Discovering God’s Will by His Spirit

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Transcript:

Turn with me in your Bibles to Acts chapter 16. Acts chapter 16. You know, every family has that one relative.

You know the one I’m talking about. They’re part of the family, so you love them, but they kind of make everybody else feel uncomfortable. They’re kind of not, they don’t quite fit with the rest of us.

We might even look at them and say they’re a little crazy. We love them, but we just don’t want to show them off necessarily. Every family has one of those, I’m convinced.

And if you’re sitting there thinking, well, I don’t know anybody like that in my family, it’s probably because you’re the one. I know whereof I speak. I think Christian and I are the ones in my family.

Okay, I am the one. Let’s clear that up. But we all have that one relative, unless we are the one relative.

We all have that one relative that, my goodness, we love them, but we don’t necessarily want to trot them out around town and say, this is my cousin. because they just tend to say things that don’t fit and they make everybody else feel uncomfortable, make everybody else feel awkward. Folks, it’s unfortunate that we as Baptists treat the Holy Spirit like that awkward relative that we want to hide away.

I know I’ve talked to you about this before. For over 100 years now, there’s been what we call the charismatic movement that I believe, you know, for all of their sincerity and all the good things that they may do, they have taken some scriptures out of context. They’ve blatantly misused some scriptures and come up with some practices that we try to distance ourselves from, and rightfully so.

But a lot of times we as Baptists have gone to the other extreme of saying that the Holy Spirit is almost like the black sheep of our family, that we don’t talk about the Holy Spirit. Anybody gives any indication of being filled with the Holy Spirit, and we say they’re charismatic. Somebody wants to lift up a hand in church, and we think, my goodness, I’m going to have to find another church.

We’ve gone charismatic. You know, we tend to look on those things. We tend to look at anybody who puts too much emphasis on the Holy Spirit with suspicion.

But if you look in the New Testament, you can’t walk away from it and think there was no emphasis on the Holy Spirit whatsoever. And folks, we as Baptists, I’m not saying we ought to be charismatic. As I said before, they’ve taken some scriptures out of context and I’m not in support of that.

But we ought to get over our discomfort at the Holy Spirit. Get over our discomfort at emphasizing the Holy Spirit, at looking for the work of the Holy Spirit, at listening to the Holy Spirit. This morning what I want to talk to you about is discovering God’s will by His Spirit.

I’ve discussed with you over the last few weeks the steps that we sometimes need to take if we’re going to find God’s will. He can just reveal it to us with no effort on our part if He chooses to. But what we see in the Bible a lot of times is that people have to seek Him a little bit.

that believers sometimes have to ask. He says, ask and you’ll receive. We talked about it last week with, if any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given to him.

And we see from the Psalms that two weeks ago, we saw that God reveals His will and His principles to us through His Word. Folks, we also see in the Bible that God reveals His will to us by the Holy Spirit. That sounds scary.

That sounds scary because that’s not something we’re real comfortable with, about listening to the Holy Spirit. Now, some of you may have no problem with this whatsoever. But as a Baptist, it’s a scary idea to say, okay, we’re going to start asking for the Holy Spirit to intervene in things because that just sounds charismatic.

But it’s because we’ve tried to distance ourselves, and rightfully so, but we’ve gone to an extreme of not giving the Holy Spirit of God the place in our spiritual lives individually and our worship collectively that he ought to have and that he had in the New Testament churches. If we spend our time and we study God’s Word and we just try to do it according to our intellect and we pray and it’s just by our power and we try to discern the will of God, we’re not always going to be successful because God uses His Spirit to relay things to us. God uses His Spirit to impart wisdom.

Jesus Himself said in the book of John that when the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth. I’m not talking about speaking in tongues. I’m not talking about being slain in the Spirit.

I believe those things are, in the case of being slain in the Spirit, I don’t see anything about that in Scripture. In the case of speaking in tongues, what it talks about in the book of Acts is completely different from what we see going on in churches today. I’m not talking about those things.

What I am talking about is listening to the direction of the Spirit of God as He speaks to us. Sometimes through unction, and I can’t give you a better definition than that, stronger than a feeling, but these things that we can’t explain, these stirrings within us that we know come from God, especially if we compare them to the Scriptures. Sometimes that still small voice that we hear from God, sometimes just the study of His Word, and He guides us into truth that we couldn’t have figured out on our own.

Folks, we need to listen to the Holy Spirit of God if we’re to discern God’s will, because He gave Him to us to guide us into all truth. We see an example of this in Acts chapter 16. Throughout the book of Acts, we see the apostles as they’re traveling around the Near East and they are sharing God’s word as they at first kept the salt and the shaker, as I’ve heard people say.

They were sent out to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world and they kept the salt and the shaker and said, we’re just going to sit here in Jerusalem and we’re just going to wait for something to happen. And then Pentecost came and for the most part they still sat there and waited. And then God said, okay, I’m going to get you out one way or another The persecution came.

Saul happened and some others happened. And suddenly the salt got spilled out of the shaker and went where it was supposed to go. People started traveling all over.

As they were running for their lives, traveled all over and took the gospel with them. But we know the story when Saul was on his way to Damascus that he was going to arrest the Christians and bring them back to Jerusalem. And on the way, Jesus Christ invaded Saul’s life.

We talked about it a little bit last Sunday night. He invaded Saul’s life and essentially called him to follow him. And then Saul became, Paul became one of the greatest Christian leaders in history.

As a matter of fact, in my own list of heroes, you know, Paul would probably, if he were here today, he would probably argue with me for saying this, but in my personal list of heroes, Paul is just about as high as a human being can get. Second only to Christ. I mean, I just admire Paul a lot. and he said of himself he was the chiefest of sinners, so I’m sure he would argue with my characterization of him in that way.

But he went out and he spread the gospel. He went into areas that had never heard of Jesus before and led people to Christ. He went to people that the rest of the Christians said were not worth reaching, and he did amazing, incredible things. He was sent out by the church at Antioch, and if we look at his first missionary journey, he went all through Syria, what’s now Syria.

He went throughout Asia Minor, which is now Turkey. And he went through this area and he went proclaiming the gospel. Went to the island of Cyprus and he preached the gospel.

He won men to Christ and he planted churches throughout this whole region and then goes back to Antioch. Then the church at Antioch sends him out again and he goes on another journey and he goes back where he’s been successful before. Not necessarily the same towns, but he goes back to Asia Minor and says, I’m going to have some ministry here again.

Folks, that makes sense. if any one of us were in his shoes, we would probably do the same thing. But I’m going to go back to where the people have been willing to listen before.

I might go to some different towns, might go to some different villages, but I’m going to go back through that area, and we’re going to do some more ministry. But apparently, as we’ll see in chapter 16, the Holy Spirit had some different ideas. Acts chapter 16, verse 1 says, Then came he to Derbe and to Lystra.

And behold, a certain disciple was there named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess and believed, but his father was a Greek, which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium. Now I know I just pronounced that same word two different ways. It’s because I’m not sure which pronunciation it is.

I’ve heard both. But were at Lystra or Lystra and Iconium. Him would Paul have to go forth with him and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.

So in order to make Timothy acceptable to the Jews when he was going to go preach in the synagogue, he had Timothy to be circumcised, because the people knew his father was Greek. And as they went, verse 4, through the cities, 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.

And when he’s gone to Iconium and Lystra and Derbe, he’s going to these towns. If you’ve got maps in your Bible, you can look at it and see. He’s going to towns that are in south-central Turkey, basically.

This area of Asia Minor that we know is Turkey now. And these are places that he visited on his first journey. There are churches there that owe their birth to Paul traveling through there before.

And so he’s gone back, he’s gone on this next missionary journey, and he’s gone to visit them again, probably as a springboard to continue traveling throughout the region preaching the gospel. And verse 6 says, Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia. says that they went to Phrygia, which was a region in Asia, in Turkey.

And they went into Galatia. We’re familiar with that term because Paul’s letter to the Galatians was written to the churches in Galatia later on. These are two areas in Asia that they left out of this area of Iconium and Lystra and Derbe.

And I wanted to bring a big map and show you, but I couldn’t find an easel. But they went from this area of Iconium and Lystra and Derbe, and they went up to Phrygia and Galatia, And they said, we’re going to preach the gospel here. And in verse 6, the Holy Spirit steps in and says, no, you’re not supposed to preach the gospel here.

Now, later on, he would preach the gospel in those areas. But at this point, the Holy Spirit says, no, you’re not to preach here. So verse 7, after they were come to Mysia, Mysia is not some far off foreign land for them.

Mysia is another part of Asia. It says they’ve been forbidden in verse 6 of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia. So they leave Phrygia and Galatia, and they go up to Mysia, which is still in Asia.

And they assayed or attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered or allowed them not. So they go, they said, okay, we’re here in Galatia and Phrygia, and the Holy Spirit has told us not to preach the word in Asia. Let’s, well, let’s try Mysia.

And the Holy Spirit said, no, no. They said, okay, we’ll try Bithynia. And the Spirit basically said to them, no, that’s still in Asia. And they passing by Mysia, so they went into Mysia again.

And my guess is the Holy Spirit told them no there again. And they passing by Mycenae came down to Troas. We would know it as Troy.

That city is in Asia. And they went to Troy. And I’m guessing the Holy Spirit told them no there too.

Because he had already said they were forbidden at that point from preaching the word in Asia. So they, after wandering around, and if you look at the map of Asia, and you can do that now or you can do it later, whatever you want to do. As I looked at this map earlier in the week, it looks like Paul is basically in a pinball game, just bouncing back and forth from place to place over the map of Asia.

And it’s like every time he gets close to somewhere, the Holy Spirit smacks that paddle out and sends him careening off in the other direction. And he’s just wandering around Asia, just bouncing around Asia, trying to find some place to minister. And he finally winds up in Troy, which is still in Asia, where he’d been forbidden to preach.

And verse 9 says, And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. So while he’s in Troy, the Holy Spirit gives him a little bit more instruction. A vision appeared to Paul in the night.

There stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia and help us. We sing sometimes in some of these old hymns about the Macedonian call. That’s what it’s talking about, this passage in Acts 16, where Paul sees the vision with the man from Macedonia who calls him and says, Come over to 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 to preach the gospel unto them. And Luke, as the writer of Acts, is including himself in this, because he’s going now to travel with Paul and says, As they’ve been in Troy, Paul sees this vision where a man calls them to Macedonia, and Paul recognizes it as a call from God to go and preach the gospel in Macedonia. And so he packs up Luke and Timothy and whoever else, and they head off on a journey.

It had been comfortable for Paul. He’d had success in Asia. Well, comfortable being a relative phrase.

Paul suffered persecution. Paul suffered arrest and beatings and threatenings and all these things. But relatively, Asia was what he was used to as far as ministry.

It makes sense he would want to stay there. And the Holy Spirit tells him no. And when the Holy Spirit then sends this vision, come over to Macedonia and help us, he recognizes it as further instruction from the Holy Spirit. And he packs up everybody and says, we’re going.

Macedonia is a part of northern Greece. There’s now a country in that area after Yugoslavia broke up. One of the countries in that area now calls itself Macedonia.

The Macedonia that it’s talking about, though, is the portion of Greece that borders that. Part of northern Greece. And so they’re actually being told, leave Asia Minor, leave the Asian continent altogether, and go over to Europe.

Some place completely new for the Christian message. It says there, verse 11, Therefore, loosing from Troy, from Troas, we came with a straight course to Samothracia, and the next day to Neapolis. So they leave Troy, they get on a boat, they head toward this island of Samothrace, one of the Greek islands, and they leave from there, and they head for the port of Neapolis in Greece.

He doesn’t waste any time. Once he hears from God, he doesn’t waste any time getting over there. He gets on the boat, he goes through Samothrace, which is nearly a direct shot, and up to the port of Neapolis.

And when he gets to Neapolis, he gets off the boat, and it says in verse 12, and from thence, from there to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia. And we know of Philippi because of the book of Philippians. He wrote to the church at Philippi later on in the book of Philippians.

This is where the church at Philippi got its start. And from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony, and we were in that city abiding certain days. So the Holy Spirit has directed him to get out of Asia and go up to Macedonia and to help these people, and he wanders into Philippi having probably, I would assume, no idea what he’s supposed to do.

Where am I supposed to go now? I’m here, Lord. What do you want for me to do?

And on the Sabbath, we went out of the city by a riverside where prayer was wont to be made, and we sat down and spake unto the women which resorted thither. So there were women outside the city at the riverside praying, and that’s where people went to pray. As I studied this week, I found out apparently there were, during Roman times at the city of Philippi, if I understand this correctly, there was an arch in the city that basically was a warning of punishment for anybody that would bring what they called strange religions into the city of Philippi.

And so the book of Acts, folks, the Bible will always corroborate true archaeology, will always corroborate true science. Little details like this could be very easily missed if the book of Acts had been made up a hundred years after the fact, if it had been made up by somebody later on. But little details like this attest to the fact that the book of Acts was written by Luke, who was eyewitness to the things that were going on, because he includes this little tidbit of information.

If I was going to make up a story about Paul going into Philippi, well, gee, every time he went into a city, he seems to go into the synagogue or the marketplace, so that’s what I would say. But no, it attests to the fact that on the Sabbath, he went out to the river outside of the city. Why?

Probably because there was a criminal penalty incurred. They were on guard against anybody bringing foreign religions into the city of Philippi. So he goes outside of town to where the women are meeting to pray.

And it attests to the fact that this is a historically accurate book. This stuff really happened. And we sat down and we spake to the women which resorted dither.

So not knowing where to go, they went to where the people were praying out by the river. And a certain woman named Lydia, verse 14, a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us, whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of by Paul. Spoken of Paul.

So as they’re down there by the river meeting with these women, they meet a woman named Lydia that the Bible says was a seller of purple, purple dye, being very expensive at that time. Probably a wealthy woman. They run across this woman, Lydia, who even though she was not a Christian yet, she already had a heart that was sensitive to the things of God.

The Bible says she worshipped God. It may be that she was a Jew, or she may have been like Cornelius when Peter met with them, that he was a Gentile who didn’t know much about God, but what he knew, he worshipped the one true God. Anyway, they ran across Lydia, and she heard them.

It says, the Lord opened her heart, and she attended, she listened, she paid attention to the things which were spoken of Paul. The things Paul had to say when he came and spoke to the women there at Philippi. Verse 15 says, And when she was baptized and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there.

And she constrained us. So the Bible indicates here that Paul, being led of the Holy Spirit, goes into Philippi with the men who are with him. Not knowing where to go, he happens upon this area outside of town where the women are praying.

He happens on, if you believe in coincidence, he happens on this woman named Lydia who was already seeking after God. that Lydia happens to believe the things that Paul preached. Lydia happens to get baptized, and the rest of her house happens to trust Christ and be baptized as well, and she happens to offer them a place to stay while they’re in town.

That’s a lot of happening and a lot of coincidence. What’s more likely is that the Holy Spirit sent them over to Macedonia because there were people already there who were seeking God and did not know God, at least not through Jesus Christ, and he sent them to where the people were ready to hear the gospel. Directed them to the right people.

Directed them to the people who were ready and willing to receive the gospel and that were going to be a fruitful start for their ministry in this brand new country. Because it just seems like too much coincidence that they walk into Philippi, having never been there before, and there all of a sudden they find Lydia. And Lydia trusts Christ. Lydia gets baptized.

Lydia’s entire family comes to faith. And then they’ve got a place to stay as they go and minister throughout the city of Philippi. They’ve got a base of operations, so to speak.

Verse 16 says, and it came to pass as we went to prayer. So after this, they went to prayer, and a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us. This is a demon-possessed little girl.

She met us and brought her masters much gain by soothsaying. These men had bought her, and she was essentially their slave, and they used the fact that this demon had possessed the little girl, and they used her as a fortune teller. to make them money.

And Paul and his entourage, for lack of a better word, happened to meet this girl. And the same followed Paul and us and cried, saying, These men are servants of the Most High God which show unto us the way of salvation. And this did she many days.

And I’ve wondered before whether this was an example of the fact that even the devil has to recognize who God is. There’s also the interpretation where some people think she was mocking them. It could have been either one.

It could have been both for that matter. The fact is, even the devil does have to recognize who God is, does have to recognize who Christ is. Even if he mocks now, he knows what his ultimate future is going to be.

And this spirit within her cried out after Paul and his men, These men are the servants of the Most High God, which show us the way unto salvation. And did this she many days, but Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit. Finally, Paul had had just about enough of this demon following them around and screaming things But he turns around and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.

It says, and he came out the same hour. He came out right then. Because Paul said, not I command thee in my name, I command thee because I said so, but I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.

That demon had no choice but to obey. And when her master saw the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas and drew them into the marketplace and the rulers and brought them to the magistrate, saying, men being Jews, to exceedingly trouble our city and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans. So these men did not care about the Roman customs and the Roman religion and the Roman laws.

They cared about the fact that Paul had just sunk their livelihood. They had been making money off of this demon and this little girl’s suffering. And when Paul commanded in Jesus’ name that that demon come out, and it came out and that the little girl was set free.

They said, He destroyed our livelihood. And so they took him before the law and said, These men are disrupting our city. No, no, these men were disrupting their pocketbooks.

They teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans. And the multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates rent off their clothes and commanded to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, when they had beaten them to where they showed the scars and the markings in many places, They cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely.

Who, having received such a charge, verse 24, thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the stops. Now this does not sound like this has worked out well for Paul, listening to the Holy Spirit and coming over to Macedonia. But if you think about it already, he has seen Lydia and her entire household come to faith.

And they have rescued this little girl from demon possession. I don’t know about you, but I’d say that’s a fruitful week in ministry. And as a result of what they’ve done, they get beaten and they get thrown into jail.

Well, even if that’s where it ended, even if that’s all their ministry had accomplished, knowing Paul, he’d probably say it was worth it to have come to Macedonia, even if we got beaten, even if we got thrown into jail, to have set this little girl free and to have led an entire family to faith in Christ. But it doesn’t end there. They’ve been thrown into jail. You know the story, verse 25.

And at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. An earthquake so great that it shook the very foundation of the prison.

And immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s bands were loosed. And the keeper of the prison, awaking out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had fled. He had been charged to keep the prisoners safe, to keep them in lockup, and the Roman army being brutal as it was, he probably would have faced a very stiff penalty if not his own life.

And so seeing the doors open when he wakes up, he’s ready to kill himself on his own sword. But Paul, verse 28, cried with a loud voice saying, Do thyself no harm, for we are all here. That’s incredible.

I mean, we might expect that a spiritual giant like Paul would say, No, here’s an opportunity here. Let’s stay here. But I’m guessing when he says we were all here, and it talks about the doors, the multitude of doors, I’m guessing that a city the size of Philippi had more than just Paul and his followers in jail.

And the fact is that when the doors flung open, Paul said, we are all here. This is just speculation on my part. But knowing what we know about Paul, I’m guessing there had been some gospel witnessing going on in that jail prior to this.

And I’m guessing that these men, the down and outs of society, had listened to what Paul had to say. And my guess would be, and again, this is just my guess. If you disagree, that’s fine.

We talked about that in Sunday school this morning. We don’t have to divide over it if you disagree on this point, because it’s just my opinion. My guess would be that some men in the jail had come to faith in Christ, or at least wanted to hear more about what Paul had to say.

And Paul was able to say, we are all still here. Don’t harm yourself. Paul had had ministry already in the prison, I believe.

Then he called for a light. The jailer called for a light, verse 29, and sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas. This mighty jailer comes in and falls at the feet of the lowly prisoners and brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

Again, my guess is not only was he moved by the fact that they had stayed there, it indicated there was something very different about these two men, but he had probably also been an unwilling victim of their jailhouse witnessing that night too. Because he doesn’t walk in and say, what’s wrong with you? There’s something different about you.

Why would you not leave when you had the chance? He doesn’t ask them that. He says, okay, what do I need to do to be saved?

My guess is he’d already heard about Christ from them, and now seeing that this was real because of the different way they reacted, he said, okay, what do I need to do to be saved now? And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And incidentally, that has not changed in 2,000 years.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And he’s not saying here that by you being saved, everybody in your house gets a free ticket to heaven. But he’s saying this doesn’t just apply for you, it applies for the rest of your family as well.

If they will believe, they’ll be saved too. And incidentally, statistics tell us, from many different sources, tell us that there’s a much greater likelihood that if the father and head of the family comes to Christ, that the rest of the family will follow suit. That’s just the way it is.

He says, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. and he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes and was baptized, and he and all his strayed away.

So in the middle of the night, he goes out and he wants to be baptized. And you know what? His whole family is baptized too.

Which tells me, knowing what we know about the Bible, that they had trusted Christ as well. Because baptism follows, as it did in Acts chapter 2, gladly receiving the word. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.

We can see now why God wanted Paul to go to Macedonia, because the fields there were white for harvest. There were people there ready to receive the gospel. Not that there weren’t people who would have received the gospel if they’d been preached to in Asia, but there was a need there in Philippi, in Macedonia, where people were ready, they were just right there ready to receive God’s word, ready to be baptized, and needed somebody to show them the way. And so the Holy Spirit said, Paul, don’t go to Asia.

Three points very quickly before we dismiss this morning. You’re asking me, what does any of this have to do with God’s will? Well, if we discover God’s will by His Spirit, we can learn from the story of Paul that the Holy Spirit, first of all, the Holy Spirit may surprise us and challenge our ideas.

We will very often have ideas about what we think is probably the best option to take in a situation, what’s the best way to serve God, And we think we’ve got it all figured out, and isn’t God lucky to have us and our smart brains knowing how to best handle the situation? And all of a sudden, if we’re listening, the Holy Spirit breaks in and says, no, that’s not the way you’re supposed to do it. And we’re thinking, but I’ve got it all figured out.

I know what I’m supposed to do. The Holy Spirit says no. Just to give you an example of this, a few years ago, a lady at church talked to me about