will proclaim everyone his own
goodness. But a faithful man who can find. Would you turn to 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. 16, I'm sorry, 1 Corinthians chapter
16. beginning in verse five. Now,
I will come into you. When I shall pass through Macedonia,
for I do pass through Macedonia, and it may be that I will abide,
yea, and winter with you, that you may bring me on my journey,
whithersoever I go. For I will not see you now, by
the way, but I trust to tarry a while with you, if the Lord
permit. But I will tarry at Ephesus until
Pentecost for a great door and effectual is opened unto me. And there are many adversaries.
Now, if Timotheus come, see that he may be with you without fear,
for he worketh the work of the Lord, as I also do. Let no man
therefore despise him, but conduct him forth in peace, that he may
come unto me, for I look for him with the brethren. As touching
our brother Apollos, I greatly desired to come unto you with
the brethren, but his will was not at all to come at this time,
but he will come when he shall have convenient season. Look
once again at verse nine. For a great door and effectual
is opened unto me and there are many adversaries. Now I've entitled this message.
a door opened. You know, just the very thought
of that I find very attractive. The Lord opening a door. If the Lord opens a door, I want
to walk through it, don't you? What a blessing when the Lord
opens a door. Now, I fear opening my own doors. As a matter of fact, I'm always
afraid of that. only want to walk through the
door that he opens. You know, there are open doors,
so to speak, that he did not open. We see, it seems like an
open door, but perhaps it is, but not a door that he opened.
Well, how can you determine if he's opened a door? Well, any
open door that'll take you away from hearing the gospel is not
a door that he opened. Now you can just count on that.
Any open door that going through it would hurt you spiritually
or is contrary to obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ is not
an open door from Him. It's a door that Satan has opened
and not the Lord, and it's a test. You and I will be tested. You know, there's some doors
to test us that we're not to go through. Now he says in verse
nine for a great door and effectual is open to me. You know, when
the Lord opens the door, there are results. It is effectual. What Paul meant by that is people
will be brought to a saving knowledge of Christ through this open door. Men and women will be made new
creatures in Christ Jesus. A great door and effectual is
open to me and there are many adversaries. When the Lord opens
a door, that does not mean it will be smooth sailing. As a
matter of fact, anything that's easy, you can pretty much bet
something's wrong with it. He says there are many adversaries,
many enemies of the gospel. Where will Satan be at work? Where will Satan be seeking to
deceive? Where the truth is preached.
He'll just leave everything else alone. He doesn't need to worry
about it. It's where the gospel is preached. And the natural
man is an adversary to the gospel. And he will do what he can do
to hinder it. But thank God when he opens the
door, no man can shut it. Isn't that awesome to think about?
And when he closes the door, no man can open it. Now, Paul
prayed for these open doors to preach the gospel. Turn to Colossians
chapter three. I'm sorry, Colossians chapter
four, verse three. He says, continue in prayer and
watching the same with Thanksgiving, with all praying also for us
that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery
of Christ, for which also I'm in bond that I may make it manifest. as I ought to speak." Now, he
asked these people, pray that the Lord opens up a door for
me to preach the gospel. And that's something that we're
praying right now. We're asking the Lord to open
up doors for us to preach the gospel. Because if he opens a
door, something's going to happen. It's always effectual. It's always
supernatural. It's always powerful. Now, this
opening of the door, so to speak, begins with the opening of the
door of heaven. I just want us to think about
this concept of God opening doors. And it's not just, well, he's
going to open a door for me to get a job or do this or do that. That's really not what I'm talking
about right now. You know, as far as that kind of stuff goes,
I don't know how to tell you what you ought to do. Seek the
Lord. Should I do this? Seek the Lord.
That's the best advice I can give anybody. Seek the Lord.
I don't know whether you ought to do it, whether you ought not
to do it. Seek the Lord. He'll make it known to you. But
that's not really what I'm going to talk about as far as trying
to figure out should I go through this door or that door. This
opening of the door that we're going to talk about begins with
the opening of the door of heaven. When the Lord was baptized, we
read in Matthew 4, verse 16, that the heavens were opened. That's a powerful concept, isn't
it? The heavens were opened. And a voice came from those heavens
and said, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him. Now, because of this, this opening
of the door of heaven and Christ dwelling among us, here's what
happened as a result. Turn to Acts chapter 10. The
way I prepared this message, I just
got my concordance out and looked up the word open and opened and
opened door and see how the Lord uses this. Look here at Acts
chapter 10. Now, heavens were opened when Christ came down.
And that opened the way of heaven back to us. But look here in
Acts chapter 10, beginning in verse 10. I got the wrong verse, you know,
verse 10. And he became very hungry, Peter,
this is after he had fallen into a trance and would have eaten.
But while they made ready, he fell into a trance and saw Heaven
opened. Now wouldn't you like to see
heaven open? He saw heaven opened. And what was it he saw when heaven
was opened? Now this is what happened because
the heavens were opened and Christ came down. This is what happened.
He saw heaven opened. And a certain vessel descending
unto him, as it had been a great sheep knit at the four corners
and let down to the earth, wherein were all manner of four-footed
beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things,
and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him,
Rise, Peter, kill, and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord,
for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And the voice spake unto him
again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not
thou common. This was done three times, and
the vessel was received up again into heaven. When Christ, when
the heavens were open and He came down, He came down for this
purpose, to cleanse His people. And that's exactly what He did. On Calvary's tree, He cleansed
me. I'm clean. And what God has cleansed,
don't you call common. I'm clean in God's sight through
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that wonderful? That's
what our Lord accomplished by opening up heaven and coming
down. He cleansed me. He cleansed me. He declared me
to be clean because I am clean. Now, the only way I can understand
that, because I look into my heart and it doesn't seem very
clean, but because I'm united to the
Lord Jesus Christ, I'm one with Him, I am clean. That's not pie in the
sky, big talk, that's the truth. I am clean. Everybody Christ died for is
clean what God has cleansed. Has Christ cleansed you? Don't
you call that common. Now a door opened into heaven
always has something to do with Christ as he is. I think of Stephen
when the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Son of
Man seated at the right hand of God. And when the heavens
were opened to John in Revelation 4.1, he said the heavens were
opened and a door was opened in heaven and I saw one sitting
on a throne. When the heavens are opened,
you see Christ as He is. And because of the opening of
the door in heaven, there are doors that are opened upon the
earth. We read in Acts 14.27 where God had opened the door
of faith. to the Gentiles. That's me. That's you. Because the heavens
were opened and He came down and cleansed the people. The
door of faith was opened to the Gentiles. Now where does the opening of
the door of faith begin? Well, you know, it begins with
the opening of the mouth. Turn with me to Acts chapter
8. You're there in Acts chapter 10. Turn to Acts chapter 8. It begins with the preaching
of the gospel. I love this passage of scripture beginning in verse
26. And the angel of the Lord spake
unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the
way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is a desert.
And he arose and went. Behold, a man of Ethiopia, a
eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians,
who had the charge of all her treasure, he'd come to Jerusalem
for to worship. He wanted to worship God. And
he knew God was worshipped in Jerusalem. He knew something
about the scriptures and the sacrifices and so on. He didn't
know much, but he knew that's where he needed to go to worship.
And he was returning and sitting in his chariot reading Isaiah
the prophet. And I don't have any doubt that he was returning
feeling just as empty as he was when he got there. He came there
to worship and he thought, I don't even know what worship is. I
know the truth is in the Bible, but I don't know what it is.
And he's going back home, frustrated, no doubt. Verse 29, Then the
Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.
And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet
Isaiah, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And you
can see the Lord working on this man by his answer. How can I? Now, if you asked the average
person, do you understand what you're reading? They'd say, well,
here's what I think it means. Here's what I think it means. But not
this fellow. This fellow had been emptied
out. The Lord had a purpose in this and he said, how can I?
Except some man should guide me. What humility he demonstrated. He desired Philip that he would
come up and sit with him. The place of the Scripture which
he read was this, Isaiah 53. He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter and like a lamb done before his shearer, so he opened
not his mouth. In his humiliation, his judgment
was taken away, and who should declare his generation? For his
life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip
and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of
himself or of some other man? How would you like for somebody
to come up to you and ask you that question? Reading from Isaiah
53, that glorious passage of scripture where we read, he was
wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes
we are healed. Who's the prophet speaking of?
Verse 35, then Philip opened his mouth. The preaching of the
gospel. He opened his mouth at that same
scripture and preached unto him, Jesus. You see, faith comes by
hearing. How shall they call on him in
whom they've not believed? And how shall they believe on
him in whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall he preach except
he be sent? Now, there was more going on
than the opening of the preacher's mouth. We find the preacher opening
his mouth and the word of God coming out. But turn to Luke
chapter 24. Luke chapter 24. Verse 13, And behold, two of
them went that same day to a village called Emmaus. This is after
our Lord had already risen from the dead, but they didn't know
about it. which was from Jerusalem, about three score furlongs. And
they talked together of all these things which had happened, talked
about the death of Christ. And it came to pass that while
they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near and went
with them. But their eyes were holding that
they should not know him. And he said unto them, what manner
of communication to these that you have one to another as you
walk and are sad? And the one of them whose name
was Cleopas Answering, said unto him, Art thou only a stranger
in Jerusalem, that hast not known the things which are come to
pass in these days? And he said unto them, What things? And they
said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet,
mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how
the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned
to death, and have crucified him. But we trusted that it had
been He which should have redeemed Israel. And besides all this,
today is the third day since these things were done. Yea,
and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which
were early at the sepulchre. And when they found not His body,
they came saying that they had seen a vision of angels, which
said that He was alive. And certain of them which were
with us went to the sepulchre and found it even as the woman
had said. But Him they saw not. Then He said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to
believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ,
was it not necessary for Christ to have suffered these things
and to enter into His glory? If you would have read Isaiah
53, you'd know that. And beginning at Moses, And all
the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the
things concerning Himself." Do you know every Scripture is concerning
Him? Every single one of them. And if I don't see it, I might
not see it, but I know the meaning anyway. I know the meaning of
every Scripture. Now, I might not be able to give you the details
of it, but I know the meaning. Every Scripture is concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's go on reading verse 28.
And they drew nigh unto the village, whether they went, and he made
as though he would have gone further. But they constrained
him, and said, Abide with us, for it is forth evening, and
the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with
them, and it came to pass, as he said it, meet with them. He
took bread, and blessed it, and break it, and gave it to them.
And their eyes were opened, and they knew him." That's what
happens when your eyes are opened. Look in this same chapter in
Verse 44, And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake
unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be
fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the
prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me. Then opened he their understanding,
that they might understand the Scriptures. You see, when your
eyes are opened, that means your understanding is open, and you're
given an understanding of the Scriptures. Now, every believer
in this place, you've got an understanding of the Scriptures.
You might not know all the details, but you know this is about Him. It's about His precious blood.
It's about His grace. It's about His glorious righteousness.
It's about faith in Him. Every Scripture is of Him. And
if you don't know the immediate meaning, you know the meaning
anyway, don't you? Christ. Let's go on reading.
Verse 45, Then opened he their understandings, that they might
understand the Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written,
and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the third
day, that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in
his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses
of these things. Now you see Christ when you understand
the Scriptures. And you understand the Scriptures
when you see the Lord Jesus Christ. You truly see this book is not
a rule book. It's not a book about how to
live, although you get all these things in them. This book is
concerning Him. He opened their understanding
that they might understand the Scriptures. Has your understanding
been opened? Now, I'm not asking you if you can give an exegesis
of every verse of Scripture in the Bible and give the proper...
I'm not asking that, but do you really believe in your heart
of hearts that this book is all about the Lord Jesus Christ?
It's about His glory and about the salvation that's in Him.
Now, if you really believe that, that means God has opened your
understanding that you might understand What a blessing to
have your eyes open. You didn't see, but now you do.
You see who God is. You see who you are. And you
see that Christ himself is salvation. Now opened eyes and an open understanding
come from an open heart. Turn to Acts chapter 16. Acts chapter 16. Verse 14. And a certain woman. Named Lydia. A seller of purple. Of the city
of Thyatira, which worship God heard us. Whose heart. The Lord. Now, what is meant by the heart?
Whose heart the Lord opened? I want the Lord to open my heart,
don't you? Whatever that means, that's exactly what I want to
happen to me. I want the Lord to open my heart.
Now, what is meant by the heart? Well, the heart in the scriptures,
it's not just when we usually think of the heart, we think
of what we feel and so on. And that's certainly included,
but it means a whole lot more than that. The heart is the whole
man. It's the understanding. It's
the affections. It's the will. It's the whole
man. And the Lord opened this woman's
heart. You see, this woman's heart was
closed. The natural man's heart is closed to God. It's closed
to the truth. It's no good. It doesn't, we
talk about the understanding, the affections and the will.
The natural man can't understand the things of the Spirit of God.
He cannot, no natural man can understand the Gospel. He might,
he might be able to quote certain things that are true, but he
doesn't have any true heart understanding of it. God hadn't taught him.
He's incapable of understanding the Gospel. A monk, he can understand
calculus quicker than a natural man can truly understand the
Gospel. That's just the way it is. We're dead in sins and the
understanding's no good. The affection's no good. We hate
what we ought to love. And we love what we ought to
hate. But when God opens up the heart, the affections are changed.
The wills change. The natural man, he's not willing. He's not willing to be saved
by the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not willing to be saved
by the grace of God. He's not willing to be saved
God's way. But you know what? When God opens your heart, you're
willing. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. And let me tell you, I'm willing
to be saved by Christ. I love that passage of scripture
where the Lord said to that one fellow, he said, will thou be
made whole? And he misunderstood, he didn't
really know what he's talking about. He said, well, how can I? You know, except
some, the Lord didn't say, are you able to be made whole? He
said, are you willing to be made whole? Yes, I'm willing to be
made whole. Now that's what's meant by the
heart. Whose heart the Lord opens. Now this is what God looks at.
Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. That's why the wise man said
in Proverbs 4, 23, keep your heart with all diligence for
out of it are the issues of life. Now notice the Lord opened her
heart. Only the Lord can do this. And he can do it too. I've always thought of the way
people talk about, you know, the heart's got a door that,
you know, only you can open and let the Lord in. No, no. He knocks
the door down and he comes in an irresistible, invincible grace
opening the heart. And I, that's what I want him
to do to me. Lord, let your grace reign in
me. Open up my heart. Now the Lord opens the heart
of those he saves. Now, I want to try to give you
some biblical words that will give us some understanding of
what an opened heart is. First, an opened heart. That's
a heart the Lord's opened. Don't you want that? I want that.
I want to have a heart that the Lord's opened. I can't open it. Nobody else can open it. I'm
totally depending on Him to open it, but boy, I sure want Him
to open it. I want the Lord to open my heart, whatever that
means. Now, first of all, an opened heart is a new heart. He said, a new heart also will
I give thee. It's a heart that wasn't there
before. You see the opened heart is not the natural heart. That's
just no good. It's no good. It's sinful. It's
evil. It can't get any better. An opened heart is a new heart
that he has given. A new heart also will I give
thee. It's something that was not there
before. And this new heart is a broken
heart. A broken heart, O God, thou wilt
not despise. Now, one of the glorious things,
there's so much glorious about the gospel, but one of the glorious
things about the gospel, about the heart he gives, it's the
only thing in the world that it's in its best state when it's
broken. Now, what do we do with broken
stuff? We throw it away. Mike said, give it to me. I just
heard that. He does. He tries to fix it. But what do we do with broken
stuff? We throw it away. It's no good. I mean, it was
broke. I don't want it. Yet God says a broken heart,
oh God, that will not despise. A heart broken over sin. A heart broken knowing there's
no way I can do anything to save myself. I'm totally... I can't
work. I'm no good. I'm broke. I don't
have a penny. I can't work. I'm broke. And
yet the Scripture says, A broken heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. That's an open heart. A broken
heart. Broken over sin. It's called
in the Scriptures a pure heart. Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God. That's that heart David was asking
for when he said, create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew
a right spirit within me. It's a true heart. An open heart
is a true heart. I like this scripture, let us
draw near with a true heart. A true heart. That means genuine. It means it's not a fake. It's
not a phony. It's not a counterfeit. It's
the real thing. That's a true heart. A true heart
is a real sinner needing real mercy and real grace. Now that's the true heart. It's
not a phony. You know, I've been thinking
about That's what we're going to be
doing in Sunday School next week, where Peter dissimulated. It's
talking about hypocrisy and acting and so on. And sometimes acting's
good. If you're in a bad mood, act
like you're not. I'd prefer it. I mean, fake it. I'm all for faking in that sense.
You know, I mean, if you come in here and everybody acts, what
do I do to offend them? You might ruin somebody's day.
Just fake it. I'm all for faking in that sense.
You know, the word hypocrite means actor, and be a good actor
in that sense, but as far as phoniness like phony piety and
phony religiosity and phony phoniness. Boy, there's plenty of it, plenty
of it. He said, let us draw near with a true heart, a real sinner. I am that. I'm that. Thank God I can take that title
myself. I'm a real sinner needing free
grace. That's a true heart, not a phony
heart, but a true heart. And then we read in Exodus 35
of a willing heart. A willing heart. And you know,
I am. By the grace of God, I'm willing.
You know, Paul put it this way. He said, to will is present with
me. how to perform that which is good, I find not. But by the
grace of God, I'm willing. I'm willing. I'm willing to be
saved His way. That's an open heart, a willing
heart. It's called a right heart. Remember
the words of Peter to Simon Magus, thy heart is not right in the
sight of God, because thou thoughtest the gift of God could be purchased. Oh, no. I know the gift of God
can't be purchased. By the grace of God, I know that.
My heart's right in that sense. I know everything that I have
from him comes as a free gift. My faith is the gift of God.
My willingness is the gift of God. My love for him, and I do
love him. I adore the Lord Jesus Christ. I love him, and I know
even the love I have is his gift. The love I have to you is his
gift. It's his gift. That's a right
heart. And then there's the believing
heart, what Paul talked about in Romans chapter 10, when he
says, with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness. There's only one righteousness.
That's the righteousness of God in Christ. That's why David said,
I've made mention of my righteousness, even thine only, it's the only
one there is. Now, with the heart man believeth under righteousness,
with the understanding, I understand that Jesus Christ is my righteousness
before God. I understand that I don't have
any righteousness and that He is my righteousness. Do you understand
that? You believe it? With the heart man believeth
under righteousness, with the understanding, but that means
more than that. Not only do I understand this,
As God is my witness, I love this. I love being saved by the
Lord Jesus Christ. I love Him giving me a new heart. I love salvation by grace. I
love the gospel. I love how He saves. I love the
new man that He's created. A new man created under Christ
Jesus unto good work which God hath before ordained that we
should walk in Him. I love this. Not only do I love
this, I understand this, I love it, but remember the will. And
this is so easy to me. This is so easy. Okay, you want,
make a choice. Would you rather be saved by
Christ's righteousness or your own? Which way do you choose? Doesn't
take long to make that choice, does it? With the will, with
the heart man believeth under righteousness. Now Lydia, the
Lord opened her heart and what happened? His heart the Lord opened, and
here's what happened. She attended unto the things
which were spoken of Paul. Now when God opens somebody's
heart, it's seen through Him opening their ears. Faith cometh
by hearing. They hear the gospel. They hear,
they understand, they believe. She attended to the things which
were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized, Believer's
baptism, the first act of obedience to Christ. When your heart is
open, you're going to obey the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
going to be seen in confessing Him in baptism. She was baptized. And look what she did. And when
she was baptized in her household, she besought us. She had a a
humility about her. She didn't demand something.
She besought us. She didn't think she had it coming.
She besought us saying, if you judge me to be faithful to the
Lord. She's made faithful. You see,
when God opens your heart, He's going to make you faithful. That means you believe and you
can be believed. Everybody He opens their heart,
He does this to. He makes them faithful. And she,
If you judge me faithful to the Lord, come into my house and
abide there. And she constrained us. Oh, she
was importunate. She had to have this. And that's
what happened when the Lord opened somebody's heart. Now an open
door. Heaven is opened. The door of faith is opened.
The preaching of the gospel, the gospel is preached. The preacher's
mouth is opened. The understanding is open to
the scriptures and the heart is open. And do you feel as though
perhaps the door has been closed to you? Turn with me to Matthew chapter
7. Verse 7. Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened
unto you. For everyone that asketh, receiveth. I've asked and I didn't receive.
Expect me to believe God's Word or you? You didn't ask. You might have bargained. You
might have tried to make some kind of payment about it, but
you didn't ask. Because the Lord says everybody that asks, receives.
And he that seeketh, findeth. I've been seeking the Lord so
long, but I haven't found Him. No, you haven't. Don't believe
it for a second. You will find. I never will forget
somebody telling me, I've been seeking the Lord for 20 years,
and I thought that's too long. That's too long. You wasn't really
seeking. If you seek, you will find. And look at this blessed promise,
to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. If it's not opened,
you haven't knocked. Time to start knocking. everyone
to everyone that knocks, it shall be opened. So nobody here in this room has
the excuse to say, well, the door hadn't been opened to me.
If you knock, I don't care who you are. If you knock, it shall
be opened. Let's pray.