The writer of that hymn wrote, I know whatever befalls me, the
Lord Jesus doeth all things well. She was born blind and lived
her whole life blind. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? She said, it gives me grace for
every trial. It feeds me with the living bread.
What more can I ask for? That woman saw clearly, didn't
she? She saw clearly. She walked by
faith, not by sight. Philippians. Philippians chapter
1. Philippians 1. Let's read the
first five verses again. Philippians 1. Paul and Timothy, to the servants
of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus, which are at
Philippi, with the bishops and deacons, grace be unto you and
peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I
thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always, and every prayer
of mine for you all, making requests with joy." He said, I thank God
for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. This is the Lord's word to a
church at Philippi and every church at Rocky Mountain. People
whom the Lord loved, the Lord chose, the Lord called by the
gospel and brought into the fold. Brought them into his kingdom. Brought them to Christ. Brought
them to this local body of believers. He formed this church. We're
going to look at how he formed this church. How he brought various
ones to this place. Kind of like last Wednesday night's
message. This was a local body of believers,
and all of them were brought there by His sovereign power
and amazing providence. If they were here today, they
could tell you what amazing mercy and grace and providence the
Lord did for them in bringing them
into His fold. Paul was in jail. That was God's
will. He's the one that wrote, In everything
give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus.
He was in jail and he told the people at Philippi, I know that
this is taking place for the furtherance of the gospel. I
know this is God's will and purpose for me, somehow, for the gospel
to be furthered. For the kingdom of God to be
populated. And it certainly was, wasn't
it? Because the first time he was put in jail was at Philippi.
Philippi. Now he's in Rome for the jail.
But he wrote in verse 1, this is to the church, the saints,
in Christ Jesus, in Christ. Paul said, my desire is I want
to be found in Christ. And in every one of his epistles
he talks about being in Christ. If only we knew what that really
meant. be in Christ, that is, in His covenant, in His heart,
in His mind, in His grace, in His work, in His person, always
in Him, in Christ, in Christ, found in Him, redeemed by Him,
married to Him, vitally joined to Him, and each other. Everyone in Christ is vitally
joined to Christ and members one of another. That's what the
scriptures say. Christ is the head, we're the
body. We're all members, one of another.
We're different members. I'm the mouth, as it were. A big mouth. And you may feel
like you're a little toe. Well, let me tell you something.
I love my little toe. Don't you? Do you want to do
without it? No, you don't. It's just as vital
to me as my right hand. It really is. He sent all of
us members in the body, and Paul wrote a great deal about that.
But in the Lord's marvelous providence, everything in our lives, in the
purpose of God, is bringing us to Christ and putting us in His
kingdom, putting us in Christ, putting us in His fold, putting
us in His church, putting us in His body. Brother Ron read Isaiah 43. I asked him, what are you going
to read? He said, Isaiah 43. I said, I
am too. Because here's what he said. The Lord said to Jacob,
He said, you're precious in my sight. He said, I've given men
for you, people for your life. He said, I gave Egypt for your
ransom. He gave the open sea for that.
You're precious to me. He said, fear not, I'm with you. He said. And I'm going to bring
my people, the sons of Jacob. He said, I'm going to bring them.
I'm going to bring them from the east. I'm going to gather them from
the west. I'm going to say to the north, give up. To the south,
keep not back. Bring my sons from far. Bring
my daughters from the ends of the earth, from New York to Florida
to California to Virginia. Bring them. They're going to
come. God's going to bring them to
hear the gospel. All right, this story of the
church at Philippi, maybe somebody in here doesn't know how that
church was formed. Well, I did when I studied here,
but I still We're so blessed in looking at Acts 16. Go to
the book of Acts chapter 16. This is a story. And when Paul
was writing this, he's recounting, he's thinking back, he's thinking
back at how this, how he met these people. and how the Lord
formed this church and brought them all together, and now he's
in jail, he's rioting, and I don't know how big the church was,
but there was, you know, there was some people there, like here.
Maybe no bigger than this, maybe more, maybe less. But he's thanking
God for them, for all of them. He's recounting, thinking in
his mind of the Lord's marvelous Sovereign power and providence
and bringing them all together. It's amazing. And every one of
us have a story. I was telling your story to somebody
the other night, Kelly. How the Lord brought you here
and how the people from you, right? You're sitting there because
the Lord brought him here. Another lady here and her family,
the ramifications of all that. And when the Lord dealt with
Brother Kelly, how many people? 6 or 7 or 8 people confessed
Christ. And everything that the Lord
brought that man through was to bring him to this point, to
bring other people to hear the gospel. That's amazing. In Acts chapter
16, the church at Philippi, the people, they were brought together
by amazing providence. Paul, Silas, and Timothy were
traveling and preaching the gospel. Okay? And everywhere they went,
they suffered persecution. that they were traveling, preaching
the gospel. In verse 6, they were traveling and they'd gone
throughout Phrygia. Do you have it? Acts 16, 6. They
went through Phrygia and the regions of Galatia and were forbidden
of the Holy Ghost to preach in Asia. Okay, Paul. I thought, Silas, Timothy, let's
go up into Asia. There's some big cities there,
Thyatira, and places like that. Let's go there. And the Holy
Spirit said, no, don't go there. Don't go there. Go to Macedonia. It's a long ways away. A long
ways away. By ship, on foot, it took a long
time to get there. Paul wanted to go to Asia, they
weren't far from there, but God said no. Go a long way, all the
way down to Macedonia, and they came, verse 12, to Philippi. Why? Why not go to Asia? There's people there. No. At
this time, there was one of God's sheep from there, from Thyatira. Her name was Lydia, and she's
not home. The Lord moved her. The Lord
moved her from there to Philippi, and she starts selling cloth.
And she didn't know the Lord. She didn't know the Lord. And
God sent her a preacher. A long way. So Paul and Silas
come down to Philippi. And there's verse 13. Now Philippi
was a big city. Philippi was a chief city, it
was a colony, a Roman colony, but there was no synagogue there,
there was no church there, there were no believers in this big
city. None. None. Paul and Silas and Timothy
were there, and there was no synagogue, there was no church
to attend. Sabbath day came around, they got to worship. They're
looking, there's no synagogue. Well, let's just go down to the
river. And they went down to the river,
verse 13, on the Sabbath, where prayer was wont to be made. There
were some women down there. And they were talking together
and they were praying together. And it says, We sat down and
spake unto the women which resorted thither. They sat down and preached
the gospel to just a few women by the river. Not in the big
city, but by the river in that city. Like a river of glory. Well, verse 14, a certain woman named Lydia, who was from Asia,
but the Lord moved her from Asia to Philippi. And don't you know,
she was sad to leave her home and all that till she left. And
what a journey that was, a long way. Her and her family, she
had a family. I don't know if she had a husband,
doesn't mention it, but she did have a house, a home, some people
in it. And the Lord moved her there
and says she worshipped God and she heard, she heard the gospel.
Faith cometh by hearing. How shall they hear without a
preacher? And God sent a preacher named
Paul. And it says, the Lord opened her heart, broke her heart of
her sin, opened her heart to receive the good news of the
Gospel. And it says, oh, she attended
other things which were spoken of Paul. She just soaked it in.
She loved what she was hearing. And as far as we know, this is
only one of these women. Will the Lord send a preacher
hundreds, maybe a thousand miles to preach to one person? Would
the Lord do all that to save one insignificant cloth salesman
woman? He did. Ask Philip. He went a long way for one Ethiopian
eunuch. That's how good our God is, and
that's how certain salvation is. He has certain men and women
that he's chosen, and where he puts them in certain places,
and they are most certainly going to hear his voice. He said, my
sheep hear my voice. And they're most certainly going
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. And verse
15 says, she was baptized. Every one of God's people, when
they hear the gospel, they confess Jesus Christ and believers baptism. Every one of them. That's a privilege. It's a duty, it's a command of
our Lord, and it's a blessed privilege. I just love watching
it, don't you? Don't you love just watching
others? And isn't it so that every time someone confesses
Christ, you think, let me back up in there. It's a great privilege. And Paul
baptized her in her household. He saved Lydia's house. Did she
have a husband? Maybe. Let's call him Larry. Larry and Lydia. They're people
just like us. The Lord saved Larry and Lydia.
And did they have children? He saved Linda and Lucy. He saved all of them. And did
they have aunts and uncles and brothers and sisters? He saved
them all. Isn't that something? He saved
them all. And Paul and Silas and Timothy
stayed with her. She constrained them, verse 15,
to come into her house The Lord saved Lydia and her house, and
boy, she opened her house to the preacher of the gospel and
God's saints, and she constrained us. She wouldn't take no for
an answer. No, no, Lydia, it's too much. You've got too many people in
your house anyway. You don't have enough to feed us. We'll
be fine. We're going to go down to the
end. No, you're not either. You're going to stay with us,
Paul, Silas. It's the least I could do for
what the Lord has done for me through you. Come on in, please,
stay with me." And you know that Paul stayed with her every time
he came to Philippi. She just rolled out the red carpet
and served up the food. Now that's how the church started,
okay? The church started through a
woman, all the way from Asia, had to move. She didn't want
to move. A long, difficult journey to Philippi, a strange town.
Trying to make a living. Trying to eke out a living. But
the Lord brought her there to give her life. And life to others
through her. Isn't that something? You ask
Lydia. Lydia, was it worth it all? Would you go through that again?
I know what you say. Oh, honey. You know what she'd
say? She'd say in our text, keep Acts
16. Well, go back to Philippians
2. This is really the text. Keep your place in Acts 16. We'll
go back and forth. But if you asked her, was it
worth it all? Was it? What's your consolation? Phidia,
and all that you went through, leaving your home and all of
that and coming to this place. Verse 1, she says, My consolation
is in Christ. My comfort is in Christ. This is what consoles me and
comforts me, that I believe that I am in Christ. I want to be
found in Christ, and I believe I am. I believe He's in me. I do. And I find great comfort
in knowing and believing that Christ brought me here and taught
me and revealed himself to me and joined me with these people
and it's all in his purpose and I'm in his purpose and I am where
I'm supposed to be. It just gives me great comfort
and great consolation and great joy. I'm just happy to be here.
I wouldn't be anywhere else. That's what she'd say. She stayed
there. She stayed there all her life.
And you know, like anybody else, she worked many more years in
the big city of Philippi, had lots of troubles, tribulations
and trials, but she would tell you over and over again, I'm
happy. I'm happy. Since I've met Christ, everything's
just wonderful. Come what may. So, you know, and she wouldn't have had that
consolation unless the Lord sent her a preacher, unless she heard
the gospel and been united with some people. We're going to see
there's some more people members that share. But David got down
a lot. You know that? I do. Do you? We all do. We get down. No matter
how good we may have it materially or even physically, we get down. We get cast down on it. And where
do we find consolation? What consoles us when we're troubled
and sorrowful? Where do we find comfort? when
we are sorrowing. There are times when you're sorrowing
or in trouble and you don't even know what it's about. It lets
you feel down and out. You don't know what. You've got
everything and you think, I don't know what it is. Anybody? All the time. It's just part
of being led by the Spirit. We're strangers in a strange
land. Fish out of water. But David, in one of my favorite
psalms, Psalm 42, David, he said, my tears have been my meat day
and night. I've been crying all night and
all day. Well, over a day, it doesn't
tell us. And, you know, where is thy God?
He said, where is your God in all this trouble you're going
through? Maybe he was asking, Lord, why don't you do something? Have you ever asked that? Be
honest. Why, Lord, why? Why is this happening?
You ever ask that? He said, when I remember these
things, I pour out my soul in me. That is, to God. And he said,
I went with the multitude into the house of God, the voice of
joy and praise, with the multitude that kept the holy day. And he
said to himself, why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art
thou disquieted in me? Hope in God. I'll yet praise
him, the help of his countenance. And he said this many times.
Psalm 73, remember? He was envious, he was bitter.
He said, my religion is in vain. All I've got is trouble. God's
people got trouble. The world don't have any trouble.
And they've got more than their hearts can wish. And they curse
God. And here I am going through all
these troubles. What's the use? And he said he
went into the sanctuary. He went into the house of God,
and he heard a man, maybe Nathan, preaching the truth, like you're
hearing today. And he thought, what's wrong with me? And God
consoled him, and God comforted him, and God gave him joy, rejoicing
in Christ. Her life is a lot like Ruth,
isn't it? We looked at Ruth last week,
and as I said, I didn't plan it this way, but I was going
to preach on Philippians 2, 4 on the key to happiness. Key to
happiness. That's what I wrote down a whole
bunch of things, about half a message on the key to happiness. And
I began to read the rest of it, and so this is what you get.
But anyway, it's a lot like Ruth. You remember that? She went through
a famine in the land and was forced to leave her home and
lost her husband, of course, and she came to this little place
of Bethlehem. You remember that? And the Lord
brought her there to save her. And the Lord brought her there
to meet Boaz. And the Lord brought her there to feed her. She was
in famine. She needed to be fed. She wasn't
being fed. And that's the reason the Lord
brought you here. Amos 8 talks about a famine of bread. In the
last days there'd be a famine, not of bread, the eating of bread,
but of the hearing of the Word. And you'd have to go here, and
you'd have to go there, try to find it. It's just not everywhere. And Ruth found out of it, go
all the way to Bethlehem. What was Bethlehem named? House
of Bread. Who was born there in the House
of Bread? Jesus Christ, the bread from
heaven. David did. Well, Ruth, you'd
ask Ruth, was it worth it all? Was it worth it all? Oh, honey. What's your consolation in all
this trouble, Ruth? My consolation? I'm in Christ. My comfort, my joy, I've met
my kinsman redeemer. He married me. And my greatest
joy and comfort and all I want to do the rest of my life is
sit at his table and eat with his maidens. Is that you? This is his table. This is Boaz's
field. It's your half delight on this
one. And here you are sitting eating with his maidens barley
bread. You know what barley bread is?
Barley is poor man's bread. Not wheat, not corn. Poor people
can't afford that. Barley bread. Poor man's bread. It is a poor man's gospel what
this is. Well, what about Boaz, her husband? You know the story
of Boaz? Anybody? You know where he came from?
Her husband. He's a rich man. He's a great
man. He wasn't always that way. Where'd he come from? Where'd
Boaz come from? This is Ruth's husband, okay? Kinsman Redeemer. All the people that, you know,
came, were blessed by Boaz. Where'd he come from? Well, long
before Ruth, You know the story. Tell me what... Long before Ruth, a young lady
lived in an apartment on a wall in a town called Jericho. Big city, okay? A decadent, sinful,
bad place. And this young lady got caught
up in Jericho, in that world. And she became a harlot and sold her body for money,
for pleasure. Used and abused by how many men? Sad, sinful, in the world, dead
and trespassing in sin. Living in that apartment with
her parents. But God sent two preachers. Two men that came into her apartment,
climbed up the wall on a scarlet rope. The Lord saved that gal and her
whole house. Her whole house. She brought
the whole house. The Lord destroyed that city.
The Lord destroyed that city of Jericho. And brought her out
in her old house. Where did He bring her? Bethlehem. And she met a man named Salmon.
And they got married. Fell in love. Got married. And
they had a boy. His name was Boaz. Boaz's mother was a harlot. Her name was Rahab. Rahab. Rahab, was it worth it
all? Was it worth it all? Oh, honey. Do you know where
the Lord found me? My consolation. My comfort, even
in the face of my sin, is this. Christ loved me. Died for me. I'm in Him. Is that your comfort? Is that your joy? Are you happy
now, Rahab? Are you happy here in Bethlehem?
Oh, am I ever happy. And she would have told you,
I believe it's all for this boy. Unto us a child was born in Bethlehem,
a son was given. I love thinking about her and
Ruth meeting. You know Boaz, he met Ruth and
brought her in to meet his mother. You know that. You know Boaz
did that. Like, it always happens that way. Found a young lady
and wants you to meet, meet the family. So Boaz brought Ruth
home to meet his mother Rahab. And you know it went something
like this. That Ruth said, Oh, Miss Rahab,
I've heard such wonderful things. Your son has told me all about
you, how that you raised him in the fear and the nurture and
the admonition of the Lord. And you taught him the scriptures
from a child able to make him wise unto salvation. And you
had him hearing the gospel every Lord's Day. Oh, Miss Rahab, I'm not worthy
to be a member of this family. Miss Rahab, I'm so honored to
be with you and be a member of your family." And Rahab said, Oh honey, if only you knew. If only you knew. You just don't
know. She said, I'm ashamed of myself. Nothing honorable about me. I'm
ashamed of myself. Ashamed of my past. I don't want
you to know my past. But I glory in my God and His
mercy and His grace. I glory in my Savior. I lived in sin, but He lived
for me and died for me and brought me to Himself. I would like to,
if it were left up to me, I'd like to erase my past. I'd like
to totally obliterate that, my past. I wish that none of that
ever happened. But I realize I can't, I shouldn't,
and I wouldn't because it's all in God's purpose to bring me
right here, right now. And nothing could be changed.
Nothing. I have consolation, I have comfort,
I have hope, I have joy in the eternal purpose and will of my
God in Christ Jesus. I had to go through everything
I went through to bring me to this point. Now here I am to
stay. How about you? Well, go back to Acts chapter
16, okay? I'm going to close it. Acts 16.
It hasn't been too long. It's been 28 minutes. Determined
to shorten this. But Acts 16, go back there. It's
not the end of the story of the church at Philippi. Paul and
Silas preached there, and then the whole town got in an uproar
over what they were preaching. They hated it, hated their God
and hated Christ, and they threw Paul and Silas in jail. They
threw him in jail. And before they threw him in
jail, they beat him to a pulp, both of them, with a whip, like
they did our Lord. Beat him up. But for what? They
threw him in jail. Now, the Lord had just raised
a church there. He was preaching to a new baby,
a new church there, full of babes in Christ. They needed him. Yet
here he is in jail. Do you think maybe that ran through
Paul and Silas' mind? What's the purpose for that?
Well, it didn't last long because Paul thought, No, Brother Silas,
we're going to give thanks because in everything this is the will
of God in Christ Jesus concerning us. It's all about Christ. Brother
Silas, I know we're in here for the furtherance of the gospel.
We wouldn't be here if it wasn't God's will and if it wasn't good,
if it wasn't for somebody to hear the gospel. But Silas, let's
just start singing. Rock of ages clipping, boom,
the doors flew open and the chains fell off and the jailer, the
jailer had just beaten him up. The fellow had just whipped him
and put the stocks around his feet that hated what he was preaching
like everybody else. The jailer, let's call him John,
John the jailer, came running in there, trembling. Hearing
these men pray and hearing these men sing. And Paul said, don't
do yourself any harm. We're still here. And then he took Paul and Silas
and just felt so guilty and washed their stripes. And Paul and Silas
began to preach to him in his house the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the Lord saved his whole
house. Saved John and his whole house, his wife, his children,
his uncles and aunts and everybody, whole house. So now the church
at Philippi has doubled. Paul, Silas, was it worth it? All those stripes, all that trouble,
all that pain, all that suffering, would you go through it again?
In a minute. Amen. In a minute. What about you? What about you? Lord, you brought us together.
We're inseparably connected. Our lives are inseparably connected. Our lives, everything happened
to you. Everything happened to me. Everything
happened to you. You, you, you, you, you. Now
here we are all vitally joined together in Christ. And I don't want to ever be separated
from you. Not from him, and not from you. Okay, stand with me.