We've been saying over the past couple of weeks that it's been a very special time in Bethany. It was just over 50 years ago since the original building opened here in the Vicary Gardens for the congregation as a home to worship in and to have the gospel proclaimed. And at that time there was a gospel mission in the church back in 1975. And it's also a significant time for our sister Pauline Gracie. I'm not going to say any more because I don't want to give away the testimony in the sense that Pauline is coming to relate that and how it all happened back then. I'm really glad and I do want to thank Pauline for agreeing to testify tonight. I felt it would be appropriate given the anniversary of the church and the time of her own conversions. I want to ask Pauline to come now and relate to us of that time when the Lord saved her and how the Lord has blessed her ever since. Well, indeed, 50 years ago on Friday the 13th of June 1975, I ended up in this church for the first time in my life. I hadn't planned to come here. I was dressed on a Friday night to go out with my normal socialising. As it turned out, we I ended up not going. So I went around to visit my cousin, just to be told that his wife was going down to this mission, that there was a Mr. Paisley speaking. Now, I had only heard, and I'm not being disrespectful when I say, this big man on television. And out of sheer curiosity, I came down with her. And so that's how I ended up here. But the beginning of my story, I was brought up with a godly mother and father, three girls, two boys. My mother and father loved the Lord, sent to Sunday school and every other meeting going. And indeed, I can remember no television in our home, but our Sabbath, you sat around the fire, listening to gospel music, reading the Sunday Companion and all this. And those times were very precious, and I remember those well. Sunday was respected in our home. Unfortunately, as you grow up, and you get into the things of the world. Now I'm going to say you've always heard people saying there's always a black sheep in the family. Well my dear parents had two. There was my brother Andrew who's in the glory now and myself and I'm sure they despaired many times. He and I Most Tuesday nights and weekends ended up in the yacht lounge doing karaoke and singing away. Coming home and no doubt the smell of the world around us and I have to say my father really never said too much. Now my mother was a different one because she'd give you your tongue. But daddy, all I remember is my daddy praying. praying very much for each one of his children, pleading unto the Lord. Now, I know there were many times my parents were grieved and we were doing those things and it hurt them very much. And we didn't intend to hurt them, but this is what life was. And I remember whenever I was at the nursing, Caught many times climbing in through the window whenever doors were locked in. I remember as well, mating right into my father. And she showed me the letter and father said that this behavior was foreign to her Christian upbringing. And he was hurt, but my father still prayed on. Now I don't tell you these things to glorify my behavior or the hurt that I caused my parents, but I tell you this. that if you're praying for a loved one that's out of Christ, don't look at the things that they're doing, just continue to pray. Because how my father prayed very much for us, and I remember that so well. Things changed very much in our home. My dear father took very ill. He had a brain tumor, was cancerous. And we watched this fine big man suffering from March until October. And I have to say, I couldn't understand this. This was a good man. A man that loved the Lord, did everything for his family. And I knew families round about us. that the fathers didn't really do much for their family and didn't really care much about them. But father passed away, and the day that daddy passed away, mommy had a box of promises in her bedroom, and I just out of sheer curiosity lifted one, and it said in the box, the steps of a good man are ordered from the Lord. And I knew my father was a good man, and our father God, that he would look over him. You know, many times, The next change came until our home was my brother, Drew, the one that I was singing in the yacht lounge with on a Tuesday night. Just shortly after that, he passed away, got saved. And it was a big shock to everybody because, and even within a short space of time, he declared that he wanted to go into the missionary, if it was so the will of the Lord. And so we did, but he had a different set of friends, and they would have had different get-togethers at the weekend. And Mummy's home wasn't very big, and I had been married at the time, and I said, look, why don't you bring them here, and you can have whatever you want to do. They would have had their fun night, but they also would have ended up with a wee word and courses. I was sitting one day, and I was in the office, and the cigarette was poised up in the hand, and this course came into my head. There's a new name written down in glory, and it's mine. Oh, yes, it's mine. Well, I knew I couldn't claim that, and I believed then that that's whenever the Spirit of the Lord started striving with me. I never really was content. I was striving for everything, and nothing gave me satisfaction. Every year, the social end of the winter, September, October, November, you're prepared for all these big dress dances and evening dances and everything else and took months to prepare. And yet I remember one night, it was about two o'clock in the morning and I was just sitting and I felt so empty. And I just thought, what is this all about? There was something got to be much more than this. As the things went on, and so it was, I ended up here on Friday the 13th of June. I was paraded up to the front here. Mr. Abram Grimson was sitting. Mr. Grimson was the superintendent of the Sunday school, and he was with Mrs. Grimson, Mrs. Ryans, and my dear mom. And they paraded me right up, had to pass them, and I'm sure they were shocked out of their lives because Here was me, mini dress, red lipstick, smelling smoke. But I would know now that they were praying for me because they loved the Lord. These dear people would have been in my mother's house every Sunday night and they knew how I was standing. And anyway, that night, I don't remember what Mr. Elliot was speaking about, but I do remember this, the last hymn. Life at best is very brief, like the falling of the leaf. Be in time. Fleeting days are flying fast, and the day will soon be cast. Be in time. And the chorus goes, be in time, be in time. For the voice of Jesus calls you, be in time. If in sin you longer wait, you will find no open gate, and your cry be just too late. Be in time. And friends, I knew enough of scriptures to know that it said, my spirit will not always strive with man. And I knew that night, just down here, I just asked the Lord into my heart. And that night, I was a new creature in Christ. Now very recently, Mr. Abernethy was speaking about, a few weeks ago, about looking back. And Fanny Crosby became blind after severe eye infection about six weeks. But she penned many hymns all to the glory of God and the keeping of God. And this one is very Dear to me, all the way my Savior leads me, what have I to ask beside? Can I doubt his tender mercy, who through life has been my guide? Heavenly peace, divinest comfort, hereby faith in him to dwell, for I know whate'er befalls me, Jesus doeth all things well. And so it was, about the year, beginning of the year 2000, I became very ill and I ended up in hospital for nearly two months. My skin, I had a very severe autoimmune disease and my skin was red hot. I'd lost all the power in my muscles and I lay just like a lymph doll in that hospital. And I remember one time There was one stage that there was about four around me because the muscles in the heart had just taken a dive. But you know that morning in my daily reading, it was in Psalm 57, one to two. Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me, for my soul trusteth in thee. Yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge. until these calamities be overpassed. I will cry unto God most high, unto God that performeth all things for me. And I remember reading in Job's gospel that he said, for he performs the thing that's appointed for me and many such things with him. And I knew how much my earthly father would have done for us, but how much more my heavenly father. And for many years, I struggled for quite a few years with that illness. But I thank God for praying people. I thank God for my church family. I thank God for my family and friends that saw me through that. And I want to thank you, Lord, too, passing of Colin and his illness and his passing. And I knew the peace of God and I knew that he was with me. And praise God, I know too that I see Colin again. I thank you very much. Well, I do want to thank Pauline for agreeing to bring a word of testimony tonight. Very emotional to listen, because what an encouragement it is for us that 50 years ago the Lord was working, the Lord was saving, and the Lord can do that again, and it is our prayer. that the Lord will do it again in our midst and in our community, and that souls will come to the Lord. What a blessing it is to know the influence of a Christian family. And for Christian parents who have children, grandchildren, who have perhaps brothers or sisters, and they're not Christians, and your heart is breaking for them, well, you've heard the best advice tonight, and that is to keep praying for them. And as I said this morning, I encourage you, let's be in the house of prayer. Let's not be ashamed or embarrassed to pray. In fact, it would be a neglect of our duty if we did neglect to pray for our families. and for our loved ones. And so let us redouble our efforts to be in the place of prayer and to pray for those who need the Lord. Maybe you're here tonight and you're not a Christian. And like Pauline was all those years ago, You're living for the things of the world, for the satisfaction and the pleasures of the world, and yet you find really within them there is no satisfaction. Well, tonight we point you to the One who can truly satisfy. Now, none but Christ can satisfy. He saves and He satisfies. None but Christ can satisfy. In another name for me, there's love, there's life, there's lasting joy. Lord Jesus found in the I want to read three verses of Scripture at the conclusion of our meeting tonight, and I promise you I won't be preaching long this evening. I felt with the testimony and soloist I would just bring a very brief word to conclude the meeting, and I intend to do that. I want you to turn to Acts 16, and I want to just read three verses of Scripture. This passage, Acts chapter 16, and I want to read from verse 13, 14, and 15. Acts chapter 16, the apostle Paul was commencing another great missionary journey. And he was going to go in one direction and God the Spirit told him, no. God speaks to his people. And Paul knew that the Lord was saying, no, you're not to go in a certain direction. And so Paul waited on the Lord and in a night vision, Before the Scriptures were completed, God still spoke in visions and dreams. Now He speaks through His Word. But in a vision, Paul saw a man of Macedonia, where we know today as Greece. And this man was bidding Paul to come over, and he said, come over and help us. And Paul knew that God was speaking and calling him to go to Greece. And that's where he was to begin his third missionary journey, and he came first to a city called Philippi. And while he was there, right at the commencement of his time, we read these words, verse 13. These are events that happened while he was in Philippi. 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 speak unto the women which resorted thither. 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 in 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. May the Lord bless the reading of His Word to our hearts. Fifty years ago, on Friday past, our friend and sister in the Lord, Pauline Gracie, had her heart opened by the Lord. She received the gospel by faith, and her life and her heart was transformed so that Fifty years later, she's able to still testify, that was the moment that the Lord saved me and I received Him. And if we were to use a little phrase to sum up what happened, we would say that our heart was open to the gospel. The heart speaks about the soul, the inner man. That's what the gospel's all about. The gospel isn't primarily to pamper the physical man. That's the mistake that many make today. That's where the mistake comes in with the social gospel. That the focus comes upon the physical man when primarily the gospel deals with the inner man, the soul of man. The soul is often referred to as the heart. The heart was open. receive the gospel. And in this little section of three verses we've read of Europe, she's often described as Europe's first convert. Could have some debate about that, because in Acts chapter 10, we read about Cornelius, who was a Roman soldier. But in a sense, on Paul's missionary endeavors for the church to be established in Europe as we know it, Lydia was his first convert and the first convert, and it all happened with her heart being open to the Lord. I wonder, has your heart been open to the Lord? Can you look back to a time in your life and your experience when your soul was open to receive Jesus Christ by faith as your Lord and as your Savior and to attend unto the things of God? the conclusion of this service. I want to just mention a number of things about the heart being opened, because that was the time of Lydia's conversion, of Lydia's salvation, and that's what in essence you need You need your heart to be opened unto the Lord, and that's really the first thought tonight, the necessity of the heart being opened to Christ. You see, it tells us of a particular specific time that Lydia's heart was opened. It gives the details. Paul and Silas had… those that accompanied him, they came to this riverside outside the city of Philippi, and it was at that time that our heart was opened. That means that everything before that and the time before that, Lydia's heart had been closed. But how it's put there, whose heart the Lord opened before this event, before these happenings, Lydia's heart was closed to God and to the gospel. And that's how each and every one of us starts our time on this earth. We start our journey on this earth. We are born into sin. And that means that our heart is closed to Jesus Christ and to the gospel. John pictured it in the book of Revelation that the Lord Jesus, He's outside the heart's door. He's knocking to get in. He's outside. And that's where you started on your journey in life in relation to God. Oh, you were inside the family home. You were inside the family community. But as far as the Lord was concerned, He was outside your heart's door. The door of your soul was closed to Him. And because Her heart was closed to God. It necessitated it being opened. Can I just point out that Lydia's heart, up until this point, was closed to God in spite of the fact she was a religious woman. It tells us that she worshipped God. In verse 14, she'd come down on the Sabbath day We don't know whether it was a company of Jews. or a company of those who had some knowledge of God and Jesus Christ, his son, but they'd come out of the city, they'd gathered by the riverside, and they were simply gathered there to pray. Paul and Silas, and Luke, they heard about this, and they made their way out there, and they beheld, and they engaged in a company of people who were there to pray and to worship the God. And in that company and in that group there was a woman, and while she was there to engage in the external formalities of worship, her heart was closed to God and salvation. And there are many people like that today. There are many people who attend churches regularly. They sing the hymns. They bow their heads in prayer. They listen to what is being said. Some will go as far as sitting at the table of the Lord and taking the sacrament of the Lord, and they go through the outward externals of religion, but that does not mean their heart has been opened to salvation, to eternal life. The outward elements of religion do not save the soul, do not open the soul to receive the Lord Jesus Christ. Here was a woman, and she engaged in the outward acts of religion, but her heart was closed to God. And whether you do that regularly or you only do it now and again, Men and women, the lesson tonight to remember is this, that performing the external rites of religion will never save the soul or open it to Jesus Christ and the gospel. Her heart was closed in spite of the fact that she was religious and she worshipped the Lord, but her heart was closed to God in spite of the fact she was an honest, hard-working woman. It tells us that She was a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira. Commentators, Bible commentators speculate on this and they think that perhaps her business had brought her to the city of Philippi where she would sell her wares. The purple related to is either purple garments or the purple dye that It was a very particular dye that they used in garments to make them purple, and purple was the royal and the rich color, and these were very expensive garments that she would have sold. And so she was a woman of honesty and integrity, a woman who worked hard to provide for her household and her family. And yet being an honest, hardworking woman. who also engaged in the outward acts of religion, those things did not open our heart to receive the gospel or eternal life or to be right with God. And I just emphasize tonight in this gospel meeting that while we commend an honest life A hard working life that is right and proper to provide by the means of laboring and working. It is good to come to a place of worship, particularly where the gospel is honestly and faithfully proclaimed. But none of those things will prepare us to be right with God or for the great eternity because in spite of those things Lydia's heart was still closed. I wonder am I describing someone in the meeting tonight, I wonder am I describing you, that in spite of These commendable attributes, your heart is still closed to the Lord. Your heart needs to be opened. The necessity of Lydia's heart being opened. I want to say secondly tonight, and I want you to notice the reality of her heart being opened, whose heart the Lord opened. And you'll notice it was the Lord that opened her heart. We often talk about, and in fact the hymn says, and the hymn is right, swing the heart's door widely open, bid him enter while you may. Because there are two ways and two matters we must consider when we talk about the opening of the heart. When the Lord does that work, that the heart will be opened, the sinner willingly throws the door open to invite the Savior in, but it's the Lord that enables the sinner to swing the heart door widely open. It's the work of the Lord. And it's hinted at here in these verses as to how it happened, whose heart the Lord opened. What does the Tui word say before, they heard us? You see, at that gathering by the riverside, the Apostle Paul, he must have introduced himself in some way. And he began to preach and to speak about the Word of God, that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. He died on the cross to provide salvation. The justification was by faith. Salvation was by faith alone in Christ alone. And Lydia heard him. She gave him an ear. Are you listening to the preacher tonight? Are you listening to the Word of God? That's what happened. She listened to the Word of God, and as she listened to the Word of God, her heart was open. Pauline described it in her experience. She'd grown up being taught the gospel. She found an emptiness in the things of the world. The Spirit of God had applied a little chorus to her heart, and when she came to the meeting, well, she might not have remembered what the preacher said specifically. She was under the preaching of the Word, and the Spirit of God moved upon her that her heart was open, and she said, into my heart, into my heart. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. I wonder, is the Lord working in someone's heart this evening, in your soul, and you that your heart has been closed to Jesus Christ up to now. You know that you must open your heart and your soul and your life to Him. If you ever want to be in heaven, you want your sins forgiven. You don't want to be lost. You don't want to perish. And we don't want that either for you. We don't want you to be lost in a place called hell. You know that you have to open your heart's door and the Lord's working on you. Oh, may the Lord Take the Word of God this evening and may apply it with such power and authority that your heart is open to receive Jesus Christ as He is freely offered in the gospel, to say, I'm willing to turn away from my sin. I'm willing to receive and believe in Jesus Christ, and I'm willing to live for Him. Oh, the reality, the Lord opened it. And it was open. Can I just emphasize those words again, whose heart the Lord opened. This was a real experience. And I want to remind you and assure you, salvation is a real experience. I can look back to that time in my life, at my bedside in the home place, and I know That night, I gave my life to the Lord. It was what's being described here, the heart being opened. Christianity and salvation is not about a works-based religion. It's about an experience of salvation within that leads us then to a life of living for, walking with, and seeking to obey the Savior. And it happens when our heart is opened. It's a real experience. I ask you tonight again, have you had that experience of your heart being opened? Let me come to the third thought in closing tonight. Not only the necessity of the heart being opened and the reality of the heart being opened, but the ministry of the heart being opened. Because it tells us that when her heart was opened, she attended unto the things that were spoken of Paul. There's one of the evidences. How do you know that your heart has been opened and you've become a Christian? You'll want to attend to the things of the Word of God that's then spoken of, in this case, in Lydia's case, by the preacher. What were those things? I've no doubt he taught repentance, a turning away from sin. an embracing of the Lord and then a living for the Lord in true worship and a life of obedience to the Savior. How do I know it's a life of obedience? Well, the very next verse, verse 15, when she was baptized, the best way to show that you're obeying the Savior is to be baptized for He spoke about it, He commanded it. And then that leads on to a life of obedience where our outward life is brought into conformity to the teaching of God's Word. Oh, there was outward obedience. There was an attending to the things that were spoken from the Word of God by the Apostle Paul. And then there was a fellowshipping with God's people. She says, come into my house and abide there. She was a woman given to hospitality. She wanted Paul to abide. with her in his missionary journey as he would preach the Word in Philippi. She had a heart for God's servants and God's people, and she wanted to be in their company. Those are the marks of a true Christian, one whose heart has been opened, obedience to the Lord in life, a ministering and fellowship with the saints and attendance to the Word of God. My friend, do those things mark your life? A desire to live for the Lord, to attend to the Word of God, to be in the company of God's people? That's the mark of one who's had their heart opened. And I close tonight by simply asking, has your heart been opened? Are you manifesting the marks of grace? If not, oh, call upon the Lord tonight. Look to Him that your heart will be opened, your sins will be forgiven, the Savior will come in, and you'll experience eternal life. And begin living for Him, knowing you're on your way to heaven. Your sins are forgiven.