Would you turn back to Acts chapter
16? This afternoon, Lynn and I are going to be going to Ohio
State to see some doctors there about Lynn, and so remember us,
and Aaron Greenleaf is going to be preaching for us tonight. I've entitled the message for
this morning, Open or Opened? open or opened. Look in verse 14. And a certain woman named Lydia,
a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira. Now Thyatira was
in Asia. Asia is the place where Paul
was forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the gospel, but one
of his elect were there, and he brought her out, this woman,
Lydia, which worshiped God, heard us,
whose heart the Lord opened. Well, I pray that the Lord will
open my heart and your heart. Wouldn't it be a blessing of
grace if our hearts were opened by the Lord? That's what took
place with this woman. Her heart was opened by the Lord. Now, Lydia's heart had been closed
to the truth. Let me repeat that. Lydia's heart, before this took
place, had been closed to the truth. I'm gonna read a passage
from John chapter eight, you can turn there if you want, verse
45. These are the words of the Lord,
John eight, verse 45. And because I tell you the truth,
you believe me not. Now that's a remarkable statement.
Because I tell you the truth, you believe me not. Which of
you convinces me of sin? Which of you can prove any wrongdoing
on any level with me? You know, he's the only one in
the world who could say that. No one else has ever been able to
say that. If you wanted to convince me of sin, you wouldn't have
to look too long. It'd be real easy. And me with you as well. But he could say, which of you
convinces me? of sin. And if I say the truth,
why do you not believe me? What a question. If I say the
truth, you know, the truth ought to be believed. If I say the
truth, why do you not believe me? Now look at this next statement.
He that is of God, heareth God's words. You therefore hear them
not because you are not of God. Now, if I don't hear the truth,
if I can't receive it, if I can't hear what's being said, the reason
is I'm not of God and I have a closed heart, a heart closed
to the truth. Now, that is the result of being
born into this world dead in sins. Everybody is closed to
the truth. We're open to everything else,
but by nature, we're closed to the truth, but thank God the
Lord opened her heart. And if I ever hear the gospel,
it's going to be because the Lord opens my heart. Now, we have all heard of open-minded
people and closed-minded people. There is such a thing as being
open-minded and closed-minded. Now, when you're closed-minded,
you view your opinions as facts. That's scary, isn't it? When
you're closed-minded, you view your opinions as facts. When you're open-minded, you
realize your opinions are just that, opinions, and not necessarily
factual. You realize they're other points
of view. And you realize there are things
that you are just ignorant of and don't know anything about.
Now, I want to be open-minded to all that God says. And I want
to be closed-minded to anything that's contrary to what God says.
I want that desperately. And let me remind you what God
says Let me say this about the scripture.
The scripture is what God says. All scripture, this is what the
Bible claims for itself. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God. Literally God breathed. I'm so thankful for that. You
know, I'm hanging all my hope of being saved on this book being
the Word of God and believing what it says. Somebody says,
well, that's your opinion. No, that's my reality. That's
my reality. I believe the Bible is the inspired
Word of God. The prophecy came not in old
time by the will of man, Peter said, but holy men of God spake
as they were moved. by the Holy Ghost." Now, Lydia's
heart was closed to the Word of God.
Before God opened her heart, she couldn't hear what Paul was
saying. She couldn't believe what Paul was saying. Her heart
was closed. That's the way we all are by
nature. Our heart is closed to The gospel closed to the truth. But when God opened her heart,
look what it says in verse 14. Whose heart the Lord opened,
and here's the evidence of an open heart that she attended. She took heed to, she listened
to carefully, she believed, she believed. the things which were
spoken of Paul. Now, this is the beginning of
the church at Philippi, or you know of the epistle of Paul to
the Philippians. This is the beginning of this
church. And you know, this is the first European convert, first
person in Europe that was brought to a saving knowledge of Christ
was this woman, Lydia, whose heart the Lord opened. And this church was started by
a sovereign act of God. the way all true churches are
started. Remember, I read that verse of
scripture, the vision Paul had in the night, a man of Macedonia
saying, come over here and help us. He tried to go to several
other places and the Holy Spirit forbid him, but then he has this
vision in the night. You see, the Lord's got a people
here and he's gonna call them out. Look a couple of pages over
to Acts chapter 18. Look at the start of the church
at Corinth. Verse nine. Then spake the Lord
to Paul in the night by vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and
hold not thy peace. For I am with thee, and no man
shall sit on thee to hurt. Now look at this statement, for
I have much people in this city. That's why he's directed to go
to Corinth and to keep preaching there. And he was there for 18
months. As you go on reading, God says,
because I have much people in this city, same way with Philippi. Matthew 121 says, that's why
I call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their
sins, his people. Now we read in verse Back to Acts chapter 16, I love
this. Verse 14, and a certain woman
named Lydia. A certain woman, there's nothing
generic about the gospel. A certain woman. Now most people present what
I guess you'd call a generic gospel. God's salvation is out
there for everybody, but it doesn't save anybody in particular. It's
up to you what you do with it as to whether or not you'll be
saved. The gospel doesn't actually save, because it's for everybody.
It's generic. It's out there. God loves all
men the same. Christ died for all men the same.
And this gospel's offered to you. And as to whether or not
you're saved, it's up to you. Now, that's a generic gospel. And it's a non-saving gospel. The only gospel that saves is
when God himself saves certain individuals. Christ said, I lay down my life
for the sheep. Now let me ask you a question.
Let me repeat that. I lay down my life for the sheep.
That's what the Lord said. Question, is everybody a sheep? Well, the Lord said to a group
of people, you believe not because you're not of my sheep. As I said to you, my sheep hear
my voice. I know them and they follow me
and I give unto them eternal life. You know that on the last
judgment day, there are two types of people, the sheep and the
goats. That's what the Lord says. You
put the sheep on my right hand, the goats on my left. Now, he
saves certain people. And this certain woman whose
heart he opened was a woman named Lydia, a seller of purple. She was a businesswoman. And
her clientele would have been wealthy people because she was
selling purple to wealthy people. That was something only wealthy
people had. And so probably she was a pretty
wealthy woman herself. She was a businesswoman whose
name was Lydia. She was from the city of Thyatira. Thyatira is in Asia. And remember
when they tried to go to Asia to preach the gospel, the Holy
Spirit forbid them? Well, she was born in Asia, but through
the Lord's merciful providence, she was pulled out of Asia. And
there she sits to hear the gospel in Philippi. And look what it
says. And a certain woman named Lydia,
a seller of purple, out of the city of Thyatira, which worshiped
God, heard us. Now, this word worship is found
10 times in the New Testament, and it's usually a bad thing.
It's devout. It's religious. The Lord said,
in vain do they worship me. teaching for doctrines, the commandments
of men. Notice the word worship is used,
but it's in vain they worship. As a matter of fact, throughout
the book of Acts, you know who was on Paul's case trying to
persecute him? Devout people, same word, devout
people. She was a religious woman. And I'm thankful the Lord does
save religious people. But they're usually the ones
whose heart are most close to the truth, religious people.
She was a religious person. She was a devout person. And she was in this group by
the riverside where prayer was wont to be made. And Paul, they
were looking for a place to go, well, let's just start here.
These people at least claimed to have some kind of interest
in religion, so we'll just go here and we'll speak to them. And they sat down and spoke to
these women by the riverside who were gathered together. There
weren't any synagogues here. There was not a large Jewish
population, but this was a Gentile church, not church, it was just
a Gentile gathering, and they went to this riverside and began
to speak to the women. And you know what's interesting?
We don't read where the Lord opened any of the other women's
hearts, but he did open the heart of Lydia. And I pray that me
and you might be just like Lydia. people whose heart the LORD opens. She HEARD, look what it says,
which worship God HEARD us, whose heart The Lord opened that
she attended. She gave careful attention unto
the things which were spoken of Paul. She heard us and the
Lord opened her heart. Now, when we're talking about
the heart, not talking about this thing that pumps blood,
we're talking about who you are, your mind, your intellect, your
affections, what you love. your will, what you desire, what
you want. Now, according to the scripture,
the heart of every man, now listen to this carefully, the heart
of every man is deceitful above all things, Jeremiah 17, nine,
and desperately wicked. Now, I just gave a description
of my heart, the way I was born into this world, and your heart.
desperately wicked, deceitful, above all things. Somebody says,
my heart's not like that. You're deceived, then. You're
deceived. You've deceived yourself. You've fooled yourself. Listen
to this description of the heart in Genesis chapter six, verse
five. God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth,
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart. was only evil continually. And that's God's testimony. That's
why the wise man said in the book of Proverbs, he that trusteth
his heart is a fool. Somebody says, trust your heart,
follow your heart, better not. Worst thing you could do, as
a matter of fact. Let me repeat that scripture. The heart is
desperately wicked, deceitful above all things. And the heart of every natural
man is closed the truth of THE gospel. For instance, you're
going to tell me that the Bible is inspired? Well, I don't believe
that. I mean, how can a book be inspired? I mean, you've got
so many different men making different copies and all the
different objections. You mean to tell me that you
think God is in control of everybody and everything? He's absolutely
sovereign and He's the first cause of everything? Well, I
don't believe that. You mean to tell me that you
believe men are completely evil? I don't believe that. You mean
to tell me that you think that God controls and chooses who
will be saved and it's not up to man's choice? Well, I don't
believe that. That just doesn't make sense to me. You mean to
tell me that Christ's death actually secured salvation? He didn't
make salvation possible if I do my part, but he actually finished
salvation for everybody he died for. I don't believe that. You
mean grace? You're saying that God's grace
actually saves, that it's irresistible? I don't believe that. You see,
the natural man, his heart is closed to the gospel. Dead in
sins. That's why. And that's the way
Lydia began hearing this message. She began hearing this message. She heard the things that were
spoken by Paul. But what happened? The Lord opened her heart. You know when you'll believe?
When the Lord opens your heart. Not a second before then. Salvation
is of the Lord. You and I will believe when the
Lord opens our heart. And you know what the most wise
thing for you and I to do right now? Lord, open my heart. Don't
let my heart stay closed. Open my heart by your grace to
be able to hear the gospel. You see, when your heart's closed,
you're dead in sins. And someone says, what's that
mean, dead in sins? Well, if you're physically dead, You don't
have any of the senses of life, do you? You can't hear, you can't
smell, you can't taste, can't feel, can't see. Well, when you're
spiritually dead, you don't have the spiritual senses of spiritual
life. You can see no beauty in Christ.
You see no beauty in the gospel. You can't taste that the Lord
is gracious. It's bad news to you until God
opens your heart. You can't smell the sweet savor
of the gospel. You can't hear with understanding.
I mean, your heart's closed. God opens the heart, you hear. She attended unto the
things which Paul said. When the Lord opened her heart,
she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. And
when she was baptized in her household, she besought us. Go
on reading. But what did she hear? That's a good question
because we're not given the content of the message that she heard.
It just said she heard the things which were spoken of Paul, but
we can intelligently see what she heard from the rest of the
scriptures. So I'm not guessing, I'm not
trying to make things up. True story. I took an English,
I was an English major in college, and I took a test and gave the right
answers, and I got a C. And the guy said, I'm inspired,
the professor. And I thought, well, all right,
I'll show him. Next test I took, I didn't read
the book, and I made up answers. Made them up. And I got my test
back, it said, brilliant. I don't understand where you
got these conclusions, but it was brilliant. I thought so much
for academia. Well, I'm not just guessing.
I'm not just guessing as to what Paul was saying, because we can
ascertain from the scriptures, from his writing, from the book
of Acts, and from the context of this passage of scripture.
Number one, Paul made this statement. In 1 Corinthians 1, verses 22
and 23, We preach Christ crucified. Now I know that the message he
was preaching to her was Jesus Christ crucified. The only way
you can be saved is by Christ being nailed to that cross. And
Christ being nailed to that cross accomplished the salvation of
everybody he died for. As a matter of fact, he said
in 1 Corinthians 2, 1 and 2, I determined not to know anything
among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Nothing else
worth talking about. What do you think about abortion?
What do you think about the moral issues of our day? I determined
not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
What do you think about sexual sin and gay marriages? And I
determined not to know anything among you as even worth addressing. saved Jesus Christ and him crucified. You know, it said of the apostles,
they cease not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ. So we have some idea of that,
what he preached just from that passage of scripture. I love
what Philip, when he was preaching to the Ethiopian eunuch, The
scripture says he opened his mouth at that same scripture
and preached unto him Jesus. When Peter comes to Cornelius,
here's his message. Peace by Jesus Christ. The only way you'll have peace
is if Christ works out your peace for you and gives it to you. He is Lord of all. I love saying that, Jesus is
Lord. You don't make him Lord. He is Lord. Somebody says, He's
not my Lord. Yeah, He is. Yeah, He is. He's
everybody's Lord, whether they know it or not, you are in His
hands. For Him to do with you whatsoever
He's pleased to, He's Lord. He's Lord. That's the preaching
of Jesus Christ, His Lordship. Now, we know from this passage
of Scripture, in the context of it, look in verse 10 of Acts
chapter 16, and after He had seen the vision, Immediately,
we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the
Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them. Now, we
know from that that whatever Paul did, he preached the gospel
unto them. Now, the gospel has a certain
content. He preached the gospel unto them. And look what happened in verse
16. Like I said, this is the founding
of the church at Philippi, and there's basically three stories
in this chapter. One, Lydia. Number two, this damsel, little
slave girl that was demon possessed. And Paul cast out the demon.
And the third is the Philippian jailer. This is the establishing
of the church at Philippi. But look in verse 16. And it
came to pass as we went to prayer, a certain damsel, Possessed with
the spirit of divination. She was a fortune teller. She
was a soothsayer. She was one of these people where
you see on the side of the road, you know, come and get your fortune
read, get your palm read and all that kind of stuff. That's
what she was. Which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying.
They made some money out of this woman. Could she really tell
the future? Well, if the Lord gave her the
ability to, I guess she could, but I don't know. I don't know
whether that stuff's Anyway, somebody thought she could because
they paid money for it. The same, verse 17, the same followed by
Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of
the Most High God, which show unto us the way of salvation. Now, what was Paul preaching?
The way of salvation. This is kind of curious, in verse
18, and this she did many days, and Paul, being grieved, turned
and said to the Spirit, I command thee, in the name of Jesus Christ,
to come out of her. And he came out that same hour.
Paul was getting irritated. I mean, she was following him
everywhere and saying, these are the servants of the Most
High God that show us the way of salvation. What's wrong with
that? She never said the way of salvation.
If you see a false prophet, what he says generally is true. It's
what he doesn't say that identifies him as a false prophet. Anytime
anybody preaches a message where they purposely leave something
out in order to keep from offending people, they're false prophets.
Write it down. Write it down. But we know from
this passage of scripture, Paul was preaching the way of salvation. Well, what does my mind go to
right off the bat, the Lord said in John chapter 14, verse six,
I am the way. He didn't say, I'll show you
the way. He didn't say, I'll guide you along the way. He said,
I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No man comes to the Father but
my me. Now here's the way of salvation.
The Lord said I am the way, and the best way to illustrate that
that I can think of is baptism. Baptism, the fact of people going
under the water and coming back out. That's a weird religious
ritual if you don't understand what it means. Why do they do
that? That's strange. I mean, going down under the
water and coming back up, what's that all about? It's what it
pictures. It's what it represents. You
see, baptism, the teaching of baptism is union with Jesus Christ. When Jesus Christ lived, I lived
in him. When Jesus Christ was on the
cross, I was in him. You see, he was bearing my sin.
That's the reason he died, my sin. I was in him. If you're
a believer, do you know when Christ was nailed to that cross?
You were nailed to that cross. When they took him into that
tomb, they took his dead, lifeless body off the cross and put him
in that tomb, I was right there with him. When he opened his
eyes in the darkness, I was in him. When he walked out of that
tomb, Paul said, I was crucified with Christ. When he walked out
of that tomb, I did too. You see, my entire hope of salvation
is that I was in him. Doesn't have anything to do with
my works, his works. That's my hope. I was in him. That's what the Lord means when
I say, when he says, I am the way to the Father. No man comes
to the Father but by me. You know when I came to the Father?
when Christ came to the Father, and I was in Him. When He came
into God's presence, presenting His own blood, I did too, because
I was in Him. That's what the Lord meant when
He said to John the Baptist, thus it becometh us to fulfill
all righteousness. What Christ did, He did as an
us. He did it for His sheep, for
His people, for Lydia, for Lydia. You see, Lydia was one of His.
I am the truth. He is the truth of who God is. You won't know God apart from
knowing Jesus Christ, the Lord. All the fullness, Colossians
2.9, all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in his body. He's the truth concerning God.
He's the truth concerning me and you. How bad are we? Look at the cross
and you'll find out. You know, not only was I in him,
but I was one of those people saying, let him be crucified. I was one of them. You were too.
Somebody says, no, I wasn't. Yeah, you are. Yeah, you are. I'm telling you, when Adam fell,
you were in him. And I love that passage of scripture
by, so death passed upon all men in that all sin. Everybody
sinned when Adam sinned. Everybody fell when Adam fell.
That's the same way with Christ. When he obeyed, I obeyed. Everybody
in him. And I see my own sinfulness only
in light of Jesus Christ crucified. That's where I find out how bad
I am. Well, I don't do that many bad things. Don't even look at
that. For one thing, you do a whole lot more bad things than you
admit. No doubt about that. Somebody says, I don't do that.
Yeah, you do. Yeah, you do. But the point is, you don't look
in your own heart and the bad things you do to find out your
own sinfulness. You look to Jesus Christ crucified. There's where
your sinfulness is. You hated Christ so much you
wanted him dead. That's the natural man. That's
where we find out about ourselves. But here is the truth, the way
of salvation. is what Christ did. I love saying
this. Jesus Christ, when he died on
Calvary's tree, my salvation was accomplished. And it doesn't
have anything to do with any works that I've done. Hebrews
1.3 says, when he had by himself, that means you had nothing to
do with it. When he had by himself purged
our sins, he sat down. The work being finished. Now that's the way of salvation.
It's the way of grace. That's what she heard. Look what
else she heard. Verse 29. I'm sure Paul addressed this,
verse 29, then he, that Philippian jailer, called for a light and
sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and
Silas and brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to
be saved? No more important question to
consider. And notice he didn't say, what
must I do to save myself? He said, what must I do to be
saved? And look at the answer. Paul
said in verse 31, and they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved and thy house. Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. His utter Lordship. Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. That means Savior. Aren't you
glad He came to save sinners? That's His purpose in coming.
Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people
from their sins. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. God's Christ,
God's Messiah, God's Prophet. He's the Word of God. God's priest,
if he represents you before God, everything's fine. God's king,
yet have I set my king on my holy hill of Zion. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. And look back in verse 14. A certain woman named Lydia,
a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshiped
God, heard, whose heart the Lord opened, and she attended unto
the things which were spoken of Paul, and when she was baptized,
and her household." Evidently, the Lord saved everybody in her
house. people have taken this and the thing of the Philippian
jailer and says all his household was baptized to. And he said,
see, there's household salvation. If you're saved, you have a right
to believe God's going to save everybody in your house. I like
what one fellow said about that. I mean, I want the Lord to save
everybody in my house and your house, too. No question about
that. We want that. But somebody once
said, well, the Philippians jailer And they've actually used this
for infant baptism. You know, everybody in your house
is to be baptized. You know, just baptize them all. And somebody
said, well, the Philippian jailer's youngest child was 19 years old.
Somebody says, where you getting that in the scripture? Same place
you get infant baptism. Same place. You can't make a
supposition like that. But the point is, she was baptized. She heard something about baptism.
Now look back in Acts chapter eight. Acts chapter eight. Verse 35. Then Philip opened his mouth
and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus. I hope that's what's going on
right now. And as they went on their way,
they came unto a certain water. So evidently he talked about
what baptism represents and what it means. And the eunuch said,
see, here is water. What does hinder me to be baptized? And that's a mighty good question.
Do I need to know something more? Do I need to understand more?
Do I need to have a better life? Do I need to be able to at least
quit this sin and start doing that good thing before I'm baptized?
I wanna know, is there anything hindering me? Is there any reason
why I should not be baptized? Good question. And Philip said, if thou believest
with all thine heart thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe. that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God. Now what's that mean? That means you believe that He
is equal with God because He is God. That's what you believe. If you believe He's God the Son,
you believe that He is equal with God. You believe that? He's equal with God because he
is God. If you believe he's the son of
God, that means you believe he's the creator of the universe. He said, let us make man in our
own image. You believe that he's controlling
everything if you believe he's the son of God. If you believe
He's the Son of God, you believe that if He died for you, you
must be saved. You don't believe there's any
way He can fail in His intentions. He's God. If He died for you,
if He lived for you, you must be saved. Now, I love what this
man, how he answered. He didn't say, I believe I'm
saved. He didn't say, I believe Jesus Christ died for me. He
didn't say, I believe I've been born again. He didn't say, I
believe I'm one of the elect. He said, I believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. I do too. Me too. I'm right there with her. When somebody hears and believes
the gospel, You will not be able to keep them from confessing
Christ and believers' baptism. You know, a lot of times preachers
try to manipulate people. You need to be baptized. You
need to be baptized. How come you haven't been baptized?
Manipulate. And I heard Greg Elmquist say
this, and I agree with it. Every time I talk about baptism,
I'm hoping to manipulate some people to be baptized, which
is ridiculous. If you hear the gospel, if I hear the gospel,
We're going to want to confess Christ in believer's baptism. We don't have to be conjoled
or manipulated or made to feel, that's what we're gonna wanna
do. And that's what Lydia did. That's what this Ethiopian eunuch
did. That's what Lydia did. She was baptized. Verse 15, she
was baptized and her household, And she besought us, saying,
if you judge me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house
and abide there. And she constrained us. She's
somebody whose heart the Lord opened. Lord, open my heart. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in the high and
holy name of your son that you, by your spirit and
by your grace, will open the heart of every man, woman and
boy and girl in this room and give us the grace to be attentive
to the things that are spoken and to believe. Bless this message
for Christ's sake. In His name we pray, amen.