Turn back to Acts chapter 21. Acts chapter 21. I titled the message, The Will of the Lord Be Done. That's a powerful statement. When I was a young believer about
30 years ago, I didn't give a whole lot of thought
to saying that. I said it because the Bible says it. We say a lot
of things because the Bible says it. And then we grow up. Then
we start understanding what we are saying. Just like these young
children. They learn to talk at such a
young age. Really, they don't know a whole lot about what they're
saying, do they? Then they grow up. Now when I say it, I think
about it. I give some thought to it. Because you really, in saying
this, and I ask myself these things sometimes when I pray. And I say, Lord, Thy will be
done. Do I really mean it? Do I really mean it? And am I really willing to submit
to the Lord's will in the matter?
Because it will be against the flesh every time. I guarantee
you. Every time. I can feel myself. I'll talk about myself here.
I can feel myself sometimes kind of wench a little bit. And you
know why? It's that flesh. It's that flesh
because I know what I want. I know what I want. But the Lord's will is what we
want. That's what's good and wise. And that's what we need. And in these verses, I looked
at this for a while to find a message. There's a message in every verse.
You just have to find it. The Lord has to reveal it. The
Lord has to reveal it. And I looked at these verses,
and I looked at that statement that stood out to me, the will
of the Lord be done. And I looked as I read it over
and over again, how that the Lord tried Paul's faith here. And the conclusion was this,
the will of the Lord be done in this matter. Paul leaves the elders from Ephesus
over in chapter 20. He met with them in Miletus.
He told them he would not be back. They would not see his
face again. He told them that he had kept back nothing that
was profitable to them. He preached everything Christ
revealed to him. And he received the gospel directly
from the Lord Jesus Christ. And everything that was revealed
to him He gave to the people. He gave to the church. He never
held back anything, knowing that everywhere he went, he was going
to be in trouble by unbelievers. They were going to cause a lot
of trouble. He preached repentance toward God and faith toward the
Lord Jesus Christ everywhere he went. And he said, I have not shunned
to declare unto you all the counsel of God, all that I know. I've
declared it to you." And he told them to take heed therefore unto
themselves and to the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made
you overseers to feed the church of God which he hath purchased
with his own blood. And he said to them, you're going
to see my face no more. And then we come here to chapter
21. He leaves these elders. And he goes to these different
places. And he ends up in Caesarea. And
he enters into the house of Philip the Evangelist. This is the same
Philip that preached to the eunuch. And while there, there was a
prophet named Agabus who came down from Judea and told Paul
that he was going to be bound in Jerusalem. If you'll look
back over in verse 4, the disciples in Tyre, it says there in verse
4, and finding disciples, we tarried there seven days. And
he preached to them and taught them the gospel. And they said
to Paul through the Spirit that he should not go up to Jerusalem.
Paul, don't go up there. Don't go up there. Trouble is
waiting for you. You're going to be in trouble
if you go up there. And then Agabus comes down from Judea.
And he says, he takes this girdle from Paul and he binds himself. And he says, the man who owns
this is going to be bound in Jerusalem just like this. What's going on? What's going
on? God is trying Paul's faith. That's
what he's doing. I was trying to find it. I wish
I'd have thought of it sooner, but I was reading in Kings, in
the book of Kings. where a young prophet was sent
with a message to deliver. And he delivered the message. And he was told not to deviate. He was told, you go there, you
deliver, you come straight back. You don't turn to the left or
the right. On his way back, he was met by an older prophet.
And the older prophet said, come over and stay with me. He said,
no, I can't. I'm not supposed to. I'm supposed
to come straight back. He said, oh, that's okay. To make a long
story short, he goes and stays with him. Spends the night. Gets up the next morning and
leaves to go back and meet the lion. And the lion kills him.
And you land there in the road and the old prophet goes and
gets him and brings him back and they bury him. God killed
him because God said, this is where you go, this is what you
do, and you don't deviate from it. And he did. Even though an
old prophet I read that story. I have to tell you, I read the
story and I thought, now, I would have done that. I thought, oh,
I read that story and I had to scratch my head a little bit
on that one. So I thought, this is another old prophet who came
to him, an older one, and said, no, you come over here. You come
over here and spend the night. It will be alright. And he did
and God killed him. God reveals His will. to
any one of his children, this is the thing to do, you do it.
You do it. And this is what's going on here.
Paul's faith is being tried. The people begged Paul not to
go to Jerusalem. But Paul knew whom he had believed. And he was persuaded. He was
able to keep that which he had committed unto Him against that
day. Paul knew that in the end it
would be alright. It might be tough along the way.
We're going to lose some things along the way. Some things we
ought to lose. We won't lose anything but what we ought to
lose. But the end's going to be good. It's going to be good. Faith is the total surrender
It is a total surrender of one's life to the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is not part of my
life. He's not the religious part of
my life. He is my life. He is the life
of every believer, and He is the Lord and Master of our life. We have a Lord and Master to
follow, to submit to, And faith is the total surrender of one's
life to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is to trust Him completely
for everything. All things. Things we can't see.
We can't see anything. I realize this as I get older.
I can't see past the next minute. I can't see past the next second.
I can't do it. But He can. We trust Him for
it. It is inconsistent with faith to trust Christ as the way, the
way of salvation, the way of redemption, the way of forgiveness,
the way of acceptance, and not trust Him for everything along
the way. Take care of it. These men, they
had good intentions. If you knew someone was going
to meet a lot of trouble, we would be saying, don't go up
there. We better not go fly over to Iraq. You know, you better
not go there. No, if the Lord made it very
clear, you've got to go. You've got to do what He revealed. True faith keeps back nothing.
It surrenders all to Him. And true faith is a true and
loving commitment to Christ. I don't know that we've ever
lived in a day of lack of commitment. I mean,
it's just hard to find anybody that's truly committed to what
they're doing or even to what they believe. It's hard to find
that. But a true faith that's of God
is truly committed to the Lord Jesus Christ. Committed to Him. As Lord and Master of all. And
we present ourselves as a living sacrifice. You know, and as Paul
said, that's just your reasonable service. That's not asking too
much. It's not asking too much for me to sacrifice anything
I have to Him who gave Himself as a sacrifice
for me, for my sins. So it says over in Romans 12,
verses 1 and 2, present your bodies as a living sacrifice. And note what Paul says here
in Acts 21, 13. Then Paul answered, he says,
what mean ye to weep and break my heart? You're breaking my
heart, people. That's what he's saying. You're
breaking my heart, church. He was affected by this. It wasn't
like he was standing there like a piece of stone. He loved these
people. And these people loved him. And
he said, you're breaking my heart. But this I want you to know.
I am ready. Well, he was eager. I think he was eager to go. Eager to fulfill the Lord's will.
I am ready not only not to be bound only, I'm ready to go to
prison for this. I'm ready not only to go to prison,
but I'm ready to die. Ready to die. Ready to lose all? That's committed, isn't it? Now
that's commitment right there. That's commitment. Ready. I'm
ready to be bound and I'm ready to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now this kind of faith, I thought
last night, does not belong to the apostles only. This kind
of faith does not belong to missionaries only. This kind of faith belongs
to every one of God's children. Now, I know there are different
degrees of faith, and I know most all of us will never be
called upon to do what Paul did here, or to sacrifice the things
Paul sacrificed. I know that. But this kind of
faith belongs to all of God's children. And when we consider the One
whom we trust, the One whom we have confidence in, the One whom
we have committed our souls to in the keeping of our souls and
the keeping of everything, we've committed everything to Him.
Not just our eternal destiny, but everything for every day.
We've committed to Him. We trust Him to provide. We trust
Him to take care of us. We trust Him to keep us safe.
I often pray. at night. Lord, keep us safe
tonight. My locks on my door are not going
to keep me safe. It will just be a hindrance. But it won't
keep me safe. It's the Lord who keeps us safe.
It's the Lord who protects us and guides us. He controls the
heart of all men and women. He controls that. And when we
consider the one whom we trust with our souls, We always find
Him worthy of our trust. There have been a few people
down through time I've trusted that have not found Him worthy
of trust. But He's worthy. He's worthy
of all our trust and all our confidence. He's worthy of all
our trust because He's the Almighty God of heaven and earth. This
is God. This is God. We're speaking here
of God. You want to know who God is and what He's like? Study
Jesus Christ. Come to know the Lord Jesus Christ
and you'll know God. You'll know what He's like. He's the incarnate and mediator
of the covenant. He's the angel of the covenant.
He's the substitute of the elect. As you read there this morning,
behold my elect. That's who He is. And He's worthy of all our
trust and all our confidence. And then He's worthy because
of what He's done for us. Look over in Revelation chapter
5. Revelation chapter 5. Look in verse 9. Here's a glimpse. Here's a glimpse
of what's going on in glory. God has kind of rolled back the
curtain here a little bit and let us have a glimpse of what's
going on there right now. And here's a glimpse of what
we are going to do in just a little while. And they sung a new song,
saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals
thereof, for thou was slain That's a tough word, isn't it?
Slain. And has redeemed us to God by
thy blood out of every kindred, tongue, and people, and nation. And has made us unto our God
kings and priests. He made us that way. We shall
reign on the earth. He's worthy because of what He's
done for us. You know, the Scripture says
He became poor that we, through His poverty, might be made rich. And He's not talking about in
purse. But rich in the things of God. That's what you want
to be rich in. Rich in love. We spoke of this morning. Rich
in faith. Rich in everything that God is,
is ours. As He is, so are we in this world.
Rich. But He became poor. He became
me. He was wounded, it says in Isaiah
53. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. Until I heard the gospel, I didn't
realize I was a man. I didn't realize that the things
that I had done was worthy of dying, of death. Someone had
to die for it. Somebody is going to have to
die for it. Me or Christ. The chastisement of our peace
with God was upon Him. And by His stripes, His back
being laid open, He gave His back to the smiters. We are healed. Spiritually made
whole. He was forsaken of God. My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? We won't have to hear that. We'll never have to be forsaken
of God. Because He was. He suffered rejection everywhere
He turned. Everywhere He turned, He was
rejected. I thought about this. He had to
enable those whom He came to save to love Him. He had to enable me to love Him. Because I rejected Him too. I despised Him too. And then He was made to be sin
for us, who knew no sin. Pure, holy. You can't comprehend
this, can you? Because we were born into this
world of sin. We came in as sin. We came in with a sinful nature.
We drink iniquity like water, the Scripture says. But this
one knew no sin and then subjected himself to being made sin. I can't explain that. Then he
had to die the death of a criminal. You think you ought to die like
that? You know, sometimes people And
them believers have had to die a painful death of sickness and
disease, and it's been painful. But none of them had to die like
a criminal. None of them had to be stripped naked, nailed
to a cross, beaten with an inch of your life, and die as a criminal
under the wrath of God. But he did. He did. But He's not dead. Not now. He died, but He's not dead. This is the theme of the book
of Acts. He's risen and ascended on high and has left captivity
captive. Oh, He's worthy. He's worthy
of all the faith and confidence that we can have. You cannot
believe too much. You can do a lot of things that
are too much to do. But you can't believe too much
just like you can't love too much. You can't do it. You cannot be
too committed to it. Felix said, or Griffith, one
of them said, Paul, much learning hath made you mad. Paul was so
committed to Christ. He was so joined to Him that
they thought he was just a radical nut. He said, you've been studying
too long, Paul. You've been in the book too long. I wish that charge would be laid
against me. I'm so committed to it. And then he's worthy because
of what he's doing for us now. Right now, as we sit in this
service, and we go through this worship service, worshiping God,
He's interceding for us. He's interceding for us. And
I thank God we have one to intercede for us who has power with God. I'm glad. He said in one place, Father,
I know that You always hear me. I know this. He rules all things. by His providence
for us. All things, He says, are for
your sakes. He overrules the wrath of man for us. I tell you
this, we couldn't live in this world if He didn't. We couldn't
live here. We could not live here if He
did not overrule the wrath of men. And He has gone to purchase
and prepare a place for us. That's what he said in John 14.
I go to prepare a place for you. He has entered into the Holy
of Holies. Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Master,
our Savior, has taken possession of heaven for us. He arose from
the grave. This man who was despised and
rejected of men, this man who is God, has gone back to glory
and taken possession of heaven for you, prepared a place for
you. You won't have to walk in, to
speak in my language, you'll not have to walk in and see if
there's a place for you to sit down, see if there's a place
for you so you can stay. No, He's prepared that place
for you. It's waiting. It's waiting for you. And He said, if I go away and
prepare a place for you, I'll come again and receive you to Myself. I'm
coming after you Myself. I'll come and get you Myself.
And I'm going to take you to that place that I've prepared
for you. And it's not going to be a long
cabin. Nature freak must have come up
with that one. No, it's a place of holiness. It's a place of
acceptance. It's a place of love. You can't
put it in this language. This is why we struggle preaching.
You cannot put in language such heavenly things. Paul said he
went to the third heaven and he said, I saw things and I heard
things unlawful to utter. There's no human language. I
don't have the vocabulary to explain what I saw, what I witnessed. He's going to prepare a place
for us. And He has given His angels charge over us. Oh, the flaming spirits that
surround us at all times. Now seeing that He's worthy of
all honor and glory and has all power and infinite wisdom, can
we not say the Lord's will be done? When I think of His infinite
wisdom and knowledge, when I sit down and think about
it, I say, Lord, Thy will be done. I don't know anything. Not compared to that. There in verse 14 it says, when
Paul would not be persuaded, he would not be moved, he would
not be taken off course, they said, we ceased. We quit begging him. We quit
breaking his heart. And they said, the will of the
Lord be done. The whole church was brought
into unison over this. The will of the Lord be done.
His decreed will be done, that which He has determined and predestinated
before the world began. Lord, Thy will be done. Let this
come to pass. All that you have decreed in
the past, let it come to pass. His revealed will be done. That
has to do with us individually. Not my will, but Thine be done,
whatever that is. And then the providential will
of God be done. Whatever that brings to pass, His will be done. Can we say truly from the heart,
Lord, Thy will be done? Now, one last thing to notice
here. True faith. First of all, true
faith will be tried. It will be proven. You can just
bank on that. It's going to be tried. It's
going to be proven in this life. But it will also persevere. Not
only was Paul not persuaded, but I want you to look at this
Manasseh. I guess that's how you pronounce
it. I just call him M. Manasseh. It's easier to say.
But Manasseh, an old disciple with whom we should lodge there
in verse 16. Let me get back to this. There went with us also certain
of the disciples of Caesarea, and brought with them one Manassian
of Cyprus, an old disciple with whom we should lodge." Faith that is of God, if it's
of God, it will persevere through all the trials. Trials won't destroy faith. It
will not destroy faith. It will reveal it and it will
strengthen it. It won't destroy it. This man here, Manasseh,
was around and became a disciple when our Lord was in the flesh
on this earth. He was one of the few men left
that was around when the Lord was walking on this earth. Thirty
years had gone by. Thirty years had gone by and
he still believed the gospel. He still believed. He was still
walking by faith. He was still following after
the Lord Jesus Christ. Many things will come our way
on the way home. Many things will come our way
on the way home, but none of them will destroy true faith. If it does, you didn't have it.
And I'd rather know it here than when I stand before Him. And
true faith does not quit because someone made him upset or because
something didn't go their way. No. True faith follows Christ,
not events, not possessions. It follows the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I'll show you one more thing that true faith does. It will
make you be hospitable. What happened when the Lord opened
Lydia's heart? He opened her home. She took Paul and him home. Philip, the evangelist, opened
his home. And here Manasseh opened his home. It will cause you to count all
things as the Lord's. All things are His. All things
belong to Him. and a cause you'd be given to
hospitality. I wouldn't give you a dime. I
would not give you a dime for that faith that shuts people
out of their homes. It opens the heart and opens
the home. I pray that someday It can be said of us. It can
be said of me. It can be said of you. He's an
old disciple. Say your name. Say, yeah, I know
him. He's an old disciple. He's been around a long time.
Watched him go through some hard times and trials and he's still
here. That's faith that's of God. That's
of God. What a testimony. What a testimony. Now, Lord willing, next week we'll look at a failed
compromise. We'll see next week. Paul made
a compromise, and he shouldn't have. He jumped on to Peter for
what he did, then turns around to us, takes this vowel, shaves
his head, and goes into the temple and gives an offering. Makes
an offering. Then he gets run out of the temple.
Shot out of it. At best, we're still just men,
aren't we? I thought of that when I read it this past week.
I read the whole chapter. I thought, we are just men. Men
at best. God uses men. He uses men like
Paul. Used them in a great way. And sometimes He lets it just
be men again. just to show us and keep before us that we're
still sinners saved by grace at our best.