In Revelation 5, John said, I'll
be a hill. I heard the voice of many angels
round about the throne and the beasts and the elders, and the
number of them was 10,000 times 10,000. Thousands of thousands,
and here's what they were saying with a loud voice. Worthy, worthy
is the lamb that was slain to receive power, riches, wisdom,
strength, honor, glory, and blessing. That song that she sang is right
out of the scriptures. It sure blessed me, because I
sure want to worship the Lamb of God, don't you? I have no
other hope but the Lamb who was Crucified for me. He's all my
hope and I say He's worthy. He's worthy of all adoration. He's worthy of all worship. Thank
you for this song. Such a blessing to me and a blessing
to all of us. If you would go with me to the
book of Acts, please, Acts chapter 16. Acts chapter 16. At this phase of the ministry
of the Apostle Paul, he and his co-worker Barnabas, they've just
got back from their first missionary journey. come back to the church at Antioch. In fact, if you want to look
back to chapter 13, just briefly, I'll show you there. This is
the church that sent them out on the missionary journeys. Acts
13 verse 1, Now there were in the church that was at Antioch
certain prophets and teachers, Barnabas and Simeon called Niger,
and Lucius of Cyrene, and Mannanion, which had been brought up with
Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. And as they ministered to the
Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, separate me Barnabas and
Saul. We know him also, of course,
as Paul. Separate me these two men for
the work, whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted
and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them and
they sent them away. And thus is the beginning of
their first missionary journey. Now, don't do it now, but sometime
you can turn to the back of your Bible. Most Bibles have the maps
in the back, and they also have the journeys, the three journeys
of the Apostle Paul noted on those maps. You can look at how
many, many, many miles that these men covered in preaching the
gospel of our Lord Jesus. When we get then to the end of
chapter 15, these men come back to the church at Antioch to,
as it were, give a report of the things that God had done.
In fact, look at chapter 15, if you would, And let's go to 35. Paul, also in Barnabas, continued
in Antioch. Verse 30 says, they came to Antioch. Verse 35 says, they continued
in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord with many
others also. And then verse 36, after some
days, Paul said to Barnabas, let's go again. Let's go again. was an arduous trip, a difficult
trip, but it was a glorious trip, blessed of God, because these
men, Paul and Barnabas, went forth preaching Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. And God blessed, and many churches
were established as a result of their labors, their faithful
labors in the Gospel. And now they've come right back
to the church at Antioch, and as it were, given a report, of
how their ministry went and the blessings of God, the evident
blessings of God upon their preaching. And now here's the apostle and
he says, let's go again. Well, right at that point, Barnabas
said, well, this time let's take John Mark with us. And for whatever
reason, the apostle Paul was very much against that. And we
don't know exactly the reason why the apostle was against John
Mark going with them. It may have been that Barnabas
picked John Mark to sort of irritate Paul or maybe get back at Paul
because if you will remember, those of you who have studied
in Galatians, the second chapter, it was in Antioch that the apostle
Paul he withstood Simon Peter to his face because Peter was
eating with the Gentiles and when the Jews came in and Simon
Peter got up, he excused himself from the table of the Gentiles
where they felt like they could eat anything they wanted to because
they weren't under any dietary restrictions, they weren't under
the law of Moses, and he got up, Peter got up from the Gentiles,
and he went over and he sided with the Jews, and many of the
Jews, they were still under the law, they were still considering
the dietary laws, and making it to appear that Simon Peter
made it to appear, he's siding with men who believed in salvation,
justification by works. And the Apostle Paul wouldn't
have anything of that and he confronted Simon Peter to his
face. He didn't pull him aside and
say, let me talk to you brother about what you've done here and
all of the implications of that. He confronted him face to face
because the issue was, is salvation by the grace of God through the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ or is it something men
do to merit righteousness from God? And here's what the scripture
says. There were several people there
who were affected by what Simon Peter did, but guess who was
there? Barnabas. He was there. And you know, when Simon Peter
got up and moved away from the Gentiles, so did Barnabas. And it may be that that's still
kind of sticking in his crawl, as we might would say. But whatever
the reason, Whatever the reason, the Apostle Paul said to Barnabas,
John Mark is not going with us. Now to be sure that we understand
this, John Mark loved the Gospel. And John Mark would be used of
God the Spirit to write the second of the Gospels of the New Testament,
Matthew Mark. Mark is written by John Mark.
So he was a faithful minister of the Gospel. He loved the Lord,
but for whatever reason, the Apostle Paul said, no, he's not
going to go with me. And Barnabas said, in essence,
and it was decided, hey, if he doesn't go, I don't go. And Paul
said, that's fine with me. And they had a division. Isn't
it an unfortunate thing that in the community of grace, among
the people of God, there are divisions that happen and people
separate. It's a sad thing when that happens.
But these were men who loved the gospel. These were men who
loved the message of grace. These were men who believed in
salvation in Jesus Christ alone. Men who believed without the
shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins. And they believed
the same gospel, they preached the same things, but there's
a division and it got so bad that they just decided to each
go their own ways. And so Barnabas and John Mark,
they go off on their own missionary journey. And they're preaching
the gospel, and the apostle Paul, he says, well, I'll tell you
who I'm going to take with me. I'll take Silas with me. And so, you
have instead of one group going out, you have two men going out. You've got two men going this
way and two men going that way. And the purpose of God is served
even in the weaknesses of men and the feebleness of men. And
God has more messengers to go forth preaching the gospel of
His grace. Now, after Paul and Silas left
Antioch, they go a little further, and then they pick up another
preacher. He's a young preacher. Boy, he loves the gospel, though.
His name is Timothy. And that's the beginning of chapter
16. Then came he, that is Paul, with
Silas, of course, to Derbe and Lystra. And behold, a certain
disciple was there named Timothy, Timotheus. He's the son of a
certain woman which was a Jewish and believed, but his father
was a Greek. He was well reported of by the
brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium. And so he goes with
Paul and Silas on their second missionary journey. These men
go out. Now, let me give you three things
in this message. The name of the message, the tie of the message
is God's time is the right time. God's time is the right time. That's the reason I had him read
that passage from Ecclesiastes. A time to every season. God's
time in everything, in everything is the right time. Now here's
the first thing I want to show you, number one. God sent forth
His servants to preach the Gospel. Let me say this to you. The most
vital words that you'll ever hear spoken are the words of
the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. There are many, many,
many worthwhile things that you will hear over the course of
your life. secular information, secular words, secular messages,
secular information that will be beneficial to you in your
journey through life. But there's a far greater and
more vital message than any secular message. It's the message of
God. There is no message more necessary for you to hear than
the gospel of God's grace in Christ Jesus. What is the gospel? It's good news. It's not good
advice. It's not a good opinion. It's
not merely good instruction. It's good news of a work that's
finished. You see, our Lord Jesus, He came
into this world and He often spoke of this to do a work. He
will say in John chapter 17, which we'll get to this coming
Wednesday, He will say, I have finished the work you gave me
to do. The disciples, one time, our
Lord was occupied in talking to a woman. They went to get
Him some lunch. And they came back with the lunch,
and they said, here, Master, here's some food. He said, I
have meat to eat that you don't know about. There's something
that nourishes me, there's something that satisfies me, and it's to
do the work, to finish the work the Father gave me to do. And
the Gospel is this, the work has been finished. The work has
been accomplished. Jesus Christ, who is the Son
of God, He has lived, He has died, He has satisfied God, He
has put away all the sins of His people, He has reconciled
us to God, He has brought in for us, He has established for
us perfect righteousness. That's good news. The good news
is everything is finished. Redemption is finished. Reconciliation
is finished. That salvation is finished in
its legal aspect, and it's finished to God's satisfaction. And we
know that happened because God raised Him from the dead. Our
Lord Jesus suffered, He bled, and He died. Well, where's the
good news in that? Here's the good news. The Bible
says the soul that sinneth shall die. Death is God's penalty for
sin. Well, that penalty has been paid. It has been experienced for all
of God's people, for all of His sheep, it's been experienced
by the Lord Jesus Himself. He died under the wrath of God. He was Himself condemned for
us. As Brother Bill preached last
Sunday morning from Romans chapter 1, there is therefore now no
condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. There is no
judgment because the judgment was at the cross. There is no
wrath for us. There is no penalty of sin for
us who believe Him. The penalty has already been
borne by our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the Gospel. And this
Gospel, God sends forth His servants to preach it. He sends them forth
to preach it. You remember our Lord Jesus in
His famous Sermon on the Mount. He said, I didn't come to destroy
the law. or the prophets. I didn't come
to destroy. He said, I've come to fulfill.
I've come to fulfill all the types and pictures of Messiah. I've come to fulfill what all
of those Old Testament offerings only pictured. They couldn't
put away sin. You read in Hebrews chapter 10,
the blood of bulls and goats could never put away sin. But
this man, this man, he did put away all of the sins of his people
by the sacrifice of himself. That's good news. It's good news
for anybody who's been made to know they're a sinner. And as
the hymn writer said, a sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Spirit
has made him so. If you have been made aware you're
a sinner, you're alienated from God. You're estranged from God. You're cut off from God. If you've
been made to know that, you're blessed indeed. Because most
people think they're good. You're not good. I'm not good. The Bible says there's none good. No, not one. And the good news
is that a Savior has come. And He has made provision for
all of those in whose stead He died. He has for them put away
all their transgressions. Everybody who believes Him, listen,
everybody who looks to Him, everybody who embraces Him, they can rejoice
in the good news that all of their sins, which were many,
were all put away 2,000 years ago. That's good news. And our
God sends forth these men, here goes Paul and Silas, and also
Barnabas and John Mark. And these two groups, these two
men, four men, divided into two groups, they go forth preaching
the gospel of God's grace. That's what God sent His servants
to do. In the book of Mark, our Lord
Jesus gives this commission to His disciples, Go ye into all
the world and preach the gospel. Don't preach your ideas. Don't
preach your thoughts. Don't preach your denomination.
Don't preach your church. Don't preach yourself. Preach
the gospel. Preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified
because that message is mighty powerful. That's why Paul said
in Romans chapter 1, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth,
to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for therein, in this
gospel, is the righteousness of God revealed. Just preach
the message. That's what we're commanded to
do. I'm not here to twist your arm. I'm not here to beg you
to come down to the front and make some kind of decision. My
responsibility is to set forth as clearly as I can do it the
good news of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's my responsibility
and that's what these men were sent forth to do. They go out
to preach the gospel. They go out to tell people about
Christ Jesus. And I say to all of us here this
morning, cease endeavoring to establish your own righteousness. Your own righteousness just will
not do. Because all of our righteousness
is as filthy rags and the standard of judgment is perfect righteousness. And the only righteousness that
will avail before a holy God is a righteousness established
by Jesus Christ, His Son. That's where it's to be found. That's why the Bible says He's
the Lord, our righteousness. I have a righteousness that God
Himself approves of. And my righteousness is seated
at the right hand of God on high. And I'm delighted to tell you
the good news this morning. Look and live. Look to the Savior
and live. The Israelites bitten by the
fiery serpents and God told Moses put up a serpent of brass and
tell everybody who's been bitten they got the poison of the snakes,
the poison is in their veins. Everybody who's been bitten,
look, look to the brazen serpent. Believe my word. If you look,
you'll live. And that's a picture of our Savior
and our Lord Jesus told Nicodemus in John chapter 3, as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up, that whosoever believeth on him shall not perish but have
eternal life. I'm telling you, He's been lifted
up. And if you look, if you look from your heart, if you embrace
Him, if you fall in love with Him, if you believe Him, if you
trust Him, if you commit yourself to Him, you can rest assured
of this. When He died, He put your sins
away. And the reason you believe, the
reason you cry out to Him is because the Spirit of God has
done a mighty work within your heart. I'm telling you, God sends
forth His servants to preach the gospel. It's like the Lord Jesus said
to His disciples there in John chapter 21. They were hungry
and He said to them, come and dine. All things are ready. Oh, He had broiled some fish.
He had everything prepared. And I'm telling you, this gospel
All things are ready, come and dine. Are you thirsty? Blessed
are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. They shall
be filled. Do you hunger for righteousness? Come and dine. Do you thirst
for the water of life? Come and drink. He's the water
of life. All the gospel is the message
of good news and it's got to be preached. Here's the second
thing. God sent forth His servants to preach the gospel where He
has determined that gospel will be preached. Now watch this. Look, let's drop down to verse
6. For the sake of time, Acts 16
verse 6. Now when they had gone, this
is, of course, Paul and Silas and Timothy. And when they had
gone throughout Phrygia, And the region of Galatia, and we
know there's a church that's going to be established there,
they were forbidden, very strong word, prevented, denied, restrained. They were forbidden of the Holy
Ghost to preach the Word in Asia. Don't preach the Gospel in Asia. But wait, if the Gospel isn't
preached, How is anybody going to be saved? If the Gospel isn't
set forth, how is anybody going to come to know the living God? Oh, these men, they went out
declaring the good news of redemption and salvation in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and here they desire to go, especially the Apostle
Paul. He desires to go into Asia and
preach the Word, and the Spirit of God says, no. No. This is a very clear and unmistakable
example of God preventing His gospel from going to certain
areas. It's an obvious demonstration
of the sovereign distinguishing grace of God. What happens if
there's no gospel? Men remain in darkness. Women
remain in darkness. Children remain in darkness where
there is no gospel because it's the gospel light. And people
remain dead in their trespasses and sins because this gospel,
there is power in this gospel to quicken and regenerate. But
if there is no gospel being preached, there will be no life. There
will be no salvation. there will be no hope. Because
you see, if the gospel isn't proclaimed, men will be left
to their own wills, to their own ways, to their own works,
to their own self-righteousness, and they will never discover
God's way of salvation by grace through Christ Jesus. You see, God sent forth His gospel
where he will. And he forbids the gospel from
going to the places where he doesn't want it to go. You see,
think of the gospel blessings. Think of the message of good
news as being likened unto rain. The rain that falls from the
sky. In fact, God said just that in Deuteronomy chapter 32. He
said, my doctrine shall fall like rain. We're beginning to
get into that season of the year when gardens are going to be
planted. Some of you already got tomatoes
out and whatever. What if there's no rain? What
if God wasn't pleased to send any rain? Your gardens would
be in trouble. You say, well, I can irrigate. What if He just held back the
rain for three years? like you did in Elijah's day.
And we experienced a severe famine. No rain means no crops. No rain
means people hunger, people thirst, people die. You got to have rain. And the Gospel is like the rain.
It's spiritual rain that softens. The mercies of God come forth
through this glorious message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. But if God's not pleased to send
it, there won't be any fruit. There's a verse of Scripture.
Look with me in Amos. Look in Amos chapter 4. Find
the book of Daniel. Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos. Amos chapter 4. Amos chapter 4. If you find Daniel,
the next one is Hosea, and then Joel, and then Amos. Amos chapter 4. And let me show
you a verse here, verse seven. Amos chapter four and verse seven.
God says to Israel, and also I have withholden the rain from
you when there were yet three months to the harvest. Now watch
it. And I caused it to rain upon
one city and I caused it not to rain upon another city. One peace was reigned upon, and
the peace whereupon it reigned not with Him. Who sent the rain? God did. Who withheld the rain? God did. Job calls rain the bottles
of heaven. The bottles of heaven, Job chapter
38, verses 37 and 38 says that. The bottles of heaven, that's
what rain is. It comes forth from the bottles
of heaven. But if God stops the bottles,
there's no life. And if he stops his doctrine
from going forth, if he stops his gospel from going forth, there's no hope for anyone. No
hope at all. Go back to our text in Acts chapter
16 there. So here, the Lord, He sends forth
His messengers with the gospel, but He says to them, don't go
into Asia. But wait a minute, He's not even
finished here. Now look at verse 7, back to Acts chapter 16. In
verse 6, He says, don't go into Asia. But Lord, if we don't preach
the gospel to them, they're gonna perish. I said, don't go into
Asia. He sends his gospel where he
will. Now verse seven, and after they were come to Mysia, they
say they attempted to go into Bithynia. But the Spirit of God
suffered them not. The Spirit of God would not permit
them to go. He would not let them go into
Bithynia. Can't go there either. Another
closed door. Well, so what do we do? Verse 8 says, and they passing
by Mysia, since the Lord said you can't go to Mysia, they came
down to Troas, which is about a hundred miles journey by ship. Now, what is on the mind of the
Apostle Paul? Preaching the Gospel. Being a
missionary. He eats, sleeps, drinks. This is what's always on his
mind, preaching the gospel, as it is virtually for all of God's
preachers. And you know often that which
is on your mind so much when you're awake, when you're conscious,
will also be on your mind when you're unconscious. Isn't that
right? So verse 9. And a vision appeared
to Paul in the night. He even dreamed about this. There stood a man of Macedonia
and prayed to him, begged him, pleaded with him saying, come
over into Macedonia and help us. And after he had seen the vision,
immediately we endeavored to go. And by the way, Luke has
now joined them. Paul, Silas, Timothy, Luke. Four men. Four men. We endeavored
to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called
us for to preach the gospel unto them. We couldn't go preach the
gospel in Asia. This other area where we wanted
to go, we couldn't go preach the gospel there. But now, the
Lord has spoken to me, Paul says, in essence, through this vision
by a man of Macedonia, a man in Europe who said, Help us! Help! I tell you, as a preacher
of the gospel, and every preacher of the gospel would be, Very
thankful to have someone say to them, help me! Would you help
me? Would you tell me the truth?
I'm going on into eternity and I don't know God and I don't
know Christ Jesus. Would you help me? Boy, I tell
you, I'd be glad to. I'd be glad to tell you the gospel.
I can't save you. I can't quicken you, but I'd
be glad to tell you the truth. So verse 11, therefore loosing
from Troas, That is, they boarded on ship again. We came with a
straight course to Samothracia, and the next day to Neapolis. From thence we came to Philippi,
which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia in a colony. And we were in that city abiding
certain days. Now here God sent forth His gospel
where He wills, and He sends it exactly the right time. Here's the third thing. He sends
it exactly at the right time. They got to Philippi, a bustling
city, a lot of activity. And no door was open for them
to preach. So they were there for several
days. And on the Sabbath day, verse
13, we went out of the city. Wasn't anywhere in the city available
for us to preach. So we went out for a walk out
of the city, and we were walking by Riverside. And lo and behold,
there was a prayer meeting being held. And we sat down, and we
spake unto the women which resorted thither. And there was a certain
woman there, and her name was Lydia. She was a seller of purple,
that is, garments that had been dyed purple. And she was of the
city of a long ways away, Thyatira. But she came to Philippi to do
business. And she is here at exactly the
right time. She's come a long ways. What
are the odds of the servants of God being
in Philippi at this particular time, at this particular location
by a riverside when Lydia is meeting with these other women
and she's just there for a very short time. She's a businesswoman.
And she's come a long ways from Thyatira to Philippi to sell
her goods. And no doubt she's preparing
to go back, and she finds out there's going to be a religious
service down by the river, be a few women meeting together.
You want to join with us? And she said, yeah, I'll join
with you. And there she sits with them, and along comes three
preachers. And not just any three preachers.
These are three men who preach the gospel. Here's the Apostle
Paul. Here's the preacher Timothy.
Here's another preacher Luke, the physician. And they see these
women. And they sit down with them.
And they began to minister, especially the Apostle Paul begins to minister
to them about the gospel of our Lord Jesus. And something happens. See, Lydia is one of the Lords.
She's always been His. And I'll tell you what, the Lord
will move heaven and earth to get His gospel to the right person
at exactly the right time. And she's sitting there and she
listens. And all of a sudden, the Spirit
of God opens up her heart It says, these ladies worshiped
God. They walked in the light God
gave them. And He gave more light. And they heard. And of Lydia,
whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended, she gave heed
unto the things which were spoken of the apostle Paul. In other
words, she believed the gospel. She believed the gospel. Perfect
timing. God's time is always the right
time. Our Lord Jesus, His incarnation, says, when the fullness of the
time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made
under the law to redeem them. They were under the law. The
Savior's sacrifice in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. The time of conversion of sinners. Ezekiel chapter 16, the Lord
said, I pass by you is the time of love. The time of love. And the time of troubles for
His people. Those are in the hands of God
too. That's why we're commanded in Hebrews chapter 4, come boldly
to the throne of grace and find grace to help in the time of
need. This is an example of perfect
timing. Perfect timing. And you know
what? Your presence in here this morning,
perfect timing. It is. It's perfect timing. God
timed this out. That you would be here and I
would be here. And that you would hear the Gospel.
May this be the time of love the time of grace, the time of
sovereign mercy, the time when the message of the gospel of
our Lord Jesus Christ finds its way into your heart. Oh, that God would open your
heart so that you will attend to the things that are spoken. I bid you come to Christ Jesus,
the only Savior of sinners. Let's sing a hymn.