A Heart The Lord Opened

Well, good morning, everyone. If you would turn in your Bibles with me to John chapter 15. John chapter 15. I'm going to read the first 19 verses. I am the true vine, and my father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. In every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine. No more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me, ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered. And men gather them and cast them into the fire and they're burned.

If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my father glorified that you bear much fruit and so shall you be my disciples. As the father hath loved me, So have I loved you, continue ye in my love. If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth, I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth, but I have called you friends. For all things that I have heard of my father, I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain. That whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

These things I command you, that you love one another. If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own. But because you're not of the world, but I've chosen you out of the world, therefore, The world hateth you.

We'll end our reading there. All right, let's stand together as Chris leads us in singing our call to worship. My God, my life, my love, the only I adore. My Savior, Lord, my Priest, my King, my all forevermore. Oh, let my heart rejoice, thy praise my every thought, but when I see thee as thou art, I'll praise thee as I ought. Assist thy servant, Lord, thy gospel to proclaim. Let power and love attend thy word, and glorify thy name. Great is the Lord our God. Oh, let His praise be great. He makes His church His own.

Okay, you can be seated now, and if you would take your hymnal and turn it to 272 the solid rock 272 My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand.

All other ground is sinking sand. When darkness veils His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace, In every high and stormy gale, My anchor hold within the veil. On Christ the solid rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. His oath is kind, the night is blood, Support me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay. On Christ the solid rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand.

All other ground is sinking sand. When he shall come with trumpet sound, O may I there in Him be found, dressed in His righteousness alone, for lust to stand before the throne. On Christ the solid rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. If you would, turn your Bibles to Acts, the book of Acts, chapter 16. I'll read verses one through 15.

Then came he to Derbe and 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 by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium. Him would Paul have to go forth with him and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in their quarters, for they knew all that his father was a Greek.

And as they went 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. Now when they had gone through Phrygia, and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, after they were come to Messiah, they assayed to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them not. And they passing by Messiah came down to Troas, and 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. And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathered that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them. Therefore, loosing from Troas, we came with a straight course to Samothrathia, and the next day to Neapolis, and from thence to Philippi, which in the chief city of the part of Macedonia in the colony, and were in that city abiding certain days.

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 woman which resorted thither. And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshiped God, heard us, whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto things which were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized in her household, she besought us, saying, If you would have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there. And she constrained us.

Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we're so thankful, Lord, this morning, first and foremost, For being a God into whom you truly are, a God who, with a foreknowledge, foreknew a people, a people to whom you would save. A people whom you would redeem and a people to whom you would call. Call to this marvelous, glorious gospel in which we now have preached unto us. And Lord, we pray a blessing this morning. We pray that you would bless our pastor. In the words in which you have laid upon his heart, Lord, let him bring us those words in a way in which only you can send forth. And that's in the way of power, spirit, and truth. Be with us, Lord, in your word.

Now we pray, Lord, for those in whom are going through these very, very difficult times in this life, in this world, those who are suffering these infirmities, the afflictions of these fleshly bodies. We pray for them, Lord. We pray, Lord, that you help them, give them the understanding of who to call upon for these infirmities, these afflictions. All these things we pray, we pray these things in Christ's name and for his sake, and amen.

Keep your Bibles open there to Acts 16 will be our text this morning. I've titled the message, A Heart the Lord opened. And that word opened means to open the soul and to give life. And I want that to be true of you and me, that we do not just go through the motions of religion, but that the Lord has opened our soul and put life in our souls. A few weeks ago, our son Clark was at a customer's house and the talk turned to the religious things and the man asked Clark a question similar to this, when is a man saved? When does a man have eternal life? And part of Clark's answer to him was this, when the Lord puts life in the heart of a person, that's when they have eternal life. That's what happened here in our text this morning. And I want us to see how does the Lord open the hearts of his people?

Now verse one of Acts chapter 16, then came he to Derbe and 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. 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.

Now the act of circumcision, that's not what opens a person's heart. Any outward religious act, any outward fleshly act of the law is not what puts life or opens up into a heart or opens up the heart. They just had a whole conference about that a little bit ago. Does a person have to be circumcised in order to be saved?

They said no. So it might sound a little bit odd that Paul had Timothy circumcised. Now Paul did this to avoid persecution, to avoid problems from the Jews on down the road. And that's just wise. You know, if you can take a problem out of the way before it ever becomes a problem, that's a good idea, isn't it? And that's what Paul was doing here. Excuse me.

Now, If someone had demanded that Paul circumcised Timothy, he never would have done it because that would be putting everybody back under the law. That actually happened to Paul in Galatians chapter two, the Jews wanted Titus to be circumcised. They demanded that he be circumcised before he could be saved, before they listened to him preach. And Paul wouldn't do it. because he's not gonna give any appearance that man's works opens our hearts, that man's works does anything to contribute to our salvation. Paul said, I'm not gonna let anybody bring us back under bondage to the law. But here, nobody was demanding that Timothy be circumcised, and Paul just did it to avoid a problem down the road so that people would listen to Timothy. That's just wise. Now, verse five.

So were the churches established in the faith And they increased, or yeah, no verse four, let's go back up there. And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep. They preached to them the gospel that were ordained with the apostles and elders, which were at Jerusalem. And so were the churches established in the faith and increased in number daily.

Now, when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy ghost to preach the word in Asia. After they were come to Amysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia, but the spirit suffered them not. And they, passing by Amysia, came down to Troas.

And 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. And after he'd 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, Paul wanted to go into Asia. He thought, this looks like a good place to go preach. I'm gonna go into Asia and preach the gospel there. There's a lot of people there. There's people that might be interested. But the Lord said, no, don't go into Asia. And then Paul thought, well, I'll go into Bithynia. That looks like a good area to go to, you know, let's say a good fertile ground. And the Lord said, no, no, you're not gonna go to Bithynia. And then he sent him down into Macedonia.

Now the Lord only sends his preachers to places where his sheep are found. Either lost sheep or saved sheep. Lost sheep to call to Christ or saved sheep to feed them in the word of the gospel. But he only sends his preachers where there's sheep. And that ought to make us sit up and pay attention, shouldn't it? That ought to make us excited when the Lord sends his preacher to someplace, because he intends to save somebody there. That's why God sends his preachers. He's gonna save someone.

Now verse 11, therefore, loosing from Troas, we came with a straight course to Samothoratia, and the next day to Neopolis, 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. And on the Sabbath day, 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. Now these ladies gathered down by the riverside to worship. They would pray together, maybe they would read the word, and they gathered there to worship.

And they had to go there because in this city there was no temple. See, according to Jewish law or custom or whatever, there had to be a certain number of Jewish men in the city before you could have a temple there. Well, there weren't that many Jewish men, so they didn't have a temple. And since they didn't have a temple, they didn't have a priest, did they? They didn't have a priest who would offer sacrifices or go through the different ceremonies. They didn't have a priest who would read the word aloud on the Sabbath day. They didn't have that.

But these ladies, I just love these ladies, they did not let that stop them from worshiping God. Well, there's not a temple, but I tell you what we're gonna do, we're gonna go down there by the riverside, sit in the shade of some trees down there by the riverside, and we're gonna pray. We're gonna pray together. We're gonna worship together. And as they were there, I don't know how many weeks in a row they've been doing this, but on this Sabbath day, as they were there attempting to worship God, Paul and Silas appeared.

Maybe one of the ladies asked them if they had a word to say, you know, to say on. And Paul and Silas took that opportunity to preach Christ to them. Now, I just wonder what it was that they told him. I would have loved to heard some of these messages, you know, where you don't have their outline, you don't know the different things that they said. Wonder what Paul talked to those ladies about.

Well, it had to be the Old Testament scriptures, didn't it? Had to be. He talked about the different types and pictures and prophecies of the Messiah, things of the Old Testament, the types of Christ these ladies would have been familiar with. He talked to them about the woman seed, the promised seed of woman who is coming to crush Satan's head.

He talked to them about the Passover lamb, how there is salvation. There's deliverance from bondage to sin through the blood of the Passover lamb. His blood shed and put on the doorpost. And when that blood was shed and put on the doorpost, the firstborn lived because a substitute had died in his place. Maybe Paul talked to him about Isaiah 53. The lamb brought before her shears is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and by him were healed.

And he talked about those things. Now these ladies were familiar with the, and their ears perked up. They started listening. Janet, when, uh, She would teach the three, four, and five-year-olds. She had about a year's worth of lessons, maybe a little more. And then she'd go back and repeat them, trying to so these things would be solid, at least in their minds, before they went up to the next class. And when she started repeating lessons, sometimes one of the kids would say, oh, oh, oh, I know that one. I know this one. I know what happened here. I bet that's what those ladies were thinking. Oh, I know that one. I know that. I'm familiar with that. And then Paul told them, the seed of woman has come.

Jesus of Nazareth. He crushed Satan's head at Calvary. Yes, Satan bruised his heel, but he crushed his head at Calvary. He put away all of the sin of all of his people and took away Satan's power to accuse God's people of sin. He said, Christ is that Passover.

Christ, our Passover, is sacrifice for us. God's people live because Christ died as our substitute. and the Holy Spirit applies his blood to our hearts. Christ is that lamb slain. Christ is that lamb that Isaiah was writing about. He's the lamb slain. Jesus of Nazareth is. A man, Jesus of Nazareth. God became a man and he's God's lamb who was slain to take away the sin of the world. Jesus of Nazareth is that fountain open for sin. Open for sin and for uncleanness. Now come wash in him. Be washed in his blood. Be washed white as snow.

That's the gospel, the gospel of Christ that the Lord uses to open the hearts of his people. And as Paul preached that gospel, that's exactly what happened. Somebody's heart was opened. Let's look at it, verse 14. And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, she's a businesswoman, she'd travel around selling purple dyes and purple cloth and purple thread and so forth, of the city of Thyatira, which worshiped God. heard us, whose heart the Lord opened. And she attended under the things which were spoken of, Paul. Now here's the first thing about the person whose heart the Lord opens. They're a certain person. Lydia was a certain woman.

Now the only way salvation, the salvation of a sinner is possible is if they're a certain sinner. If the Lord left salvation up to chance, Maybe somebody hear the gospel, maybe not. Maybe if they hear it, they'll believe it, maybe not. If God left the salvation of sinners up to chance, no one would ever be saved.

No one ever would. I'm so thankful the Lord did not leave it up to us to stumble around in the dark and find him. No, he didn't do that. Because no one can stumble around in the dark and find the Lord. No one can stumble around in the dark and find a way to save themselves. We can't figure God out.

Look back at Job, the book of Job chapter 11. In verse seven. Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It's as high as heaven. What canst thou do? It's deeper than hell. What canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth and broader than the sea.

So no one just by chance can stumble around in the dark and find God, can they? They can't find salvation doing that. Then the Lord, thankfully, did not leave the salvation of his people up to their decision. If the Lord left salvation up to our decision, if he left it up to us to decide to have our hearts opened, no one's heart would be opened. Everyone would stay lost because our dead nature cannot and will not come to Christ for salvation. Our nature will not submit ourselves to the righteousness of God. It will not do it.

That's what our Lord told the Pharisees By nature, that's what every one of us is. By nature, every one of us is a Pharisee. Proud of our works, depending upon our works. Like Dan told us in his lesson, you know, comparing ourselves to one another, being proud of our works.

The Lord told those Pharisees, you cannot come unto me that you might have life. And then a little while later he told them, You will not come unto me that you might have life. We cannot come to Christ because our dead nature lacks the ability to do it. We're dead. Dead people can't do anything but stink. The dead man can't get up and walk and come to Christ. You cannot come to Christ by nature. And we will not come to Christ by nature. because our dead nature despises Christ. Our dead nature does not want to come to Christ. Our dead nature does not want to submit ourselves to the righteousness of Christ.

So no man, no woman, no boy, no girl will ever be saved by our own decision. If sinners are going to be saved, this has to be a decision that God makes and an act that God does for us and in us. If sinners are going to be saved, the father, had to elect a certain people, an exact people, an exact people that he chose by name to be put in his son, to be redeemed by his son. In time, the son had to come and suffer and die for a certain people. He's not coming to die for every son of Adam to make salvation possible for them if they decide to accept him, because remember, we cannot come to Christ. We will not come to Christ.

Christ had to come and suffer and die for an exact people. He died for those people specifically by name. Just like the Old Testament high priest wore the names of the tribe of Israel on his breastplate, Christ died with the names of his people on their heart. Died for them specifically, on purpose.

He said, I pray not for the world. Right before he went to the cross, he said, I'm not praying for the world, because I'm not going to the cross to die for the world. I pray for those whom thou has given me, because they're thine. That's who Christ came to suffer and die for.

He died for them on purpose. You think of the love of that. My soul. That God would love a people and choose to save them even though they're so sinful and all their sin is against him. That the son of God would come and suffer and die for a people because he loved them. They're his bride. They're the people that the father gave to the, he loves them. He willingly suffer and died for them because he loves his bride. Think of the grace of it.

We didn't, nobody ever could deserve the love of God. No one could ever deserve the son of God sacrificing himself for our sin. The grace of that, the mercy of that is beyond human comprehension, isn't it? And then the Holy Spirit must come, and he must draw those certain exact sinners to Christ.

He'll draw them to Christ through the preaching of the gospel, and give them faith to believe in Christ, to rest in him. And I tell you, they're all coming, because God's gonna see to it. He's not leaving it up to you and me now. He's gonna see to it that he crosses their path with the gospel, and he's gonna give them a heart to trust Christ. That's exactly what happened in our text.

Lydia ain't from around here. She's a traveling businesswoman. She's from Thyatira. You know where Thyatira is? Asia, where the Lord forbid Paul to go. If you look back in the back of your Bible at the maps, it looks to me like Paul traveled pretty closely to Thyatira. Passed it by. Oh my goodness, that's where Lydia lives. She's never gonna hear the gospel. She's gonna be lost. Let's just give up all hope. That's what the pessimist would say, wouldn't he?

But the Lord, instead of sending Paul to Thyatira, he sent Lydia to Philippi. Lydia just so happened to be in town on this Sabbath day when Paul was in town. And Paul, wonder how he found out there's a group of women down there worshiping God? I don't know, but he heard. Somehow he went, and he went there to worship God with them. You know why that happened? Because grace always hits the bullseye, always, for certain sinners. Then here's the second thing about the person that the Lord the heart's open. Lydia was seeking the Lord where he could be found.

There was no temple she could go to. There was no place of big fancy building and all the trappings of religion she could go to. But just a simple group of women meeting down by the riverside. They didn't have a building. They didn't have a shelter. They were just sitting under some trees, I reckon.

But they were reading the word of God. They were praying, maybe they were talking about the Lord, talking about things that at least they did know about God. And she went seeking the Lord, where he could be found. And that is a mighty good example for you and me to follow. I know this, I know this from reading God's word, and I know it by my experience.

I can't find God on my own. I cannot do it. I cannot make myself have faith in Christ. As much as I want to, I cannot do it. Even if I think it's true in my head, I cannot make myself trust Christ. I can't figure out salvation. I can't figure out how God saves sinners. I cannot make Christ die for me. I cannot make the Holy Spirit come to me. I can't do anything to make God or to get God to save me because I can't manipulate God.

But that doesn't mean there's nothing I can do. I can seek the Lord. I can, I can seek the Lord. I can find out where there's somebody preaching the gospel and I can make it my business to be there every time the doors are open and hear Christ preached. I can, I can seek the Lord where he's found. He says in scripture, we're two or three. How many women were down there? I don't know, two or three? Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them. I can seek the Lord where I know he is. He's where his gospels preach, where his people gather together to worship.

I can pray and I can beg God to forgive my sin. I can beg him to have mercy on my sorry soul. I can follow the example of some people in scripture, the way they prayed. I can be like that leper. Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. Lord, if you will, you can open my heart. Lord, if you will, you can reach down and put life in me. You can give me faith in Christ. Lord, if you will, if you will.

I know I can be where Christ is preached. And that's exactly what Lydia was doing. She can be in a place where the word is being read, where people are praying. And here she is seeking the Lord. And you know, it's not a great big surprise that she found the Lord, is it? Because this is the Lord's promise.

In the day that you seek me with all your heart, you'll find me. And really, just like some of the apostles, who found who? Remember as they came and told Nathaniel, we found the Messiah. Who found who? Well, Lydia found the Lord because the Lord found her. He found her right exactly where he put her to hear the gospel preached. Here's the third thing about the Lord opening the hearts of his people. Her heart was opened when she heard, when she heard the gospel of Christ. The word opened there, it says in verse, 14, the Lord opened her heart.

It means to open the soul and to give life. And that happened when she heard, when she heard Christ preach. Now that word heard, it doesn't mean just audibly hearing. The word means to be endowed, to be given the faculty of hearing. The Lord gave her the ability to hear Christ preach and believed on it. The Lord gave her spiritual ears to hear, and he gave her a new heart that believed Christ when she heard him preached. She might have thought, well, I've never heard that before, but I believe it. I believe it. Do you believe the gospel? Do you believe Christ? Do you believe he's all it takes to save you? Do you?

Tell you why. It's because God's given you a new heart. He's given you the ability to hear. See, this whole thing about this certain sinner and every certain sinner God ever saves is this. The Lord's in total control of this thing. The Lord sent Liddy on her. Maybe she had a circuit she traveled, selling her purple threads and cloths and so forth. He brought her to that riverside on that specific day. The specific day he brought his preacher to that same place. The Lord sends his gospel to where his sheep are. He does that. He brings the sheep and he sends the preacher. He sends the gospel and he's the one that gives an ear to hear and a heart to believe.

If we leave here this morning, because not believing Christ, it's because God simply was not pleased to give us an ear to hear and a heart to believe. And you know, You know, when you leave here this morning, you know whether or not you believe Christ. You know, you know you do. You know whether or not you are blessed in hearing the gospel preached. You know, was this just words to me and boring to me, or were these the words of life? You know. And if you leave here this morning knowing that you don't believe in Christ, go back to what I just said.

Ask God to open your heart. Ask God to have mercy on you. Ask God to reveal Christ to you and in you. Beg God to do it. Beg God to do it. I can tell you this, you're not here on accident. We're here this morning to hear this gospel of Christ preached to us.

And the Lord, when he opens our heart, don't be mistaken into thinking he's just waiting on you. to open the door to your heart to let him in. I hate that picture you see painted, this long-haired hippie knocking on the door, just waiting on you to open the door to your heart, let him, I hate that picture. And I'm gonna tell you what, if Lord's coming into your heart, he's gonna grab hold of the doorknob, he's gonna rip the door clean off. And he's coming in, and when he gets there, he's gonna rule, and you're gonna be mighty glad he's there.

But that's true. But this is also true. The Lord makes his people willing in the day of his power. Remember the Lord was passing through Jericho and he looked up that tree and saw Zacchaeus. Again, the Lord put Zacchaeus in that tree. The Lord did that. The Lord ordained he's gonna go through right at this exact time.

And he didn't look up at Zacchaeus and scream and yell at him and grab him by the scruff of the neck and say, I'm coming into your heart. He said, Zacchaeus, come on down here. I must abide at your house today. And Zacchaeus was so happy. Oh, Lord, come in. Come. Just come to my house. Everything I stole from people, I'll give back. I'll restore fourfold.

Everyone, when the Lord says to his people, I'm coming into your heart, we say, thank you, Lord. He opened our heart and comes in and rules and reigns in the hearts of his people. That's what happened when the Lord opens our hearts. Then here's the last thing. When the Lord opens the heart of a sinner, that sinner's gonna confess Christ publicly.

In verse 15, it says, and when she was baptized, and her household, everybody else who believed, she besought us, saying, if you've judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there. And she constrained us. Now first, if our hearts open, we're gonna confess Christ in believer's baptism. Now, baptism doesn't save anybody. Baptism is a confession. This is how God saved me. It's by the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ.

Through union with Christ, he died for my sin. He was made sin for me, and he died. And when he died, I died in him. When he was buried, I was buried in him, because he died to satisfy the law. Justice was satisfied when Christ died for my sin, and here's how I know that.

He is raised again the third day. He was raised again because all the sin laid on him had been put away by his precious blood. And I'm confessing, when I'm baptized, I'm confessing that's how God saved me. That's the only hope of salvation that I have. When Jesus Christ lived as a man, he lived for me, as my representative. When he died, he died for my sin. And he was raised again, it was proof positive. He justified me from all of my sin. All of my hope, all of it is in Christ.

It's not Christ plus my baptism. It's not Christ plus my faith. It's not Christ plus my faithfulness to attend the service. It's Christ, Christ alone. He's all my hope. And again, now baptism doesn't save, but it's mighty important. You know how I know it's important? The Lord commanded it. He commanded us. And if the Lord Jesus Christ has done that for you, let me ask you this question.

Why wouldn't you want to confess him? Why wouldn't you want to? But here's the second thing. You know, when a believer's baptized, that's not the last time we get to confess Christ. A believer confesses Christ in our daily walk, by our conduct as we travel through this world.

If you believe Christ died for you, he saved you by his grace, you're gonna be a gracious person. Now, you won't be as gracious as you wish you were. We won't be as gracious as we ought to be, but you will be gracious. If Lord saved you by his mercy, you're gonna be a merciful person. You think about the kindness of the Lord, that he would save the likes of you. You're gonna be kind to other people. You're gonna be forgiving to other people because God, just the same way as God, for Christ's sake, forgave you. You're gonna be a person of compassion and understanding and patient with other people, because you understand why they sin and why they act like they do, because you got the same nature they do.

But here's what Lydia did. She was baptized, confessing Christ. And then by her daily walk, here's how she confessed Christ. She gave herself to the Lord. She gave herself. Paul and Silas come to my house. You don't have to worry about a thing. What's mine is yours. You come in, I'll give you a bed. I'll give you three square meals a day. I'll wash your clothes. Whatever it is you need, I'll do for you. Because she gave herself to the Lord. and to his people.

Look at 2 Corinthians 8. Here's another really good example of this. 2 Corinthians 8. Verse one. Moreover, brethren, We do you to wit, we want you to know of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia, that in great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded under the riches of their liberality. For to their power, for their ability to give, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power, they were willing of themselves, praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.

These people are in deep poverty, and they took up an offering to send to these other churches, and they bring it to Paul, and Paul says, that's too much. Y'all can't afford this. Y'all just, let's maybe trim this down a little bit. You need this money to live on. And they told Paul, no, you take it. You take it. We want you to take it to these other people who are in need. Now, what would make a person give sacrificially like that so that they can't buy the other things that they might want or need so they can send it to somebody else in one?

Verse five tells us, and this they did, not as we had hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God. When God opens our heart, we give ourselves to the Lord. Well, if I give myself to the Lord, then everything I got, I give to him too, right? Everything. And to each other, to each other, to help one another, to pray for one another, to love one another. I read that passage in John 15 to open the service.

The world's gonna hate God's people. It's hard enough out there. Let's love one another because we've given ourselves to the Lord and to each other. That's how what happens when Lord opens our heart. That's how we confessing by our daily walk, by our love one to another. I pray God will reach down and open our hearts this morning. Put life in us and put life in us because this is how he does it. All right, let's bow together in prayer.

Our father, we're so thankful. for this portion of your word that shows us how you save certain sinners. That with complete and utter confidence, we know the Lord Jesus Christ has saved his people from their sin. And as you will cross our path with the gospel, give us a heart to believe it, an ear to hear it, a heart to believe it. that you'll give us a heart to confess you, that will follow you and trust you, and that you'll continue feeding us with that very same gospel, that you'll feed that new heart through the preaching of Christ. Father, how we thank you. And Father, I pray that you'd be pleased to be merciful to us this morning. If there's any heart here that you've not yet been pleased to open, that Father, this morning, by the hearing of your gospel, that you'll open our hearts. and give us faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Father, I thank you for this congregation, and I pray your richest blessing be upon it, that you continue to bless and lead and guide, continue to have your gospel sounded forth from this place for many, many years to come. For it's in Christ's name, for his glory's sake, we pray. Amen. And next Sunday, the Lord willing, I will take over as the pastor at Grace Baptist Church of Danville.

And I want to say again, if I can get through it, how much I love you. I'm not leaving because I don't love you, because somebody's offended me. It's because I'm as sure as I can be that the Lord has called me to go there and preach the gospel there.

And I'm going to miss you so much. I wish I could take every one of you with me. And I can assure you of this, that you will continue to be in my prayers. I pray for you every day now, and you will continue to be in my prayers. And I'll just be a phone call away. My cell phone's still going to work there in Danville. And if there's anything, that I can do for you, if it's humanly possible, I assure you I'll do it. Because I love you and I care about the ministry in this place. And I pray God bless you. All right, Chris. Because of that, we're going to do this. If you'll be standing and take your hymnal and turn it to 1-8-7.

Let's be the time that binds The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above. Before our Father's throne, We pour our hearts and prayers. Our fears, our hopes, our aims, our want, our comfort, and our cares. We share our mutual woes. our mutual burdens bear. And often for each other flows a sympathizing tear. When we asunder part, it gives us inward pain. We shall, shall be the joined in heart, and hope we'll meet again.

A Heart The Lord Opened

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A Heart The Lord Opened

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