Acts chapter 6 will be our study
today, and we'll look at the first seven verses of Acts chapter
6. I'm taking the title from the
words found in verse 7. Acts chapter 6, let's read verse
7 one more time. And the word of God increased. And I take that to mean God blessed
the preaching of the word as evidenced by a number of the
disciples, the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem
in a great, great number. Everything our God does, he does
in a big way. Great, great salvation that we
have. And a great company, A great
host, a great multitude of priests were converted, saved, and became
obedient to the faith. One faith, one Lord, one gospel. Obedient to the faith. So I'm
taking the title for the message from what is said in verse seven,
the word of God increased. the word of God increased. The Lord has promised to bless
his people and to bless his people with the word. And he has promised
to bless his word to our heart. to our heart. You remember in
Luke chapter 24 we studied when the Lord was preaching the gospel
to those two men on the road to Emmaus, and when he opened
the scripture unto them, remember, it said, beginning at Moses and
all the prophet, he expounded unto them the things in the scripture
concerning himself. Remember what they said, did
not our heart burn within us when he opened to us? The word
of the Lord. That's what happens when God
increases and multiplies and blesses his word to the hearts
of his people. The Lord says this about his
word. He said, my word shall go forth
out of my mouth. It shall not return to me void.
BUT IT SHALL ACCOMPLISH THAT WHICH I PLEASE, AND THAT SHALL
PROSPER IN THE THING WHEREUNTO I SEND IT." THE WORD OF GOD IS
NEVER PREACHED IN VAIN. NEVER. ALWAYS ACCOMPLISHING THE
PURPOSE OF GOD. PROSPERS IN HIS HAND. FAITH COMES
BY HEARING, AND HEARING THE WORD, OR HEARING THE WORD BY THE COMMAND
OF GOD. by the command of God. Remember
our Lord said in Matthew 13, blessed are your eyes, they see.
Oh, blessed are your ear, they hear. What are they seeing here? The word, Christ in the word,
preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is a faithful
declaration of the, and I capitalize this in my note, W-O-R-D. The preaching of the gospel is
a faithful declaration of the Word, who is the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember John 1.1, in the beginning
was the Word. and the Word was with God, and
that Word, capital W-O-R-D, was God, and that Word was made flesh
and dwelt among us. We've read recently over in Revelation
19 that he who sits on that white horse having a flaming sword,
his name is called, what? The Word of the Lord. So when we say that the Word
of God increased and that the ministry of the Word was blessed,
he's talking about the Word being the Lord Jesus Christ. Over here
in chapter 5, verse 42, where it says, Dalene and Temple in
every house, they ceased not to teach and preach the Word,
the Lord Jesus Christ. They were commanded not to, but
they did exactly what God told them to do, go preach the word,
preach the word. They ceased not to preach the
word. The Apostle Paul instructed young
Timothy right before he had his head removed, FOR PREACHING THE
GOSPEL. HE SAID, I CHARGE YOU BEFORE
GOD AND THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. BE READY ALL THE TIME IN AND
OUT OF SEASON, WHATEVER SEASON, SUMMER, WINTER, FALL, WHATEVER
SEASON, WHATEVER SITUATION, PREACH, PREACH, PREACH THE WORD OF THE
LORD JESUS CHRIST. IN VERSE 4 OF ACTS CHAPTER 6,
HE SAID, WE'LL GIVE OURSELVES CONTINUALLY TO PRAYER. and to the ministry of the word,
to the teaching of the word of the Lord. Now, have you noticed
something about this ministry here that the Lord has given
us here at Zebulun? We spend the majority of the
time when we come together, and we, our service usually lasts
an hour, hour and 15 minutes, and we probably spend most of
that time Turn here, turn there, in the Word, reading the Word,
preaching the Word, teaching the Word, verse by verse, line
by line, precept by precept, here a little, there a little.
The Lord has instructed us to preach and teach His Word. That's
a children's bread. It really is. The Lord has promised
to bless His Word now. not our words. The Lord has promised
to bless his word. You see, it's not our comments
upon the word or our commentary upon the word that the power
of God and the salvation, it's the word itself, Christ himself. The word of God is quick and
powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. It's the word of God.
You see, the gospel That Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the
gospel of Christ, it's the power of God and the salvation to everyone
that believe. We are determined, as Paul, to
preach the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. On the front
of the bulletin, have you ever noticed on the front page of
the bulletin, there's a verse that we just read over in 2 Corinthians
chapter four. We preach not ourselves, but
Jesus Christ the Lord. Been on there for almost 26 years
now. Preaching Christ, preaching Christ.
As some folks say, well, don't you preach the love of God? How many times do you think the
apostles, through all the preaching that's recorded in the book of
God, told in their preaching or said in their preaching, God
loves you? You know how many times the apostles
said that? Peter, John, James, all them
apostles. You know how many times they
said that? Zero. None. Matter of fact, I'll go
further. Not one time in the book of Acts
is L-O-V-E the word in the book of Acts. You see, they preached,
and here's the point I'm making. THEY PREACHED THE LOVE OF GOD
IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. THAT'S WHERE THE LOVE OF GOD
IS MANIFESTED IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. NOW, PEOPLE CRITICIZE
ME. THAT'S OKAY. ONE MAN TOLD ME
THERE'S NO... ONE MAN TOLD ME, HE SAID, THERE'S
NO LOVE IN WHAT YOU CALL THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. WHAT? God chose us by his electing
grace. The Lord Jesus Christ, because
he loved us, gave himself for us. How can you make such an
audacious statement? To criticize me about you don't
preach the love of God, I do in Christ Jesus. Everyone for
whom he loves, they'll never perish. They can't. God forbid. Now, having said that, You remember what happened to
these apostles for preaching the word. They were commanded
not to preach anymore in his name. And they were arrested
again the second time for doing the same thing they did the first
time. This time they were only arrested. They were beaten and
commanded never to speak in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
again. But instead, they went out daily
in the temple, publicly, in every house, privately, doing exactly
what they were told not to do. I admire their courage and their
faithfulness. But more than that, I'm astounded
at the marvelous power of the Lord's grace that was given them
to continue in the ministry. I put myself in their shoes.
What if after preaching this sermon, they waited to cry it
out there, THAT CAME IN HERE AND CARRIED ME OUT AND TIED ME
UP TO THE POST OUT THERE AND WHIPPED MY BACK SEVERELY TILL
I ALMOST DIED OR BLED TO DEATH AND SAID, DON'T YOU EVER PREACH
CHRIST AGAIN. NOW THINK ABOUT IT. WHAT WOULD
YOU DO? WHAT MUST I DO? PREACH CHRIST
AGAIN? STONE ME IF YOU WANT TO. I'VE
GOT TO PREACH THE GOSPEL. And that's what's going to happen
here and other places when the Lord's put a man in the ministry.
THE LORD GIVES THEM GRACE TO CONTINUE IN THE MINISTRY. OVER
IN ACTS CHAPTER FOUR WE READ WHEN THEY WERE COMMANDED NOT
TO PREACH THE GOSPEL AND THEY DID SO, AND THEN THE SCRIPTURE
SAID GREAT GRACE WAS UPON THEM. THAT'S THE REASON THEY CONTINUED.
IT WASN'T THAT PETER WAS SUCH A STRONG MAN. WE KNOW HIS RECORD,
DON'T WE? MAN, HE WHITTLED THAT. I DON'T
KNOW HIM. You see, it's the grace of God.
He later writes in 1 Peter 1, we're kept by the power of God.
Now, let's begin at verse 1. Acts
chapter 6, in those days, these were special days, when the number
of the disciples were multiplied, thousands upon thousands and
thousands. There rose murmuring, complaining,
of these Grecian believers against the Hebrews believers in the
church body because the Grecians felt that the Hebrews neglected
the widows among this ministry. Now, even though the church was
greatly persecuted and many of them suffered among
the Lord's people, for preaching the gospel, the Lord continued
to call out his sheep through the preaching of the word, and
the number was greatly multiplied, as it says in verse seven. Disciples
were multiplied greatly, and even a great company of priests
believed the gospel. The church had added to it thousands
and thousands. We read in Acts chapter two,
the Lord added daily to the church such as should be saved. And
notice what the word of God says of this number that was multiplied. It says that they were disciples.
Are you a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ? What is a disciple? A disciple is a pupil. A disciple
is a student. A disciple is one who follows
the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember in Matthew chapter 11,
the Lord said, all you who are laboring and heavy laden, come
unto me and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and be
a pupil, be a learner. me. Be a student of the Word. God's people are disciples. Believers are disciples. They
are learners. They want to hear of Him. We read in John 6 where it said,
No man can come to me except the Father which sent me draw
him. And all those who have heard and have learned of the Father,
they come to the Lord Jesus Christ. His people are students. THEIR
PUPILS, THEIR LEARNERS OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. AND THE LORD
WILL ADD TO HIS CHURCH, HE'LL ADD TO HIS BODY, SUCH AS SHOULD
BE SAVED. GOD SAID, I'LL BUILD MY CHURCH,
AND THE GATES OF HELL WILL NOT PREVAIL AGAINST IT. NOW, WHERE
IT SAYS IN ACTS CHAPTER 2, VERSE 47, THE LORD ADDED TO HIS CHURCH,
SUCH AS SHOULD BE SAVED. NOW, LET ME ASK A QUESTION. Who
should be saved? Who should be saved? Well, let
me give you the answer. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that the Lord came to save sinners. That's who should be saved. He
said, I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Go learn what that means. Who
should be saved? Sinners. Who should be saved? Ungodly people. Salvation is
not for good folks. If you're a good folk, if you're
a good person, you don't need Christ. Hear me now. If you're a good
person, you don't need Christ. You can't save sinners. Good
people don't need a savior. Sinners do. The Lord Jesus Christ
came to lay down his life for the ungodly. for the ungodly. Now I can identify with that
group, can't you? Sinners, ungodly, and then it
says those who are lost. Who should be saved? Those who
are lost. If you've never been lost, you've
never been found. God's gonna save every lost sheep of his. He died for the lost. This is
what the Lord has ordained us to do, to preach the gospel,
and the Lord uses the preaching of the gospel to effectually
call out his sheep. They hear his word, Our Lord
said they do. They hear the word and they believe
on me. He calls them out with the gospel. He has ordained the preaching
of the gospel to call out his people. How did you hear about
your need of salvation in Christ? Well, you know, one guy just
looking at the sun, the moon, the stars, and no, God sent you
a gospel preacher to tell you the truth about God. about sin,
about salvation. about the Lord Jesus Christ who
accomplished salvation for us. You see, God has ordained the
preaching of the gospel. It pleased God through the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. This too is the means
of a new birth. You see, the word of the Lord
that preached is the seed of life. Of his own will beget he
us with the word of truth. The same word in John 1, 1, the
Lord Jesus Christ. We are born again with the seed,
the word of life. Born again of the incorruptible
word of God. That's how disciples are made. Now, let me give this to you,
the second part of verse one. In the midst of this rapid growth,
a problem developed about the daily care of some widows being
neglected. Now remember, a system was set
up to care for those who were in need. We studied that back
in chapter four. But some of these Grecian Jews
who were born in Greece, who were believers and who were widows,
murmured against the Hebrews for taking care of those Jewish
widows and neglecting the Grecian widows. Now, it was a trial, right? It
was a problem, right? I mean, it says there that they
murmured against one another. Here's believers murmuring against
one another. You wouldn't do that, would you? We all do, because we're sinners. They murmured against one another.
Now, here was a trial. God sent them a trial, didn't
he? but he sent them a trial, a precious trial, but the Lord
also sent grace for the trial. And we're gonna see that in the
following verses. In order to solve this problem and to prevent
such problems in the future, they took these steps. Verse
two, the 12, that is the apostles, known as the 12, called this
multitude of disciples unto them and said, well, Yeah, we have
a problem, but it's not reason or it's not reasonable that we
should leave our primary responsibility of preaching the Word of God
and serve tables. Wherefore, verse 3, brethren,
choose out seven men, honest, full, of the Spirit of God, full
of the wisdom, full of faith, full of power, that we may appoint
them over this business, and we'll give ourselves continually
to prayer, to the ministry of the Word. And you get the thought
of what's being said here. Peter and John and the others,
James said it's not reasonable, that is, it was not pleasing
to God that the apostles should serve the need of widows, and
neglect the need, the greater need of what? Preaching the gospel. The Lord called these men to
go and preach the gospel. That was their main business.
That was their main occupation. That was their main responsibility.
Remember our risen Lord said to them, go and preach the word,
go and preach the word, preach the word, preach the gospel to
every creature. This is also true of God ministers
today. They don't spend all their time. chasing ambulances and running
down to the hospital. And I didn't say they didn't
spend any time. I said they don't spend all their
time in the hospital or all their time in the nursing home or all
their time in a soup kitchen or doing any different thing.
God's ministers spend their time in prayer and in preaching the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they do that all the time.
They do that all the time. We cannot leave the study of
the word and the preaching of the gospel and neglect the greater
responsibility of preaching the word of the Lord. Now, verse
three is their solution. The Lord, and this is the Lord's
solution, he established the office of the deacon out of this
need to meet the needs of the widows in this, widows who were
in need, and the Lord said, choose you out seven men to meet this
need. Now, it could have well been
70 men to meet this need, but at that time it was seven men,
seven men. Seven men were all that were
needed for these people at this time. You can have more than
seven deacons or you can have less than seven deacons. Here
in this congregation, the Lord raised up three. Three, we have
three deacons. in this ministry that the Lord's
given us here. Now, in verse three, wherefore
choose out seven men, honest men, full of the Spirit of God,
full of the wisdom that we may appoint them over this business. These were honest men, men of
good reputation within the church and among men in general. These
were men who were blessed with the Holy Spirit, full of the
Holy Spirit. having the fruit of the Spirit,
which is love, joy, and peace. They were full of wisdom, that
is, understanding the gospel, and defending the faith. They
had spiritual discernment to discern between what is true,
what is the true gospel, and what is the false gospel. These
seven men, seven deacons, were appointed and ordained over this
business, taking care of the affairs of the church. Now, if
you hold your place there, And let's read over here in 1 Timothy,
1 Timothy chapter three. Yeah, 1 Timothy chapter three. We read more of what the Apostle
Paul says there. Men of honest report, decorum,
full of the spirit of God, full of wisdom, that we may appoint
them over this business. In 1 Timothy chapter, Three,
verse eight, likewise must the deacons be grave, serious, sober-minded,
not double-tongued, not given to much wine, that is their temperance,
not greedy of filthy lucre, holding the mystery of the faith in pure
conscience. Remember, it says in Stephen
and Philippians, they were men full of faith, defending the
faith. Let these also be first proved,
not a novice, as it says, let them use the office of a deacon
being found blameless, that is, believe in the gospel, we are
blameless, even so must their wives also be grave, serious,
not slanderous, sober, faithful in all things. Let the deacons
be the husband of one wife, ruling their children, their own house
well, for they have, verse 13, for they that have used the office
of a deacon well purchased to themselves a good degree, with
great boldness in the faith which is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The essence of all that is they chose believers, men, to take
care of the business of taking care of these widows. It says
in verse four of Acts chapter six, but we will give ourselves
continually to praying and to the ministry of the word. In
order that we can give ourselves to this ministry of the word,
praying and preaching, notice those two things, praying and
preaching, we'll choose out these men to take care of these other
things. Now, I spend about as much time praying about a message
and praying while I'm preparing the message and praying while
I'm preaching the message as while I'm actually preaching
the message to you. And this is how it should be,
praying about the message, praying while I prepare the message,
praying before I preach the message, and then praying about the message
as I preach it to you. I'm praying right now, Lord,
bless us together. And this is how it should be.
Praying and preaching, they go together. If those, if possible,
those men who are called to pastor the Lord's people and preach
the gospel should exempt themselves from all other employment to
focus all their time and energy, meditation on the word of the
Lord, praying unto God, and then preaching and delivering that
word of the gospel, preaching Christ to the people. Now, I
work what's called, what do you call it? Secular work, I don't
know what else to call it, but I work that work out like most
men do a trade. I was a mechanic, a service industrial
mechanic, and I did that for 25 years. But when the Lord called
me to preach the gospel, I resigned my job, resigned my position,
and came here, moved here, quit my job, sold my house, came here,
and I've been here these 25 plus years preaching, preaching, preaching
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I've never went over
in town and applied for another job, or a part-time job, or seeking
another job. The school over here, when my
kids were in school, over at the high school, they called
me about every school year, said, you need to drive the bus. You
need to be a bus driver. Preachers don't do anything during
the day. You need to come preach or drive the bus. They want me
to do what you're doing. I said, I don't have time to
drive the bus. What do you do over there? Preach the gospel. Preach the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Someone called me one day, or
I ran into somebody one day, They said, well, what have you
been doing all day? I said, well, I've been at work
all day. I just got off work. They looked at me, and this person
knew I was a pastor and preacher, and they said to me, well, where
do you work? I said, in the ministry of the word. That's where I work.
I come over here every day, every day. Rarely do I take a day off. Every day I come over here. and
bury myself in this book seeking a message for you. And that's
the way the Lord has ordained us to preach the gospel. God's
servants give themselves willingly and wholeheartedly to the ministry
of the word. Paul writes this, study to show
thyself approved under God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth. So we preach Christ, we
preach Christ. As Brother Scott Richardson,
he's got these quaint sayings, old Brother Scott. I've got a
picture of him in my study about a month before he died, all wrinkled
up, 85 some years old, and he says on there, what is a preacher?
A preacher is a nobody. who tells everybody about the
one somebody who can save anybody, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
So we preach not ourselves, but the Lord Jesus Christ and him
crucified. God has ordained that those who
preach the gospel should live of the gospel. live by the gospel
and the Lord has blessed us here together these many years and
the Lord has given you a burden for the gospel and you've supplied
the financial needs of this ministry the years that we've been here
and there's other people and churches around the country that
send gifts in here to support this gospel ministry that we
have here. In verse five and six, moving
on, but we give ourselves continually to praying and preaching and
the ministry of the word. And here's these seven men, verse
five, in the saying, please the multitude. And they chose Stephen,
a man full of faith, full of the Holy Ghost, Philip, Pocorus,
Nicor, Timon, Parmenas, Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch, whom
they sat before the apostles, and when they had prayed, they
laid their hands on them. Now, we don't know much about
five of these men. Two of these men, Stephen and
Philip, we know. Stephen was full of faith, full
of the Holy Spirit, and I'm sure the other men were too. Stephen,
in the whole seventh chapter of the book of Acts, preached
that great sermon. And when he got done preaching
that great sermon, lifting up Christ, they took stones and
they killed him. We're gonna see about the Philip,
about the ministry of Philip in Acts chapter eight, where
God sent him down to Samaria. These men were deacons, but they
are also preachers of the gospel, defenders of the faith. And Philip
went down to a city of Samaria and preached the gospel to a
large crowd. And then he told him to go down
into desert country and preach to one man, the eunuch. And he opened the word of God
there in Isaiah 53 and preached unto him, the Lord Jesus Christ. These men were blessed of God. The apostles laid their hands
on them. and gave them a special, what
we would call an apostolic blessing. And then they continued to preach
the word, verse 70. And the word of God increased.
That is the preaching of the word increased, more and more
preaching. And the number of the disciples
multiplied in Jerusalem greatly. And a great company of priests
were obedient to the faith. Now, God gave the increase. The Word of God increased, or
it was multiplied, blessed of God. Faith comes by hearing the
Word of the Lord. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the command of the Lord, by the command of the Lord. And
the number of disciples were added, when the word goes forth
in the power of the Holy Spirit, sinners are regenerated, saints
are blessed, they grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Peter says, and he writes, desire
the sincere milk of the word that you might grow thereby.
And then Peter again writes, we grow in grace and in the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, how do we know, as a believer,
how do you know if I'm growing in grace? I tell you how you
know you're growing in grace, and how you're growing in faith,
and how you're growing in repentance. You know how you know if you're
growing in grace? You see more of him, his glory,
his beauty, the necessity of Christ, and you see yourself
as more sinful, more wicked, and more guilty. And I'll give
you several scriptures. Job said, I've heard of thee
by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye seeth thee. I see
you. and I hate myself, I repent in
dust and ashes. You see, as we grow in grace,
as we grow in repentance, as we grow in faith, we see more
of his beauty, his glory, he's altogether lovely to you who
believe he is precious, and we think, what of ourselves? We
can say with Paul, oh, wretched man that I am. Don't you see
that of yourself? That's growing in grace. When
you see him as altogether lovely and yourself as ugly. I'm ugly. In the flesh dwelleth no good
thing. We grow in faith, we grow in
repentance, we grow in love to the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't
love him like we should. We don't love him like we will
one day, but we can say, Lord, we love you because you first
loved us. Now, the last part of verse seven.
Don't overlook this. A great company, that is a great
multitude, a great host, a priest were obedient to the faith. The faith is the gospel. The faith of God the elect loves
the true gospel. Now here's, this is remarkable. This is remarkable grace of God. What is it that the grace of
God cannot do? Here's a great company of priests.
These men, by nature, were ardent enemies TO THE GOSPEL OF THE
LORD JESUS CHRIST. THESE SAME MEN WHO SAID AWAY
WITH HIM AND CRUCIFY HIM. THEY SAID THAT JUST A FEW DAYS
AGO. THESE SAME MEN AND PRIESTS WHO ARE TEACHERS OF THE LAW.
THEY SAID YOU MUST BE JUSTIFIED BY THE DEEDS OF THE LAW. THEY
POINTED MEN TO THE COMMANDMENTS OF MOSES. NOW THEY ARE OBEDIENT
to the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in Him. How do you account
for such a miracle? Well, you know, man, they just
got lucky. You know, they just got lucky. No, the Lord had mercy on them. Now think about it, these men
were haters of God, haters of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know
who was among this group of priests who did not believe? Saul of
Tarsus. And we're gonna see a lot about
Saul of Tarsus in chapter eight. When Stephen was stoned, I don't know if he cast any stones
or not, but Saul of Tarsus said to those fellows, let me hold
your coat. You hold my jacket. Wow. Let
me hold your coat while you throw some stones and dash out his
brains. And then it said in the next verse, in Acts chapter eight,
verse one, that Saul was consenting unto his death, and Saul made
havoc of the church. Saul hated the Lord Jesus Christ
and hated everyone who believed the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet
he preached him. and believed him after he met
the Lord. That's what happened to these
great company of priests. They met the Lord in saving mercy. God crossed their path with a
gospel preacher. They heard Peter and John and
these other men preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
God gave faith. God granted faith. God gave them
life with the seed of the word of life. Now, rebels once, now
obedient to the Lordship of Christ. That grace, that's the grace
of God. What is it that the grace of
God cannot do? Who made you to differ from another?
WHAT DO YOU HAVE THAT YOU DIDN'T RECEIVE OF GOD? IF YOU'RE A LOVER
OF CHRIST AND A BELIEVER OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST, IT'S NOT BECAUSE
YOU'RE SMART. IT'S BECAUSE GOD HAS MERCY ON
YOU. WHAT IS IT THAT THE GRACE OF GOD CANNOT DO? WITH GOD, ALL
THINGS ARE POSSIBLE. ANYTHING TOO HARD FOR THE LORD?
with men who then can be saved. Well, with men it is impossible,
but not with God. But with God, all things are
possible. Never despair of the grace of God.