Before we look particularly at
these three verses, let's see the providence of God in bringing
Paul to this place where we find him in this brief passage. Look at verse 1 of chapter 16. Speaking of the Apostle Paul
and those who traveled with him, Says, then came he to Derbe and
Lystra, and behold, a certain disciple was there named Timotheus,
the son of a certain woman which was a Jewess and believed, but
his father was a Greek, which was well reported of by the brethren
that were at Lystra and Iconium. Him would Paul have to go forth
with him, and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which
were in those quarters, for they knew all that his father was
a Greek, And as they went through the cities, they delivered them
the decrees for the keep that were ordained of the apostles
and elders, which were at Jerusalem. And so were the churches established
in the faith and increased in number daily. Now, when they
had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia and were
forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, after
they were come to Mysia, They assayed to go into Bithynia,
but the Spirit suffered them not. And they passed by Mysia. Passing by Mysia, came down to
Troas, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night. There stood
a man of Macedonia, who prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia
and help us. And after he had seen the vision,
immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly
gathering that the Lord had called us. were to preach the gospel
unto them. That's interesting, isn't it?
All the man said was, help us. So what Paul did, he said, let's
go preach the gospel to them. There's help. That's help for
everything. I'm just going to keep saying
that. If you love your children, make sure they hear the gospel. If you love your neighbors, your
friends, how are you going to help them? Do you want to help
people? And I'm not talking down to you. I know most of the time
we don't give a hoot, do we? I don't. Sometimes I do a little bit. And I know that I ought to a
lot. How are you going to help? What's
going to help but Christ? And how are they going to have
Christ but by the gospel? That wasn't even in my mind.
I didn't even see that. I studied that. Help us. What are you going to
do? Let's go preach the gospel. Therefore, loosing from Troas,
we came with a straight course, to that place there. You see
that? I can't see good enough to read
that. Samothracea? Had to try. 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. They were there for some time,
for several days, looks like. And somehow or other they heard
that there was a group of ladies meeting down by the river. And
so they went down there. And the true gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, let's
see the providence of God, first of all, here. The gospel of Christ is so different
from what's preached in popular, mainstream, organized religion.
that it's very conspicuous wherever it exists. Paul didn't go to
the places of idolatry. He heard there were some women
that just got together and prayed. It looks like that's what they
did. Just got together and prayed.
And they didn't seem to know a whole lot, but thinking of this today, us here
in this place, I don't presume to know every
place that the gospel is preached. I know that there are places
all over the world that I'm not even aware of where the truth
of God, I'm sure, is set forth. But if there were others around
here, I'm pretty sure I'd know about it. Don't you think so? Those who have the light don't
hide it under a bushel. And in darkness like this, it shines,
doesn't it? It shines. I know this. I know there are entire states
where you'd be hard-pressed to find a gospel church. Maybe one there, but I don't
know about it. I don't know anybody that knows about it in some states.
Not a single gospel preacher. But here's the point. They're
where God sends them. I know where some are, don't
you? I know where some are. Through a varied multitude of
circumstances, God directs them to where he's pleased that they
should be, where his gospel is to go forth, where he has some
sheep. It's no accident that I'm here
or that you are here. You see how the Holy Spirit directed
Paul? Let's go over here. No, you're
going to go here. If you told me 15 years ago that
I'd be in Tennessee pretty soon for the rest of my life, I'd
have said, well, we'll see about that. I don't know about that. But it's clear from scripture
how God works. And we ought to be in awe of
it. We ought to be always aware of it. When we are directed,
when our lives change course, see the hand of God in it and
pray for his guidance and his will in things. All of creation
is at His disposal, including the hearts and minds of sinners.
And He moves, He directs, He makes things happen. He doesn't
suggest, He doesn't influence, He makes things happen. And we
see also the reason for it here. Why does He do that? Why does
He move people? Why does He say to somebody that's going over
here, you're not going over there, you're going over here? Why does He
do that? We see that here too. And he's sovereign in all circumstances,
is without question. He said in Isaiah, listen to
this, Isaiah 46, nine. Remember the former things of
old, for I am God. And there is none else. I am
God and there's none like me. What does that mean? What does
it mean to be God? Declaring the end from the beginning and
from ancient times, the things that are not yet done, saying
my counsel shall stand. David said, our God's in the
heavens. He does what he wants to do. That's what it means to
be God. And he said, my counsel shall stand and I will do all
my pleasure whatsoever he has pleased. That's what David said.
And this is why, because God has revealed himself that way.
He's the God that does as he pleases in the armies of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth. And none can stay
his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? The end from ancient
times, things that are not yet done, my counsel shall stand,
I'll do all my pleasure, calling a ravenous bird from the east.
If my prophet's hungry, I'll send some ravens over there with
some food and I'll feed him. When my disciples need to pay
their taxes, I'll bring a fish with some money in its mouth
and they'll get by. The man that executeth my counsel
from a far country, When one of my sheep needs to hear the
gospel, I'll send my preacher out into the desert, if that's
where he is, right when he's reading Isaiah 53, to ask him
if he understands what he's reading. Or I'll put some of my preachers
in the jail that my sheep is the keeper of, and they'll sing
songs of my grace and my glory, and he'll hear that. And when
that earthquake comes, he'll ask them, what must I do? Yeah, I have spoken it. I will
also bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also
do it. That's my God. And I see this
here, don't you? One of the things that God has
spoken that he will do is I will have mercy. Surely that's the
most glorious that I know about. God says, I speak it and I do
it. Well, what has he spoken? I'm gonna have mercy on some
sinners. I've spoken it and I'm gonna do it. And that's what
this is all about. A girl named Lydia was in on
that. When he said, I'm gonna have
mercy on whom I will have mercy, Lydia was in on that. She didn't
know it. She probably, she wasn't alive.
And she didn't know it until that day that we just read about. Lydia was in on that, and so
when Paul said, I believe I'll go to Asia next, God said, no,
not today. You're not going to Asia. So
then Paul said, well, I guess Bithynia it is. Then God said,
not today, Paul. What's more important, the whole
continent of Asia, the whole region of Asia, or one lady and
her family? Well, it depends on who that
lady is, doesn't it? Depends on who she is. She may not be important to the
world, but if she's one of God's sheep, there's nothing more important.
You see, God not only rules all things, but He rules all things
for the good of His sheep. for the salvation of his elect. I said to you before, in a weak
illustration of that, everything that I do has something to do
with my family. Everything. If I'm preaching
or going to the grocery store or whatever, it has something
to do with my family. And so it is with God. He's just
a lot better father than I am. A lot better. Now this scene
in verses 13 through 15 that we read a while ago, what a beautiful
scene. They're down by the riverside.
Can you picture it a little bit? There was a river there. There
was a group of women who went down there on the Sabbath to
pray. There was an appointed time of
worship has been since the beginning, since the beginning, always God
has had an appointed time and place for worship. I'm sure there
were some kind of places of worship of some kind in the city of Philippi,
don't you imagine? All kinds of idolatrous temples
and there may have been a synagogue there. Some commentators say
no because apparently it took 10 men to establish a Jewish
synagogue. If there were less than 10 men
there, they couldn't have a synagogue according to to history, but
it seems like that there wouldn't have been or they would have
gone to that. If they understood something
about the Sabbath, then they would have maybe gone to the
synagogue. There may not have been one there.
I guarantee you, wherever there's a city, there's some kind of
place of worship, somebody worshiping something or somebody. But they
couldn't worship there. They had to go down by the river
and just meet together. And they went down there to worship
God. See that in the text, don't you? Lydia, at least, she was
a worshiper of God. You know, I hear people, I see
them, see things that they write and hear people all the time
asking, is there a place, you know, is there a church that
has a good youth program? Or is there any place having
a New Year's Eve service? I just saw a lot of that. Is
there a place having a New Year's Eve service? I just want to go,
you know, be religious on New Year's Eve. Is there a place
that has a vibrant outreach ministry or something like that? What
made this place the place that Lydia worshipped was who she
worshipped. You see that in the text, that
she was a worshipper of God. That's why she went down by the
river and not to that place in Philippi, any of them. Because
of who. That'll determine where you worship.
Who do you worship? And it's interesting that Thyatira,
where Lydia was from, apparently it seems like from the wording
that she was a resident of Thyatira then and was probably in Philippi
on business. She was a seller of purple. And
that's probably why she was there. But in Thyatira, where Lydia
was from, that's in Asia, in the region of Asia at that time. where the Lord forbade Paul to
go. If he had gone to Asia, he would
have missed Lydia, even though she was from there. So the Lord
not only moved Paul, and we see that clearly in the text, but
he moved Lydia too. He brought her down from Thyatira,
pretty good ways if you look at the map from back then, to
bring them together to the same place. God's entire universe
is run the way it is run in order to save and bless his sheep in
Christ. The woman at the well, you think
about that. He said, I must needs go through
Samaria. It tells us where he was. It
tells us where he was going. And he said, I got to go through
Samaria to get there. No, you don't. If you look at the map,
Samaria is way out of the way. No, but I got to go through Samaria
because one of my sheep is there at a well, or she will be when
I get there. Hmm. Saul himself on the Damascus
Road. There's an appointment that must
be kept. And the Lord stopped him on his
road to hell, said, hitherto shalt thou come, and no further,
Paul. Blind Bartimaeus, the Lord Jesus
Christ just happened to be passing by that way. And he heard about
it and he cried for mercy. The Ethiopian eunuch, the spirit
told Philip to go out in the desert and approach that caravan.
And he saw that man reading from Isaiah 53. All of Christ's sheep
have an appointment that they don't even know about, but he
does, and they will keep it, and he will too. And here's my prayer, Lord, stop
our children on the way to hell, because they're on that same
road. Some of them are. on that same road that Saul was
on. Willful and proud and ambitious
and godless. The Lord can stop them. Our loved ones, they're in the
desert too, aren't they? They're in a place where no water
is. They're blind too, Lord. If you will, you can save them. I like this about Lydia, she
was a businesswoman and a worshiper of God. Most business people don't have
time to worship God. There's a time for business and
there's a time for real business. God's business. At the appointed
time, in the appointed place, she was worshiping God. And Paul,
he was going where God told him to go. through shutting doors
and opening that door and giving him that dream. Paul was going
where he told him to go. And she was where she was supposed
to be. God is moving and controlling
everything. We know that. We're here this
morning because God brought us here. But at the same time, God
uses the means, doesn't he? I know by his grace where the
place to be is at the appointed time of worship, don't you? And by His grace, that's where
I am. So there's means involved here, too. God's moving, and
He's controlling everything, and we know, where would we be
if He didn't? We wouldn't be worshiping Him, and neither would
Lydia have been, and Paul wouldn't have been preaching his, Paul
would have been, he would have murdered Christians until the
day of his death, until he couldn't murder them anymore. But our experience, how do we
know what to do? How do we know what to do? Jonah
also ended up where God told him to go. But he went a little different
route than what we see in our text here. Paul, he said, it's
clear. Didn't know what they said. It
just seems evident that the Lord would have us go to Macedonia.
So that's where we're going. He didn't run from God. He went
where he was, where the door was opened by God. Jonah ran,
but they both ended up where God told them to go. I'd rather just walk through
the open door, wouldn't you? Than spend time in the well. Run from God's will. And Lydia,
she didn't know very much yet, apparently. Sure she didn't know
much. She didn't know the Lord yet,
doesn't seem like it. Whatever she knew, the Lord taught
her something that day, more. But she knew that God was to
be worshipped. And there was a place where that
could happen. She was there. And what did they do there when
they met? What did those ladies do? Of
course, I don't like to speculate. I don't know. We're not told
anything other than that they prayed. That seems to me to be
all they did. I doubt if one of those ladies
got up and preached. Do you? I doubt that. I think they just got together
and prayed. And you know what? Until God gives you light, that's
what to do. Right there. Until you know what
to do. Now if you want to haul off and
just do something, that's fine. Just go ahead and do that. My advice is this. If you don't
know what to do, pray until you do. I think that's what they
were doing, don't you? And God answered their prayer.
What were they praying for? Think with me for a minute. I
want us to remember a couple of very important things in this
lesson this morning. I know that, you know, if I have
15 points in a poem, you won't remember any of it. There's a
couple of things I want you to specifically remember, and this
is one of them too. What did they pray for? What do you think
they were? They went down there and prayed. What do you think
they were praying for? Well, whatever they were praying for,
the answer to it was a preacher of the gospel. Isn't that right? God knew what they needed. I
don't know if they did, but I know, listen to this, now Cornelius,
you remember in Acts chapter 10, Cornelius was praying. And
an angel from God came down and said, Cornelius, God has heard
your prayer. Send for the apostle Peter. You
see that? Whatever he was praying for,
the answer to it was go get the preacher of the gospel. Because
here's why. The answer to the prayer now,
Lydia and these other ladies, they prayed and God sent them
Paul. But what he really sent them was the gospel of Jesus
Christ. The gospel that Paul preached.
But what he really sent Lydia, in her house. I don't know if
he did anybody else or not. But what he really sent to her
was Christ himself. The reason God opens the heart
is so the Son of God can come in. You remember that illustration
that he gave now? Of the strong man. And how a man himself, you know,
he tries and it just Just makes it work, tries to clean out the
house, tries to get religious and things. But the only way
to get the strong man out is for somebody stronger to come
along. That's what happened here. And he cleaned house and a boat
there in her heart. But they prayed and God sent
him Paul. Cornelius prayed and God sent
him the apostle Peter. But here's the truth of the matter.
Christ is the answer to every sincere prayer. Think about that for a minute.
Even if you don't know what in the world to pray for, Romans
chapter eight, we know that's true a lot of times, isn't it?
We know not what to pray for as we ought. But whatever you
pray, if you're sincerely praying to God, you know what the answer
to your prayer is? Christ, every time. When we pray, Lord, meet
with us this morning. You know what the answer to that
prayer is? Christ. We've already prayed that. Don't just let us
be religious this morning. Meet with us. Christ is the answer
to that prayer. Lord, enable us to worship. Christ. Lord, save my children. Christ. And Paul and the men with him
came. It says they just sat down with
him. He didn't come and say, I'm Dr.
Paul, you know, and I'll be glad to come. You know, I get letters
and emails and things. We have a ministry and we want
to come and bless you people. You know, we'd be glad to come
and put on a concert for you or be your guest speaker. Paul
just came and sat down by the river with him. And they got
to talking. And you know what Paul's going
to talk about if you get to talking. They got to talking, and before
long, Paul began to tell them, I'm sure, about his encounter
with the Son of God. Don't you imagine? He told that
story quite a bit. It's recorded twice in the scripture. And he told how that the Lord
had saved him by his grace and revealed to him that he had chosen
him to be a preacher to the Gentiles. And the Lord had taught him the
gospel. We see the conversion of Saul
of Tarsus in the scripture and the next thing you know he's
preaching the gospel. Don't know how much time went by. Enough. The Lord taught him the gospel. And so he began to preach that
gospel that he always preached everywhere he went. That's what
he did. That's why he went down there.
He had been on a trip there confirming the churches, hadn't he? In the
faith. And so he went down here and he preached
the gospel to them. What did he preach particularly?
You reckon you... Well, I know this. I know he
said, we preach Christ crucified. I'm pretty sure that's all he
ever preached, don't you think? I never saw him say, we preach
anything else. Did you in the scripture? He
said, we preach Christ crucified. That's our message. So I'm pretty
sure that's what he preached. And we see in the next chapter
of the book of Acts, the beginning of chapter 17, that Paul's manner,
he went into a synagogue and it says, as his manner was, he
began to reason with them out of the scriptures. opening and
alleging that Christ must needs have suffered. He talked about
who it is that suffered on the cross and why and why it was
necessary. We preach Christ crucified. He
said that and he made good on it, didn't he? That's what he
did. He went in and began to talk about Christ suffering for
sinners in the place of sinners, in the place of his people and
redeeming them from their sins by his precious blood. That's
what he always preached. This was Paul down here talking
to Lydia and these other ladies. This was the Apostle Paul who
said, I determined, he said to the Corinthians, I determined
to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. I sense a theme here, don't you? That's who preached to Lydia
and the others here. You reckon that these ladies
had heard about Jesus of Nazareth dying on a cross? And all the
circumstances surrounding him, all the miracles that he performed,
you reckon they'd heard of him? I reckon so. Paul told them who
he was, who that is that died. This Jesus is the Christ. That's what they preached. As Philip began at the same scripture
and preached unto him, Jesus. He spoke of his death and why
he died and what he accomplished when he died. That's the gospel
message. And I know what else Paul did because he always did.
He said, he said so. He said, they're seeing we have
such hope. We use great plainness of speech.
He just told them plainly and simply and clearly that Christ
is all. the simplicity that's in Christ. And that's what he set forth
there. And it says in verse 14 that Lydia heard. You notice
the word after the word heard is in italics. It's not in the
original. It says she heard. She heard. Not that that makes
much difference, except it just emphasizes that one word, heard. That's how faith comes. Faith
comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. She heard. She had ears that were blessed
of God. Her ears, apparently, among all of the
ladies there, her ears were blessed by God. You know how I know that?
Because they heard. Blessed are your ears for they
hear. And I love the way the Holy Spirit
describes what happened to her. Paul spoke to her. She attended
to the words that Paul spoke, right? But God opened her heart. No man can do that. God had already clearly been
working on Lydia. She knew some things. She knew
what a Sabbath day was. She knew what rest. God's concept
of rest. And maybe she understood something
about how that Christ is our Sabbath. I don't know what all
she knew. She knew some things. She worshiped God with what light
she had. She had a heart to worship. That
comes from God, doesn't it? She had a heart to pray to God.
That comes from Him. She walked in the life that God
had given her, and then one day, the Lord just opened her heart. Just opened her heart. He had
dealt with her for a while. He'd been dealing with Saul,
hadn't he? Saul knew something about this. Preparing him. It's hard for you to kick against
the goes. Those goes. The Lord had been
goading him for some time. God wasn't going to leave him
in his rebellion and in his hatred of him. And he goaded him for
a while before he opened his heart, before he opened his eyes. And that's what he did here with
Lydia. He worked on her for a while. You know, it says that some seed
fell on good ground and brought forth much fruit. How does that
ground become good ground? The Lord works it. He tells it. He breaks it up. He removes the
stones. He prepares it. And then he plants
the seed. He opens the heart and plants
the seed. And it always grows when he plants
it. Like the disciples on the road
to Emmaus, I thought about them. Remember after the Lord had died
and was risen, and they didn't know it. They knew it, but they
didn't believe it. It says that he walked with them
for a while and spoke with them, asked them some questions, and
then he asked them about some scripture. They began to look
at the scriptures, showed them, and the Word of God preached
unto them all things concerning himself, it says, and then he
opened. their understanding, that they
might understand the scriptures. Lydia, if she was worshiping
God and praying, probably had a Bible somehow or another. Or
she had one and had read something and understood something from
it from somebody. And I guarantee you, Paul had
one. It was his manner to open the
scriptures and open and allege that Christ
must needs have suffered. And that's the way the Lord himself
dealt with his sheep. He showed them all things in
the word of God concerning himself. And then he opened their understanding.
And that's what happened here. Lydia knew some things, but then
the Lord showed her everything. Not that she knew everything
or knew anything perfectly, but Paul said, we know all things.
You know how you can say that? Because you know Christ. You
know everything worth knowing. Everything that God has and we're
still learning him. I understand that, but you know
what Paul was saying too, don't you? We understand all things,
all mysteries. Christ is the key that opens
every door worth opening. And we have the mind of Christ,
the wisdom of Christ. He gives it and he quietly, secretly
opened her heart. He didn't knock her off of a
horse like he did Paul and blind her. physically. She wasn't convicted of a crime
and nailed to a cross, for example, like that thief that our Lord
saved. She wasn't sitting in a hog pen
either, eating corn husks when God turned the light on for her.
She was sitting down by a river, listening to the gospel preached
by God's servant Paul. She was in the appointed place
of prayer, on the appointed day of worship and God's preacher
preached Christ and God opened her heart so that she attended
unto the gospel that Paul preached. God just opened her heart. Paul
didn't open her heart. I can't do that. You can't do
that. Religion talks about getting people saved. When you can open
a heart, you might get somebody saved, but you can't do that.
Only the Lord Jesus can do that. She didn't open her heart. Well,
if you'll just open your heart and let Christ in. That's not
how it happens. And I tell you that he didn't
knock on her heart. He didn't make it possible that
it be opened. My sovereign savior. opened her heart. And she was never the same again.
He opened her heart to the truth of his gospel, to the truth of
him crucified, to the truth of who he is, to the truth of what
he did for sinners and why and where he is now. Not sure if
God opened any other hearts that day. It doesn't say so, but he
opened hers. And I see, I look in Ephesians
1 verses 3 through 13. I read that again as I was studying
this and I saw Lydia in there this time. How that God had purpose
from the beginning. It starts with that, doesn't
it? How that God loved and predestinated and redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ. And where, you remember how,
where it gets to down toward the end of the chapter? And he
did it through that gospel that we preached unto you, Paul said.
That's what happened here. Paul preached that gospel. And
she believed. By the grace of God, she believed. And notice that word attended.
She attended unto the word that Paul spoke. That's worth looking
at for just a second because it's exactly what Solomon, remember,
we've been studying Proverbs for a while and kind of Kind
of off of it now a little bit, but we studied several chapters
in Proverbs. How many times did Solomon say,
attend unto the voice? Apply your heart to the counsel
of the Lord. Attend, my son, listen to me.
Apply your heart to wisdom. That's what this, that's what
she did. That's what the word means. She attended. Apply your heart. How does that
happen? God opened her heart. Look at the language of the verse.
God opened her heart. That. It doesn't happen the other way. God opens your heart and then
you hear. You hear with your heart and
not just with your head. God opened her heart. That she
attended. And that means to apply oneself. It means literally to attach
oneself to something or somebody. And we see that in the text,
don't we? That she attached herself. This was more to her than just
another church service. In verse 15, we see that. She
wouldn't let him go. If you've judged me to be faithful
to the Lord, come and abide at my house. Come into my house. Come into my house. Stay and she constrained them. You see how that it was she didn't
do that because how nice Paul was Or she thought he was good-looking
or something The gospel had ravished her heart The Lord Jesus Christ
had opened her heart and she couldn't get enough Of him When the Lord opened her heart,
she attached herself to the gospel, because she had hold of the Lord
Jesus Christ, who is himself the gospel. And she said to him,
you're not going anywhere. I will just stay in a hotel. No, no, no, you're coming into
my house. You see that? We see that often
in the scripture, don't we? They clave unto him, it says.
They didn't want Paul to leave in Ephesus either, did they?
They wept, they took hold of him and wept on his neck. She had committed herself to
Christ. She was baptized. That's how that happens. There's
nothing in the scripture about walking down an aisle and making
a decision for Jesus. There's a whole lot in the scripture
about being baptized to confess your faith in Christ. That's
how that happens. And that's what she did. She
couldn't hear enough of the gospel. She constrained him to stay.
God opened her heart and her home was open too. When God opens
your heart, everything's open to Him, isn't it? Your pocketbook,
your home, open to the Lord. When your heart
is His, everything else is His. Your time, whatever talents He's
given you, your heart. Where a man's treasure is, that's
where his heart is. And her heart was with Christ
now. And faith causes faithfulness. She said, if you've judged me
to be faithful, come into my house and abide. Lord Jesus. You didn't know when he said
this that he was talking about Lydia. But he was. You know what he said about Lydia,
the Lord Jesus himself? You know what he said about her?
When I was hungry, you fed me. And when I was a stranger, you
took me in. You didn't know he was talking about her, did you?
Now you do. He said, when you've done it
to one of the least of these, my children, my disciples, my sheep,
you've done it unto me. May he be able to say that of
us by his grace. I was hungry, and you gave me
something to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to
drink. You see how important that is? You say, well, that's
just, you know, the meat of the text is back up here. I'm not
so sure about that. her constraining them to come
into her home. Christ said, You've done it to
me. I'd say that's pretty big, wouldn't you? You see, the gospel. The gospel
is not just about you going to heaven. The gospel is about honoring
Christ, and that encompasses your whole life, not just not
a decision that you make, Not a point in time. It encompasses
your whole life. It's how you treat his people.
It's the decisions you make every day. When he saves you, when
he opens your heart, he saves all of you. Does that make sense? You see that here? Everything you do is the result
of his saving grace. if indeed we have experienced
his saving grace. May God make it so. Let's pray.