Take my beloved one free. Glorious Savior, this Jesus is
mine. Living he loved me, dying he
saved me. Carry ye, carry my sins far away,
rising He justifies, freely forever. One day He's coming, O glory
of faith. All right, back to Acts chapter
6 now. Acts chapter 6. Here in this chapter we have
the institution of the office of
deacon. and mention of a man named Stephen, about whom much
is written in this chapter and the next. And we're going to
dwell mostly on Stephen here in a moment. We already dwelt
on this office of deacon when we did our study on the church.
You may recall that, but I will go over these things with you.
Beginning in verse one of Acts chapter six, it says, And in
those days when the number of the disciples was multiplied,
there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews
because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. This
was a very large congregation, and they had, as Paul called
them, widows indeed, or those who were of age or over age,
working age and marrying age, and who had no family to take
care of them. Those are descriptions of true
widows. And obviously there was no one
who was seeing to their needs, or at least there were some who
were being neglected in the doling out of money and help and so
forth. Verse 2, Then the Twelve called
the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not
reason or reasonable that we should leave the word of preaching,
studying the word of God, and serve tables. That word serve
there comes from the word deacon, which is deacon, serve. That
means to wait upon. That's what deacon, the term,
the word deacon means. It's not reasonable that we should
leave the study and the preaching of the word of God in order to
wait on tables or dole out money and food and this and that and
the other. And if a preacher And this is what they're saying
here. If a preacher has to devote too much time to other things,
then his preaching will suffer. I believe you know and believe
that. If he has to devote too much time to other things, secular
things, then his preaching will suffer and you will suffer. And
I put this little note here, I believe needs to be said, if
a man is spending most of his time If he's spending most of
his time in service to the church by preaching and teaching and
ministering the word, it is only reasonable for others to take
just a small portion of their time to to serve the church in
whatever capacity. Right. Someone may argue, well, he's
getting paid. That better not be the reason
he's preaching payment to a preacher. And I'm certain you feel this
way about your support of me. Payment to a preacher is not
so much for services rendered. In other words, you're not paying
for sermons, I hope. Payment to a preacher is our
expressions of love and appreciation for the gospel and payment and
insistence or help or support for a preacher that he might
do these things full-time is the people's insisting that he
be about these things, that he be given to these things. That's
what payments given by the people to the preacher are saying. They're expressions of love and
appreciation for the gospel, and they insist that he be about
these things. And so, like I said, if he's
doing that, that is a great service, and it should be other people's
reasonable service. to perform some of these other
menial tasks. Verse 3, the apostles say, Wherefore,
brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full
of the Holy Ghost and wisdom. Look ye out among you seven men,
now this was obviously a very large church because it required
seven deacons and the number of of the congregation of the
people is the number of deacons is commensurate, is that the
word, with the number of congregation. And here's the qualifications
that are given for deacons, and it's no less demanding, really,
than that of other officers in the church. He says, look yet
among you seven men of honest report, that is, men who have
a good reputation in the community and among their peers, good reputation,
full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom. purpose of the office office
of the very purpose of it is verse four in order that we might
give ourselves continually to prayer into the ministry of the
word. To give the apostles ample time to pray and study to alleviate
their worries over other things in order that. In order that
they might be. Consistently or constantly about
the things of the word, that they might concentrate on spiritual
things. I'll give you an example concerning
myself, put it in your language. If I have to continually worry
about this building and the needs of it, whether or not the building
will be cleaned or the grass cut and the bills paid and so
forth, I'm not going to be in the right frame of mind or right
spirit to pray and to study and minister those things that are
more important, will I? I just should go without saying. When
you have these other things on your mind, you kind of have to
do them. I didn't leave much time for other things. All right,
verse 5. All right, so the saying pleased
the whole multitude. It pleased them. They said, this
is reasonable, this is right. They were evidently a teachable
people, able to be led, and it pleased them. And so they chose,
the first one they chose, the first man that they considered,
and they chose, was Stephen. Now he must have been some fellow,
and the scriptures are, is going to tell us about Stephen. But
the people immediately chose Stephen, first of all. He must
have been a man of good, honest rapport. And it does say here,
or I read on. They chose Stephen, a man full
of faith, full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. Let's read on. And they chose Philip. Now this
is the same Philip who spoke to the Ethiopian unit. Philip
was called the evangelist. You'll see that over in Acts
22 in a little bit. And Procorus and Nicanor and
Timon and Parmenas and Nicholas Many believe this is Nicholas
about whom the Lord warned of the deeds of the Nicolaitans
there in Revelation. So you see the responsibility and how the
troubles arose in the Church from a deacon. Serious problems. It says, verse 6, when they had
set before the apostles, they set these men before the When
they prayed and laid their hands on them or just blessed them,
this wasn't any seance type situation. They just put their hand on the
shoulder and Lord be with this man. It wasn't anything to make much of, this laying
on of hands. It says they prayed and laid
their hands on them and the word of God increased and the number
of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly and a great
company of the priests even of the priests of the temple were
obedient to the faith. And Stephen, it says, full of
faith, says this again, full of faith and power, did great
wonders and miracles among the people. And it says the word
of God, due to this arrangement, due to this election of deacons
that they might see to the needs of the body and so forth, the
word of God increased. Do you see that? So their office
was invaluable, and it is much fruit borne from their work. And it says here, and we're going
to dwell on Stephen now. It says twice that Stephen was
a man full of faith. Verse 5 says, "...of the Holy
Ghost," verse 8 says, "...and of power." A man full of faith,
Holy Ghost, and power. Three gifts. three gifts that
this ordinary man possessed, which I greatly desire for myself
and for you. I say ordinary man. We'll see
that in a minute. He was just an ordinary man.
He was just a man like you and I are. Turn with me over to 1
Corinthians 12. I say gifts. Stephen had these
gifts because No man has faith by nature, right? That's a gift of God. He said
it's not of yourself, it's a gift. And no man has the Holy Ghost,
or no man earns the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is sovereign,
blows where he listeth, or lands upon whom he wills. So is everyone
who is born of the Spirit, Christ said. No man has any natural
power. Christ said, without me you can
do nothing. So no man has any of these things.
by nature or by his own efforts, faith, Holy Spirit, or power
that he's talking about. So these are gifts. And this
is what he's saying in 1 Corinthians 12, look at verse 1, concerning
spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Down to
verse 4, there are different or diversities of gifts, but
the same spirit. In other words, it is the spirit
who gives all of these gifts. Verse 3, that's a significant
verse, isn't it? Speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus
a curse, and no man can say Christ Jesus is Lord but by the Holy
Ghost. Now, there are different gifts, but the same Spirit. Differences
of ministrations, ministries, the same Lord. Verse 6, there
are differences of operations or how the Spirit moves within
different people. Same God which worketh all in
all. The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man
to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit
word of wisdom. To another, the word of knowledge
by the same Spirit. To another, faith by the same
Spirit. To another, the gifts of healing
by the same Spirit. To another, the working of miracles.
To another, prophecy. To another, discernment of spirits. To another, different kinds of
languages. To another, the interpretation
of these languages. All these worketh that one in
the selfsame Spirit who divides to every man severally as he
will. So these are gifts. from God's
Holy Spirit, dividing every man as he will. Ephesians 4 says
this, unto every one of us is given grace according to the
measure of the gift of Christ, according as he sees fit to dole
out as much grace as he will. Turn over to 1 Corinthians 15,
just a few pages over. 1 Corinthians 15. Now look at this, though. This
is significant, and this is the point I'm trying to get at. Now
these things are gifts, but, and I meant to say but, because
look at verse 10 of 1 Corinthians 15, but by the grace of God I
am what I am. Paul was quick to ascribe everything
he knew, everything he could do, everything he did and would
do to the grace and power of God. I am what I am by the grace
of God and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain. But, see that but? I labored more abundantly than
they all. Know what he said? Yet not I. It's not me, but yet
I did. If you can figure that out, you're
smarter than I am, but it's so, nonetheless. Yet not I, but the
grace of God which was with me. I did labor more abundantly,
but not I. Look over at 2 Corinthians 6, just a few pages over. And
we're going to start studying this Sunday morning, 2 Corinthians
6, and this is the exhortation to us. Exhortation to us concerning
the grace of God. Look at it, very plain. He says
in verse 1 of 2 Corinthians 6, we then, as workers together
with Christ, beseech you also. Not only us apostles, but we
beseech you also that you receive not the grace of God in vain." Grace must be acted upon. That's what Paul is saying, and
this is what Stephen did. Grace must be acted upon. Peter said this, did he not?
grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, didn't
it? Grow in grace. Over in 2 Corinthians 9, it says
this, 2 Corinthians 9, verses 6 and following, listen to this. Paul said, He
which soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly. And he which soweth bountifully
shall reap bountifully. Every man, according to the purposes
of his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or in necessity,
for God loves the cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace
abound toward you, that you always, having all sufficiency in all
things, may abound to every good work. But he says, You sow sparingly,
you reap sparingly. Another place, our Lord said
even that it will be meted out to you with the same measure
you mete out. and the Holy Spirit and power
are supernatural gifts. Turn back to the text. Supernatural
gifts from God Almighty and given to all. I read you that from
Ephesians 4, given to all of us according to the measure of
the grace of Christ. But they're given in measure.
The measure, now listen to This is an important message, and
I think you'll get a great deal of help and instruction from
it. The measure is somewhat dependent upon what you do with what you
got. The measure given to you is somewhat
dependent upon what you do with what you got. And let me explain. Let me clarify myself here, OK? Man is, so that nobody misunderstands
what I'm talking about, man is dead in trespasses and sins by
nature. Nobody knows God, nobody believes
God, nobody's seeking God, nobody's calling on God by nature. Nobody.
He's dead. He's dead to God, he hates God,
he loves himself, he's self-glorifying, self-righteous, he's enmity against
God and all that is holy until God Almighty comes to him. God
must come to him and quicken him spiritually or give life
spiritually. or else he'll remain dead and God then makes him alive
to God makes him think about God makes him love God make him
seek God makes him call on God makes him repent toward God makes
him believe on Christ makes him see cry makes him love Christ
makes him follow Christ that's all the work of God let there
be no mistake about it. And faith. In other words faith
and is a hundred percent the gift of God Almighty. It's a
gift of God. But this faith grows by degrees
based upon being faithful in a few things. This faith grows
by degree. Now, the conception of it within
us is 100 percent by the grace of God. But it grows by degrees
according to being faithful in a few things. Or, as some people say, like
walking in the light you're given. You walk in the light you're
given, you get more light. Act upon what you're given, you'll
be given more. And so forth. I'm going to go
into great detail to explain this. There seems to be one exception
I find in the scriptures about this thing of faith, and that
would be John the Baptist and the Holy Spirit. It says he was
filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb. There may
be others, but Jeremiah was a young man. And the Lord blessed him
as a young man, but says, John was spilled from the womb. That's
the only exception I know of in the scripture. And let me
give you some examples of normal men and women. All right. Stay
with me. Now, this is a needful message.
Let me give you some examples. Abraham, take Abraham for an
example. Abraham was seventy-five years
old when the Lord called him, right? That's old. You get pretty
set in your ways, won't you, Henry? You get that way at sixty,
don't you? Beyond return, set in your way. Seventy-five years old was Abraham
when the Lord called him. God came to Abraham. Abraham
was dead and trespassed in sin, worshiping a false god, living
at home with his daddy. God came to Abraham and God spoke
to Abraham. That's where faith was created,
when God spoke to Abram. The word was planted in his heart. God spoke to Abraham, quickened
him to think about God, hear God, and God said, Abraham, leave
your family. Abraham, leave your family and
follow me. What was Abraham's response?
I believe God. Yes, I believe God. God is sovereign,
and if I'm meant to leave here, I'm going to leave. I know God's
a star. I know he is. I believe that. Yeah, I do. He got his belongings
together and he left, didn't he? That was his response. All
right, he left. He followed. So God gave him
more faith. Right? He gave him that much
faith. He acted upon it. He said, Abraham,
leave. Follow me. He didn't know where
he was going. He just left. All right, now that's no big deal.
I mean, we're not bragging on Abraham's faith, are we? That's
just the way he responded. Not bragging on Abraham, but
he did, he responded. God gave him more faith. A little
while later, God said to Abraham, Abraham, by that time he was
ninety-some years old, he said, you're going to have a son You're
going to have a son by your wife, Sarah, and my seed is going to
come from him, and your seed is going to be as the stars in
the sky and the sand in the seashore. You're going to have a son by
Sarah, ninety-some years old. What did
Abraham do? Well, I believe God. I believe
that. I sure do. Yeah, I believe that. and sat back. No, he got him
a bottle of wine and a candle and said, Sarah, come on in here. I want to talk to you. And he
went in under his wife. It had been years, Joe, but he
went in there and they conceived. OK? God gave him more faith. Right? He acted upon that. He didn't know how this was going
to come about, but it did. And he acted upon that, and God
gave him more faith. God gave him more faith. Later
on, God said, Now Abraham, take that boy, your only son, the son whom you
love, take him up on the mountain and offer him as a burnt offering
unto me. Man, he needed some faith, didn't
he, Joe? He wouldn't have had it, buddy,
if he'd have had a son back in Ur of the Chaldees when the Lord
just spoke to him. He wouldn't have done it, would
he, buddy? He'd need more. He'd need to grow in that faith.
His faith needed to be a little stronger. What'd he do? I believe God,
yeah, I believe God. No, he got up, and as heart-rending
and as troublesome and as tough as it may have been to him and
inexplicable as it was to him, he took that boy, walked three
days' journey. Tough trial, long trial. Took
him up there on the mountain, tied him on an altar and took
that knife and was ready to plunge it in his heart. And God stayed his hand. How
much faith do you reckon he had after that? Oh, the Lord. And the Lord called him from
that day forward, the father of the faithful. Now, I'm not bragging on Abraham.
I'm just stating the facts. Abraham acted on what the Lord
had given him, and the Lord gave him more. That's just the way
the Lord does it. It's all given. And examples
throughout all the scriptures, he showed his faith by his words,
and God granted him more. And there are examples all through
the scriptures of normal men and women like you and me who
did great things by faith. Read Hebrews 11 sometime. And they did great things by
faith, which was given. It's a gift. It's a gift. But
they acted upon it, they acted upon it, and God honored his
word. God loves to honor his word. He says, I'll promise you this. I'm going
to give you this. Just just do what I say. And
somebody dares to believe God and acts upon it. Oh, he he loves
to honor his word. He says, now I'm going to prove
myself to you. We sing that song, Jesus, Jesus,
how I loved him, how I proved him o'er and o'er. Have with
him. He will prove himself to you. And God loves to honor his word.
He glorifies himself by honoring his word. He said, you act upon
my word, and my word, that's all you're going to get. That's
all you're going to get at first. You're not going to give any
proof until you act upon the word, right? God says, you believe
me, trust me. That's what he's saying by acting
upon my word. Here's what I say. Here are my promises. Act upon
it. We act upon it. God just sends the proof, sends
the blessing, sends the assurance. See? I told you, didn't I? Didn't
I tell you? And then God honors that faith. You see, if we just sit back,
now listen to me, if we just sit back and wait on God to give
us great faith, Listen to me now. If we sit back
and wait on God to give us great faith, then later on we can blame
him for being worthless and irresponsible, can't we? Huh? Well, Lord, you
didn't give me any faith. I gave you enough light to walk
in, and you didn't walk in that. Of course you're not going to
get any more faith. Right? If we sit back and wait on God
to give us great faith, then we can later on, and don't have
it, we can later on blame him for it. You didn't give me faith.
It's your fault, God. It's not my fault. You didn't
give me faith. Right? Isn't that blasphemy? Act on what is given. Didn't
our Lord say, you be faithful in a few things, and I'll make
you ruler over many. He'll honor you with more. Yes,
he will. Now, let me clarify myself here. Are you following me? Is what
I'm saying true to God's Word? It most certainly is. But let
me clarify it in case somebody's misconstruing what I'm saying.
I'm not talking about our salvation now. I went down through talking
about how we're dead in sin and God has to come and regenerate
and so forth. I'm not talking about salvation,
and I'm not talking about rewards in heaven, either. The word rewards, look it up
sometime, the word rewards is not in the Bible in reference
to God. It's always singular, reward.
Look it up. Little faith, and let me say
this for your comfort, little faith will save you just as much
as great faith. That little weak, ready-to-hawk
fellow It has very little faith, doesn't really think he has any
faith. Look and trust and believe in Christ will be just as secure
as Abraham. Little faith is saved just as
much as great faith. All are going to receive the
same reward. What did the Lord say to Abraham in Genesis 15,
verse 1, say anyway? Abraham, I am thy shield and
thy exceeding. great reward. That's what Abraham
was asking after Lot got the well-watered plains of Sodom.
Lot thought he got the best deal. Abraham got God. But Abraham
was asking himself, What do I get, Lord? The Lord said, Abraham,
you get me. And this is what I'm talking
about. He says, I'm your portion. What we need is a greater enjoyment
of God right now. Are you content with waiting
to rejoice, joy and rejoice in the Lord, when we can have this
now? I'm not talking about salvation. I'm talking about a greater enjoyment
of God now, a knowledge of God now. I know I'll know Him even
as I've been known. I'll know Him infinitely greater
than I know Him now. But I want to know Him. Paul
said, O that I might know Him now. And that would dispel my
doubts and fears. A knowledge of communion with
God. You want to walk with God? I want to be an Enoch. I want
to walk with God now. I don't want to wait until then.
I've got a life to live, Rick. I've got 40 more years. I don't
want to live a beggar and a pauper. Do you? I don't want to have
a blank check from God Almighty and not spend a dime of it. Huh? Communion with God now. I want
to serve him now. in this life. And so this is
what I'm talking about. This is what I'm talking about.
Stephen. Take Stephen now. It says, Stephen was a man full
of faith and of the Holy Ghost. Stephen was a normal man. Stephen
was a normal man, just like Stephen Parkes there. Is your name spelled
S-T-E-P-H, just like this one? No? We'll change it. But Stephen
was just like this Stephen. No difference. The working man,
just like Stephen. It could have been Stephen. If
he had lived back in that time, it could have been this Stephen.
His last name could have been Park. Just a normal man, a believer,
a member of the church. All right, that's how he started
out, right? A member of the church, a normal man. And I guarantee he was faithful
in whatever. He was a man of good report,
honest report. He was faithful in whatever.
He was a faithful member. a faithful member of the church,
and then the people saw and they made him a deacon. All right,
now he's given a little more responsibility, and with it comes
more faith. And he faithfully waited tables.
The Lord made him a deacon. He faithfully waited on tables,
or cut the grass, or washed the windows, or fixed The Lord made him a witness,
and he went out and disputed with all of these doctors and
lawyers in the temple and everything. He was just an ordinary member,
to start out with. And the Lord kept blessing him,
and for a long time he was disputing with them, with power. And it says he wasn't an apostle.
The Lord says, look at verse 8, "...did great wonders and
miracles among the people." He was just a man. The Lord opened doors for him
to speak, and then Stephen got the highest honor of all. He
became a martyr, the first martyr. And he's held in high esteem
by all the Church now, as high as higher than anybody, the first
martyr. Held forth as a shining example.
The Apostle Paul mentions him later on. Well, what does it mean? Let's
examine these three things. What does it mean to be full
of faith? the Holy Ghost and power. This is what Stephen Watt,
full of faith, full of the Holy Ghost, and full of power. What
does this mean? Well, we have to ask the question,
what's faith? He was full of it. What is faith? He was full of it. Here's faith.
Here's a long definition, and I'll give you a short one. Faith
is a heartfelt, this is where faith is. Oh yeah, you know these things
in your head, but faith has to go down here and actually believe
and experience. Faith is a heartfelt belief in,
trust in God based upon his word, a heartfelt dependence upon Jesus
Christ as your all in salvation, and that he is your all, your
life, and your first love. That's faith. That's a long definition.
Here's a short one. Faith is belief, trust, total
reliance upon, and true love for God in Christ. That's faith. Now, I said before, this is a
gift. It's a gift of God's grace. And
like I said, Stephen started out like everybody else with
little faith, didn't he? He didn't start out great faith. any more than Abraham did. He
had little faith, albeit it was saving faith. It was saving faith. But Peter said, and I already
quoted it to you, grow in grace in the knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ. What's grace in knowledge? It's faith. Faith. The, what does Gil call it, the
Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate. And all these other
translations say that Peter actually said, grow in faith and the knowledge
of Jesus Christ. All right, faith, faith. I just told you what faith was,
all right? And Stephen started out with a little bit of it,
just like everybody, just a little bit. It's saving faith, though.
A little saves as much as a lot. How does faith grow then? It
says Stephen was full of it after a while. Full of it. How does
faith grow? How does one become full of faith?
Anybody like to quote the verse of Scripture I'm about to quote?
You know exactly what I'm going to quote. Barbara Ross just did it. Faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Peter said this,
desire the sincere milk of the, repeat it with me, word that
you, come on, that you may grow thereby. Grow thereby. The word of God is mentioned
all the way through the scriptures as being bread, water, honey,
milk, meat, wine, all the nourishments you can think of, the word of
God, our spiritual nourishment. That's where it comes from. I keep confirming this over and
over and over and over. I've used the illustration so
many times, it's just like telling a child, now eat your I don't
like it." It doesn't matter. Eat it. You like it. Rick laughed at me the other
night. My wife fixed broccoli, and we were eating together,
and Hannah said, I don't want it. I said, you like it. It's
your favorite. She said, no, I don't. Yes, you do. And I'm telling
you, John Caesar, you like this word. I know the flesh is weak,
but you love it. If you're one of God's children,
you do like it. The flesh wars against the Spirit,
and the Spirit against the flesh, so you cannot do the things that
you would do, but it's your bucket list. Read it. That's what I'm
saying. Now, people, your biggest meals
are prepared for you. Big feasts, five-course meals
like tonight, are prepared for you. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that blessed? Prepared
for you. What's hard about coming in and
sitting and dying? Come and dying, all things are
prepared. All you've got to bring is a
little hunger. That's the only preparation necessary. And somebody's prepared
a five-course meal for you. One, two, three, four times a
week. It's not hard to come here and
sit, is it? It's not just your reasonable service, it's your
and your drink and your spiritual nourishment. You want to grow
in faith? Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Desire the sincere. But I don't always desire it.
Desire it. Peter's not saying you ought
to or you should. He's saying do it. It's like
we've talked so many times. You don't feel like coming on
Wednesday night, do you? I know. I've been there. I used to work.
I still work, but I mean, I used to work a secular job. And I know what it's like to
be tired. I know what it's like, Joe, to come in off the road
after being up awake for 36 hours and come in and sit in the worship
service. I know. You have to take toothpicks to keep your
eyes open. God will bless that, though. That's not much. That's
not much to ask of us, is it? It's not much. It doesn't require
much effort to sit there. Really, now, it doesn't. God will honor it. How many times
have you done? How many times have you not felt
like coming? You say, I need to go. I need to go. I'm going
to go. No, I don't go. Temptation says, no, don't go.
You just sit a whole beach tonight. Just sit and relax. What will
you be doing? Watching that stupid tube or
something else ridiculous. Guarantee it. You will be doing
something unprofitable and vain. So let's just come. Let's just
sit there. How many times have you been gone away blessed? Thinking,
I'm sure glad I went. sure glad I went. Your biggest
meals are prepared for you. Your daily bread. Hold on. Your daily manna has to be gathered
by you. Right? You have to gather your
daily manna. And that's what we're talking
about when reading the word of God or tapes. People, if you have
got time to read it, that's prepared for you, too. Stick a tape in
there. Take a tape. Don't substitute
this with tapes. There's no promise that the Holy
Spirit will be present. He said two or three gathered, not you
and a tape recorder. But tapes are a blessing nonetheless.
Well, in the greater your belief, knowledge, love of Christ, greater
will be your comfort, your peace, your assurance. your service,
your greater ability to serve. Read on down through here concerning
Stephen. It says, Stephen was full of
faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people,
and there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the
synagogue of the Libertines. Somebody said that Paul was in
this group here, the Libertines, free-born Romans, and Cyrenians
and Alexandrians, them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen,
but they weren't able to resist the wisdom of this man and the
spirit by which he spake. He was a man filled with the
word of God. Would you like to be like that?
How did he get it? Sit back and wait on God to fill
him? He read the word. He studied the word. He sat at
the feet of the apostles and listened to the word. That's
how. That's how. Does that make sense? Sure it does. All right, it says,
secondly, that he was full of the Holy Ghost. Now hurry. It
says he was full of the Holy Ghost. What does that mean, to
be full of the Holy Ghost? Well, I might remind you of what
our Lord said concerning the Holy Spirit. To be full of the
Holy Spirit is a man that is full of Christ. Christ said,
when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into
all truth, filled with knowledge of Christ, filled with the gospel,
knowledge of the gospel. He shall not speak of himself.
Whatsoever he shall hear, he shall speak. He will show you
things to come. He will glorify me. receive of mine, and she'll
show them unto you." Look over at chapter 7 real fast, in Acts
chapter 7, look at that, verses 55 and 6. It says, Stephen, full
of the Holy Ghost, now this was when he was being stoned, look
at it. You see it? Verse 55, Stephen,
full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and
saw two things. the glory of God and Jesus Christ. That's what it is to be full
of the Holy Ghost. And he said, Behold, I see the
heavens open, and a son of man standing on the right hand of
God. I'm getting ahead of myself, but I can't help it. It's as
if the Lord Jesus Christ, in honor of this man's faith, and
sanctioning this saint of his spirit for him. Christ is sitting at the right
hand of God. Stephen said, I see him standing,
as if he's looking down, saying, I'm with you. Waiting on you. It'll be all right. be full of the Holy Ghost," and
it says at the end of the chapter, "...saw his face as an angel."
In other words, he'd been in his face lit up. You ever seen
anybody that's just so full of the gospel and Christ and just
shine? His face shined like Moses coming
down out of the presence of God. He saved the Baileys' face. Common
folk couldn't look at him. He was ready to soar with the
eagles, but he had to come down with the turkeys. Filled with
knowledge of Christ, that's what it is to be filled with the Holy
Spirit. Spiritual discernment, that's what Christ said, you'll
be a spirit of truth, able to understand truth in light of
Christ. Paul said, grow up in Christ
in all things. Christ, you look at things in
light of Christ, in light of his Lordship and his sovereign
reign and things pertaining to him and the future. Fruit of
the Spirit. Fruit of the Spirit, to be filled
with the Spirit is to be filled with the fruit of the Spirit,
isn't it? In Galatians 5, verse 22, I'll read it to you, "...the
fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." He was full of these things.
Character of Christ, that's what that is. So he was full of these things. Now, the Holy Spirit, the Scripture
says, the Holy Spirit can be grieved. Doesn't it? The Scripture says the Holy Spirit
can be resisted. Resist not the Holy Spirit. How? How do you grieve the Holy Spirit?
How do you resist the Holy Spirit? How is it irresistible grace?
It is, but disobedience is grievous to your Heavenly Father, just
like it is to you fathers concerning your children. Certainly it is.
He wouldn't be much of a father if he didn't He grieved, did
he, in our language? Ignoring the plain instructions
of God is resisting and grieving the Holy Spirit. The plain, plain
instructions from God's Word, ignoring them. Our children do
that, don't they? Grieve us and resist our authority
in that way. Resist his leadings, opportunities
of the Word, opportunities that could have been had to hear the
word the word written in the heart how many times of the word
come plainly to your heart concerning something and you resisted. Come
on yes you do. I do the word of God comes plainly
I mean verbatim Scripture quoted you very hard the word of God
written upon your heart what you do. I'd rather indulge in
this particular scene I'd rather. That's resisting the Holy Spirit. Lastly, power. Stephen was full
of faith and power. Now, I sure don't want you to
misconstrue this. I know the scripture says that
Christ is the wisdom of God and the power of God. In the context
here, though, it says he was full of power and did great wonders
and miracles among the people. I believe this power must surely
have something to do with prayer. Prayer. Paul just mentioned those
two things in verse four, prayer and the ministry of the Word,
wherein all their power lay. The Word of God, which is the
power of God, and prayer. Prayer. Prayer. empowers or strengthens our faith. It's calling upon God, it's invoking
God to honor his word to help us. Prayer empowers our works,
it gives us boldness to act, believing God hears us and will
be with us. Prayer gives power of audience
with God, and that's what prayer is, it's seeking an audience
with God. John said that we know that he hears us and he'll grant
the petitions that we've asked Didn't James mention Elias was
a man of like passions as we are, didn't he? He said he prayed,
and it quit raining. Evidently there was such a need
for God to show himself, there was, and he prayed. That's where the passage is found,
the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Elias was a man of like passions, and he prayed that it should
stop raining, and it stopped And then he prayed that it would
rain, and it started. Power in prayer is strength for the task
ahead. What is prayer but calling on
God, who is our strength? What is prayer but calling on
God, who is our strength, our power? What do you need power
to do? Now, before I came up here tonight,
I needed the power to preach. Where am I going to get it? Well,
I'll exercise my voice. I'll stand in front of the mirror,
and I'll exercise my dialect, and I'll look at my voice inflections
and my gestures, and I'll just exercise myself, and I'll work
myself into a fringe until I come up here and am able to preach
with power. Is that it? God help me preach this night,
would you? Call on him who is my strength."
He said, Go, I'll be with you. I'll strengthen you. Don't worry
about it. I'll fill your mouth. Oh, if
anybody knows you have to rely on his power, I do. Concerning
preaching. What about worship? You need
the power to worship when you came here tonight, huh? You need
the power to worship. What are you going to do? Grit
your teeth. I'm going to worship. Will that do it? You need power
to be able to block out this world and all the thoughts that
prevent you from worshiping. What are you going to do? That's not going to do it. Lord,
help me. Call on him who is your strength.
You need power to sing a song from the heart, don't you? Or
else you're just going to be reciting words. Power to play an instrument. Wisdom. You need wisdom to make
a decision in your life. You've got an important decision
to make. You need wisdom. If any man lacks wisdom, James
said, let him what? Ask. And God gives liberally. Wisdom. It wasn't some magical thing. You know, we're talking about
Stephen, talking about a common, ordinary man, just like you and
me. And when I'm not bragging on
Stephen, did it appear that I was bragging on Stephen tonight?
Not at all. I hope not. It better not have
been, or I missed pointing you to Christ. Right? What I'm trying
to tell you is what Stephen had, these gifts, are what I desire.
Full of faith. Faith in Christ, full of the
Holy Spirit, hidden relation to Christ, and this power with
God in prayer. Knowing, believing, trusting
God, able to talk to him, and know that I have the things that
I ask of him, and the power to do whatever it is I need to do,
that he empowers me to do. Wisdom in my family, wisdom on
my job, just all of these things. Grace. Stephen was. Stephen had these
things, and Stephen acted upon what the Lord had him, and the
Lord blessed him with more. May the Lord bless us. Heavenly Father, we have gleaned
from your word tonight. We thank you for it. It's all
you're doing. Just a plain word of God, the
great plainness of speech. You speak to us. And, Lord, we
feel like you've opened our ears a little bit to these things.
But, Lord, don't let us just be hearers of the Word. Don't let us be like that stony
ground hearers, sprang up for a little while, who acted a little
while and then fell away. Don't let us be like the seed
that fell by the wayside, wayside hearers where the birds of the
air fowl of the air came and took it away, or fell among thorns,
cares, and so forth. Lord, let it fall on good ground,
and pray that you might truly let these things say and sink
down in our ears, in our hearts. May we act upon and be obedient
to the divine commands. May we abide in you and your
words abide in us. We pray these things in Christ's
name, for his sake. Amen. Thank you.