and the ladies for helping us with the music again this morning. Take your Bibles, please, the book of Acts, Acts chapter 16, and I'll just remind you of the one announcement I forgot to make earlier. There is an evening service here this evening at 5.30, so I encourage you to come along, and also there is Sunday school as I see the kids departing, so kids are out to Sunday school, please. So don't forget, this evening at 5.30, and also there will be an evening service each night of the month, each Sunday night of the month, except for the last one, and we'll be having a luncheon that day, so we'll let you go home in the middle of the afternoon and stay home for the evening. So there will be a Sunday evening service each night, except for the last Sunday of the month. Having said all that, let's read together Acts 16, and we're gonna read from verse 11 down to verse number 15. Acts 11, Acts 16, verse 11 to 15. The Bible says, so setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city some days, and on the Sabbath, we went outside the gate to the riverside where we supposed there was a place of prayer. And we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. One who heard us was a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized into her household as well, she urged us, saying, if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay. and she prevailed upon us. Let's pray again. Loving Father, again, we cry out to you that we would all have ears and hearts and minds to hear what you would say, to truly listen. Father, we pray that the message would be understood. Father, we pray that you would do your work in each of us through the preaching of the word of God, and we ask it in Jesus' name, amen. What's the context of our text? In case you haven't been here for a couple of weeks, we are now just into Paul's second missionary journey. In Acts 15 and verse 40, Paul chooses and takes Silas with him and the two of them being commended to the grace of God by the brothers in Antioch. They traveled down from Antioch to Derbe and then to Lystra. And there in Lystra, they meet and they take Timothy and circumcised him to take him with them into the work. They traveled to the churches that Paul and Barnabas had already planted in that area, sharing the Jerusalem church's letter and the decisions regarding requirements for Gentiles believers coming to salvation. And that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to the scriptures alone. And so the churches were strengthened. to the glory of God alone, and we praise God for it. The group then travel on foot over some 600 or 700 miles of difficult, rugged terrain, finally arriving in Troas, and there in submission both to the Lord's leading, they set sail, and they travel across, and they arrive in Macedonia, and then travel from there to Neapolis and up to Philippi. The city of Philippi was about 16 kilometers by land from Neapolis. It's strategically located at the very eastern end of the Via Ignatia. And in 42 BC, Philippi had become a Roman colony. It was populated with Roman citizens for about 80 to 90 years by the time of Paul's arrival. Its approximately 7,500 population consisted of many retired Roman legionaries, but not at all a large Jewish population. It was wealthy, mostly farming community, independent of any Roman provincial government, but with a government that was modeled after Rome. Thessalonica, where Paul will go next, may have been the capital of Macedonia, but Philippi was its leading or its most respected city. And as I said, there were very few Jews living in Philippi. There was less than the 10 Jewish male heads of households that were required in order to set up a synagogue. And so without a synagogue, the faithful Jews met at a riverside because the Jewish diaspora rituals required the washing of hands. And I kind of wonder, too, that it was outside the city because as they gathered to worship and pray, they wanted to get a bit of distance between themselves and all of what was going on in the city. It would have been an ungodly city. And so it's Paul's habit, it's his custom to engage in Sabbath day ministry. He would go into the synagogues and reason with the Jews from the scriptures that Jesus is the promised Messiah. that Jesus had suffered and bled and died and been raised again according to the scriptures, and that Jesus was returning as the appointed judge of all mankind, which God had given assurance of by raising him from the dead. And so to the riverside, Paul and Simon, Timothy and Luke went. And by the way, as you read through the end of chapter 15, you'll notice that the pronouns change from they and you to we. And so it's most likely that at Troas, Luke, the author of the book of Acts has joined a group and the four of them are traveling together. So what is our text talking about? Why did the Lord inspire Luke to record this particular meeting out of likely hundreds that never got recorded or written down in the book of Acts? What purpose does God in grace have for us in this text? Our text describes for us the complete conversion of someone who is already spending time among a God-worshipping community, yet She still needs God's work of grace within her heart to be saved. It describes through Lydia what many of us here this morning have already experienced and what will yet happen for others who are here today. And it's our prayer that if you're here this morning, that you will experience that work of grace that many of us have experienced and Lydia did in the course of this conversation. And you know, as I read and meditated on the text throughout the week, what struck me was not only the awe-inspiring and praiseworthy work of God to open her heart to believe in God, but what actually struck me was the very serious warning that we do not settle into Lydia's experience of being a God worshiper, but never truly being born again by God's grace through faith in Christ. We need to hear this message because nobody, and I mean nobody, is physically born already a Christian. You are not born a Christian. You are born again and become a Christian. And that's a very clear thing. It's a very important thing that we have to make a distinction on. Jesus said to Nicodemus in John three in verse three, you must be born again. Hebrews 11 in verse six tells us that without faith, it is impossible to please God. We must each come to faith in God ourselves. cannot rest on parents' faith or siblings' faith or our friends' faith. Salvation is and always will be a personal experience of God's grace through faith. So to give you an outline from the text this morning, I want us to see, as usual, three things. A warning, number one, for the religious. Secondly, a work of grace for salvation. And thirdly, an example of faithfulness for believers. And put together, they form a narrative of a complete conversion. So first of all, the text describes a serious warning for the religious. Notice again in verse 14, the first part it says, one who heard us was a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods who was a worshiper of God. We'll just stop there for a moment. Lydia was from the city of Thyatira in a region called Lydia, and it's likely her name was a reflection of where she came from. Thyatira was a city in the Roman province of Asia. If you get a map out, and you look at the way that the four of them travel across the top, and they wind up over here in Philippi, she comes about 20 miles south of that, and she travels almost in a parallel route, and they wind up together at this great spot in Philippi, and there she hears the gospel. God has a plan. God's always working and He moves us and takes us in directions that sometimes we don't anticipate and He has a great meeting in store for us. I never planned when I was a little kid to go to Canada. My parents made that decision. I didn't plan to go to Anvil Island Bible Camp. My parents made that decision too. I didn't plan to wind up in Larry Reimer's cabin. I think I've told you Larry Reimer was a former special forces soldier, and he loved to put little guys like me, well, young guys, I was never very little, in difficult, painful situations, but he loved young boys. And he told them the gospel. And in a meeting spot all the way over there in Canada, I heard the gospel. And God opened doors for us to come back and carry on working here. That's a different story. I want you to notice that there is a serious warning for the religious in this text. In Thyatira, there was an extensive Jewish community, and it's perhaps there that Lydia first came into contact with Judaism and the one true God of the Jews. And God began to work to draw her close, and as she travels to do business all the way over in Philippi, she winds up going with these people down to the riverside to get together to worship and pray together, because there is no synagogue. She was a very wealthy business woman buying and selling purple products. And given that that particular purple color was often for the exclusive use of royalty, she would have had wealthy clientele and access to men and women in the highest levels of the Greek and Roman culture and society. Lydia was a first century wealthy woman of means, having a house and household large enough, as we'll see, to accommodate the four traveling missionaries. She had, in her world and her culture, everything that she could want. But clearly, something was missing. because she was willing to get up and walk the two and a half kilometers out to the riverside and meet with these Jewish people and observe the washings and lift up her hands in prayer and go through all that. There was something that she needed, something she wanted. This wealthy businesswoman came along with the Jewish women to the riverside to hear the scriptures read, to participate in prayer, and the worship conducted there. Luke describes her as a worshiper of God, meaning she was involved in performing the actions and rituals associated with the worship of God. The word is used here to describe Gentile God-fearers who were not included in the commonwealth of Israel, hesitating, hold back, holding back from becoming full-fledged Jews, but still worshiping, fearing, and respecting the one true God of the Bible. In fact, she is just like Cornelius. Very similar story back over in Acts chapter 10, who worshiped and prayed to and gave alms in the name of a Jewish God that he didn't even know personally. He did not experience that full conversion until Peter came preaching the gospel and the Spirit of God fell on him. So also Lydia's conversion was not until God's Spirit worked in her to open her heart that she truly believed and was saved. Lydia was living in reverential fear for God, who was yet unknown to her. She was freely associating with God's people, the Jews, the women. Lydia was attending a place of worship and prayer, meaning that God was already at work in her. She was already been drawn by God to the places and spaces where the Lord would, in time, bring her to hear and to respond to the message of Christ and the gospel and come to faith with God. Listen, you are not here because of some plan you had to how you spend your Sunday. You're here because God brought you here. And that means that's the same for every single person in this room, believer or not. You're here because God is working in your life and he has you here for a reason. Notice in verse 14, she was one who heard us. Lydia was hearing the words being spoken by Paul, but Lydia was not yet a true believer or follower of Christ. See, how do you know that she wasn't a true believer? Because the text tells us after this that God then opened her heart to hear and respond to the message of Paul. So what's the point? What's this serious warning I keep mentioning? Beloved friends, listen, our text serves as a serious warning for the religious, for those who attend worship, and participate in prayer, and in singing, and in reading scripture, but have never experienced a work of God's grace in their own hearts and lives. Listen. Beware, you do not remain like Lydia to this point in her story. Like Lydia, believing there is a God. Like Lydia, attending worship in this church or perhaps some other one week by week. Like Lydia, a distant worshiper of God, but never having truly come to know God through Christ. never having truly been born again by God's Spirit. Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3, he was a leader and a teacher of the Jews, Nicodemus was, and he thoroughly understood the law and the prophets and the covenants, the practice of worship, but he was not yet born again. And Jesus said to him, you must be born again. George Whitefield, the great 18th century preacher of the gospel, was approached by a lady one day and she said, Mr. Whitfield, why do you keep telling us we have to be born again? And George Whitfield turned and he said, my dear lady, that's because you must be born again. So I'm going to keep telling you that. He told Nicodemus that for the very same reason we need to hear, we must be born again. But listen, beware that you do not remain like Lydia at this point, believing there is a God, but not experiencing a work of His saving grace. Beloved friends, do not make this mistake of assuming that because you know the language that Christians use, you read the book that Christians read, you know the songs and the hymns and the Christians sing, and you live a religious life, that there is indeed a work of God's grace within your heart. She showed up and she worshiped. She sang the hymns. She listened to the reading of the scriptures. She participated in worship. And I have a feeling if she had just gone on that way, it would have just continued. And brothers and sisters, my great concern for us as a church, is that there are in this church those who have been coming here year after year after year. You know the language, you know the book, you know the songs, you know where we are, you know all about it, but there's not a work of grace in your heart. That's my concern. So what do you do? What do we do if we're concerned that we may be like Lydia? Paul says in Philippians 2, verses 12 and 13, Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence, but much more in my absence, listen, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it's God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Likewise, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 13 and verse 5, examine yourselves to see whether you're in the faith. Test yourselves. Expose yourself before God and your heart. Let Him see your heart. Cry out to God in prayer that He, through His Spirit, might testify to you in your own heart. As Paul says in Romans 8, 16, that you may know that indeed there is a work of grace inside you as the Spirit of God testifies to your heart that you belong to Christ. Plead with God in prayer to know. Come and talk with myself or one of the elders or with a family member or a friend who has known and experienced the work of grace. We'd love to help you. Keep listening to this message. We're gonna get there and how we understand it all. So the text serves as a warning that we do not remain like Lydia at the beginning of verse 14. We all need to experience God's work of grace within our hearts. Secondly, Our text describes God's gracious work for our salvation. Look again in verse 14, the last part of it. It says, "...the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul." It's the same word that Luke uses in Luke 24, verses 44 and 47. where Jesus, speaking with his disciples, says, These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms might be fulfilled. And he says, Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them, Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations. Notice in the verse, Lydia had her heart opened by God to pay attention to what was being said by Paul. The word for pay attention is the idea to listen, to consider carefully, to apply, to respond in conformity with what's being heard and to continue believing. It is possible to hear something but never truly listen to what you're hearing. Hearing is a physical act of your ears sensing and discerning sound, but listening is the mental comprehension of what those sounds mean in terms of words communicating meaning. Takes me right away back to Algebra 11. Who here sat through Algebra when they were going to school? I heard those words. I heard the x squared plus b squared minus c squared over a squared to the power of whatever. And I'm telling you, I feel so sorry for poor Mr. Williams. I found out after high school, he was a Christian. I think I put him in a mental home, or pretty close. He tried and tried and tried to teach me algebra so I could get through school. And I heard, but somehow it never got in the ear, until I started building roofs and cutting stairs as a carpenter, and it all made sense in that moment. But listen, don't lose yourself in the illustration. Lydia, in a spiritual application of that, at the beginning of verse 14, she's hearing the words. The sound and the meaning of the language was getting through, and that was absolutely essential. But it wasn't until the end of verse 14 where God opened her heart to pay attention, to respond in conformity with what she was hearing, that she truly, spiritually, listened to the gospel message that Paul was speaking. It was absolutely necessary for that work of God's grace in her heart, for her to truly listen to the message, to perceive the reality of the meaning of those words, and to experience the power of God behind them. Preaching the gospel is absolutely necessary. Hearing the gospel is absolutely necessary. But the work of God in our hearts, to open our hearts, to listen and respond, without that, it just carries on. If salvation was merely a logical comprehension of words, sentences, and paragraphs, then every time the gospel was spoken, people would believe, but they don't. I heard the gospel, and I heard it, and I heard it, and I started listening to it, and it made sense, and I wrestled and fought against it for a number of months. Finally, God just wore me down, and I understood it, and I responded, and I believed. God must sovereignly open the heart of the listener to hear, to listen, to receive the message, to receive the words into our hearts and souls and minds, to respond by believing deeply and grasping with certainty and conviction the gospel of God. Salvation is always a sovereign work of God's grace in our hearts. No man or woman can truly, completely come to Christ apart from God's sovereign work If you don't believe me, listen to what the Bible says. Check what I say with scripture always. In John 6, verses 43 to 44, Jesus answered and said to them, do not grumble amongst yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day. 1 Corinthians 30 and 31 says this, but by his, that's God's doing, you are in Christ. How are you a Christian? By God's doing. How is it that you came to hear the gospel? By God's doing. Why are you here this morning? God's doing. What is God doing in your heart? He's working to open the eyes of your heart, to hear the message, to listen to the message and believe it. In James 1 verse 18, the Bible says, in the exercise of God's will, He brought us forth. The idea is giving birth. by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of first fruits amongst his creatures. The salvation of sinners requires God's sovereign work of grace to open our hearts, to listen to the message, to receive the message, and to believe it. So how do we know? I mean, this is the great question, right? How do we know that there really has been a work of God's grace in me? Is it possible I've fooled myself? It's possible. So then, don't you think the good question would be, how do we find out? How do we know? Paul says in 2 Corinthians 13, 5, we read it already. He says, examine yourselves to see whether you're in the faith. Test yourselves. So when we examine our hearts, what should we look for? I'm going to give you three things to look for. No more. Three questions to ask. Do I believe in Christ? Do I believe? Number one, that's an easy one, I believe in Christ, no problem. Do I strive to love my brother and sister in Christ? That's a little more difficult. Do I strive to live like Christ? It's told to simplify to three words, believe, love, and live. You say, where does the Bible say that? I'm glad you asked. 1 John 2 and verse three, the Bible says, by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. How do I know for sure that I have come to know Christ? Is there a desire in my heart to obey what Jesus said? That's one way to know. By the way, just time out, if you're really struggling with assurance, and I know people do, teenagers, God bless you. Some of you really wrestle with this. Get down with 1 John and read it and read it and read it and answer the questions he raises in that book. It's the best book written on assurance, 1 John. 1 John chapter three and verse 23 says, and this is his commandment that we believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us. So the first two things, believe and love. And 1 John says, this is his commandment. What's that important for? Well, we just read, we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. And this is his commandment, believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he's commanded us. believe, and love. How did Christ command us to love? I mean, it's kind of a nebulous command. Does He define it? Yes, He does. Matthew 22, verse 37, Jesus said, Love the Lord, that's the first one. Secondly, love your neighbor as yourself. And the story of the two, you know, the guy going to Jericho gets beat up. Samaritan passes, or the priest passes, the Levite passes, everybody passes, they go the other way. The Samaritan comes over and helps him. And the point of the whole story is, my neighbor is someone who needs my help. Do we love our neighbors? In 1 John 13 and verse 34, Jesus said, a new commandment I give to you. What is it? You all know it. Love one another as I have loved you. By this shall all men know that you're my disciples. How do they know? We love the brotherhood. And in Matthew 5, 44, probably the most difficult one of all, Jesus said, love your enemies, meaning those that persecute and hate us. So first, we believe. How do you know that you're truly born again? How do you know there's a work of grace in your heart? Do you believe? How do you know that you're born again? Do you love God? You say, I don't love God perfectly. No, none of us do. Are you striving to love God? Are you striving with all your heart to love your brother and sister in Christ? Are you striving with all your heart to love your enemies and love your neighbors? And thirdly, the last one, we live like Christ. 1 John 2, verses five and six says this, by this we know that we are in Him, Whoever says he abides in Him, that means he's a believer, ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. Meaning what? Meaning that we know we have truly come to know Christ. We know there's a work of grace in our hearts when we live as Christ lived. Philippians 2 verses 5 to 8. I think I've told you before, I've read this beautiful hymn about Christ, and I've missed the point for so many years. The point is, in the first couple of words, Paul says, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not account equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." Living like Christ begins with the same self-emptying, humble, obedient mindset that Christ had. How do you know? Salvation is impossible without a work of God's grace in your heart. How do you know it's happened? You know if you believe in Jesus Christ. You know if you're striving to love God, love your neighbor, love your enemies, love your brother and sister, and if you're striving to live like Christ lived with the same humble mindset. Brother and sister in Christ, if you're struggling with this, I plead with you, don't let it go by. Be like Lydia, who stood there and heard the gospel, and we're going to see how she responded in a moment, and it illustrates all of those things, you know, almost immediately. But brother and sister in Christ, if you're struggling, you don't have the assurance that you want to have, that you truly belong to Christ. Read through 1 John. Come and find me. We'll sit down and work it through together. Come and find one of the elders or the elders' wives if you're a lady and you have to speak to someone, speak to a woman. We'll help you through it. We want you to have that assurance. By the way, I'm gonna add this. You say, that's a pretty tall list of things. That's a pretty high standard we have to meet. I want just all to know this. We are not only saved by the grace of God through faith in Christ, we also live this life by God's grace through faith in Christ. You don't make it two seconds in this Christian life on your own. It is God's grace being poured out on you day in and day out that enables you to take every single step of faith in this Christian life. It's God's grace at work in Lydia and in you and in me that our hearts are open to pay attention, to comprehend, to believe the gospel. It's God in grace that supplies all we need to continue to live this Christian life in obedience to Christ's command. This is a story of a complete conversion. God was at work in her to draw her close, to bring her to understand His existence, and to begin to be involved with Judaism of her day, to attend to the worship of God. And as she did, beyond that, God opened her heart. She heard the message through Paul. She believed and she was saved. But it didn't end there. Notice, thirdly, the text describes an example of faithfulness for all believers. Notice what Acts 16 and verse 15 says, it says, after she was baptized and her household as well, she urged us, that's Luke and Timothy and Silas and Paul, shouldn't forget him. The urge is saying, if you've judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay. And she prevailed upon us. Lydia displays the very things that we were just talking about. Lydia was faithful to her Lord Jesus Christ by obeying Him. You know you've come to know me if we keep His commands. What's the first thing she did? She was baptized. She was immediately obedient to the Lord by being baptized. Baptism is, first of all, obedience to God's command. It is also, as we all know, and being good Baptists, we make this point over and over again, it displays the reality, it displays the gospel in picture form. But for the person being baptized, it is first of all, foremost of all, it's a step of obedience. It's submission of my will to Christ's will, and Lydia displays that. Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 28, 19, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. She displayed the reality of her conversion by obeying Christ. We display the truth of our conversion by obedience to Christ's command, submitting to baptism. We said it last Sunday. A number of you have sent me text messages and emails saying how difficult last Sunday's message was. And my response is, try preaching it. It was very difficult for me to preach, for all of us to hear. But listen, I'm going to say it again. We are not our own. We belong to Christ. We are His to command. The obedience of baptism displays the reality of that. Lydia was faithful to her Lord Jesus Christ by submitting to baptism, secondly, by loving her brothers and sisters in Christ. She, being a wealthy businesswoman, had resources that she immediately put to use for the benefit of the church. She opened her house for the use of Paul and Silas and Timothy and Luke. She showed practical love for her brothers and sisters in such a manner that sharing her house for their use was not considered in any way inappropriate to an outsider. Not only that, As you look further into the history of Acts in the early church, you discover it's the Philippian church of which she was almost certainly a part that supplied Paul's financial, material needs later in the ministry. It is conceivable. As you read Philippians 4, verse 3, that she's one of those women mentioned by Paul who shared in his struggle in the cause of the gospel. Her faith and belief are in Christ. Her obedience to Christ's command of baptism and her practical love shown to the missionaries are all demonstrations, examples of her striving to live her life as Christ lived. She's showing the fruit. of the reality of our conversion. She was an example. She is an example of godly faithfulness to the Lord in simple yet clear ways. But she's not the only example of faithfulness to God. To step back a bit, slightly, to gain a wider viewpoint on it, in the conversion of men and women from sinners to saints, there is in reality three participants required. God who sovereignly brings His work of grace to the heart, the mind, the life of the listener, and we saw that. Secondly, there's the listener, like Lydia, who must hear and respond to the message as God opens their hearts to do so, and we saw that. And thirdly, there's the messenger, the preacher, witness, missionary, sharer, gospel track giver-outer, New Testament hander-outer, however you do it. Somebody takes an opportunity to put a word, a writing in the hand of somebody else. Someone takes an opportunity to share a message over the phone, across the back fence, on a street corner, wherever it is. There is a messenger involved. You say, couldn't God save someone without a messenger? Well, let's see what the Bible says. Romans 10, verses 14 to 17. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him whom they've never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent as it's written? How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news, but they have not obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ. Paul was faithful in his preaching of the gospel wherever God opened doors for him. And faithfulness is required of us. You see, I'd rather die than stand behind a pulpit and preach a message. When I first began, I had a similar experience. You say, that's not for me, man. I can't do that. Great. What is for you? How can you do it? Well, you know, I have a friend I've been praying for. Awesome. I got these gospel tracts. Fantastic. Go give her one. Leave a gospel tract where she'll find it if you're that shy. That's possible. Some people are so shy they just can't do that. But God gives us opportunities all the time where we can put the gospel into somebody else's hand. And being faithful to do that, however you do it. I have a doctor. I have more than one doctor. I have a doctor over in Pakenham, and he's a great guy. He's a Presbyterian elder. And right in his examination room, he has all this stuff on his desk. Doctors have got really messy desks, I noticed. And right smack, right there where you can't miss it, there's a Psalms and New Testament sitting. And it's always, for some strange reason, it's always facing the patient. He's not allowed to just open up and start talking about it, but if they ask, the doors open and off he goes. And he will share the gospel however he can. Simple things like that. Listen. It's faithfulness in preaching the gospel that God uses. It's not the ability to preach like Spurgeon or Whitefield or Moody or anything like that. It's faithfulness of handing a gospel message to somebody, sitting down and saying, I want you to know I'm praying for you, and I want to share the grace of God with you. So what is the gospel message? And I took and I put it in the bottom of your note sheet. I took one day and sat down and tried to put the gospel together in the clearest, most complete form. And I put that in your sheet there and you can follow along. I want you to take that with you. Maybe you're here this morning and you don't understand the message of the gospel. You can take that with you and look up all the Bible verses that go with it. I won't mention them all, they're on the sheet. The gospel is this, that God is holy and righteous and just and good. God designed and created us, you and I, to know unhindered joy and delight as we glorify him through obedience to him and his word. But we all, from Adam the first one created to us, have disobeyed God and failed to glorify God as we were supposed to. God has justly, righteously condemned us all to an eternal death in the fire of hell because of our disobedience to Him. Two of the greatest words together in the English language, but God being rich in mercy for the great love with which he loved us has sent Christ into the world. And Jesus Christ has come being truly God and truly man, the only unique son of God, perfectly obedient and sinless. And Jesus Christ has taken our sin on himself, your sin and mine. He suffered torture and crucifixion and died in our place on a cross to soothe and remove God's righteous anger against us. And Jesus Christ, because He was sinless and perfectly obedient, was raised from death, proving that He is the Son of God. Christ now calls us all. He calls you and He calls me. He calls all of us everywhere to turn away from committing sin, to trust Him fully to save us from His wrath, which is coming against those who refuse to submit to God and to follow Him. And so the call, the message of the gospel this morning is come to Christ. Trust God to keep His promises. Come in obedience to Jesus. Come and find true rest for your soul. Come and seek the Lord diligently. I promise you, you'll find Him. And I say that on the authority of the Word of God, not mine. You know, brothers and sisters, we wrap this all up. thinking about the story. And I would say, praise the Lord that he is bringing his people to himself from a vast array of backgrounds, through multitudes of avenues to himself, to hear and to listen to the message of the gospel. Praise God for the faithfulness of men and women who travel great distances to preach the gospel clearly, completely, and simply to those who have not heard it. And praise God that He opens the hearts and minds and pours His grace and love into our hearts to hear, to listen, to understand, and to believe and repent of our sin. Praise the Lord for a complete conversion in her life. Amen? Is it yours? Is that conversion your experience? You see, I'm not sure. My answer is it can be. The question is, will you respond to the message of the gospel? Will you go from being a faithful attender to church and become a true child of God by His grace, through faith in Him, to the unfailing glory of His name? Will you? Let's pray. Would you stand with me and we'll pray together, please? Our loving and our gracious Father in heaven, we bow before you and we lift up our hearts in worship to you this morning. We praise you, oh God, for this incredible situation. A missionary from hundreds of miles in one direction and a lady from a hundred miles in a different direction brought together. one to hear the message that was preached by the other, but to have her heart open that she might listen to it and respond to it. And a life radically changed, a complete conversion. Loving Father, this morning I cry out to you for those in this room, for that one who is listening. Father, I pray that by the power of your Holy Spirit, you would awaken in them faith and repentance. Father, I pray for the salvation of the lost in this room. I plea with you, oh God, do that great work of grace again this morning in this room. Father, I pray also for those who are sitting in this room and perhaps have attended church faithfully for years. but there is not in their lives a work of grace. Father, I pray that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you convict them of the reality of their circumstances, that they might begin to seek you, to cry out to you, to search diligently for you, that they might find you. Father, for those who are wrestling with assurance, and Lord, we all go through moments of doubt, Father, we pray that you would take and show them through an examination, perhaps of 1 John, of what it means to be truly saved, that they can know that they have come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Father, for those standing here this morning who have indeed believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, they have experienced that work of grace in their hearts, but they have not taken that step of obedience in submitting to baptism. Father, I cry out to you for them, that you would work in their hearts, that they would indeed submit to your lordship. They would know what it means to love and serve a Lord and a master. Father, I pray for them. Lord, for all of us who are wrestling and are struggling with that idea that we are not our own, that we have been bought with a price. Our life is no longer ours to command and do as we will with, but our lives are yours and we submit. Father, help us to submit. Father, I pray that you would help us in all that we do to live by the grace of God through faith in Christ. Father, I pray for all of us standing here this morning that know Christ, that the love that we have experienced would be shown to those around us. Lord, we are weak and failing and we struggle and we're crying out to you for help. Lord, please bring it. Help us, O God, we pray, to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit, to walk by the grace of God, to bear the evidence, the fruit of His presence in our lives. Father, we ask you for a work in each of us, each according to their need. And we ask it in the precious name of Jesus, amen.