the best
thing about it is, or one of the good things about it, everything
about it is good, it's a permanent act. It never reverses itself. Permanent. Throughout the ages. The sinner that is saved by the
grace of God is free from all sin and is guaranteed by God
Himself and will never be taken away from Him. Oh, my soul, God
is to be adored and to be worshipped and to be praised for what He
has done for His people. How wonderful is that? A permanent
act. It can't be taken from you forever
and forever. All right. Let's have a word
of prayer. Our Father, we thank you for
this evening that you would allow us the privilege to hear your
Word read. Thank you. Thank you for both
Scott and thank you for the blessing that you've bestowed upon this
assembly, maintained this place all of these years. Lord, we
ask you to bless the Word this evening. Blessed to our heart
and understanding, let it not just be words, let it truly come
to us in power for Christ's sake. Amen. Turn with me, if you would, to
the book of Acts, chapter 16. We'll just pick up where we left
off last time. Paul the Apostle had wisely, under the guidance of the Spirit
of God, done something to Timothy that
he refused to do to some Gentile, great Gentile. Circumcised. Some men were trying to make
an issue out of circumcision and trying to say that if you
weren't circumcised, you couldn't be saved. Making a stipulation. Whenever you start adding works,
your works, anything you do, because anything that you have
in your mind that you have to do, in order to be saved. That's works. Salvation is not
a works. Salvation is by the grace of
God. You say, well, I've got to believe. When you believe,
God's already given you a new heart. Men don't believe with
an old heart. Flesh is flesh. It doesn't believe
God. When a man cries out for mercy,
God's already shown him mercy. When a man says, Lord, save me,
God has already saved him. He just told him. And he responds. Paul had circumcised Timothy
not because someone pressured him to do it. He circumcised Timothy because
he wisely removed any prejudices from believing Jews, not unbelieving. You're not going to please a
goat. You're just not going to please a goat. You're not going
to please one. You're just not going to. And these two preachers, Paul
and Silas, had gone through and delivered some decrees that had
been given the apostles from the church in Jerusalem to the
to be brought around to the different churches to kind of settle them,
give them some wise instruction on what would be expected of
them in order that they would not be unnecessarily offending
people for no reason. That's what all of it was about.
Don't eat meat that sacrifices to idols. Don't do that. There's
nothing wrong with it, that you're going to offend somebody unnecessarily.
Don't do that. Well, we find now, after they've
been going and preaching, we find an amazing thing happens
here. It starts in verse 6 of Acts
16. It's a very personal, very real
act by the Spirit of God. It's the easiest thing in the
world for us to just almost forget that the Spirit of God is vitally
involved in the life of God's people. He's real. He's real. He's personal. He personally guides. The Spirit
of God is in this place. Now, do you believe that? God's
Spirit. The Spirit of the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself. God's Spirit. Where two more
are gathered together in my name, I am in the midst of you. Leading,
guiding. He's teaching. He'll bring all
these things, the Lord Jesus Christ said, back to your memory.
He'll teach you. He'll teach you. You're hearing
some words. But the teaching of it, the instruction
of it, the learning of it, the believing of it, that's by God's
Spirit. God's Spirit teaches that. We
find, though, that the personal guiding of the Spirit of God
in the lives of these two men occurred here in this first part
of this passage. Verse 6, Now when they had gone
through, throughout, Phrygia in the region of Galatia, and
were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the Word in Asia. After
they had come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia,
but the Spirit suffered them not, and passing by, Mysia came
down to Troas." Now, God the Spirit speaking, remember all
of the Scriptures are God breathed. God inspired. This is what Amos,
let me read this to you, Amos 4, 7. The Spirit of God speaking
says, And also I have withholding the rain from you, when there
were yet three months to the harvest. I caused it to rain
upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city.
One piece was rained upon, and the piece thereupon it rained
not, withered. Now, literal rain, I don't doubt
a bit. Don't doubt one bit. I mean,
if it started raining this afternoon, that rain right there is at the
direct order and decree of Almighty God. It rains where God says
it's going to rain. But spiritually speaking, some
places it rains spiritually, and some places it doesn't. Who
is the one that decides where the Word of God, the Gospel of
God's free grace, Who decides where that's going to be preached
and blessed? God. God Almighty. God is the
One that raises up. God is the One that sustains.
There's buildings all over this country, all over this world.
But the places where the free grace of God Almighty is preached,
God raised them up. And God sustained them. Everything
else, men raised them up. Any place you find where the
gospel of free grace is not being preached, where Christ is not
being honored as Sovereign, Lord, Master, Almighty God did not
raise that up. That is not of the Lord. Where
God raises up a church, God Almighty blesses that word. Now, here
are two men and they had it in their minds that they were going
to do just exactly what the Spirit of God had impressed them to
do, go and preach the gospel, teaching them to observe all
things whatsoever I have commanded you. And they decided they were
going to go and they were going to take these cities and they
were going to go and the Spirit of God said no. No. It is the work of the Holy
Spirit to enlighten, to strengthen, to guide God's people. Romans
8, 14 says, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they
are the sons of God. Now, here's my question. Why
would the Spirit of God not allow these men to go and preach the
gospel in these cities of Asia? We're not told. We're just not
told. Paul said, we purposed. We were going to go. The Spirit
of God wouldn't let us. We were forbidden. You know what
this says to me? God suffered. He does as He will. This proves that the glorious
message of the Gospel is not just thrown to the wind and haphazardly
just out there somewhere. Almighty God raises up a place
where God Almighty desires, pleases to raise up a place where He
can have His message preached. And where God raises it up, God
is going to get His people there. I am telling you, this thing
of Men talking about, you know, we've got to do this and we've
got to use this program and this method and stuff like this. There's
one thing that's needed. And it's not hot dog suppers
and it's not, you know, hay rides and getting the kids, you know,
maybe get the kids over here and maybe we'll do this. I tell
you, preach the gospel. Preach the gospel. And where
God Almighty is pleased, He will get His people under that gospel,
and they will hear. Now, how He gets them there is
up to Him. They wanted to go. They wanted
to go and preach in Asia, and the Lord said, No. You know,
to some people, this message is a savor of death unto death. To some, it is a savor of life
unto life. But all that God has purposed
to call and put into that gospel, they will in time, they'll hear. They'll hear what's being said
and they'll believe it and they'll love it. There's the key. There's
the key. Many hear and will give a mental
assent. Oh, I've told you before about
my daughter. She told me, she said, Dad, I
understood what you were saying. I knew the difference between
sovereign grace and free will, man choice. I could give a good
argument. She said, I just didn't have
a heart for it. I could take it or leave it really.
She said, I didn't want you to know that. But I could. But now how these preachers were
forbidden. They were forbidden. Why were
they forbidden? We're not told. How were they
forbidden to preach the Gospel? Well, again, we're not told. The bottom line was, Paul the
Apostle says, we were forbidden. We wanted to go to Asia. We were
forbidden by the Spirit of God. We wanted to go to Bithynia and
Mithia, and the Spirit of God suffered us. No. Whether it was
an impulse of the heart providentially, whether Paul envisioned, we're
not told. But Paul said, we could not go. And so it says that they, passing
by Mithia, came to Troas. What they did, they just walked
right through the city, and they didn't say anything to anybody.
Paul knew. We cannot go here. We cannot
go to Asia. We cannot go to Mysia. The Lord
has forbidden us to go. I think about, I use this church
so many times. Why did God raise up a church
in Katy, West Virginia, and bypass Bridgeport? Or bypass here? Why? It pleased him to do so. It pleased
him. It pleased him to raise up a
place here. Well, after arriving in Troas,
the Scripture says, verse 9, "...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." Now, in this vision,
knew that the man was a Macedonian. He knew. Here was the call of
God. Here was God impressing upon
a preacher. God had already promised back
in Jeremiah. He said, I will send you pastors
after my heart. I'll send them to you. Now, God
had purposed that Paul was going to go to Macedonia, that country. God Almighty sent a vision to
Paul. How was it manifested? I don't
know. When Paul said, I knew a man who went to the third heaven,
whether in the Spirit, out of the Spirit, I don't know. He said, I just don't know. But
he said, I heard things that I just can't utter. How did he know that this man
was a Macedonian? Paul knew. He knew. Whether it was the clothing in
the vision, whether it was the dialect in the vision, we're
not told. But whatever it was, Paul knew
that this man was a Macedonian. And in the vision, he said, come
over here and help us. whenever I came from Franklin
to come here. I mentioned this last week, week
before last. I struggled after I had met with
the men here. I struggled on what to do. I didn't know what to do. And
two things became vitally clear to me. Number one, in time, I
wanted to go to West Virginia. That's the first thing. The second
thing was I didn't want to be in Franklin anymore. Now you
think, well, that's almost understandable. Whenever Almighty God gives a
man or a woman a desire to do something, they don't want to
do what they did before anymore. Why did he go to Macedonia? Why
did he want to go to Macedonia? The Spirit of God had impressed
upon this man that the country of Macedonia needed some help. There stood a man. Urgent call. He prayed him. Come over here
and help us. Here is the cry of God's people.
They need some help. They need some help. They need
to hear the gospel. What greater need does a believer
have than to hear the message concerning Christ? What else
is more important? What else? Come over here to
help us. We need some help. Faith cometh
by hearing the gospel. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God, the command of Almighty God through His Word.
It was plain to Paul that the Spirit of God had forbidden him
to go to Asia, so he didn't want to go. If a man or a woman believes
this is not what God wants me to do, I don't want to do that.
I mean, I don't want to do that, but I do want to do this. And
so he would go and help them. He would go and help those that
God Almighty had extended His help to. That's where He was.
It was God's message. The help of every preacher is
to preach to God's sheep of the mercy, grace, and compassion
of Almighty God. And look at the response of it.
Verse 10, 11, and 12, 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 thence to Philippi,
which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony,
and we were in that city abiding certain days." Urgent desire
to be there. Man or woman that God calls. When God calls a man out of darkness,
how long do you think it takes that man in his heart to come? When he says, Come unto me, all
you weak and heavy laden, if the Spirit of God puts that on
your heart, you're there. I want to go. I want to be there
immediately." We endeavored to go. You know, I tell you, a believer
may be made to wait patiently for a while. I think we'll go
to Asia. No. I think we'll go to Mysia. No. No, here's where I want you
to go. I want you to go to Macedonia.
I sent a vision to him. Paul knew who it was. And he
was assured of the direction that he had to go, and he moved.
He moved. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9,
16, For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for
necessity is laid upon me. Yea, woe is unto me if I preach
not the gospel. Not being somewhere to preach.
Not being here on a Sunday morning. Not being here, Brother Scott,
on a Wednesday night to preach. You just can't imagine that.
That's what I want to do. That's what I want to do. I want
to do this. We endeavored. Immediately we
endeavored. Why did they want to go immediately?
Paul said, because assuredly, concluding, gathering, that the
Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them. That's
where the difference is. The Lord called him. I love my mama. My mama says,
Marvin, I think you ought to go over to South Louisiana and
preach over there. But God didn't call me to go there.
Assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach
the gospel to them. That's why. A believer convinced
of God's personal call burns with the desire for obedience
toward Him that's called him. When Paul says, immediately,
we endeavored, endeavored to go, you know what that word interpreted
is? Worship. Worship. We immediately Desired to obey
with assurance. That's worship. Obedience. Remember
what was said, that example, one of the best examples. The
Lord told Abraham, offer Isaac your son. He told the fellows,
he said, the lad and I are going to go up yonder and worship. He's going to sacrifice his son.
We're going to go worship. They immediately endeavored to
go to Macedonia. They wanted to go. They wanted
to obey God. Well, verse 11 says, Therefore,
loosing from Troas, he came straight to Simothea, the next day Neopolis,
from thence Philippi, the chief city of that part of Macedonia.
And we were in that city of Biden about three days. And the Scripture
says, after a certain days, and then it says in verse 13 on the
Sabbath, we went out of the city by a river side where prayer
was wont. to be made, and we sat down and
spake unto the women which resorted thither." The apostle Paul and
Silas with him now convinced that they were in the right place.
This is where God sent us. This is where we're supposed
to be right here. We're in Macedonia. And they
came to this place, this chief park, of Macedonia, they were
in Philippi. Now they are here, been there
a few days, and the Sabbath day comes. Well, convinced that they
were where they were supposed to be, they did what every believer
desires to do when God's people come together. They are not going
to neglect the assembling of themselves together. Hebrews
10.25, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the
manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the
more, with more assurance, as we see the day approaching."
As we see the second coming of Christ, yes, but as I see the
day of the departure of this old body, I'm getting older. Things don't come as easily as
they used to and stuff like that. the assembling of yourselves
together as the manner of some is, exhorting one another so
much the more as we see the day approaching." I'm going to leave
this world one of these days. I'm going to die. Or the Lord
will return if He does. And if He does, I won't prevent
those that died in the Lord before me. They'll be raised first and
we'll meet them in the air. But as we see the day approaching,
The day of his coming, the day of my departure, don't forsake
the assembling of yourselves. It was on a Sabbath day. Paul
says we went out of the city by a river and some prayer was
being made. And he said we went out and we
sat down out of the city, out of the bustle, hustle of the
care of the city where prayer was wont to be made. There was
a group of ladies out there, some women. out there and they
had a place that they met together, an open-aired spot that the Spirit
of God had directed some women to come together and meet, and
they had a time of prayer. And I don't doubt for a second
of reading of the Scriptures, the Lord told some fellows one
day, he came into the temple and he said, this house is going
to be called a house of prayer and you've made it a den of thieves.
Well, they read the Scriptures there. It was a place where God's
Word was read. And these women met together,
and it was a place where the apostle came and sat down and
worshiped with them. Had a place, sat down, spake
with them. And no doubt about it, they spake
of the Lord. They spake of the Scriptures.
They spake of everything that they knew concerning Almighty
God. And the Scripture says, verse
14, a certain woman named Lydia, seller of purple, of the city
of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us, whose heart the
Lord opened as she attended unto the things which were spoken
of Paul." Now, here we see the glorious hand of God's providence
working in the life of this woman, a certain woman. Just like there
was a certain disciple named Timotheus, and he had a certain
mama, and her name was Eunice, and she taught him the Scriptures
from the youth up. There was a certain woman, and
her name was Lydia. Now, you know the Scripture that
says, John 10, 14, I'm the good shepherd, and I know my sheep,
and I'm known of mine. Here is the shepherd directing
some preachers. They decided that they were going
to go to Asia. No, not going to go to Asia.
Well, go to Mysia then. No, not going to go to Mysia.
Sent a vision to him and how Paul knew, he knew, I've got
to go to Macedonia. We're going to go to Macedonia.
He got to Macedonia and on the Sabbath day here he crossed paths
with an object of God's mercy that he had eternally loved.
Here was a woman, a sister, our sister. All that believe this
is our sister. Her name is Lydia. Like Martha. Lydia, an object of God's mercy. And here Lydia comes and she
is there, directed to the spot, apart from the business of this
world and assembled with a group of people that had come there
to pray and read the Scriptures. It was grace before grace. Just
like Zacchaeus. He wanted to see Jesus, so he
climbed up a sycamore tree. How did the Lord get Zacchaeus
where He wanted him to be that he would hear the gospel? By
power, by grace, by providence. How does God get anybody? How
did you get here? Well, you know, my mama goes
here. My daddy, we've always been going
here. I'm here. I'm dating this one. I came here. How God Almighty
got you here is God's business. That He got you here was by the
grace of God. That He got you under the sound
of the gospel. Now here's what's said about
this woman. She was a seller of purple. She wasn't obviously a real rich
woman. She probably had some people
working for her, but she was just a hard-working woman. She
was a business lady is what she was from this time. And she worshiped
God. You say, well, that just means
that she was a believer. No. That word right there, worship,
it means she was devout and she was religious. And I know a lot
of devout and religious people that are not believers. I know
a lot of people that are devout and people that are religious.
But what a person believes! Who a person believes! This woman
worshipped God. She was devout and she was religious
and she came to the prayer meeting and she would chime in and she
would use all of the religious wording that she knew. But what
happened was this woman heard us. She heard with some understanding. She heard when Paul was preaching. She had gone through the motions
for a while. She had a form of godliness,
but she denied the power thereof. She heard some religious stuff.
I heard religious stuff a long time. Man, I sat in church a
long time. I knew how to say salvation.
I knew the word grace. I know the word believe. I know
a lot of religious words. But I didn't know Christ. The
woman was religious, but she heard. Faith cometh by hearing. Here was a preacher that was
preaching the truth. He wasn't just being religious,
patting people on the back. He was a preacher. How? shall they call on him in whom
they have not believed." How is a man going to call on Almighty
God if he doesn't believe in Him? And how shall they believe
in whom they have not heard? How are you going to believe?
And how shall they hear without a preacher? Men and women hear the gospel
by preachers. God sends Preachers. That's God's way. He sends a
preacher. Raises up a preacher and He gives
him a heart. He teaches him the message. Gives
him a heart for the message. Gives him a heart to declare
the message. Then God blesses the message according to God's
purpose and will. She heard. God gave this woman
a hearing ear. She heard. How do we know she heard? Well,
here's what the Scripture says, whose heart the Lord opened. God opened her heart. She didn't. God did. God Almighty, like a door that
had previously been shut, God just opened her heart to understanding
and belief and love for her. Ezekiel 36.26 says, "...a new
heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within
you." God gave her a new heart. New mind. New will. New affection. That which Paul preached wasn't
discernible by her old mind, heart, Will? What was the evidence? What was the evidence, first
of all, to her that God had given her a new heart? What was the
evidence to Lydia that God had given her a new heart? I'll tell
you what it was. Here's what it was. She attended
unto the things which were spoken of Paul. Now, I'm going to be
real honest with you. There's a pretty good group of
people right here. Most of you are looking at me.
Most of you can hear. But I don't know whether or not
you attend to the things spoken of or not. I don't know. You
do. I don't. How did she know that
the Lord had opened her heart? She attended unto the things
which were spoken of Paul. She brought them near in affection.
That's what it means. She attended. She held on to
them. Held them close. Gave attention
to. Cared for. Attached herself. And did cleave. She attended. I like that. I like that. That sounds good to me. That's
got a savor of life to me. I like what I'm hearing. That's
what she attended unto the things spoken of by Paul. God's people
attend to the things spoken of by Christ through His preachers. They give an attention to it. And how did this inward change
make itself known to others? First of all, she attended to
the things spoken of by Paul. But how did others know it? Well, verse 15 says, and when
she was baptized, when she was baptized, when she was baptized
in 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. She was willing to openly confess
the Lord Jesus Christ that had opened her heart in the manner
that He had ordained. God opened her heart. And she attended to the things
that were spoken of the Lord. How did the others know it? She
was baptized. She obeyed the Lord in believer's
baptism. Turn over to Matthew 28. Matthew
28, verse 19. This is the Lord speaking. Matthew
28, 19. Go ye therefore, teach all nations,
disciple them, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you. And, lo, I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world. This is what happens. If God
Almighty has done something for you, do you know what His command
is? It's not a suggestion. This is a command. Be baptized. Confess Him in believer's
baptism. Now, that's not my word. That's not Brother Scott's word.
This is the Word of Almighty God. She confessed Him in baptism,
whose heart the Lord opened. She attended to the things which
were spoken of by Paul when she was baptized in her household. Not only had the Lord been pleased
to call this woman out of darkness, but according to that Word, she
and her household were baptized. Well, do you think that they
were believers? Well, let's turn over to verse 40 of this as I
wrap up this. It says in verse 40 of Acts 16,
And they went out of the prison, after they had been in prison,
Lord, we'll deal with that, the prison, Paul and Silas, when
they were singing in the Lord. They went out of the prison and
entered into the house of Lydia. And when they had seen the brethren,
Well, brethren is more than one. The Lord had been pleased to
save her and her household, baptize them. And that was the final
evidence of that true conversion. She desired the fellowship of
God's people. 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.