It's interesting that we should
have sung that song. We're looking at the journey of Paul to Lydia. Lydia's name means travail, and
I love that hymn. In my days of unbelief so much,
I loved that hymn, and I remember taking a book with it in to a
photocopying machine somewhere and I made it as small as I possibly
could so I could have it on the tiniest piece of paper. And for
many, many years in unbelief, I had that hymn in my pocket
and I used to get it out and read it. Little did I know. Little
did I know. Lydia's name means travail. Lydia
is just a remarkable picture. of the Lord saving his own. She is the first convert in Europe,
as we saw earlier, and so she has with all of the first things
in the scriptures, she has a particular place, and she should have a
particular place in our minds. And the way that the Lord saved
Lydia is a picture of the way the Lord saves all of his people
in this gospel age and throughout all time. Abel was saved the
same way. Enoch were saved the same way.
They were saved by the same gospel. Noah was saved by the same way.
They were all saved by a meeting of them with the Lord Jesus Christ,
a meeting of them that comes about through the preaching of
the gospel. And so, you know, the question
is often thrown at people who trust the sovereignty of God
and believe and proclaim the sovereignty of God. Well, what
about the people in the jungles that have never heard? Well,
the problem is that's a silly question, because they ought
to be asking, well, how big is your God? Because if they have
any concerns about how God gets the gospel to someone, then they've
got a different God to the God of the scriptures. He's big enough. He's sovereign enough. He's wise
enough. He's powerful enough to do exactly
what he does in the saving of all of his people. So let's look
at this journey, the journey to this certain woman. We see
that it's a certain apostle with a certain disciple off on a certain
journey. They'd been through those churches
in verse 6. It says, now when they'd gone throughout Phrygia
and the region of Galatia, so now we're looking at Turkey,
and so he started off on the eastern side of Turkey, gone
from Antioch, which is in the northeast corner of the Mediterranean
Sea, and he's gone up into those places where he preached the
gospel before. And the region of Galatia, which
is in more central Turkey, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost,
to preach the word in Asia. Asia is just a Roman colony on
the western side of modern day Turkey. And after they had come
to Mysia, they said to go into Bithynia, but the spirit suffered
them not. The question The question, of
course, comes to mind in many ways, doesn't it? It's a great
declaration of the sovereignty of our God. It's a great declaration
that he sends his word where he will, at the time of his choosing,
and it's not in man's deciding. So much for this notion that
God wants to save everyone. that God loves everyone and the
proof of it is that the Lord Jesus Christ died for everyone.
I remember being attacked viciously some years ago by a couple in
a Bible study group and I remember they were harassing me about
the fact that God loves everyone and I remember quoting these
words to them and I said, that during that time of Paul being
told to bypass Asia and not preach, not preach, he was forbidden,
look at it there in 16.6, forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the
word in Asia. And the Spirit suffered them
not to go into Bithynia. Do you think that during that
time, of Paul's being told not to go there, and the gospel then
coming there later on, people died not hearing the gospel.
They must have. We have no idea how many. But
we do know for sure that the gospel did go back to those places,
because one of the places that Paul bypassed, at the command
of God the Holy Spirit, was Thyatira. which is where Lydia was from.
He says you're not to preach in that city where Lydia is from. But does that mean that God didn't
get the gospel to Lydia? That God withholds the gospel.
God sends his word where he wills and he withholds his word as
he will. I suppose simply, God is just declaring his absolute
sovereignty and man is in no position to argue with the sovereign
God. But the other thing that it makes
me deeply aware of is what a precious thing it is to hear the Gospel.
Now Henry Mayan came to this continent years ago. And he preached to Owen Rowe
in Tumut, of all places. And he preached the gospel to
him there. God sent Henry Mahon all the
way to Tumut. And he sent Owen and others all
the way to Tumut to hear the gospel. And he does exactly the
same thing today, and he's done throughout time. The one thing
that reminds me of is how precious it is, how precious it is to
be able to hear the gospel. I need to hear the gospel again
and again and again, because I fail and fall again and again
and again. It's not for nothing that Lydia's
name is Trevail. This is a travail for the people
of this world, isn't it? This world is a travail for the
people of God. And it's through many trials
that you enter the kingdom of God. It's not on a bed of roses. Did God know that Joseph was
going to be second to the king of all of Egypt and rule Egypt?
Of course he did. Did God send him down there in
a gold-plated chariot, a Cadillac-style chariot? He didn't. He took his servant, he took
his witness through trial after trial. Man says, isn't he? Man is in his rebellion against
God, says, well, I'll choose God when I wish to. And man has created this God
who's made in his own image, this God that is beholden to
him. This God whose will is not as
big as his will. This God who desires things and
can't achieve them. That's not what this text is
saying, brothers and sisters. That's not what this text is
saying at all. But the beauty of it is, isn't
it, as all of us, as we go through Acts, as I've said often, we're
actually hearing the biography of our own lives and we're hearing
the biography of the Church. And you think of the journey,
as we look at Lydia's journey, you think of the journey that
you've been on. Think of the paths and the twisting, turning
paths that have been in your life to bring you to hear the
Gospel. There is just one. If you could see it from God's
perspective, you would see, and we ought to see it, that there
is just one supernatural act of God, and another supernatural
act of God, another hand of God, and another hand of God. The
purpose of all this is that Lydia would hear the gospel. And Paul
is shepherded by God. He says, you can't go there.
You can't go to Asia. You can't go to Bithynia, not
to even preach there. And he shepherded him all the
way to Troas, which is on the coast, the western coast of Turkey,
just adjacent to Macedonia. And look what happens to him
there. You can imagine Paul's frustration. Here he is, he's
set out on this journey, and he's wanting to preach, and he's
wanting to preach, and he's wanting to preach, and he's seen success,
and he's preaching everywhere, and all of a sudden he says,
no, you can't go there, and you can't go there, and he's shepherded
into a seaport, where else do you go? God hedges his people
in, and it's a glorious hedging in. A vision appeared to Paul
in the night. There stood a man of Macedonia
and prayed him. Obviously this man, this vision
of this man was dressed in Macedonian clothing or in some way, Paul,
he was identified. And he prayed him saying, come
over into Macedonia and help us. Come over into Macedonia
and help us. Paul knew what sort of help it
was. People think that you have to
go out, and the best thing we can do is go out and do all these
good works, and if we go out and do all these good works,
and do all these charity works, and I'm thankful that they are
done. And I pray that we would be used
to the Lord to help other people in need. But the idea is, isn't
it, that you actually can, by going out and doing all these
good works, you can actually sort of build a bridge. I don't
know how many missionaries I've heard say, well, we go out, we
want to show the love of God to these people. There was a
mission organisation, a famous mission organisation that has
ships, and they used to send me out a thing, and I wrote to
them and said, why in your monthly newsletter do you not mention
the Lord Jesus Christ at all? And the response of this Christian
organisation that raises money from all over the world and has
missionaries come from many, many countries to work with them,
the response of the head of that organisation in Australia is,
we don't want to offend people and we don't want to stop people
giving money by mentioning the Lord Jesus Christ. What are they
doing? What is their real desire? It's
a good verse to remember in light of all this activity that we
see so prevalent these days. And we're involved in it in India. In Isaiah 26.10, God says, let
favour be shown to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness. In the land of uprightness he
will deal unjustly and will not behold the majesty of the Lord. Paul is commissioned by God. He's commissioned by the Lord
Jesus Christ to go out and declare this Gospel. He has no notion
of the need of the man of Macedonia other than the preaching of the
Gospel. You look at what he says. Verse
10, 16 verse 10. And after he had seen the vision,
immediately we endeavoured to go. When people have a call from
God, there's an immediacy about it. There's no time for waiting.
Immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly
gathering that the Lord had called us. And what's the call of the
Lord for his people? Call for us to preach the gospel
unto them. He goes out with one purpose
in mind. The greatest need of man is not
to have his belly filled or his diseases healed. The greatest
need of man is to have his sins dealt with. The greatest glory
that comes to God is in the salvation of sinners. And our God will
have it. And he'll have it in his way.
He'll have it through the preaching of the gospel. Preach the gospel
unto them. And that's exactly the call of
the people in travail in the scriptures, aren't they? You
think of all the gospel accounts. My little daughter lies at the
point of death. I pray thee, come and lay your
hands on her that she may be healed and lived. You think of
the call of those people who came to the Lord Jesus Christ.
When they came, begging him. They came in need. They came
in travail. Did he ever say no? He always, he always dealt in
mercy with those who were in travail. He might say to the
Syro-Phoenician woman in Matthew chapter 15, he just let her for
a little while, didn't he? He let her weep there, he let
her cry out for her. And he reminded her of his absolute
sovereignty, his comfort for the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. And what does she do? She says, truth, Lord. She says,
I'm a dog. I'm a dog. But the dogs get the
crumbs that fall from the master's table. The Lord healed her demon-possessed
daughter in a moment. He'll come to his own, but he'll
bring his own to him as travail. And then, verse 12, they went
down to Philippi, from thence to Philippi, the chief city of
that part of Macedonia, and a colony. And we were in that city. It's
interesting, isn't it? Paul has been no doubt frustrated.
He said, what is all this about? What's going to happen now? I'm
not allowed to go there, and I'm not allowed to go there and
preach, and I've been sent over here to preach. And he gets to
Philippi, he gets to the chief city, and I love what it says,
he abided. He abided certain days. God's
people are at rest and God's servants are at rest in God's
purposes and God's plan and God's timing. Abided in the city certain
days. And on the Sabbath, we went out
of the city by a riverside. where prayer was wont to be made. So in that abiding time, they
found out that outside of this city, there weren't enough Jews.
You needed, I think, 10 or 12 Jewish men to form a synagogue.
So there was no synagogue. But also, when it came to this
place of prayer, there was just women. They were just women. What's interesting is that the
man of Macedonia says, come and help us. And the help comes to
these women. And they're out by a riverside.
And all of the activity of Philippi and all of the activity of Macedonia
would have gone on and not a thought would have been given to them.
Just irrelevant, aren't they? There they are, just gathered
by themselves, this small group of women. and they're there praying. And we sat down and spoke unto
the women that resorted there. And a certain woman, I love the
certains of scripture, you go and check them out, there are
so many and they're beautiful, they're certain. A certain woman
named Lydia. A cellar of purple of the city
of Thyatira. The purple was of course the
colour that marked the nobility of Rome, and Philippi was a colony. It was a colony of Rome. It was where an incredibly important
battle was fought that determined something of the history of the
Roman Empire for some considerable time afterwards, and it became
a special Roman colony. Thyra Tyra was a place that was
famous for the dying and making it dying of cloth. So she was
from Thyatira, and there she was in Philippi, and we can see
later on that she's a wealthy woman. She's a wealthy woman,
and it seems that she doesn't have a husband. She says, come
into my house, she says to... Paul and those accompanying him,
he'd come and abide with us. So she had a household, and she
had a household with her that day. We don't know who they are,
and we don't know their names. But God does, our God does. See Lydia worshipped God. Lydia, there's a great statement
made by Ralph Barnard, and he said, if you walk in the light,
that God has given you, God will give you more light. If you walk in what you know
and have had revealed to you about God and seek him, then
he will guide and lead you. She was a worshipper of God.
She knew about the God of the Jews. There were Jews throughout
all of that region of Thyatira where she was from. As we saw
in Paul's journeys there, she knew about God. She knew about
the God of the Old Testament. She knew about the God of the
Scriptures. She knew about God being a creator, but she didn't
know the Lord Jesus Christ is the creator of all things, and
the Lord Jesus Christ declares all things good. and the Lord
Jesus Christ alone is good. She knew about the history of
Israel. She would have known about Abraham and the call of
Abraham and the creation of that Jewish nation from that one man
by a miraculous birth. But she didn't know that the
birth of Isaac pictured the Lord Jesus Christ. She knew about
God being a judge. She would have known about the
flood. But she wouldn't have known and she didn't know about
Christ being the ark. She knew about the Passover,
but she didn't know about Christ being the Lamb slain. She knew
about the deliverance of Israel, but she didn't know about the
Christ blood. She didn't know that when God
says, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. She didn't know
that that blood was the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ who
was crucified on Calvary's tree. She knew about God being the
Deliverer. She knew about the Christ to
come, the Deliverer from sin and from Satan, from this world. She knew about God in His absolute
sovereignty. She knew that He brought His
people out with a high arm. She knew about the promised land.
She knew that there was a gathered and a protected and a preserved
people, but she didn't know that all of those things are pictures
of the Lord Jesus Christ and the gathering of his church together.
She knew about the promises made, but she didn't know that they
were all yea and amen in him. She needed She needed help, that
was the call of the vision, wasn't it? She needed help, like the
Ethiopian eunuch when he had the scriptures. He'd been to
Jerusalem and he'd learned an awful lot about God and he'd
respected him enormously. And he respected what he'd seen
in the Jewish religion of God. And there he had the scroll open.
And he had the humility to say, how can I understand unless someone
show me the way? So Lydia had all of these things. And Paul came at the hand of
God and preached the gospel to her. And we know what Paul preached,
don't we? We have no doubt about what Paul preached. We can read
about it in Acts chapter 13. When God lays the foundation
and when God begins the work initially, he never has to change
it. Paul had one message. He had
one message and he just preached the Lord Jesus Christ and him
crucified. He preached in Acts chapter 13
of this God who was a deliverer. He brought those people out with
a high arm that God is absolutely sovereign over all things. He chose our fathers and he brought
them out with a high arm and he brought them out In verse
23, out of this one man seed he preserved that nation so that
it would be one man seed and God has according to his promise
raised unto Israel a Saviour Jesus. And he says all the promises
that made to the fathers, all those promises of God are yes
and amen in him. He preached to her about this
word of salvation in verse 26 of chapter 13. Men and brethren,
children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth
God, to you is the word of this salvation sent. This word of
salvation is a word of salvation that's written in the scriptures.
Verse 29, when they had fulfilled all that was written of him,
they took him down from the tree and laid him in a sepulcher.
And God raised him from the dead. I love that promise in verse
34. And as concerning him, he that
raised him from the dead, now no more to return to corruption. He said on this wise, I will
give to you the sure mercies of David. Lydia, in travail,
is someone in need of mercies. They're sure mercies of David,
Paul was declaring to her, because they're sure mercies of David
because they're in the hands of a living saviour. The Lord
Jesus Christ is alive and is able to distribute his mercies. He's able to make them sure.
They're kept in heaven for you. He's able as a living saviour
to make sure that his will and testament is fulfilled and all
of his heirs receive everything that he's promised to give them. It's sure because his righteousness
is established forever. It's a righteousness legal. It's a righteousness accepted. It's a righteousness, it is the
righteousness of God that all of his people have. It's all
you need if you're in need and travail. All you need is the
righteousness of God, and if it's all you have, then it's
all you'll ever want. They're sure mercies. Only sinners
need mercy. Only the destitute need grace. Only the helpless, hopeless,
and defiled need cleansing. And it's only the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ can do it. Forgiveness of sins. Come and
help us, says the man of Macedonia. Justification through free and
sovereign grace. And by, Paul would have declared
to her, and by him, the Lord Jesus Christ not only has done
all this work, but he makes sure this work is applied to the hearts
of his people, and by him, all that believe. You will not believe
unless it's by him. You'll never really believe unless
he does the work. All that believe are justified
from all things which could not be justified by the law of Moses. And what happened? What happened
at the preaching of the Gospel? What happened? This certain woman,
this certain woman named Lydia, this certain woman from that
city of Thyatira, she was brought to Philippi and Paul was brought
all the way from all of that journey of his, he was brought
there by a sovereign hand of God to that certain woman at
that certain time, in that certain place, to do what? What happened? Look at it, there's
a beautiful description of salvation, isn't it? She heard us. She heard us. She actually heard
the word of God from a man, Paul. She heard us, whose heart the
Lord opened. So much for this modern nonsense,
isn't it? Open your heart and let Jesus
in. This notion that somehow he's
outside knocking on the door of your heart and has all sorts
of problems getting in because you are so big and so powerful.
What a load of absolute nonsense. That's not what this text says.
The Lord opened her heart. So what does the scriptures mean
when it talks about the heart? It means the will, it means the
affections, it means the understanding, it means really the essential
man, doesn't it? The heart of the natural man
is closed and it's hardened against God. It has no understanding
of him, it has no affection for him, it has no empathy for him
whatsoever. That's the Lord Jesus. said in
Lamentations 12, what is it to all you who pass by? Is there
any suffering like unto my suffering? Is it nothing to you, all you
that pass by? There's no affection. There's
nothing in the heart of natural man when you talk to them about
the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's tree. There's nothing in them
that's even moved by the notable injustice, the cowardice of Pilate,
the envy and wickedness of that crowd. There's nothing in the
heart of any man unless the Lord does a work. Is it nothing to
you? Quite simply, the scriptures
declare again and again, as plainly as you could possibly have it,
that no amount of religion and no amount of religious experience
is going to bring you to the Lord Jesus Christ. Cain went
to church, brothers and sisters. And we might think that that
might have happened just after the fall. They were probably
going to church for decades together. The natural man, the heart of
the natural man. According to Paul, 2 Corinthians,
according to God, 2 Corinthians 2.14, but the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him. Neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned. You need a new heart. You need
a new heart. You need in your heart to understand
the gospel. You need a heart transplant to
understand the gospel, to see in the Lord Jesus Christ all
of the perfect perfections and beauties of God. You need the
Holy Spirit to give you eyes to see, ears to hear, a heart
to understand, a heart to love the gospel, to love the Lord
Jesus Christ. So the natural heart of man is
bound by sin. As the Lord Jesus Christ said,
you will not come to me, so much for this nonsense of man's free
will. Man's will is bound by his nature,
as God's will is bound by his nature, and you ought to be jolly
well thankful that it is. Our God's will is bound. The
natural man's will is bound by his nature. It needs an opened
heart. Exactly what God does. It's a
wonderful picture of salvation, isn't it? You need an opened
heart. You need a heart that's opened to see God in the face
of the Lord Jesus Christ. To see God as the righteous one
only. To see yourself as a sinner.
To see God on the cross as my only hope. To see God in the
scriptures. to see Christ reigning and ruling
now, to see Christ gathering His sheep, putting them into
churches, separating them from religion, separating them from
this world that says do, do, do, this world that says let's
teach them some morality so that we can get them to look like
Christians, and teach them how to live. The gospel teaches you
how to live, brothers and sisters. I do love that verse in 2 Corinthians
3.18. I pray it's true in my life and
I pray it's true in yours, brothers and sisters. But we all, it says,
we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the
Lord, listen to what it says, are changed into the same image
from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. That's what's happening by the
promise of God in the hearts of all these people. A natural
man loves salvation by works, which is why it's so common.
A natural man loves religious rituals and things. A natural
man loves religious organisations. But Lydia, Lydia knew about the
God of the scriptures. And she did what she did and
could do in her situation, to worship and to join with others,
and it's no small thing. And now the Lord, at his time
of choosing, came to her. He will send Jesus Christ, who
is preached unto her, unto you. An open heart just loves the
Lord Jesus Christ. The open heart just loves his
Saviour. The open heart just loves the
way of his saving and his keeping and his revealing. The open heart
loves the fact that she would sit there that day and contemplate
what a remarkable providence of God that she had been brought
to Philippi. And Paul had been brought to
her. And they'd been gathered together. The sovereign hand
of God hand in hand with the sovereign grace of God. It's
a miracle of God's grace. If your heart's open to see how
glorious He is, it's a miracle of God's grace. And she would
have seen, and the first Christian convert in all of Europe, was
an open declaration that salvation is of the Lord and salvation
begins with God. He had elected her, He'd redeemed
her, He'd justified her, He'd regenerated her, He'd called
her to Himself. And what's the evidence? What's
the evidence that she'd had a heart opened by God? What did she do? Acts 16.14 Her heart was open, what was
the first thing? She attended unto the things which were spoken
by Paul. She attended unto the things.
She listened and she heard and she drank in the words of God
to her as the tonic for her soul. She attended unto the things.
And then she publicly confessed him, verse 15. And she was baptised. Isn't it wonderful that this
journey with Timothy began with something that was unnecessary,
but a declaration of his confidence in the gospel that he was sent
out to declare. It's wonderful, isn't it, the
first activity of a believer is to be baptised. To do something
which publicly confesses the Lord Jesus Christ and you know
is not a sign, an activity of your salvation. It's a declaration
that you've already been saved. It's a declaration of a conscience
that's pure before God. It's just saying, isn't it? It's
just saying, I am united to Him. I am united to Him in His death,
in His burial, in His resurrection and His exaltation. She was baptised, she confessed
him, that this God of all providence had brought Paul to this place,
not to preach himself, but to preach the Lord Jesus Christ.
I love what was said of the Jews there at the tomb of Lazarus. They saw him weeping and they
said, behold how he loved him. That's what Lydia said, all this
was for me. All of this from the beginning,
from the foundation of the world, all of this was specifically
for me at this time. And her household, the first
act of Save People, is to have a passion and a concern and a
care for those immediately around them. And it might be rejected
and spurned in time, but nevertheless, you might bear witness to the
fact that that's the first thing we want, isn't it? We want for
our family and our friends to join with us. And her household
dealed. The next thing is, of course,
she besought us. The next thing is fellowship
with the Gospel. It's not something that's forced
upon the people of God, ever, by the God's servants. It's fellowship
in the Gospel. We're made willing in the day
of His power. Come into my house, she says,
if you've judged to be faithful to the Lord. Come into my house. and abide there. My house is your house. My possessions
are your possessions. My time is your time. All that
I have is yours. All that I have is his. And she
constrained us. She urged us. See, real Christian
service, real Christian worship is not constrained by a preacher. We're compelled by the love of
God for us, aren't we? We're compelled and constrained
by his loving us. Paul didn't have to do anything.
She constrained them. She constrained them. Abide with
us. It's exactly what Luke declared
happened to those two men on the road to Emmaus, and we'll
close there. You might remember that they
walked along that road and the Lord Jesus Christ opened up the
scriptures to them in Luke chapter 29. And their eyes were opened. Verse
31. And they knew him, and he vanished
out of their sights. And they said one to another,
did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us on
the way and while he opened to us the Scriptures. What do they do in verse 29?
After this wonderful sermon on the road to Thelmaeus, they constrained
him. They constrained him saying,
stay, abide with us. Abide with us. Come and live
with us. Stay with us. That's the result of God opening
the heart. May it be something that he has
done, is doing, and reminds you of his work in your lives. Salvations
of the Lord. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we thank you for the remarkable evidence of your sovereign hand
of grace, bringing your people to yourself, through the preaching
of the gospel, sending your servants where you will, Heavenly Father,
at the time of your choosing, to particular people, to certain
people, certain of those who certainly were saved by the Lord
Jesus Christ in all eternity, were saved by Him on Calvary's
tree. will be saved in this world and
call to him through the preaching of your dear and precious son.
Heavenly Father, cause us to rejoice as Lydia did that day. Cause us to constrain him to
abide with us, to be with us and to remain with us. Bless
us, Heavenly Father, as we go through this week that's been
laid out before us. And cause us by your grace, Heavenly
Father, to see your sovereign hand of love and mercy upon your
people in the death and the resurrection of your dear and precious son.
Cause us to worship him, Heavenly Father, and cause us to live
lives that simply rely and trust him and him alone. We thank you
for sending the gospel to us, our Father. We pray that you
might do it again and again, that you might abide with us
in your dear and precious son, that we might find ourselves
knowing that the promise that he indwells us is a living reality
in our lives. Bless us for your son's sake,
our father. Amen.