by Richard Sibbes
"Lydia ... was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul." - Acts 16:14
Except God be merciful to break the prison, as it were, whereby by unbelief and the wickedness of our nature we are shut up, there is no hope of salvation at all. God opens the heart.
'He opens, and no man shuts; and shuts and no man opens,' Rev. 3:7. He hath the key of the heart to open the understanding, the memory, the will, and affections. God, and God only, hath the key of the heart to open that. It is his prerogative. He made the heart, and he only hath to do with the heart.
It is God that opens the heart, and God only. All the angels in heaven cannot give one grace, not the least grace. Grace comes merely* from God. It is merely from God. All the creatures in the world cannot open the heart, but God only by his Holy Spirit. For nature cannot do above its sphere, as we say, above its own power. Natural things can do but natural things. For nature to raise itself up to believe heavenly things, it cannot be. Therefore as you see vapours go as high as the sun draws them up, and no higher, so the soul of man is lift up to heavenly things by the power of God's Spirit. God draws us and then we follow. God, I say, only openeth the heart.
This should teach us patience, when we can do little good with those that are under us by all our instructions and corrections, wait the due time. Grace is not of thy giving. The heart is not of thy opening, or of any man's opening. Therefore as it is 2 Tim. 2:23, seq., wait and bear 'with patience men of contrary minds,' waiting when God in due time gives them grace to repent. Grace is God's creature. It is none of our own. Therefore take heed that we be not short and angry spirited. If we cannot have all we would have of those that are under us, children or servants, let us wait God's time. He opens the heart in his time.
The heart must first be opened, and then the heart attends. God saith, he will circumcise the heart, and then we shall love him. He sanctifies the heart, and then it loves him. God changeth and altereth the frame of the soul, and then holy actions come from it. First, grace begins with the abilities and powers of the soul. The heart is opened, and then come holy actions suitable. There is no proportion between holy actions and an unsanctified soul. The heart must first be opened, and then it attends.
Where true grace is wrought, it carries not to speculation, or to practise this or that idle dream; but where the heart is open, grace carries to attend to the word, especially to the good word, the gospel of Christ. As grace is wrought by the word, so it carries the soul to the word.
And therefore it may be a use of trial, to know whether we have our hearts wrought on by the grace of God or no; whether God by his Spirit have opened our hearts or no, if our hearts be carried to the blessed word of God to relish that. If they be, God hath opened our hearts to attend to the word. And there is no better evidence of a child of God, than that that is fetched from the affection that he carries to the word and blessed truth of God. Oh, he relisheth it as his appointed food. He cannot be without it. Take away that, and you take away his life. 'My sheep hear my voice,' John 10:3. You are none of mine, because you hear not my word. A delight in the blessed truth of God is an argument that God hath first opened the heart.
Therefore poor souls, when they want good evidence, when they doubt whether their estate be good or no, let them consider what relish they have of divine truths; whether it be co-natural to the word* or no; whether it be savoury or no; whether they could be without the means of salvation or no; and let them judge of themselves by their delight in God's truth. Her heart was opened 'to attend to the word.'
Therefore be stirred up, as ye favour the souls of God's people, to pray to God 'to send labourers into his harvest,' Mat. 9:38; and to pray that the gospel, and the preaching of it, may have a free passage, that God would set up lights in all the dark corners of the kingdom, and everywhere to 'those that are in darkness, and in the shadow of death,' Ps. 107:10. And blessed are their endeavour that labour that the gospel may be preached in every part of the kingdom. For we see here it is the word unfolded, 'the unsearchable riches' of Christ spread open, the tapestry laid open, that usually beget faith. The mine must be digged; people must see it familiarly laid open.
Therefore saith he here, Lydia's heart was opened, 'and she attended to the words spoken by Paul.'
Excerpts from the sermon, Lydia's Conversion - Acts 16:14, 15 by Richard Sibbes