Acts 16:13 And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down… We are to inquire — I. WHAT WERE THE THINGS WHICH WERE SPOKEN OF PAUL. It will not be uninteresting, and I hope not uninstructive, to take a review of the doctrine of the gospel, which may be comprised under these three heads: the ruin of all mankind; redemption and salvation by Christ Jesus; and regeneration by the Holy Ghost. II. WHAT ARE THE HINDRANCES TO A CORDIAL RECEPTION OF THE TRUTHS OF THE GOSPEL? 1. Pride in the human heart is a great obstacle. This evil disposition works not only in the vilest of mankind, but in those who are in their outward conduct blameless, in the moral and decent. 2. Prejudice is another powerful obstacle. Would you not have thought that the Jews of old would have believed in the Saviour, and have been instructed by Him in the way to heaven, seeing He performed so many miracles as proofs of His mission before their eyes? But they did not receive His words. And why did they not? They expected a triumphant Messiah. 3. The love of sin is another very great obstacle in the way of cordially receiving the truths of the gospel. 4. Lastly, the love of the world is another great obstacle. We do not say that Lydia was a lover of sin and of the world; because it is said "she worshipped God"; but there can be no doubt that her heart was full of Jewish prejudices against the religion of Christ; and in that state she would have continued had not her heart been opened so that she attended to the things which were spoken of Paul. III. This brings me to inquire, in the third place, BY WHOM AND BY WHAT MEANS THESE HINDRANCES ARE REMOVED AND THE CONSEQUENCE OF THEIR REMOVAL? Can man of himself remove them? No; for the Scriptures, from one end to another, declare that he has no power to do so. "Whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended to the things which were spoken of Paul." The means which the Lord uses are many. He opens the heart; that is, He instills into it a longing desire to be instructed in those Divine and saving truths of the gospel. There is one truth which our text sets before us that I would wish to impress upon your minds: it is this — that we ought not to forsake the assembling of ourselves in the house of God, from an idea that we can get as much good at home. If Lydia had not gone to the house of prayer on the day she was converted, she would not then, and perhaps never at all, have heard; and therefore would have lost the inestimable blessing which the Lord bestowed upon her in the use of the means of grace. (W. J. Kirkness, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither. |
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