The reading this morning, quite
a long reading, is on the second page of your hymn sheets. It's
from the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 16. Acts chapter 16,
and we'll read from verse 14 through to 34. Acts 16.14 And a certain woman named Lydia,
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 Paul. 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. And it
came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with
a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much
gain by soothsaying. The same followed Paul and us,
and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the Most
High God, which show unto us the way of salvation. And this
did she many days. But 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 the same hour. And when her masters saw that
the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas and
drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers. and brought
them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly
trouble our city, and 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, they cast them into prison, charging
the jailer to keep them safely, who, having received such a charge,
thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the
stocks. 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. 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 been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice,
saying, Do thyself no harm, for we are all here.' Then he 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? And they said, Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and 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, he
and all his straight way. And when he had brought them
into his house, he said, Made before them, and rejoiced, believing
in God with all his house. Thus far, the reading of God's
holy word. The word that I desire to speak
to you on is in the first verse, verse 14. It is on the front
page of your hymn sheets. It's not the whole verse. The
words are, Whose heart the Lord opened that she attended unto
the things which were spoken. This, of course, is speaking
of Lydia. And we read in this account of
two very different conversions here in Philippi, the one with
Lydia whose heart the Lord opened, it was a gentle work, and then
the other with the jailer who with great fears and crying out,
was brought into great concern and also brought to be saved. And it is the case of Lydia that
I desire to speak to you on this morning, draw your attention
to this aspect of her conversion and this mark of it, that her
heart was opened and that she attended unto the things that
were spoken of by Paul. I want to look first at how Paul
came to Philippi, because wherever we read of a blessing, then we
look at those things that accompany it, those things that surround
it. And if Lydia was to look back on this account, if she
was to been told by Paul as to how he actually came, how it
would have added to this blessing, because the Lord had shut two
other doors first, when they had been forbidden of the Holy
Ghost to preach the Word in Asia. Later on it was preached in Asia,
but not now. because it was that the Apostles
needed to go to Macedonia. But at this point they didn't
know. Then they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered
them not. They had no liberty of spirit
to do that. And then the Lord opened to them
the door to go into Macedonia by means of a vision. We're reminded of this, even
though the apostle is inspired, the writings that he wrote, and
he is an apostle, yet the Lord doesn't say to him, Paul, you
go over to Macedonia. Paul is left to live out his
life and to venture, and walking, if the Lord will, we will do
this or that. And there were some things that
the Apostle thought that he was going to do, intended to do,
but the Lord didn't, and the Lord stopped him in that. And
we had to walk the same way, we had to venture, a shut door
is as much direction as an open door, and the Apostle knew that.
And so when he came to Philippi, he had an open door. And the
Lord then blessed that again. It was to go into Macedonia. Well, what part of Macedonia?
What city? What place? The Lord knew where
to direct them. They came to Philippi, which
was the chief city of that part of Macedonia. There was many
other parts. but here they are directed to
Lydia and then through another providence to the jailer. We need to look often past the
circumstances and see the Lord's will and purpose and I feel especially
in this time with the virus and all that our government might
make decisions of we look past them Instead of dwelling upon
our time, maybe criticizing or think that they should do this
or that, to see the Lord's hand and the Lord's guiding in it,
and to bring about the word of God that it may be that before
this time there would be those that hadn't heard the word, but
through the means we use now, they are brought to hear the
word. So I noticed this first, how
a preacher came to be with a hearer, and that hearer was given a hearing
ear and made ready and willing to hear that word. mark how the
Lord does that in our lives, bringing the Word to us. The
second thing I bring before you is that the Lord's work is a
heart work. It is with the heart that man
believeth, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. And it is in our hearts where
the Malady is, our hearts by nature as hard as a stone, they
do not desire the things of God, they do not pay attention to
it, they don't see any need for the things of God at all. Our
hearts are unimpressed by the things of God, they see no need
of salvation, no danger nigh at all. until the Lord is pleased
to begin a hard work and in this case we see what the fruits and
effects of it were. Well, when Paul is speaking and
she's attending unto the things that he speaks, what the woman
with the damsel possessed with divination said, she said that
Paul, and it was a true saying, These men are the servants of
the Most High God, which show unto us the way of salvation."
And the hard work that was in Lydia was to open her heart to
attend to what these men that showed the way of salvation were
actually saying. So The evidence then of a heart
work put in a very simple way is that a person that the Lord
is working in their heart will attend unto the things that are
spoken by the servants of the Lord. So they don't just hear
it. The Word of God is very clear.
Be ye doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving your
own selves. But they hear in the innermost
being. They really attend to it. You
know, if you have subjects, and some of you will remember throughout
life, where you've had either lectures or going back to school
days, and sometimes there'd be a subject you're not interested
in, your mind is going everywhere, you're not really attentive at
all to it and other times there'll be something you're very interested
in, you really pay attention to it Now as a minister, and
seeing his congregation, I can't see you now. But when I'm face
to face with the congregation, then it is very interesting sometimes,
sometimes very discouraging. But you can see those that are
attentive and those that are not. And it's a great thing where
you've been maybe some years and you've seen someone evidently
not attentive, not interested at all, showing every sign that
they're really holding in contempt what is being said. And another
time you go and they're sitting on the edge of the seat and they're
listening with their eyes as well as their ears and they're
really glued and attentive to the word. and this is an evidence
of God's work in the heart and I'd bring to your remembrance
may the spirit bring to your remembrance some of you may be
back years and years ago when you didn't pay attention to the
things of God and the Lord worked in your heart and this is one
mark and one evidence that the Lord's working then you did pay
attention and you have done right through your lives, and may it
be a token for good, a scriptural token it is, of the Lord's work
in your heart, where you attend to the things that are spoken,
and once you do not, you attend because you have a soul, you
feel the worth of the soul, you feel your sins and you need a
saviour, and you hang upon the word that is spoken, that that
might be used for your soul. So, a hard work evidenced by
attending unto the things that are spoken by the Lord's servants. The third thing I bring before
you is the things that were spoken by Paul. You might say, well,
in this passage we don't read what things were spoken by him,
and that is true. But in this account in Acts,
Luke does record the things that Paul spoke on another occasion,
and he does this in the 13th chapter. There's no need to rehearse
again if it is very clearly set forth here in the Word of God
what Paul preached. He didn't change it from one
place to another. So if we go back to chapter 13
and we go back to Paul when he is in Antioch in Pisidia in verse
14 of chapter 13. And then we find him going into
the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and after they'd read the
Law and the Prophets, they said, Ye men and brethren, if ye have
any word of exhortation for the people, say on. So what does
Paul say? He first speaks to those that
fear God and calls them to attention. One thing that is absolutely
vital and it runs through again and again with the things that
Paul said, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And then he sets before them
a brief history of the children of Israel. the history of that
nation chosen by God, through whom the Lord Jesus Christ would
come. He leads down to David, and then
he says of this man's seed, in verse 23, hath God, according
to his promise, raised unto Israel a Saviour Jesus, and he's setting
forth this to the Gentiles. And so then he speaks of the
ministry of John, and when John fulfilled his course and he pointed
to the Lord Jesus Christ, Behold, one cometh after me, whose shoes
I am not worthy to loose, and He sets before them this way
of salvation. Again in verse 26 Paul says to
those at Antioch, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you
is the word of this salvation sent. The word that Lydia was
paying attention to was the word of salvation, how to be saved,
and wherein there is salvation. Then Paul sets before them how
our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified and slain, and Pilate declared
there was no fault in Him, but He was crucified, the sacrifice
for sin, bearing the sins of His people away in their place,
enduring the wrath of God for them. But God raised him from
the dead. This is one of Paul's central
messages. that not only was the sacrifice
made, but here is one that triumphed over death. And we are dead in
sin, we need one to raise us to life from that. Lydia was,
because the Lord had worked in her heart and opened her heart
to receive the word. She's no longer dead in trespasses
and sins. We need one that, when we die,
shall raise us up again, and to present us faultless before
the throne. This is this Jesus, the only
one given among men whereby we must be saved, the only one that
did voluntarily, not by constraint, lay down his life that he might
take it again. And then he speaks of the witnesses
that saw this, that spoke to him when he'd risen from the
dead, assuring his hearers that we haven't followed cunningly
devised fables when we made known unto you the coming and power
of the Lord, the certainty of it. You know, if you and I are
going to rest our souls, eternal welfare upon this word, upon
this testimony, upon what Paul is saying, we need to know it
is true. He said it is. This belongs to
the history of Israel and what happened to the Lord Jesus Christ
was witnesses by many. Many witnessed it. And himself,
his own conversion from being a hater of the Lord to be a lover
and a preacher of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle himself was
an example, the same as Lydia in her turn is an example to
me, to you. One who has been taught of God,
who has been saved, and we have central to this the Word of God,
how vital it is. You know, Paul, he says before
them here that this is the only way for forgiveness of sins.
He says in verse 38, chapter 13, Be it known unto you therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man, that is through the
Lord Jesus Christ, is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. And by him all that believe,
all that believe, are justified from all things from which they
could not be justified by the law of Moses. So this was Paul's
message And the very first thing we need is if we are to be saved
through the word, through believing, we need to hear and that word
enter in. And so we read with Paul, she
attended to these things, he spoke these things, and when
she was baptized and her household. Now, When we compare this account
with the Philippine jailer, we read that it was with his household
as well. But what was very clear, and
they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that
were in his house. They weren't just baptised because
they were part of that household, they were baptised because Paul
had preached to them as well. They had heard, they had believed,
they'd received the Word, and so they were baptised. We believe
in believers' baptism, a personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, what followed this opening
of her heart, attending to the Word, was believing, and then
obedience, to walk in the way that the Lord appointed, that
those that believe, those that have His work, be baptised and
put Him on in open profession. Now may this bring to many of
you the remembrance of the path that you have walked, some it
may be, a setting before your path you should walk, and may
you be strengthened and confirmed in the ways of the Lord. May
the Lord bless this word to us now, whose heart the Lord opened
and she attended unto the things which were spoken.