Turn to Acts chapter 16. It's been my pleasure
to be here, to be able to fellowship with
the Lord's people in Lexington. We have family all over this
earth, don't we? We have family, brothers and
sisters. This is the real family. I keep telling the church in
Ashland, this is the real family. Get used to me, this is the one
we'll be spending eternity with. This is the family, and
it's good to be down here and visit this part of the family.
The message this evening I want to bring out of Acts chapter
16, verse 14. And a certain woman, not just
any woman, this is a certain woman. You know, the Scripture
says a certain woman, a certain man. The Word of God deals in
particulars. God deals with particular people,
not just at random. God never does anything at random.
It's particular and always, always on purpose. And a certain woman
named Lydia, it even gives her name, a seller of purple, a businesswoman
of the city of Thyatira, which worshiped God, heard us. But you can take that word, us,
out of there. It was supplied by the translator who said she
worshiped God and heard. She heard what Paul said. When
Paul stood there and preached to them by the riverside, left
that metropolis of Philippi, that was the major city of Macedonia,
went down by the river, Paul preached to these women, and
she heard. She heard. Faith cometh by hearing,
hearing by the word of God. Preaching can never be replaced
by anything else. God only saves sinners through
the preaching of the gospel. And God sends this woman a preacher.
She heard whose heart the Lord opened as she attended unto the
things which were spoken of Paul. She listened attentively. God
got her attention. As you said this morning in the
Bible study, God arrested him. God arrested her. I pray God
will arrest our attention tonight. and give us ears to hear what
he has to say. She attended unto the things
which were spoken of Paul, and when she was baptized, it's evident
Paul spoke to her about identification with the Lord Jesus Christ and
her household. What a blessing! God not only
saved this woman, God saved her household. Oh, what a singular
blessing that is! Not that God just saved me, but
he saved my children. I can't think of any greater
blessing. I cannot think of any. That God would save the household.
She besought us, saying, if you have judged me to be faithful
to the Lord, come into my house and abide. Stay with me. She put them up, and she constrained
us. She wouldn't have it any other
way. Paul, you're not going to sleep out there in the street,
or you're not going to stay in some strange place?" No, no, you're
coming to my house. She constrained us. She wouldn't
have it any other way. Now, Paul, to give you a little
background here, Paul had visited several churches to give them
the decrees to keep that were ordained of the apostles and
elders at Jerusalem. Look over in verse 4 of chapter
16. And they went through the cities,
and they delivered them the decrees for to keep, that were ordained
of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem. And so were
the churches established in the faith, and increased in number
daily." Let me just turn back a page here to chapter 15, and
just give you just a brief thing here of what had happened. In
chapter 15, in verse 1, certain men which came down from Judea
taught the brethren and said, except you be circumcised after
the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. You see, you have to
add this to it. You have to also obey this law
of circumcision. You can believe on Christ, that's
okay, but you also have to add this to it. In verse two, when
therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation
with them, they determined that Paul Barnabas and certain other
of them should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders
about this question. And that's what that chapter
15 is about. And so after they settled this matter, when you
have time, read those two chapters. After they settled this matter,
Paul and Barnabas and others went out to these churches and
gave them these decrees that were settled, this situation
that was settled up in Jerusalem. So that's that's kind of that
situation. And so the churches were blessed
and God added to the church daily and they were established in
the faith. And then Paul thinks, well, I'm going to go over into
Asia. Paul wanted to go to Asia, into Asia, you know, we we can
make our plans, but God directs our steps. God directs our steps,
and I'm sure glad he does. We ponder in the heart, but God
directs the steps. You can just mark that down.
So Paul was wanting to go to Asia, and God said, no, the Holy
Spirit forbade him to go to Asia. He was going to go down to Bithynia,
and the Spirit suffered him not to do that. He said, no, you're
not going there either. And so what does he do? He goes
to Philippi. He just goes to Philippi under
the direction and leadership of the Holy Spirit. He doesn't
know Lydia. He does not know these women are down by the riverside.
He goes there, and when he goes there, he's looking for a meeting. When he goes into town, he doesn't
just go into town and sightsee. He's not on a sightseeing trip.
He goes there, and he finds out if anyone's meeting, because
he's going to show up. And, of course, in Philippi there
was no synagogue because you have to have a certain number
of Jews to have a synagogue, and apparently they didn't have
any. So they was meeting down by the river. First thing I want
us to see here is the providence of God. The providence of God
in bringing Paul and Lydia together. And this happens. This happens
in every one of God's sheep. This happens to every one of
them. Every last one of them. They are brought together at
the appointed time. Lydia, you know, let me show
you something. She's from Thyatira. Turn over
to Revelation chapter one. Lydia is from Thyatira. Now, in Revelation chapter one,
in verse eleven, it says, saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first
and the last, and what thou seest, write in a book, and send it
unto the seven churches which are in Asia, and unto Ephesus,
and unto Samarna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira. Where was
Paul forbidden to go? He was forbidden to go to Asia,
but there's one from Asia that's going to be in Philippi. And
this was the first European convert. Lydia was a woman down by the
riverside. That's just God's providence.
No, you're not going to Asia, Paul, but there's going to be
someone from Asia that's going to hear you preach the gospel
and I'm going to save her. That's the providence of God. God's
providence. And the trouble at Jerusalem,
all this trouble that was going on and Paul and Barnabas They
were in a heated battle over this thing of circumcision, keeping
the law, adding to the gospel, adding to Christ. They were in
a battle over that. But little did he know that this
was going to be used, that this trouble was going to be used
in sending him out to preach to these other churches. And
he's going to go to Pelphi, and he's going to preach to this
group of women. And Lydia is going to hear the
gospel. And it says, God opened her heart.
The sound of that is so beautiful, isn't it? Just the sound of that. God opened. I just there is just
a gentleness about that, that I just can't describe. That old crusty jailer, if you
redress that chapter, God's in an earthquake. But God doesn't
deal with all his children in the same way. He brings them
all to the same one. He brings them all in a conviction
of sin. But you know, I had two sons. I didn't have to deal with
both of them exactly the same all the time. One was more stubborn
than the other. The oldest one was more stubborn
than the youngest one. And I dealt with them a little differently,
but they were both my sons. And here God, it says, opened
her heart. That just sounds so beautiful
to me. God opened her heart. And then God, listen, talking
about the providence of God here. God's going to bring Paul here
to Philippi. And he gives him a vision. And
there's a man in Macedonia saying, come over here and help us. We're lost. We are lost. Come over and help us. That's
why to finish it out, we're lost. We need the gospel. So Paul immediately. Without question, immediately
he went to Macedonia. And while he was there, he finds
this gathering of women down by the river where prayer, he
says, was wont to be made. Prayer was wont to be made. There
was a certain woman from Thyatira in town. She's in town on business,
so she thinks. She's down there doing business,
selling her wares. But she's down there because
she's going to hear the gospel. God is going to bring her to hear
the gospel of his son, and he's going to open her heart. She's
going to hear about the Lord Jesus Christ, and she's going
to fall in love with Christ, and she's going to fall in love
with his servants. This woman here is. So Paul and
those with him, they go down to this meeting, this prayer
meeting down by the river. God guides every step here, Paul
does. He guides every step of Paul
and he guides every step of Lydia to bring them together at this
appointed time. No one, no one hears the gospel
accidentally. No one. You may have not, a person
may not have come to this, even to this service, wanting to hear
the gospel. Someone may have talked them
into it, but I'm telling you the truth. You never hear the gospel. You never hear the truth preached
by accident. Now it's a saver of life unto
life to some, it's a saver of death unto death to some, but
you never hear it by accident, never. God guided every step
of the way. Providence is the working of
all things together to bring about the salvation of God's
elect. Everything that's going on today,
everything that has gone on in the past and everything that
shall go on is to bring about the salvation of God's people,
of the Church. and the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ in their salvation. Absolutely everything that goes
on. You know, we watch the news and you watch what's going on
with the economy. You get upset with all these things. Don't
lose sight of this. All of it's under God's control.
It's God's providence. It's God's worth. The earth is
the Lord's and those who dwell therein. The fullest thereof
and they who dwell therein. Psalm 24. It all belongs to him. This is his world. This is my
father's world. And he's running it. He's absolutely
running everything. Whether I have a good day or
a bad day, he's running it. My father is running it. And
he's running it with infinite wisdom. Infinite. And I tell
you what, the older I get, the older I get, the more comfort
I find that. I find more comfort in the fact
that this is all under his absolute sovereign control. And I can
sleep at night. I can lay me down to sleep because
it's under his control. Little did Lydia know that God
was guiding her to the place and the time when she would be
born again, when she would meet her Master, her Savior, her Lord. Little did she know that. Like
Zacchaeus. Little did he know. Little did
he know that his shortness of stature was on purpose. And that
tree planted there that he's going to climb up into to see
the Lord, little did he know that God had him up that tree
on purpose. Little did he know it. That eunuch, when he went
up to Jerusalem for the worship, he went up there to worship and
he had gotten a hold of Isaiah 53. Little did he realize or
know that that day God was going to send a preacher to preach
the gospel to him, to go preach Christ to him out of those same
scriptures he was reading. God did that. God did that. And God put this woman in business.
He put this woman in business in order to bring her at this
place at this time. He controls every minute detail
of our lives. Every minute detail. He puts
his sheep where they are on purpose. to hear the gospel. Now, we see
the power of God in his providence here. God overruled Paul's decision
to go to Asia. God overruled that. Paul was
going to go to Asia. No, Paul, you're not. I'm going
to go to Bithynia. No, you're not. God overruled that. You're
going to go down to Philippi, and you're going to be there
at this appointed time, and you're going to preach the gospel to
this woman, this sheep. Just like the Lord said, I must
these go through Samaria. He knew there was a sheep there.
Paul just had to follow the will of the Lord. But the Lord Jesus
Christ, he knew that woman at the well. He knew she'd be there.
He knew who she was and she'd be there at the exact time. He
knew it. So God overruled all things. And God opened the door. He sent a messenger with a message
to a certain woman, a certain place, at a certain time. And
he opened the doors to every one of those places. If you'll
notice, let me go back over here and find a place here, over in
chapter 16. It's in verse 9. Paul, in his vision,
appeared to Paul in the night. There stood a man of Macedonia
and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia and help
us. 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. Therefore, Lucius from
Troas We came with a straight course, no interruptions, no
problems, to Samothracea, and the next day to Neapolis, and
from thence to Philippi. This is a straight, he's just
like, bam, bam, bam. When God opens the door, the
door is open. The door's open. He opened that
door, and I'm telling you, there was no disruptions. Paul, you're
going to go there, and you're going to be there at this point
in time, and I mean, he's just like, bam, bam, bam. It just
happened. All the events that had to take
place were controlled by the power of God. And then it says here that she
worshiped God when he got there, when he got there and he looked
around to see if there was a meeting going on anywhere and he found
out there's one down by the river and he goes down to the river
and he and the Lord gives him a door, an open door to speak
to these women. He goes down there and says that
she worshipped God. She says she worshipped God there
in that verse. Well, this I know. She walked
in the light she had. She was down by the river with
these women, and she walked in the light that she had. But now
listen. Grace had prepared her for grace. Grace prepared her for this hour.
God was already at work on this woman, and she really didn't
know it. She didn't realize this. She didn't realize what was going
on. The ground had been plowed. The ground had been plowed and
prepared for the seed, and now the seed is going to be sown.
It's going to be sown. Grace is at work long before
we ever detect it. Long before we ever fall down
and believe the gospel. Grace has already been on our
path. Grace has already been at work. Grace has already been
preparing us for that hour of meeting the Savior. And this grace was bestowed upon
her, as well as all of God's children, before the world began. God never does anything spur-of-the-moment. He's not spurious. He doesn't
just do something off the cuff. The grace that followed her,
the grace that she was enabled to taste, the grace that arrested
her was already given to her in Christ before God ever created
the heavens and the earth. And the same can be said of every
one of God's children, every one of them. And this grace was
effectual. It says God opened, God opened
her heart. As she listened, she began to
understand. She began to understand the gospel,
and she believed what Paul was preaching. She believed the gospel
that Paul was preaching. You know, you cannot explain
how you believe. You just believe it. When you hear it, you say,
that's it. I remember the first time I heard
Henry on television. I was going to church, reading
the scriptures, and when the first time I heard it, that was
it. That's the gospel. That's the truth. I believe that. I believe it. It's the Word of
God. And that's what happened here. Lydia heard Paul preach. And listen, she heard him preach
Christ. She heard him preach Christ.
And God opened her heart. Lydia didn't open her heart. Lydia did not accept Jesus as
her personal Savior. Paul did not open her heart.
I cannot open your heart. I can make you feel bad. But
if you let me stand here long enough, I bet I'll make you feel
bad. But I cannot open your heart. I cannot put grace in the inward
part. I cannot put truth in the inward
part. I can't put it there. God has
to do that. God has to do business in the heart. Only God can reach
the heart. I can talk to your head, but
I can't get hold of your heart. God has to do that. That's what
God did. He opened her heart. It says
God opened her heart. Her heart was opened by the powerful
work of the Holy Spirit. He opened her heart. He opened
it. A person may do many things in
religion, but unless God opens the heart, they're lost. They're
lost. Being religious is not being
saved. I told a man that one time that I worked for it. And
he got upset with me. He took me to task over it. Being religious, you know, the
Jews were religious. They had a zeal of God, but not
according to knowledge. But being religious is not being
saved. Being saved is being brought into union with Christ. It's
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what they said to that
Philippian jailer. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou
shalt be saved. It's being brought into a union,
a living union with Him. That's salvation. Everybody's
religious. Everybody's religious. Believing
a bunch of doctrines is not going to save anybody. It's Christ.
It's being joined to Him, in love with Him, connected to Him. That's salvation. He is God. They say, God has become my salvation. God has become my salvation.
And then Paul preached unto those women the same message that he
preached to everyone else that he preached to. He didn't change
the message. The message doesn't change. The crowd, the faces
may change in the crowd, but I tell you this, the crowd still
doesn't change. We're still all rebels by nature. You know, everywhere
Paul went, he preached to the same type of people, all rebels.
They were all rebels. They were either religious rebels
or heathen rebels, but they were still rebels. A rebel is a rebel,
whether he's uneducated or uneducated. He can either be a polite rebel
or an unpolite rebel, but he's still a rebel. So Paul didn't
change the message. He didn't go down and look at
these women, and there's a nice bunch of women down here. You
can't tell these women that they're depraved. What are you going
to say to these nice ladies? You tell them the truth. God will not save any man apart
from the truth. Tell the truth. But it was a
message. The message he preached to them
was of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was of his grace and of his
mercy to the guilty. That's what he preached to these
women. It was a message concerning God's Son. Paul did not have,
and they did not have, the New Testament. He did, I believe,
what Philip did with that eunuch. He reached back into the Old
Testament. He probably reached back to Isaiah
53 and spoke of Christ as the substitute, wounded for our transgressions,
bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was laid upon him, and him is Christ. Him is the Nazarene that
they hung on that cross. That's what he preached. He preached
that man named Jesus that was crucified in Jerusalem. outside
of Jerusalem, outside the gates. He said, that's the one the prophet
speaking of. That's the one he's speaking of. The virgin shall
conceive and bear a son. That's him. And no doubt he kept
going back to the types and the pictures. And he kept saying,
that's him. He would take a type or a picture of the high priest
or the tabernacle or the scapegoat or the lambs or the Passover.
And he said, that's him. He's the fulfillment of all of
those scriptures. He's the fulfillment of all those
types. And God opened her heart. And
she said, that is, that's it. I believe that. I believe
that. God opened her heart and she
believed it. It was a message concerning the person and work
of the Son of God. Paul preached Christ to her.
That's what he preached. He preached a living person to
her. He did not indoctrinate her.
He preached Christ to her, just like Philip did to that eunuch.
Beginning at the same scripture, he preached unto him Jesus, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He preached Christ to her. And
he preached the Lord Jesus Christ as a risen, reigning Lord of
heaven and earth that is seated at God's right hand right now.
Crucified? Yes. Dead? No more. He's seated at God's
right hand. He's the living Lord. He's the
Messiah. He's the Redeemer. And she believed
him. She believed him. God opened her heart and she
believed him. And I have no doubt that he preached
to them. He didn't preach just to her. He preached to all those
ladies. He preached to however many women were there. He preached
to that crowd. Just like I'm preaching to this crowd. I don't
know who God's people are. I don't know whom the Lord will
save or whom he'll pass by. I don't know. No more than Paul
knew. I preached to, I preached, Henry
said one time, I preached expecting all men to believe Expecting all men to believe
it. God's to be believed. Christ is to be trusted. But
he preached to her, no doubt, the necessity of faith and repentance
in him. Repentance toward God and faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he preached unto her about
identification with Christ. Because it says, in verse 15,
when she was baptized. So Paul had to preach to her
about identification with Christ. following him in baptism because
she did. When she heard the gospel and
God opened her heart, she said, Paul, like at uni, here's water,
let's get this done. Let's get this done. I have no
confidence. I have no confidence in any person
who will not follow the Lord at baptism. Baptism doesn't save
anybody. I tell you this, not to do it
is rebellion. It's rebellion, because it's
a command of God. It's like refusing to take the
Lord's Supper when it passes by. I said, I don't want that.
I believe it. I'm not going to take that. It's an ordinance that the Lord
gave. It's identification with God's son. That's what it is.
And she says, she said, I'm going to be baptized. I'm going to
be baptized. And this kind of preaching got
results. Paul wasn't down there trying to save anybody. He was
down there glorifying God's Son by preaching Him. And God did
the saving. God did the opening of the heart.
He did that. And she was baptized. She followed
her Lord's command to be baptized. And then, listen, she opened
her home. She opened her home to God's
servant. She constrained them. You're
going to stay with us. You're going to stay with me.
She was given to hospitality. That's what grace will do. Grace,
you can't help. You will not be able to help
from being gracious. You cannot help but be gracious.
You cannot help but be hospitable. You can't help it. It's become
your nature now to do it. I know we still have that old
nature. I know it's what we still have, but we still have that
new nature, too. I'm telling you what, you can't
help but love the brethren. You can't do it. Can't do it. The heart that God
gives is will show hospitality. It will show kindness. Just like
this morning's message, poor and contrite spirit, humble spirit,
if you ever experienced that, you'll show hospitality. I mean,
you'll show it to anyone. To anyone. You won't feel yourself
to be above anyone. Not at all. And then it made
her faithful. Listen here. If you have judged
me to be faithful. Faithful. True faith will make
you faithful. Someone that's just in and out
spotty. That's not faith. That's not
faith. True faith will make you faithful. You have to have the
gospel. You want to be around God's people.
You want to be around the family. Unfaithfulness reveals no love,
no joy in the things of God. It reveals no real hope in Christ
because there is no real faith which gives real substance to
the one you claim to believe. If there's no real faith there.
But she said, if you count me faithful, you come and stay with
me. You come and stay with me. She
wouldn't let him go sleep out in the street. She said, you,
you go stay with me. You come to my house. What did
the Lord say? I was hungry and you fed me. I was naked and you clothed me. Sick and you doctored me. You
took care of me. And that's what she's doing. That's what she's
doing. She's taking care of God's servant. This is the best evidence. This is the best evidence. that
God has opened your heart when he opened your home and everything
you have is used for God's glory. You know that everything you
have belongs to him. What do you have that you did
not receive? Nothing. Nothing. God opened
her heart. God opened her heart. And you
know, after that, I'll show you something here, and I'll close.
After that, Paul went on preaching, and he and his companion were
thrown in prison. And he was beaten. They were
beaten, and they were thrown in prison. And then they were
finally let out of prison. You can go read the rest of that
chapter. They were let out of prison after they were beaten.
And after God saved that Philippian jailer, then they finally just
let him go. Look at the end of this chapter. This is after they
had been put in prison, after they'd been beaten, and they
were finally let go, and they were let out of prison. Verse
40, and they went out of prison, and they entered into Lydia's
house. Lydia wasn't afraid to take the
servants of the Lord in, even though the whole town was in
an uproar over it. She could have said, you know
what, this could be bad old business. This could be bad for business.
Or she could have said, you know, this could be dangerous to my
family. This could be dangerous to my family. I mean, this whole
place is in uproar. They've been beaten. No. Lydia opens her house and she
says, you come back to my house. You come back to my house. And
when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them, and then
they left. That's what happens when God
opens the heart. And when he opens the heart, you fall in love with the Lord
Jesus Christ. You don't fall in love with religion
or this and that. You fall in love with Him. A
real living person. And when you fall in love with
Him, He's got everything. He's got everything. I mean,
everything you have belongs to Him. And you don't care. You
want it that way. That's the way you want it. Okay,
Dwight.