OK, open your Bibles now to Acts
chapter 16. Continue our studies through
the book of Acts. And I hope the Lord answers our
dear brother's prayer, that he would take the things of Christ
and show them unto us. Open our eyes that we may see,
and open our heart to receive the things that we see. If he
does, I think we're going to see another marvelous story of
how the Lord, in his providence, brings the gospel to one of his
sheep and saves one of his people, moves in their lives sovereignly
and saves them. I've stated so many times that
the scriptures say very clearly that the gospel is what God uses
to call his people out, save them. The gospel. Nothing else. The gospel. That's what God uses.
That's his power. That's his voice. That's the
voice of Christ. The word. He's called the word
and the gospel. Peter said this is the word which
by the gospel is preached unto you. So this is how God speaks. This is how Christ speaks. And
when the Holy Spirit moves, when the gospel is proclaimed clearly
from the scriptures, Christ speaks as really as he did when he walked
this planet. And if you've heard his voice,
you know that's so, just as if he were speaking to you through
the gospel. He said, my sheep will hear my
voice. He said, I know them and they will follow me. They'll
hear my voice. I know them. They'll follow me. And I'll give
them eternal life, and they'll never perish." He said, They
shall hear my voice. No maybes, no if they'll do this
or if they'll do that, or God can, if they will. No. He said,
They shall. They shall hear my voice. And he said, in Jeremiah, he
said, I'll give them pastors. Ephesians said, I'll give them
evangelists. prophets, evangelists, apostles,
pastors, teachers, and so forth, after my own heart, or that is,
with the message from my heart, the message of my Son, the gospel.
And I'll send these preachers with the gospel concerning my
Son or concerning me, Christ said, and I'll call them all
out by name. I'll call them all out. I'll
say to the North, We read that in Isaiah 43, didn't we? I'll say to the north, come down,
or Zacchaeus, come down. I'll say to the south, woman
at my feet, get up, arise. Where are your accusers? I'll
say to the east, I'll say to the west, deliver my people,
bring them to me. He who commands the wind, He whose voice the wind obeys,"
remember the disciples saying that one time when he stilled
the ocean and the wind ceased? So what manner of man is this
that even the oceans and the seas and the winds obey his voice? Well, John the Holy Spirit still
does his bidding, and he says to the Spirit, Go, find my sheep. Go to my sheep, my lost sheep,
the lost sheep of the house of Israel. This is a story of the
Lord bringing the gospel to one of his sheep. It's a marvelous
one, too, and I think you're going to rejoice in this, as
I did. Look at it with me. Acts 16,
beginning with verse 6. Now, you know, we have Paul and
Silas, and now Timothy has joined them. going out preaching the
gospel. Now verse 6, it says, Now when
they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and
they were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia. That's strange, isn't it? You'll see in a moment, we'll
turn back to the maps in the back of your Bible again, These
men, and I want you to see this first of all, it says they were
forbidden by the Spirit. That tells me that they were
following the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Right? They were looking for it. They
were being led by the Spirit. That's what Paul said in Romans
8, didn't he? If any man is led by the Spirit, they're the sons
of God. And they were looking for the leadership of the Holy
Spirit, and they were following the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
They were seeking, they were looking for the Holy Spirit's
leadership, they recognized it when they saw it, and they followed
his leadings. And what I'm trying to say is
this, that most so-called preachers don't seem to give a thought
to the Holy Spirit, do they? by the way they do things and
the way they run ahead with all of their planning and organization
and devising gimmicks and methods and programs and this and that
and the other, it tells me that they're not seeking the leadership
of the Holy Spirit. Totally bypass it. I believe,
Rick, they're kind of like those fellows that the apostles ran
into when they said, Have you received the Spirit? Since you've
heard there is a spirit, we preach about him all the time, but they
sure don't look for nor follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
You see what I'm trying to get at? Otherwise they wouldn't make
all of their, resort to all these gimmicks and tricks and methods
and devised schemes and all that, right? You don't have to have
that. The Holy Sovereign Spirit is moving, right? You have the
gospel. And you know that that's the
dynamite? You've got to stick a dynamite. Like that fellow
who went fishing with dynamite. It blows people out of the water,
doesn't it? You've heard that story. Well,
the man with the gospel, that's the man that's led by the Spirit
of God. Right? The man with the gospel. He's
led by the Spirit of God, because that's what Christ said that
the Spirit would take. and revealed to people and called
him out with, didn't he? He said he'll take the thing,
the Spirit, when he's come, when the Spirit is present, he doesn't
say he'll make them talk like a fool. He'll make them talk
like Christ, about Christ. At Pentecost, John, they went
away talking about Christ, didn't they? Not talking about the tongues,
not talking about the healings, not talking about the men. They
went away talking about the Lord, didn't they? That's when the
Spirit is present, and the man with the gospel is led by the
Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God takes the things of Christ
and shows them to his sheep. And that's how they know his
voice, you see. That's how they see Christ, and they come to
Christ. If a man doesn't get up, it just
makes sense, doesn't it? If a man doesn't get up and preach
Christ, how are men going to come to him? Huh? He doesn't
talk about the gifts of the Spirit, the whole message. You haven't
pointed to anybody to Christ, have you? Then, Joe, they give
that silly little invitation at the end. Nobody knows what you're talking
about, because they never say anything about Christ, do they?
Well, the man with the Spirit of God, too, and I'm talking
about anybody that goes out there, you, witnessing, whatever. The
man with the Spirit of God looks for open doors. He looks for
open doors to preach. He's not trying to open doors.
He's not trying to open doors, but he's looking for open doors.
And the Spirit of God does open doors, and he does it miraculously.
If you just wait, wait, I say, on the Lord, for I stand, he'll
open the doors. He'll give you the opportunity.
But if you open doors, it won't be effectual. But if the Lord
sends the word, right, and he does, He sends his word, and
it's effectual. And the man with the Spirit of
God, he is looking for open doors to preach the gospel, and that's
what he does. When he sees the open doors, he preaches the gospel
every time. I told you about preaching in
that conference not too long ago with another man, and that
man didn't even get anywhere close to the gospel. I did. I'm just telling you. I preached
the gospel. I preach to God, I don't remember
my testimony, I do. Jeremiah 31.3 was one of them. The other
one went up. I'm not certain, but it was a gospel. I guarantee
you that. And the sheep rejoiced in it.
And the other man, he didn't get anywhere close. Not anywhere
close. Well, the sheep have got to hear
his voice, right? At all times, they've got to
hear his voice. And so when a man stands up, it's his It's his
sworn duty to preach the gospel. I'm determined. Raise your right
hand, God said. Are you determined not to know
anything among them, save Jesus Christ, whom you have crucified?
I am. Go. All right. Why were they forbidden
to preach? That was an important note, wasn't
it? They were forbidden by the Spirit,
and a man who's looking for the leadership of the Holy Spirit,
he'll see it. He'll recognize it. Why were
they forbidden by the Spirits to preach in Asia? Look back at your maps in the
back of your Bible, a set of maps. Look at the very last map
in that Gazetter collection of maps. Look back there. I want
you to see this. This is marvelous. Back there. At this time, they were in and
around Antioch, Pisidian. Do you see
it says that after they went through Phrygia and Galatia,
see those two little lakes right in the middle of the large continent
there, and it says Antioch, Pisidian, right by Galatia? Do you find
that? Everybody got that? That's about where they were,
okay? You probably have some lines there to show you Paul's
journey. Do you have it, everybody? I
know it's hard to find. Paul's journey, this should be
the very last map in your Bible. At any rate, if you don't have
it, they were right in the middle there of that, Laura, what is
now Turkey. And right around Antioch, Pisidian,
it says. There's another Antioch. It's
over there to the right, just above Israel. But this is over
in the middle of what is now modern Turkey. in Galatia, that
big province. They wanted to go due west. That's Asia. Do you see where
it says Asia? That's a large, well-populated area, Asia. They wanted to go west, big territory,
and many important cities there, cities like Laodicea, Colossae. They had been there. Ephesus
had been there. Thyatira, they wanted to go there. They
wanted to go to these important cities. The Holy Spirit said,
No, don't go west, you go north. So they took off north. You see
the line there? It goes on up to a place called
Doryleum. Then they went north. But the Spirit said, look at
verse 7 back in our text. Keep your place there in the
map. Back in the text it says, after they had come to Mysia,
that was that northernmost province there, above Asia, they escaped
to go into Bithynia. Well, let's go on further north,
they said, into this big province called Bithynia. Do you see that?
All the way across the top, by the Black Sea? You see that?
They want to go, well, let's try this out. The Spirit said,
but it said, the Spirit suffered them not. No, don't go there
either. Where do we go? They thought. Well, the Spirit said no. Well, look at verse 8 and 9 now
in our text. It says, So they, passing by
Mystia, came down to Troas. Well, let's go, and they weren't
sure where they were going, so they headed back down to a coastal
town called Troas, there in the Aegean Sea. All right? They came
to Troas. And a vision, look at verse 9.
Are you with me? I'm not just giving you a lesson
in geography. This is good. You're going to
rejoice about this. A vision appeared to Paul in
the night, and there stood a man of Macedonia,
and prayed him, saying, Come over unto Macedonia, and help
us. here and help us. So Paul woke
up the next morning and said, I know where we're supposed to
go, Silas. Timothy, I've got it. The Lord spoke to me. Little
Macedonia, Macedonia. So you see the map there, it
says they got in a ship and passed across the strait there, the
Aegean Sea, and came to these towns of Neopolis, and then to
a little town called All right? You see that? Verse 10, look
at verse 10 in our text. It says, Now after he had seen
the vision, immediately, immediately, he said, Let's go, Lord. He endeavored
to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called
us for to preach the gospel unto these Macedonians. All right? Why? Why did they bypass Asia
with all these major cities? Like I said, with Laodicea, there
was a church there at Colossae, there was a church there eventually,
Ephesus, what a big city that was, and Thyatira. Why did they
bypass these important cities? Because there were no sheep there.
just now. And one of the sheep that was
in those cities had gone to Philippi on business. You know that? One of those sheep was out of
town on business. She'd gone to Macedonia, a city
called Philippi, to sell some of her cloth. She wasn't home. While Paul would have passed
through, she wasn't home. She was waiting down by a river,
though. The Lord had her there, waiting down by the river. That
reminds me of another woman who was waiting by some water one
time, a woman waiting at the well. The Lord had her there,
didn't he, at the heat of the day. And just like the scripture
says, our Lord must needs go through Samaria, which was and
out of the way place to where he was going, Galilee, I believe.
But he must go through some area. Why? Because there was a sheep
there waiting on him. She didn't know it, but he knew
her, and he was going to know her. And so was Lydia. She was waiting. She didn't know
it, but the Lord knew it, and he had her waiting on him right
there. She wasn't home, he said. She was out of town on business. That's the way the Lord does
things. I've told all of you. There may be one or two who have
not heard this story. This is the way the Lord does
things. You see, he encompasses sea and land. He goes all over
the world seeking his lost sheep here and there. They're here,
they're there. They're in the north, south, east, and west.
He doesn't gather them all from one location. He calls them individually,
too. about ten years ago was preaching. He went to Australia to preach.
And now Australia is on the, absolutely around the other side
of the world from the United States of America. It's absolutely,
it's over-under. What do they call it? The over-under. Down-under. That's it. On the
other side of the globe, you know. Well, he flew all the way
over there. And he met a man there that was attending the
meeting that had never been never been to a sovereign grace meeting
in his life, never heard the gospel in his life, a man. You know where that man was from,
John Sheasley? New Zealand. And he heard the gospel, heard
my father. He came back several nights and
he heard the gospel and it seemed like the Lord touched him and
he was rejoicing. He spoke to my father later on
and he said, I don't know. The man said to my pastor, he
said, I don't know I don't know what I'm doing all the way down
here in Australia. I've never been here before,
and I don't know what I'm doing down here. And my pastor said,
I do. You're down here for me to preach
the gospel to you. But the Lord had to bring him
from New Zealand, and to bring a preacher from the United States.
That's the way he does things. Why? He gets the glory that way,
doesn't he? He gets the glory. You see, like
the Lord says, he leaves the ninety and nine and goes out
in the wilderness in search of the one, doesn't he? Do you remember
reading there in Isaiah 43? He said, I gave Egypt for thy
ransom. I passed by Egypt. Myriads of
people, millions upon billions that passed them by for you. We're going to see that someday.
We're going to praise God for his election, aren't we? He passed
by millions, yea, billions of people in the United States.
For who? For the likes of you. I gave
Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Cebu for thee, he said. Passed
by whole nations to get to you. Boy, that's mercy. That grace
passed by the many for the few. That's what he does. Many are
called, but few are chosen. Passed by the wise and the prudent
to reveal it unto babes. Passed by the doctors and the
lawyers. We've got a little cloth merchant down here. She's one
of mine. One of mine. God said this to
Paul and Silas and Timothy. He says, I have one little lost
sheep out there wandering around. A woman that I've had my eye
on for all eternity. She's been on my mind before
time began. And now it's time to call her
out. It's time to gather her in to
the garner like the rest of the wheat, and I'll have her ready
to hear the gospel, Paul. You go down there and preach
the gospel. You go down to Macedonia and Philippi, and she'll be waiting. Now, I like that, don't you?
I like that. No ifs, ands, buts, or maybes,
or mightbes. God says, I'll do it. I'll call,
and she'll be there, and she'll come. She'll come. And like this lady, I don't know
what your business is here. You here on business? You here on business? Scripture
says, you know, every time we meet together, Every time you
come here, it's not by accident. It says the lot is cast into
the lap. I know we're given choices. That's what it means. The lot
is cast into the lap. What does the rest of it say? It says the
whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. Right? He decides. He decides. And I hope the Lord
has brought you here tonight, opened your heart a little bit.
Now hold on. All right, look at verse 11.
It says, so therefore, loosing from Troas, it says, We came
with a straight course immediately, didn't turn to the right or the
left, went straight with the Lord's Senate, assuredly gathering
that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto these
people. What did he call us to do? Preach
the gospel. That's what we're going to do,
preach the gospel. So we loosed and went down there.
We came with a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day
to Neapolis, and from this to Philippi, which is the chief
city of that part of Macedonia, in a colony. And we were in that
city abiding a certain day. They were there a few days. And
by the day, they didn't know where they were going to go. They were there a few days, still
waiting on the leadership of the Holy Spirit. So Paul said
to Silas, Let's go down by the river. Let's go down by the river,
see the river. Go to verse 13. On the Sabbath,
we went out of the city by a riverside where prayer was wont to be made,
or where some people were praying. And we sat down. and spake unto
the women which resorted thither. And a certain woman, named Lydia,
a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, was in town on business
that day. She worshipped God when she heard
us, and the Lord opened her heart, and she attended unto the things
which were spoken of by Paul." That's marvelous, isn't it, the
way the Lord does things. He says that there is a group
of women down by the river, and Paul and Silas, and no mention
of Timothy, but I'm sure he was with them. He says they went
down there and they sat down and they spoke unto the women.
And behold, a certain woman heard. It doesn't say anything about
the rest of them, but it says this one did. And later on, we'll
see how the Lord started the church right here at Philippi. This was the first church in
Europe started, this church at Philippi, the first one. It started
with one little woman, one little stranger who was in town on business. It says, Paul sat down. A certain
woman, and she heard us. Now, it may have went something
like this. If we can recount this story, it says that they
went down to the river where these women were, and it says
that they sat down. They could have sat down on a
rock or sat down on a tree stump or something. They went down
to the river and saw this group of ladies down there, and they
were endeavoring to pray, it looked like, and so Paul and
Silas kind of slipped in there and sat down on a rock, and this
is probably what transpired. And they had, you remember what
Paul said to a young Timothy when he wrote to him, he was
in jail, he said, bring the parchments and the scroll. He said, bring
the books, the scrolls, especially the parchment. That meant that
Paul had some kind of copies of the Old Testament. Possibly
Isaiah. Isaiah was one of the first,
what they call, dead sea scrolls that they found. He could have
had a copy of Isaiah with him, maybe a couple of books of Moses,
maybe several books with his scrolls. He carried the scriptures
around with him. It was difficult to carry a Bible
with you. It's pretty conspicuous when you carry a bunch of scrolls
around. Well, Paul sat down there by the river with them as they
were praying. And the ladies, they saw them,
and they said, well, who are you, sir, and why are you here? And what are those books that
you have there? And Paul said, well, my name
is Paul, and this is Silas, and this is Timothy, and we're preachers
of the gospel. And we've come down here to Philippi
to preach the gospel. To whom? Would you like to hear
the gospel? And they said, the gospel, what's
that? Well, I have here, what we have
here are books of the Bible, scriptures. What we have here
is a copy of the prophet Isaiah. You're praying to God and you've
probably heard of Isaiah, haven't you? I know you, there's a temple
over here in Philippi and you've probably been in it on the Sabbath
day. And you've heard of the prophet Isaiah. Well, this is
the book of Isaiah. Let me show you some things out
of the scriptures from the prophet Isaiah, and then you can follow
along if you want. This may have been what transpired. He said over here in the first
part of Isaiah, he didn't have chapters, but I'll tell you. Chapter six over in Isaiah, look
at it. You've got to scroll the letter,
don't you? Look over there. And Paul said, This what we have
here is the word of the living God. He said, you see, you're praying
to God. You ladies are praying to God.
How do you know he hears you? How do you approach God? Who
is God? What do you know about God? You've got to know the true
and living God. There's a bunch of people down
here in Philippi who are worshiping another God. There's a lot of
people all over the world worshiping a God that they think is God.
But we must know the true and living God. There's only one
Lord. He says that all the way through the prophet Isaiah and
other prophets. I'm the Lord. There's none else.
So we have to make sure we know the right Lord, don't we ladies? We need to know the God of the
Bible. Well, he has revealed himself
through a book. through prophets. God in sundry
times, in diverse manners, spoke unto the fathers by the prophets,
like Isaiah. And he spoke through Isaiah,
and he revealed himself, what he is like. And over here it
says that this is what God is like. It says in verse 3, it
says the angels that are around God's presence, they cry unto
one another, holy, holy, holy. is the Lord God of hosts. You
see, ladies and gentlemen, they're all ladies there. You see, ladies,
God is holy. This is the first thing you need
to know about God. Right? The first thing you need
to know about God. God is holy, and we're sinners. When Isaiah, the great prophet
Isaiah, when he saw God's holiness and that the angels covered their
faces and covered their lower parts in modesty and humility,
that they were ashamed of themselves. They were holy angels, yet they
covered themselves. When Isaiah saw this, he said,
Where is me? Isaiah said, I'm undone. I've
seen the Lord, the Holy Lord, and I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. No man can see God and live.
Where was me? I'm undone. And Isaiah went on
to say, I dwell in the midst of the people. And we've got, we can't just
approach God any old way. Right? He's too holy, and we're
sinners. OK? And it says in another place
in Isaiah, he said that all of our righteousnesses are filthy
rags. Even the best deeds that we have
done before God are filthy rags. God can't accept them. God can't
accept them. They're filthy rags. We're under
the condemnation and the wrath of God. And we're in darkness. But it says in another place
over in Isaiah, chapter 9, it says this, chapter 9, that a
certain people, verse 2, chapter 9, the people that walked in
darkness has seen a great light. You see, God is light, the scripture
said. And God became a man. This light shone in darkness. This light was manifest in this
world. And Isaiah wrote about that,
too. He said over in chapter 9, he said, Under us a child
is born, a son is given. He said in chapter 7, he said,
Behold, I'll give you a sign. A virgin shall conceive, and
the fruit of her womb shall come forth. He who you call shall
call Emmanuel. God with us. You see, God came
down here, ladies, to reveal himself to us. You can't know
God unless God reveals himself to you. And he came down here
to show himself to us, to reveal himself to us, and we beheld
his glory. Me and some other men, we beheld
his glory. We touched him, we handled him,
we walked with him for days on end. Have you heard of it? You
remember hearing about a man named Jesus from Nazareth, the
carpenter's son? That's the Christ. That was God
manifesting. That was no mere mortal man,
ladies, man. That was God manifesting the
flesh. That was God who is light. Oh,
the reason nobody recognized him, because he had that light
veil he had on a human body. But that was God. That was God. Somebody may have asked them,
well, why? Why did he come? Good question. Good question. Why did he come?
Well, like I said, he came down here to reveal the Father unto
us, but he also came to do something for us, to do something for us
that we can't do for ourselves. Isaiah said this over in chapter
45. Look over there, chapter 45 of
Isaiah. Isaiah said this over here. Do you ever remember hearing
Moses say that he will by no means clear the guilty? Do you
remember Moses saying that in the law? Surely you've heard
that read in the synagogue, that God will by no means clear the
guilty. Well, that's us. Why will God not clear the guilty
by no means? Why can't he just up and say,
I forgive you? Forget it. Why? He's a just God. He's a just God, and it says
that in Isaiah. He said, there's no God else
beside me, a just God. He doesn't stop there. He said,
and a Savior. But something's got to be done
about his justice. He said, God's justice, something's got to be
done, a just God and a Savior. And you know, he said here in
Isaiah 2, he said, surely one will say that in the Lord have
I righteousness. Y'all know what that's talking
about? Righteousness. You ever heard
the term righteousness? I know you've heard the Pharisees
talk about righteousness. Now, you must have a righteousness
before God, or I just told you that all our righteousness is
filthy rag. God can't accept them. It won't
do. It shall be perfect. Moses said
on Leviticus, it shall be perfect to be accepted. You've got to
have a perfect righteousness before God. Your righteousness
is filthy ragged. It's full of a sinful motive
and sinful thoughts and so forth. It's got to be perfect before
God sees on the heart. God looks on the thoughts. God
looks at the motive, most of all. And no man, no woman has
a pure, sinless motive. Right? You all feel that way? Well, you've got to be perfectly
righteous as God. He said, I'm holy, be ye holy.
Right? How are we going to be holy?
Surely, shall one say, in the Lord have our righteousness and
strength. You ladies ever remember hearing
a name spoken by Jeremiah, Jehovah Sidkenhood? It means the Lord,
our righteousness. Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth,
the Christ, the long-awaited Messiah, come from God, is the
Lord, our righteousness. Jehovah, said Kenneth. He came
down here to live a holy life that God would accept, and he
did. God said it twice from heaven.
We heard it. We heard it. God said, That's my son, in whom
I'm well pleased. God said it twice. Everybody
else thought it thundered. Now it's the voice of God. He
said, That's my son, I'm well pleased in him. A man approved
of God. God said, I'll accept this man
on the basis of what he's done. People, ladies, that's the only
way we're going to be accepted by God, in God's beloved Son. You see that? You understand
that? Maybe all of them weren't. There's one little lady over
there I understand now. She started nodding her head. I've read that. I see that. She heard the things
that Paul was saying. And then Paul said, but wait
a minute. Like I said, God's a just God.
And he's a Savior. God will by no means clear the
guilty. Something's got to be done about our sin. They have
to be paid. He said, do you remember reading
in the book of Moses where the soul that sith must surely die
without the shedding of blood? There's no remission of sin.
You know all those lambs and goats and bullocks and turtle
doves that they've been shedding the blood of, and they're still
shedding the blood? What's all that about, huh? Will
God accept the blood of bulls and goats and lambs and so forth
for a man? No, that won't do it. That won't
do it. Behold the Lamb of God. God's
Lamb. God sent his Son down. And that's
what Isaiah wrote about that, too, over in chapter 53. He wrote
about God's Lamb that came down here. Look at it. He wrote about
God's Lamb. Who hath believed our report?
Are you all believing this? Who hath believed? To whom is
the arm of the Lord revealed? I hope the Lord is revealing
this to some of you, just one of you. It's opening your heart
to this message. He shall grow up before God as
a tender plant." That's Christ. He was a babe. I just quoted
to you from Isaiah 7, it says that a child is born, Isaiah
9, and a virgin shall conceive. He grew up as a young boy, as
a root out of dry ground. He was born over there in Bethlehem,
of all places. That's what the scripture prophesied,
that Christ would come from Bethlehem. He grew up over there. He hath
no form nor comeliness. And when we shall see him, there's
no beauty that we should desire him, the reason that nobody believed
in him, because they were looking for Christ to come into town
on a white horse and deliver them from Roman captivity. That's
the Messiah that the Jews were looking for. Could be you're
looking for him. But he didn't come like that. Why? Because Scripture didn't say
he would. Scripture said, Behold, thy king
cometh, he's lowly, he's meek and lowly, riding on the colt,
the foal of an ass. That's safe for Scripture. He'll
come into town on a donkey, meek and lowly. And there's no beauty
or comeliness about him that we should desire. Why? Because
he looks like an ordinary man. Because the kingdom of God doesn't
come with observation. It's revelation. It's within. And time fails me to tell you
about the tabernacle in the wilderness. The reason this man looked plain
on the outside, because that tabernacle was a picture of him.
That tabernacle, plain on the outside, but golden on the inside. And he was despised and rejected
of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we
hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised, and we
esteemed him not. Everybody turned thumbs down
on this man. Everybody rejected him. Everybody. Why? He says, "...surely he hath
borne our griefs." Yet we did esteem him stricken and splitten
of God, and afflicted." They said that when he was hanging,
you remember that this Jesus was crucified, hanging on a cross,
and many of his enemies were standing there below that cross,
and they said unto him, Yeah, he's getting what he deserved
now. No, he wasn't. They thought God was doing this
to him because he was such a great sinner. No, he wasn't. He's holy. What was he doing there? Why
was he hanging there? He's borne our griefs, carried
our sorrows. He's taken our place. He's taken
the place of his people. He's taken their sins on him.
He was being made sin for us. We knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. He was wounded for
our transgressions. He came on the cross for me,
and if you believe, for you. He was wounded for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquities. This is what we deserve at the
hand of Almighty God. The soul that sins must surely
die. We deserve to die. Without the shedding of blood
there is no remission of sin. We deserve to have our blood
shed, and even that won't suffice to pay for our sin. That's what
hell is all about, an eternity of suffering for sin. That's
what Christ suffered on the cross, the equivalent of an eternity
of hell for his people, the chastisement of our peace. The only thing
that would satisfy an angry God was blood. The thing necessary
to obtain peace through the Holy God for us, he did it. He was chastised, whipped, bruised,
killed. See, all we like sheep have gone
astray. We've turned everyone to his own way. The Lord hath
laid on him," didn't they, Quetel de Sauve? And he was oppressed
and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth, because
he was taking our place. He didn't say a word when he
was going through all this. Why? He was being a substitute
for his people. He could have. He could have
said, I'm not taking this anymore. But he didn't. Why? He had some
people's names on his heart, just like the high priest of
old wore those names on his breastplate. Our great high priest had names
on his heart, and he was dying in their stead. He was dying
in their stead. That's a name. Could be one of
you. Could have been one of your names. I don't know. Could be. But you know, men thought that
they cured it. It pleased the Lord to bruise him. It pleased
the Lord to bruise him. God made his soul an offering
for sin. The soul that sinneth must surely
die. God made his son's soul an offering for sin for old sinners. But he didn't stay dead. He didn't
stay dead. Huh? Remember that high priest
would go into the Holy of Holies, had bells on his garment? Huh? And the people waited outside
to see if he would accept the sacrifice. Do you all remember
that? Well, they didn't know until he opened that veil and
came outside with a smile on his face. He's accepted it. Well,
this man went into the grave, the Holy of Holies, with his
own precious blood, having obtained eternal redemption for us. He
walked out three days later with a smile on his face and a new
visage. and we beheld his glory. And
he said, God accepted the sacrifice of all my people. He said, It's finished. Their
sins are paid for. It's finished. Now, I say to you all, if you
feel like you're a sinner in need of God's mercy, and you're You feel like a root
out of dry ground, living in a dry and a thirsty place where
no water is. Are you thirsty? Huh? For mercy? Thirsty for God's grace, God's
love? Hmm? Forgiveness of sin? You
need this? Huh? Isaiah said this. He said,
Ho, everyone that thirsteth. Everybody that thirsteth, come.
You over there, what's your name? Lydia? What do you do, Lydia? Sell cloth? He said, come and
buy and eat. Buy wine and milk without money,
without price. He said, buy the truth and sell
it not. Anybody? Anybody need Christ?
Anybody need this Messiah here? Any of you ladies? I hope so. And our text says, in a certain
woman, a certain woman, heard us, whose heart the Lord opened,
and she attended unto the things that were spoken of." Paul, you
say, how do you know Paul did that? He preached the gospel. Every time he stood up, I couldn't
preach it, and you can't go anywhere better than Isaiah, can you? 53. He preached the gospel, and
the Lord opened her heart. to the things that Paul spoke
and what she did. She was baptized immediately.
She was baptized. Look at verse 15. It says, And
when she was baptized in her household, evidently she had
her children and her servants and everybody down there by the
river on the Sabbath. It was prayer meeting. And they
heard it, too. And evidently the Lord opened
their heart, too. And they were baptized, too.
And she was baptized, and her household confessed Christ. Paul
told them about baptism, didn't he? Had to. He said, this is
how you confess Christ. It's like he was dead, and we
were crucified with Christ, buried with him in baptism, and rise
to walk in newness of life, confessing him before the world. And so
she did, and her household. And look at her reaction. She
immediately fell in love with this man. Oh, she fell in love
with Christ first. She loved Christ now for taking
away her sin, John. But she loved this messenger
that brought this message, didn't she? Paul and Silas. And she said, she besought us,
saying, please, if you judge me, If you judge me faithful
or worthy or among the faithful to the Lord, among the disciples,
would you come over to my house? It's not much. I don't have a
lot, but I'd sure like to have you. I'd like to hear a lot.
I'd like to hear some more about what you're talking about. Would you
come over?" Well, Paul said, no, we really don't want to impose
one, and she constrained us. Please, please, we want to talk
some more about this. We want to talk to him." So Paul
did, didn't he? He went over there, and this
woman became a choice disciple. A choice disciple, and her home
became a refuge. You're going to see, after Paul
and Silas got out of jail, they went straight to Lydia's She
must have been fairly well off, Barbara. She might have had a
condominium made in Philippi. Seriously, she had a house there.
She lived in Phi Theta. She may have had a distribution
place, an outlet store. It wasn't T.J. Mack. It was Lydia's. Lydia's place. Lydia's purple
shop. And, oh, she had a house there.
And Paul, when they got out of jail, that's straight where they
headed, over Lydia's house. They knew they could find shelter
there. And so there's a woman that opened
her house to her. And she became a choice disciple. And the Lord, through this one
little woman, stranger, out of town on business, brought her
a long way to hear the gospel, opened her heart. and started
the Church of Philippi through that. That's how he does things,
isn't it? That's how the Spirit of God moves. God gets all the
glory for this, doesn't he? All the glory. OK, stand with
me. Lord, we thank you for this glorious
message. Thank you for your word and the
gospel. Forgive our feeble attempts at
trying to expound upon it and proclaim it, but it's your word
and perhaps you can take a word and apply it and open someone's
heart through it and bless somebody here in spite of the vessel,
earthen vessel. Thank you, Lord, for the way
you do things. Thank you for your divine providence,
your sovereignty. We give you all the praise, honor,
and glory for everything, all strength and honor and glory.
Everything belongs unto thee. You do all things, and you do
them well. I pray that you might lead us by your Spirit and enable
us to see his leadership and walk in it and be faithful to
him. Make us all faithful it is, Lord, and faithful in a few
things. In Christ's blessed name, we
are met together. Amen.