All right, turn over to Acts
chapter 7 now. Acts chapter 7. The story of
Saul's conversion in chapter 9. A message that I intend to bring
Sunday morning. Entitled kicking against the
pricks. It is such a good one that. And
such a necessary one I'm saving it. For Sunday morning that more
people might hear it that's all right and I want more people
to hear that wish everybody could hear this one. But. Tonight, I want to go over a
verse of Scripture that we pretty much just passed right over in
our study of Stephen's story, his testimony. At the stoning
of Stephen, look at verse fifty-eight in chapter seven. This verse,
and we'll read on down through verse three of chapter eight,
Acts seven It says they cast him out of the city. I remember another one who was
taken without the camp and killed. Cast him out of the city and
stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their
clothes at a young man's feet whose name was Saul. And they
stoned Stephen, who was calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus,
receive my spirit. And he kneeled down and cried
with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.
And when he had said this, he fell asleep. And Saul was consenting
unto his death. And at that time, there was a
great persecution against the church, which was at Jerusalem.
And they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea
and Samaria, except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen
to the burial and made great lamentation over him. As for
Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, hailing
men and women, committing them to prison. The Holy Spirit carefully
records this horrible death of his saint. called Stephen, and
I believe he did so as an example to us and rendering honor to
one to whom honor was due, Stephen. But the Spirit is also very careful
to name one of Stephen's martyrs, the only one he one of Stephen's
persecutors, a young man, it says in verse 58, whose name
was Saul. Young in that he was probably
in his early thirties. You know, a man was not considered
a man until he reached thirty years old in Jewish days. But the Spirit carefully records
the name of this young persecutor of Stephen, Saul. And what I want us to look at
in this message tonight is a contrast. A noteworthy contrast between
these two men, Stephen and the young man named Saul. I don't
know how old Stephen was. Perhaps he was a young man as
well. I don't believe he was very old, but let's look at a
contrast between these two men, the Holy Spirit gives this contrast
for good and wise reasons, and I believe we're going to profit
from this, and I entitled this message, Stephen and Saul. Stephen and Saul. Here in this
story, we have two men, two men, Stephen and Saul. They're alike
in some ways. They are both sincere Both of
these men are very sincere man there was no hypocrisy in state. That's obvious isn't he could
not have done would not have done what he did if he was a
hypocrite he would have turned and run ran from his. Persecutors
wouldn't in the face of his. Tormentors nor was all. So I wouldn't have a pretty.
Saul was very sincere about what he was doing. He thought he was
doing God a favor. He sincerely thought he was doing
God a favor. Does that ring a bell? Our Lord
himself said that. He said that this would happen.
Both of these men were sincere. Both of these men were in earnest. They were earnest men, or that
is, they were going about doing what they did in all earnestness. It was serious about. It was
not in Stevens nature to back down or be silent. Before anybody. I like that about this story
of Stephen don't you all be it look back at chapter six it says
in verse ten that they were not able to resist the wisdom. He
spoke with great wisdom and and in the Scriptures and the spirit
by which he spent evidently Stephen was a man full of—he was a kind
and tender and gracious and compassionate man, and he spoke with such,
with compassion, just like his Lord. But when the cause of Christ
was being blasphemed, he was no coward. He was a man in earnest
about what he was doing. So was Saul. So was Saul. Saul was willing to kill anybody
who disagreed with him, wasn't he? That's a man in earnest,
isn't it? He had a zeal for God, didn't
he? Not according to knowledge. Wrong
God. But he had a zeal for God. And
he was willing to kill those in disagreement with him. Remember
one time me telling you about a man who I love dearly, a faithful
minister of the gospel for many years. He used to work in a A garment factory down in South
Alabama worked there for years, 30 some years, pasture of a little
small group that was unable to support him full time. So he
worked a part time job in a in a yarn mill. You'd know the name
of it if I told you. And one day he was he was talking
to some of his workers, working coworkers, and evidently they
were rank Armenians, you know. the world is full of, and before
long, their talk became a heated exchange, and this man, this
friend of mine, hit that guy in the mouth. Well, that might not have been
the right approach to take. The fellow probably did not come
over to his way of thinking. But I appreciate that earnestness,
don't you? There's a man who believes what
he says he believes, right? Willing to fight you for it. That was Saul. Saul was convinced
that what he did was for the glory of God, too. Wasn't it? It shows you how blind men can
be by nature. Jeremiah 17 says, this heart
is deceitful above all things, desperately wicked. Who can know
it? You know, people, there are a lot of people today who are
very in earnest about their religion, about their way that they worship.
You've met them. And there are a lot of people
who are so in earnest, are so sure of themselves, they think
they are sure for heaven when in fact they are dead set for
hell. It's sad, but it's so. Saul was such a man. You read
that over in Philippians, don't you? He said, I, if anybody was
going to heaven, I was. He said, look at the difference. I want you to consider the difference
between these two men with me now. They were both sincere men.
They were both in earnest about what they believed. Here's the
real difference though, a glaring difference between these two
men. Saul was a man full of self-righteousness. Full of it. He kept the commandments
all right. If you'd asked him, well, he
said it, didn't he? In Philippians. Concerning the
law, as touching the law, blameless. He would have been just like
that rich young ruler. All these things have I kept from my youth
up. What like I yet? Nothing. He had impeccable credentials. Well, he's a Hebrew of Hebrews,
a Pharisee of Pharisees, and so forth. His heritage, if you
were to ask Saul, are you a sinner? He would have become indignant
with you, Joe. Not me. A sinner? Not me. I'm a righteous man. He would
have been that Pharisee praying in the temple, wouldn't he? I
thank thee, Father, I'm not as other men, even like this sinner.
This publican back there, he was no sinner. He was convinced
that if anybody had a right to heaven, he did. If anybody had
some rewards coming, he did. He said he was more zealous than
all of those that were Pharisees at the time. But Stephen, look
over chapter 6, verse 5. It says that Stephen, and I quoted
this. Stephen was a man full of faith
and of the Holy Ghost. Stephen was not full of himself. He was full of Christ, full of
faith in Christ. Stephen did not hope in the law,
but all of his hope was in the lawgiver. It was a big difference. Stephen dared not boast of himself
or glory in himself. Stephen gloried in the Lord. He was not going to glory in
anything or brag about anything. He gloried in the Lord. He gloried in Christ crucified. Glaring difference, isn't it?
Stephen drew no comfort from his own works, but drew all of
his comfort, hope, and confidence from the finished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. A glaring difference. The difference
between condemnation and salvation. Stephen knew he stood blameless
before God because Christ stood at the right hand of God. That's
who Stephen trusted in. That was his last words, wasn't
it? He said, I see Jesus standing
at the right hand of the majesty on high, and I know I'll stand
with him, not because anything he'd done, but because he was
standing at the right hand of God. Flaring difference, isn't
it? One man full of self-righteousness, but lost. Another man full of
faith in Christ and about to enter heaven itself. What a difference.
So. Saul boasted and trusted in himself
and his religion. Stephen boasted and trusted in
Christ. Christ was his religion. Christ
was his religion. Here are some other differences
between the two men. Saul was a religious formalist. Saul was a religious formalist.
He was taken up with the temple. I see if you can't think of these
things in terms of present-day religion. He was taken up with
the temple, such as many people are taken up with all of these
buildings and so forth, and all of their outward forms of worship,
so to speak. Saul was taken with a temple.
He was taken with a law. He was taken with a ceremony.
Saul made broad his phylacteries. You remember that when Christ
said they loved They make broad their phylacteries. You know
what phylacteries were? This is so ironic. It's unbelievable. Phylacteries
were little leather boxes that they would tie about their wrists,
and they would be full of verses of scripture, Old Testament scriptures,
which they had either memorized or something, or they loved,
particular verses of scripture. And the more scripture they wore,
you know, the more holy they were, made
broad, big boxes hanging all over them, scriptures. Does that,
does that sound familiar? Huh? If Saul had driven an automobile,
he'd had bumper stickers all over his car. Huh? He'd have made, he'd had big
crosses, the bigger the better, you know. He'd had one like the
Pope covering his entire chest. Right? He made broad his phylactery. He studied the Bible. Saul studied
the Bible. He was not ignorant of the Bible.
He was ignorant of Christ, though. Wasn't he? Oh, he knew something
about the Word of God, but he didn't know anything about the
Word of God. You say you repeated yourself.
No, I didn't. You know what I'm talking about,
don't you? He knew something about the written word, but he
didn't know anything about the incarnate word, Christ, of whom
all the prophets give witness. He could quote the prophets,
but he didn't know who they were talking about. He didn't know
the Christ. He was a man taken up entirely
with the externals of religion. Right? He was sincere. He was
in earnest. He was totally taken up, though,
with all these things, these externals of religion. It said
he was a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. Stephen was
a man who worshipped God in spirit and in truth, which is Christ. He's the truth. He worshipped
God in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't worship God
except in Christ, right? Except without a knowledge of
Christ, without faith in Christ. You can't come to God. You can't
even call his name, except through a mediator. God won't hear you
yet. Right? Stephen was a man who worshipped
God in spirit and truth. Stephen didn't despise the outward
forms of worship. Look over in chapter 7, verse
48. Stephen didn't despise them.
He went to the tabernacle every day, the temple, or every Sabbath
and other days. He didn't despise these things.
And we don't despise outward means God has given us. We just
don't worship it. He said this. He defined what
he believed about the temple. He said, the most high doesn't
dwell in temples made with hands. God's not worshipped with men's
hands, he said. Now, he wasn't making derogatory remarks about
the temple. God ordained the temple. But
he's just saying that we have a greater temple. God doesn't
dwell in this temple. God dwelled in a temple, though,
but it was a body of a man, Christ Jesus. And we are his temple. We got me well enough that. And he didn't despise Israel
you know who every good Christian loves Israel. We should pray for the peace
of Israel. We should God chose those people. But he didn't despise the Jews
but he just called them as they were. Not anything special, any
more than the Gentiles were. Look at it, verse 51 and 52.
He said, You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears,
you do always resist the Holy Ghost, as your fathers did. Which
of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? In other
words, he said, Jews are a bunch of lost sinners, just like everybody
else. And they're going to have to
be saved, the same as anybody else. They're not going to be
saved just because of Jews. He wasn't deriding Israel, or
the Jews, and neither do we. Do we? We're just saying he is
not a Jew, which is one outwardly, but he who is inwardly. Circumcision
is not of the flesh, right? But it's of the heart. All right? Now, Stephen didn't despise outward
form, but he simply worshipped the living God in his Christ.
All right, let's go on. Here's another note, important
note, that I added here, and it needs to be said. was defending Christ and Saul
was opposing him. And you understand what I mean
by defending Christ, the Lord does not need defending, but
he was nevertheless standing up before the blasphemers and
persecutors of his law, telling them about his law. He defended,
for lack of a better term, he defended Christ while Saul opposed
him. Now, a person may not stone believers,
listen Someone may not stone believers,
but they're willing to have it so, aren't they? Today, they're
willing to have it so if it were lawful. And let me bring this
thing home to where we live. Even you may not be doing open
harm to the cause of Christ while you're holding the clothes
of those that do. Right. What is it to hold the
clothes of those who do? Being unequally yoked together
with unbelievers. It's to associate with, seek
out the companionship with, placate, that is, please, honor and esteem
and approve of those who do. You're holding the clothes of
those who would kill your very brethren and your Lord himself.
Right? I'm not digging something out
of here It doesn't belong there at all. Christ said he that is
not with us is against us. He that gathereth not with me
scattereth abroad, even in the church people. If you're not
endeavoring to keep the unity, I preach that message on the
gall of bitterness. Listen up. I preach that message
on the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity. If you're
not endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit, you're breaking
it down. Right. If you're not doing, if you're
not actively involved in keeping the unit, this doesn't say, Vicki,
endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit, doesn't just say
sitting back and not causing any trouble. Right. He that gathereth with us, what
do you do when you gather, you sit back and you wait for, you
go gather, don't you? If we were to go pick beans,
Rick, how would you gather with me? You'd gather me a basket,
wouldn't you, buddy? Huh? Gather with us. This needs
to be said. Building up. He talks about building
up one another in this most holy faith. If you're not building
up actively, that fervent love for the brethren, that means
active love for the brethren. If you're not building up, you're breaking
down. You're scattering, tearing down without saying a word. You
can do that without saying a word. And I said this before about
your absence, about our absence. Being absent is Understand people
I'm not a totalitarian here, I don't demand you don't answer
to me answer to the Lord, but I don't demand that you be here
every single service. Gracious know there's times it's
unavoidable. It's unavoidable. I know that
knowing our nature that we are pretty much prone to look for
reasons and we can find one pretty easily. But your absence from
here, if it's any extended period of absence, It says volume it's
tearing down what it's saying in essence is. They might not
met there tonight I don't care. Right. We might will close the
doors I'm not interested. In it. Here it is here it is
all right let's go on from there. I want you to look at Saul's
introduction to true religion. He was a religious man, but he
now runs into some true religion. True religion. Saul was religious. Like I said, he was around religion,
he was interested in religion, he was active in it, but now
he finally witnesses true religion and true believers. Now, he wasn't
first impressed. Now, this is a perfect correlation
to many people you have met and will meet. this man saw. Listen. He was not first impressed
with true religion when he came upon it. He was hostile toward
it. Maybe you were. He was hostile
toward it. He saw some true Christians and
he put them in jail. And now Stephen, he saw Stephen
and heard, my, my, he saw Stephen, what a faithful witness of Christ,
and he joined in the others against Stephen, didn't Nevertheless,
he witnessed a true believer, a man full of faith in the Holy
Ghost and power. It says that Saul saw this too. Saul saw Stephen's face as it
had been the face of an angel. Right? Saul witnessed the same
countenance upon the same man that the rest of the Pharisees
did. What does that say? That Saul witnessed a man who
looked and acted like Jesus Christ. That's what he saw. That's what
he saw. What does that make you think?
What does that make you think? How does that make you feel?
When I thought about that, I thought, I hope. People that run into me. See
just something. Just a little bit in my countenance. of the person of Christ. Don't
you? Huh? Just a little bit. Just take note a little bit of
who I've been with. If I hadn't been with him, I
wouldn't take note of him, would I? Well, Saul saw a man whose face, he
looked like Christ, and he acted like Christ, and he heard a message.
Whew! Saul heard... Stephen preached
one message. Saul heard Stephen bring one
message. What was it? The gospel. It was full of Christ, wasn't
it? From start to finish. One message. What does that tell
us? Saw a witness, a believer, die
a triumphant death. Didn't it? Look again at Stephen's
death. Verses 56 and following. It says, Behold, Stephen, while
they were stoning him, I see the heavens open and the Son
of Man standing on the right hand of God. Then they cried
with a loud voice, Stopped their ears and ran upon him, grabbed
him, threw him down, cast him out of the city, grabbed the
biggest rocks they could find, laid their clothes down at a
young man's feet named Saul, and they beat his brains out
with rocks. And here's what Stephen kept right on saying, Lord, receive
my spirit. And he kneeled down and cried,
Lord, and don't lay this sin to their charge. Saul witnessed the man die like
a believer dies. You know, not kicking and fighting
and screaming, why me? Not that at all. He watched a
man fall asleep in the arms of the Lord Jesus himself. Hmm. Stephen's last and greatest
trial was a witness to his faith. Testimony to his Lord. Scott Richardson said this. And this man is speaking from
experience. He said most believers will be given one opportunity
in their lives to really witness their testimony for the Lord
Jesus Christ. One big one in the face of one
great trial. Most believers will be given
one opportunity to witness their testimony and their faith in
the one they say they believe and trust and rest and have confidence
in at one time. one time. God give me the grace. How do we appear to others in
everyday little trials? That shames me. Just little things. Makes me wonder, how am I going
to act when the big one comes? Oh boy. Saw, witnessed a man
die a triumphant death. Dry, this man died in faith. All right, I want you to look
now, and I'll hurry. Look at God's wisdom and his
sovereign power. Think about this with me. Listen
carefully. This is good now. Come on. You
with me? If you're not, just go on. You can go home and get to bed
early. OK? I'm offering you opportunity.
Listen, there's the God's wisdom and God's sovereign power in
this story. Good became from evil, God promised
it. Like Joseph said to his brethren,
you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. God said all
things work together for good, for good to them that love God,
who are called according to his purpose. Good came out of this
evil situation. This was a sad, and we looked
at it before, a dreadful time, horrible time. I cannot describe
to you what this is like I tried to but taken with Joe and having
it brought home to us like a bunch of me and taken brutally beating
and killing Joe parks for his stand for the gospel. What would
that do to this church it says that they made great lamentation.
And it scared him, Joe. It scared him. They were frightened
out of their wits. They were torn up. They didn't
know what to do. This was a dreadful time. Stephen
just seemed like he had been, the Lord was just starting to
use him. Huh? He was just coming to the front,
Stephen. This makes me think he's a young
man, a young, promising minister of the gospel, like a Brainerd
or a McShane. A young man coming up. Just seemed
like he was coming to the front, and if people would have thought
that he was going to die, they would have said, no, not Stephen.
Anybody but Stephen. Right? Don't take Stephen. Anybody
but him. We can't do without him. Huh? What a disaster this was for
the early church, wasn't it? Huh, wasn't it? They might have
said, what are we going to do without Stephen? You're going to stand still and
see the salvation of the Lord. He didn't do anything before
he came. God did it all anyway. What are we going to do? Are you just going to stand still
and watch God work? And are you going to marvel at
what he's about to do through all of this? The way he turns
evil into his glory and good of his people? Well, who's going
to take his place? Who's going to take Stephen's
place? He's such a promise, such a gifted, such a talented man.
Well, how are we going to do that? Well, look over there,
Lord. He said, look over there. See
that young man, those clothes lying on his feet there? No,
not him. Yeah, him. You know, that kind of made me
think. Those clothes laying at the feet of Saul kind of made
me think this was kind of like Elijah casting his mantle on
Elisha. his sovereignty. Anybody but
Stephen, and they might have said anybody but Saul, he doesn't
look like apostolic material. Look at his eyes. Look at him,
a little short, bald-headed fellow. That's what historians say. There's
no allusion to me at all there. He was a short He said he had
an eye affliction. He says his bodily presence was
weak and his speech contemptible. Right? Anybody. He's not apostolic
material. You just wait and see. That's
the kind God uses. That's what they said about David,
wasn't it? Huh? Anybody. Look here. Here's the oldest
here. He'll make a fine man of God. Look at all these talent
nods. The Lord rejected him. And on down the line, who you
got left? A little skint, skinny Shepherd out there. Anybody but
him. No, nobody but him. They said
that about Peter, wouldn't they? Who's the Lord going to use to
start his church? Look down there in those boats. You see those
old cussing, ragged fishermen down there, Peter and James.
You see them chewing red manna and cussing. You say, that's
what God's going to turn the world upside down with. No. No. Let's go to the seminary. We'll
find us our No, no place is going to glory in his presence. They said that about the Son
of God himself, didn't they? When we see him, there's no beauty
about it. Why, that is the carpenter's son. We know he's brother's and
sister's. That's the Son of God himself.
You see, God doesn't see as man sees. God doesn't look on the
outward countenance. He looks on the heart. Right?
God doesn't need talents. Every now and then he uses them,
but he gives them. He doesn't need our natural talents.
He can bring something out of nothing for his greater glory. He does. You see your calling,
brethren. Do you? You see your calling.
God gets the greater glory for greater sinners, doesn't he?
Now, this was a sad and dark day for the Church. A sad, dark
day for the Church, a strange and unexplainable happening.
Wasn't it? In God's providence, they were
asking, Why? Don't you know? They were all
asking, Why? Weren't they? Wouldn't you have?
A promising, a beloved believer, a leader in the Church, brutally
beaten and killed. Why? We see things happen all
the time, don't we, Robert? We see things happen all over
the world all the time today, and we say, why? How's God behind
all this? They were asking the same question.
Why? I don't understand it. Well,
God's ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our ways.
He said, he promised, he said, even the wrath of man shall praise
me. And the man who was the most
angry, it says in verse 9, Saul was bringing out threatenings
and slaughter. The most wrathful of the bunch
became the most—even the wrath of man shall praise him. Saul, who was before the most
wrathful, later on became the most praiseful, didn't he? And folks, even though times
look bad today, and they do, and I'm guilty of bringing them
to your attention. I just feel like we've got. A
have as president and all of his cohorts in the. You know in his cabinet and so
far really good I just didn't the times when I get in the flesh
I think. You know I want to go live in a cave somewhere. This
is still God's earth. This is still Christ's planet. He reigns and rules among the
armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. None
can stay his hand or say unto him, What doest thou? The King's
hand, Bill Clinton's hand is still, I mean, his heart is still
in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ to turn it whithersoever
he will. He's still reigning and ruling.
overall controlling, and he's able to say it to the uttermost, and even the religious most.
Isn't that our story? Saul preached before kings and rulers. The Lord said he would. He preached
before Pharisees and Sadducees and doctors and lawyers, didn't
he? He disputed with everybody, everywhere. And I believe he
did it in a very patient, very mild, very Christ-like manner. Very patient,
very compassionate, very considerate, wasn't he? Very thoughtful. Why? How could he do that? Well,
Saul remembered himself, didn't he? Saul remembered that God
saved him, though he was steeped in pride and religion, didn't
he? Huh? He saved him out of religion
and self-righteousness. So he was able, he was just the
man, wasn't he, to talk to those sorts of people. God able to
save that Saul, he's able to save a Saul, you run into that.
I need that exhortation. Generally, I dismiss these religious
people when they come to me, you know, these self-righteous.
You can spot them, you can smell them a mile away. They're the
ones with bumper stickers all over the car, and he wanted me
to go. God can save that man. Huh? He did Saul. I wish I had the
spirit and attitude of Saul in dealing with these people. Well,
here's a gracious, and this is good, and I'll hurry. This is God's gracious reminder
of sin, too. God gives us in this story a
gracious reminder, gives Paul a gracious reminder of his sin. Someone might say, gracious?
What do you mean? You see, the first gift that God Almighty
gives his people is the gift of conviction of sin. This is
the first gift, the goodness of God leads thee to repentance. Didn't Paul say that in Romans
2 to a bunch of Pharisees, a bunch of Jews? Do you despise the riches
of his goodness, knowing not that the goodness of God leads
thee to repentance? That's the gift of God. The first
gift of God Almighty, the first step in salvation is for God
Almighty to make a man or woman see just how rotten they are.
Just how sinful they are. The scripture says that the Holy
Spirit, when he comes, will convince the world of sin, righteousness,
and judgment. This tells me, Rick, this plainly
tells me that all this going on in the name of the Holy Spirit
is not the Spirit's work, doesn't it? Do you see any conviction
of sin, righteousness, and judgment? Do you see any people wailing
because of their sins? And I don't hear any talk of
sin, any conviction of sin, or much talk about Christ the Savior. So that tells me all of this
going on under the name of the Holy Spirit is not. The gift
of eternal life begins with a conviction of sin. Now listen to me, because
only the guilty need mercy. Only the helpless need grace.
Only the unlovely need God's love. Only a sinner needs a Savior. And only a man or a woman who
continually is reminded of their sin needs a Savior. God graciously, through his Word,
reminds us over and over and over and over and over again
of our sinfulness. One woman told one of our ladies,
said, Your pastor talks too much about sin. People, that's God's—it's a gift
of—that's grace. God graciously reminds us of
our sin. Why? To point us to Christ. Our sin makes Christ that much
more precious. Huh? Pride is abased, Christ
is exalted. The more pride is abased, the
more we are—decrease what? The more he increases, the more
sinful you—Scott Richardson, I quoted him, he said, go ahead
and convince me I'm a sinner. Tell me I'm a sinner. Call me
a dirty, rotten, low-down, no-good, sniveling snake's belly. Call me a sinner, a bad one,
a hell-deserving one. He said, convince me. Why? Because
that gives me a right to the Savior. All the promises of the
Savior are to sinners, not righteous people. See, I didn't come to
call you righteous. Are you righteous? No, I'm a
sinner. I came to you. I came to die
for you. Who'd Christ die for in Romans
5? John, who'd Christ die for in Romans 5? Who'd he say? He
died for the ungodly. Ungodly. So over and over through
the Scriptures, God reminds us we're ungodly, we're sinful.
That's grace! You ever think about that? That's
grace! It's the gift of the Holy Spirit. It really is. That's the Holy Spirit. You show me a man that has a
side of his sinfulness and has a great and high esteem for Christ,
I'll show you a Spirit-filled man. Paul the Apostle read his
story over and over again about Saul. He read his name. He read his name in that account. This name was printed in the
Bible to read over and over in Saul. Why? To remind him of the
pit from which he was digged. And when the Lord say that to
Abraham, remember the pit of idolatry from which you were
digged. To keep Paul humble. Oh, was Paul Unmold. I really
believe, we talked about this before, that this episode in
his life were the pricks that he could not kick against. I
really believe that this whole episode with Stephen and all
just at his conscience. I believe that message of the
gospel that Stephen preached just pricked his heart. He was
a man who knew the Old Testament scripture, and Stephen, this
unlearned, uneducated fellow, ignorant fellow, preached him
a message like he'd never heard it out of the Old Testament.
And days on end—you know how people sometimes vent their frustration? They know your rights, they get
that much madder at you, don't they? Huh? That's what Saul did.
He's writing, I know it, and I'm going to kill him for it.
Huh? But it piqued him from that day forward, didn't it? That
message that he heard about Christ. It could be so. I can't resist
the wisdom he spoke from the Old Testament. I can't resist
that till finally he met the Lord himself. But anyway, Saul saw his name
printed in scripture, the same with the rest of the other people.
Rahab, it was written right there for everybody to see. Harlots!
Oh Lord, don't say that about me, don't tell them about my
past. Yes! Why? To whom much is forgiven,
they'll love much. You're going to remember the
rest of your day, you were a harlot! And now when you're in heaven,
you're going to remember you were a harlot! And you're going
to sing the loudest of my grace. You see? Isn't that God's goodness
to remind us of our sinfulness? Peter denied the Lord, and that
was written for everybody to see. He denied the Lord. Lord,
don't put that in there, anything, but that. Don't put that. Yes,
Peter, because you're going to write 1 Peter, and it's going
to be the dearest thing to some of God's people's hearts, an
epistle of comfort and hope and encouragement to deniers of the
Lord just like you. And on and on. He wrote Young
Timothy. Paul later on wrote Young Timothy. He said, I was before a blasphemer
and a persecutor. Don't look up to me, Timothy.
Look to Christ. Look to Christ. And this is a
reminder. It's the goodness of God. I've
got a little bit more to go here. I wanted to read this. One of
our present days. I'll read an excerpt from it.
One of our present days. The man who is most widely watched
on television today. You know who that is? The man
who has the biggest following, the only man that is on public
television in Russia, Robert Shuler. If you want to throw
up at the mention of his name, fine. I feel like it, too. He
said this. These are quotes from his books. He has several books out. They're
good kindling. I advise you to buy them for
kindling. They're good kindling. He said this. He said this. I'll just give you some excerpts
from it. If you want a copy, I'll give it to you. He said, Deep
down, we feel we're not good enough to approach a holy God.
It is precisely at this point that classical or old theology
has erred. It has erred in its insistence
that theology be God-centered and not man-centered. This was in his book 1982, Self-Esteem,
The New Reformation. He said, He said in another book, he went
on in a magazine article in 1984, he said, I don't think anything
has been done in the name of Christ and under Christianity
that has proven more destructive to human personality and counterproductive
to evangelism than the unchristian, crude attempt to make people
aware of their lost and sinful condition. There's more. It gets worse.
He said, Why are we innately prideful? Why are we full of
pride? This is in his book. It's entitled, it's written in
1991. The title of it is Believe in the God Who Believes in You.
He wrote this, Why are we prideful? Surely the ego is not the product
of natural selection. Evolution, he goes on to say,
Why is human being proud by nature? Well, it says we're created by
the creative one, to be his children. We human beings are meant to
be the family of God on planet earth. We were designed to be
creators, redeemers, producers, encouragers, and proud of it. I'm reminded of what Paul said
in 2 Timothy chapter 3, that in the last days men shall be
lovers of their own selves. He said that this is going to
bring revival. Robert Shuler says it's going to bring revival.
I'm telling you right now from the Word of God, if you hear
over and over again your sinfulness, you bless God. That's the gift
of God. That's grace. That's God's grace.
God's grace. It reminds us of the pit from
which we were dug. All right, I'll tell you what,
only sinners need sovereign grace, too. Only sinners need sovereign
grace. Paul the Apostle never got away
from that message of sovereign grace. He didn't go over here
and delve into other matters, did he? Only a preacher who is
a sinner is going to keep preaching sovereign grace. Paul never dealt
in anything but the message of sovereign grace, and he did it
with conviction. Only sinners are going to continue
to believe it and preach it. And we're all going to be like
Uzzah Rubble. The foundation of our faith is
grace. And like Uzzah Rubble, you know, he laid the topstone
to it, crying, Grace unto it, Grace. And if we had our way,
we'd have our tombstone, topstone, laid over us with that written
all over it, Saved by Grace. Right? Saved by Grace. was made the apostle Paul. Only God can do that. And he
was reminded constantly of his sin. He was made a chosen vessel,
a humble tool in God's hand. His epistles are full of hope
and comfort for sinners, because his sin was always before him.
David wrote his greatest psalm that we heard Sunday night. Why? God, wasn't that a terrible thing
David went through? We wouldn't have Psalm 51 if
he hadn't gone through that. His darkest hour. And David wrote
his greatest psalm, why? Because his sin was ever before
him. And lastly, the gospel was the
power of God and the soul's salvation, and so he never ceased to preach
it. The gospel. Like I said, young Saul stood
there and listened to every word of Stephen. How do you think
that he could recall every word of Stephen's sermon? Huh? He knew every word of it. Huh?
Yeah. You know, Luke traveled with
Paul everywhere. Luke is the writer of the Acts
of Paul. He's not in the picture yet. Luke traveled everywhere.
And later on, Paul got Luke to the side and said, you write
this down. You write this message down. that Stephen wrote. We
don't want this to get slipped. He recalled every word of it,
and he patterned all of his preaching from that day forward on that
one message. Look it up. Study him. Study every one of
his messages throughout the book of Acts. You'll see a striking
similarity to Stephen's preaching. He sat under a good preacher
there. He didn't know it. Power of God. Paul never got over it. Same
gospel. And that was the theme of his
preaching from that day forward. The man who hated and despised
Stephen and was instrumental in his death, later on became
his greatest disciple and admirer. That reminded me of a story. John Warburton, some of y'all
read that. Is it you that have a book? I was wondering where
that was. I've loaned it out so many times. that I was looking
for and forgot who gave it to. John Warburton. Boy, he never
quit calling himself a senator. The Lord used him mildly. He
said in his, before the Lord converted him, he was a, he was
a rounder, buddy. He and a buddy of his used to
like to go all over and hear preachers to throw eggs at them
and tomatoes and things. They were rough. Back in old
England, you know, they, oh my, they were tough. London, England. They did. And they were, and
Hurley and Seltzer, make fun of them. Chide of Malcolm and
so forth. They went to hear William Gatsby.
I think it was Gatsby, I was reading underneath the book,
trying to find out. I think it was Gatsby, I'm sure it was.
It was, I think it was. Anyway, William Gatsby, you know,
who wrote Gatsby Hymn, was a preacher, and they went to hear William
Gatsby one day with the intention of throwing tomatoes at him and making fun of him. And they
said when he came out, William Gatsby evidently is a very slow-talking,
drawling fellow. He may have preached something
like Jack Shanks, you know. And Britishers, you know, they
talk past like that. And Boer Burton said this in
the book. He wrote it all down, the feelings
of his heart. He said, I thought this babbling idiot, he can't
even speak right. That's what he was thinking when
Gatsby was talking. What's he going, we're going
to have fun with this fellow, he thought. And so they, and
the fellow announced his, Gatsby announced his text. And he kind
of caught Boer Burton. Let's hear it. Let's hear him
for a little bit. And they listened to him. And
they listened to him. And the tomatoes dropped. And the Lord saved old John Warburton.
He went to throw tomatoes. And he came back. The Lord saved
him under that man. And he esteemed William Gadsby
higher than anybody on planet Earth from that day forward.
He was his greatest friend and closest companion. That's the
way the Lord does things, isn't it? And old John, he never, all
through his book, He kept talking about his own wretchedness, and
the Lord used him mightily, too. And Saul, we have Saul as that
example, too. All right. Stand with me, sir. I'll dismiss this and pray. Heavenly Father, we marvel at
your mysterious ways. This is the Lord's doings, and
it's marvelous in our eyes. And we glory how that you can
bring such glory and such light, such majesty out of such a dark
hour. And even though we see trouble
and trials and problems in the world and in our own lives, Lord,
may we see beyond that. May we see your hand in all of
this, and may we rest confidently in the fact that Our Lord knows
best. It's the Lord. Let him do what
seemeth good to him. May we rest in that, and may
we just stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. And then,
after seeing it, may we be willing to speak of it. In Christ's blessed name, we
met together tonight. Amen. you