Now one that we can read together this evening from the book of the F into the sixth chapter of the book of the F. It's so good to see you here again this evening. They that hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled. It's a good sign to see you here. And I pray much that God will meet the need of it all in this congregation to keep it. Now let us read again in the sixth chapter of the Acts. 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. It's never a good sign when you hear a murmuring in the Church of God. This is taboo inside and is the third thing when there is any evidence of it. in any assembly, in any church of God. Trouble within is more dangerous than trouble without. May God save all of us here in Jesus from having any part whatsoever in mongering with him. Verse two, then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them and said, it is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Wherefore brethren, look ye out among you, said men of honest report, full of glory goes, and wisdom. who we may appoint over this business, that we will give outcomes continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. Prayer first, ministry of the word second. It's the prayer that gives power to the preaching. Prayer is more important than the teaching. And the saint pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Thakhorus, and Nicana, and Tymon, and Farnidius, and Nicholas, the proselyte of Antioch, who placed him before the Apostles, when they prayed they laid their hands on them they identified themselves differently he laid on their hands and the word of God increased and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly it sounds like a revival It wasn't. It was a revival. Verse seven again, in the word of God in Christ, and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and that great company of the priests were obedient to the faithful. And Stephen, full of grace, That's really from the revised version. We've already read that he was full of faith. Revised version of Jesus and Stephen, full of grace and power. We had great wonders and miracles among the people. Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the library today, as Harylian and Alexandrians. And of them were Sardisia and H. in this season. They were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. Then they suborn men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God. And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council. And said to her Paul's witnesses, which said, This man seeseth not to speak blasphemous words against his holy place and the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us. And all that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. Now into the next chapter, the chapter verse fifty-four. That they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. But he, being full of oligarchs, looked up steadfast in the heaven and saw the glory of God. and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, as if waking, ready to receive his servant, standing on the right hand of God. And said, Behold, I see the heavens open, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. Then they cried out with one voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him. And the witnesses lay down their throes at a young man's feet, whose name was soar. And they stoned Stephen, crawling upon the ground, and saying, Lord, leave those receive my spirit and he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice Lord let him of this thing to their charge and when he had said this the next three words are the sweetest words that were ever written of a strength of God passing from this world into the mix, he fell asleep. How lovely. Now we're going to consider together these evening. These words that we have read together from the sixth chapter and the tenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. This is the first year of the Christian church. And as we have been reading together, there were prosperous days in the church. Verse one. And those days when the number of the disciples was multiplied. And in verse seven, and the word of God increased, and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and the great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. Days of revival. And yet, running parallel with these days of revival, there was a fierce persecution. The enemy was not going to let this thing go without a challenge. The forces of evil, are mustered at full strength to oppose this. It's hoped, if possible, the progress of the work of God in the early church. Souls have not easily won. and the enemy will always master all his power to oppose the work of God, and especially the work of evangelizing. The methods that were used were cruel. They were brutal. They had no regard to human rights, not to civil law, not to freedom of speech. They were a Western. They were beaten. They were falsely accused. Brute force was applied. There was stone in prison. and put to death. And in these very chapters, you have the first martyr of the early church, Stephen. But this truth went marching on. As someone has said, God buries his workmen. but carries on his work. Why do we not see these prosperous days in the church today? God is the same. His power is the same. The gospel is the same. Is it because we have things that... Things were not easy in the early church. Are we having things too easy? There's no persecution to that. Is it because we have no persecution? Are we to accommodate? Are we to compromise? I remember. There must be some reason. I believe it was God's intention that in every era of the church, we should have these prosperous days. We should see these revivalists. We should see them in women brought to Christ. We should see them saved by His sovereign grace and redeemed by His precious power. But in many parts of the world today, There are signs that this prostitution is coming back, and we may yet have fierce prostitution. And I believe we will, before the thrones of this dispensation, evil men shall wax worse and worse. No sinister, no terrible, have we reached the closing days of this dispensation. And I believe with the Constitution, we should also have the last surge of believers into the church. And when the last stone is built into the church, when the last soul is brought in, then we should have. Now what sort of people were they in this early church? Someone has said the world is looking for better methods. God is looking for better men. What were the men were they? There were extraordinary men, extraordinary men, with an extraordinary experience. Are all Christian people there? Christian people are not ordinary people. We are extraordinary people. We have an extraordinary experience with God. that the outside world knows nothing about. Believers are not ordinary people. They are extraordinary people. There is a story told of Dr. Fullerton, Dr. W. Fullerton, that he spent one week at an hotel Well, a very great Indian Christian by the name of Stavu Sundar Singh. Maybe some of you have read his book. Stavu Sundar Singh. Dr. Fullerton spent one week with him at the same hotel. And he tells us that he will never in his life forget that experience. Amongst other things that the Stardew said to him, was that he had been enabled under God to baptize eight believers in the forbidden land of Tibet. And Dr. Fullerton said to him, well, for people to take their stand in the land like that, They must be extraordinary believers. Maybe he said he'll never forget the reply that the start you gave him. He said three of them are. And the other five are just ordinary Christians. And Dr. Fullerton says, and they are the enigma of the church. Just Ordinary Christians, in the language of the New Testament, there isn't such a thing. We are not ordinary people, far from it. These were not ordinary people. That's why they saw these prosperous days in the church. These people were people who were fully committed. fully consecrated. These were the people that turned the world upside down. Now I want us to look at just one of them this evening. And we take Stephen as our example. You notice there were ten, there were ten deacons chosen. And if you read the narrative carefully, you'll find that the highest qualifications were necessary for the lesser office of a Deacon. The highest qualifications were necessary. You are never moral to stand there. Office is not given in the early church to people of eminent position. or the birth, or for any other reason, positions in the early church, even the people, people must have the highest qualifications and the standard is never lowered. And this is one of them. Stevens. There are four things. said at him in this very chapter it is said that he was full of faith he was full of Holy Ghost he was full of grace and he was full of power full of faith full of Holy Ghost and full of grace and full of First of all then, he was full of faith. And when a man is full of faith, there is no room for unbelief. And there is nothing that cripples the work of God like unbelief. Believe he could not do many mighty works there in Nazareth because of their unbelief, unbelieving believers. And you know, we only really believe the things, the truths, the doctrines. We only really believe what we put to practice. That's all. Here's a man. that was full of faith. Faith is the foundation. Faith is fundamental to all Christian experience. If you can shape a man's faith, if you can undermine his faith, the whole superstructure comes to the ground. a fundamental to Christian experience. We read him that cometh to God must believe that faith, that's an aspect of faith, must believe that he is, and he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. And then we read Without faith, it is impossible to please. You must exercise faith in Christian experience. You can't do without it. Faith, we read in the epistle to the Hebrews, is the substance. I like that word. Faith is not something in the wind. Faith is not something loose. Faith is the substance. And when you put a substance like that you've got something, faith in the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. When you come to the Ephesian epistle, we read, by grace, are you saved? true face. It is said that Martin Luther was the father of the Reformation. For many years he had been groping in the darkness and superstition of the Roman Church. and make no mistake about it, there is darkness, and there is superstition, and there is idolatry in the Roman Church. Still there, don't you close your eyes in this great country, in this great country of America, to the Roman Church. Martin Lutheran was groping in the darkness and in the superstition and in the idolatry of the Roman church for years until one day the flash into his mind and into his heart. This word of God that just shall live by faith. And that word completely changed the life and the experience of Martin Luther as the monk that shipped the world. The just shall live by faith. And you and I have today a lot to thank God for the reformation. It shook the very foundation of the Roman Church. It crumbled the foundation of the Roman Church in many parts of the world. And you and I have a lot to thank God for the Reformation and for Martin Luther. But somebody has said that if Martin Luther was the father of the Reformation, Paul must have been the grandfather of the Reformation. For three times in his epistles, he quotes the very same scripture, the just shall live by faith. You get it in the Roman epistle, chapter one and verse seventeen. You get it in the Galatian epistle, chapter three and verse eleven. You get it in the Hebrew Epistle chapter ten and verse thirty eight. And how correct, how wonderfully exact the scriptures are. For the emphasis is put in the right place in all those three scriptures. not in the same place every time, but in the right place every time. In the Roman epistle we read, the judge shall live by faith. By faith. He can't live any other way. There is no other people that can live this life unless it is by faith. It is not by words. of righteousness which we have done. It is not by ritual. The just, said the Apostle in the Epistle to the Romans, shall live by faith and by faith alone. And then in the Galatian Epistle, it's the just that shall live by faith. And they are the only people that can live by faith. Those who have been justified by faith in the presence of a holy God. Those who have been saved by his sovereign grace. Those who have been washed in his precious blood. They are the only people who can live by faith. The just shall live by faith. And then when you come to the Hebrew epistle, the emphasis shifts again. The just shall live by faith. He is alive because of his faith. He wouldn't be alive, were it not, for his faith. And the great apostle Paul says, the life he says, that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Well, someone has gone one better step. And said, if Martin Luther was the father of the resurrection, who the first who was the grandfather of the Reformation, then Habakkuk must be the great-great-grandfather of the Reformation. For right back in the book of Habakkuk, you get these very words that just shall live by faith. A long time before the Pharisees. What does that teach you and I? It is that in all ages, any relationship with God has always been on the ground of faith. Even right back in the book of heaven, and what a faith he had. when everything was crumbled around him, when everything went to pieces, Habakkuk turned fast to his faith in God he never wavered. What a faith that just shall live by faith. Stephen was full. How does that apply to you and I? Have you got implicit faith in the work of Calvin? Do you rest there? Have you faith in the Bible? You're quite sure of that. No doubts whatsoever. Are you absolutely certain that this is God's Word? that all scriptures given by inspiration are we quite sure in it. Taste in the Bible, the whole Bible, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Taste in prayer when you kneel and pray. Can you be absolutely sure that he hears you? Oh, thou, that hearest prayer. You don't doubt him whatsoever. Ask, he said, and he shall be given to me. Seek, and he shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto me. Faith in confession, and it is still not there. Or don't you look for conversions? On the last day here, do you pray for conversions? Do you expect conversions? Are you looking out for conversions? Would it surprise you if somebody wants conversion? Have you lost your faith in conversions? Faith in the present, faith in the future. Faith in life, faith in death. These all die, we lead in faith. Now we can die like that. All is well. You are the men full of faith. Secondly, He is a man full of the Holy Ghost. By faith, I lay hold upon God. By the Holy Ghost, God lays hold on me. We are even told that our very bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost. You believe it? Your body... is the temple, so teaches the Apostle, of the Holy Ghost. How careful we ought to be. How surrendered we ought to be. And do you know, when a man or a woman is filled with the Holy Ghost, there are evidences of it. You can't mistake them. If you take a trip to the old country to London sometime, I hope you will. The residues of her nature really live there. As you approach that palace, Buckingham Palace, You can tell a long way off whether she's in residence or whether she's not. You've no need to go into the palace to see whether she's there or not. You've no need to make any investigations whatsoever. The evidence is there, and you can see the long way away. Whenever she's in residence, the royal standard, the flag, is flying above the palace. And you can know that she's there. Whenever the flight is flying, she's inside, in residence. That's the output evidence that she's there. And you know exactly so. There are output signs. You can tell when you can meet a brother or a sister filled with the Holy Ghost. The spiritual man and the spiritual woman, in fact you get that injunction in the Ecclesian epistle, be filled with the Spirit. And you can recognize this. There are unmistakable signs. You know, one of the greatest things, one of the greatest things that was ever said of any man was fed of a lush by the Shudamite woman. She had seen him pass that way. The often we read past that way. She had observed him passing that way. And this is her testimony. Behold, Jesus, now I perceive that this is a holy man of God which passes by us completely. If you pass by continually up and down these streets, you tread the same path every day, you have been observed by people who live in your area, you have been seen by many people everywhere, and the wicked watches the righteous as they read, and they still do it today, what the verdict? surveillance. You and I are going to be totally different to other people, as I've already said. We have a different experience to other people. We claim that we belong to Jesus Christ. If so, then we ought to be different. He was full of the Holy Ghost. And then we read he was full of grace. There is a gracious man full of grace. You know, you can be sound in doctrine. You can be sound in all the fundamentals of the Christian faith. And yet you can be an ungracious man. You can see. But not so did Stephen. Stephen was a man full of grace. He had grace to suffer. He took some grace to suffer. When the stones were falling fast, He makes no attempt to reply. He makes no attempt to defend himself even. Grace to suffer. How much grace have we got to suffer? I wonder. How much can we suffer? He had grace to endure. He doesn't repent. He doesn't tell me in his faith, not in it. He endures to the end. He's got great to endure. And I believe the truest thing of all is he had grace to forgive. Even those who were stoned in him to death, Did you notice the last prayer of Stephen, Lord, lay not this thing to their charge? He had drunk deeply to the spirit of his master. The first cry that came from the cross was harder. Forgive them. They know not what they do. The last cry that came from the lips of Stephen was, lay not this thing to their charge. He had grace to forgive. Can you forgive? Have you been misunderstood? Have you been abused by somebody? Have you been falsely accused? Have there been blundering about you? Can you forgive? grace to forgive. This is one of the Christian virtues that is absolutely essential, the grace to forgive. If you can't forgive, one thing is certain, you'll never be able to repeat the Lord's prayer. You'll never be able to say, Forgive us our Christmases as we forgive them. us against us. How often we read in this gospel should I forgive my God? Seven times. Seventy times seven. Grace to forgive. In fact, for not to forgive, a anti-Christian. A anti-Christian You must forgive if you're a Christian. He has great to forgive. And finally, he was full of power. I wish that you and I are not full of this power. But notice, it isn't material power. All the power that some people have is the power of wealth. But not with Stephen. It isn't political power. It isn't social power. It isn't the power of influence. It's spiritual power. Stephen was told that spiritual power. Maybe you and I are too full of other things. full of other things and you can't have books you can't have books listen to these words by a young man who gave life at a young age in the service of Christ Jim Elliott said these words he is no fool who is prepared to lose what he cannot keep in order to gain what he cannot lose. He is no fool to lose what he cannot keep in order to gain what he can never lose. Are we willing to let go? So let go, let go of the world, let go of the things that hinder, let everything go, and let God, let God come, let God take a hold, let God take control. He is a man that was full of power. You read of a man In the Old Testament, his name was Lot. We read that his righteous soul was wretched with a filthy conversation of the Sorenites. Now here is the believer, what we would call a believer today. He was a man of God, there's no doubt about that. Listen again. His righteous soul, we read, was vexed with a filthy conversation of the Solemnites. But he had no power. He had no power. He was far too involved. We read that his words were as idle tales. No member of his family believed in him. Not his own children believed in him. He had no power. Isn't it sad? To have lost the power. They didn't believe. Now what is the secret of karma? There's no need for me to tell you the secret of power. You can have it in one word. Contact. That's the secret of power. Contact. That's the secret of this electric light that we have in this hall this evening. Once you break the connection, you're in the dark. The secret of power... It's contact. Oh, we can keep the contact every day, every hour for the evening. That's the secret of God. Keep it in touch with him, with God, with the Savior, with the Holy Ghost. Keep it in touch with a kind God every day. Channels, O bleed, blessed, Master, that we are all thy wondrous power. Flowing through us, that's all we are, just channels. Flowing through us, thou confuse us every day and every hour. Yes, sir. To God be fooled. here this evening. I commend to you this life to young believers in the audience this evening. Don't be satisfied with anything less than God has to give to you. And it is the very best to those who leave the toilet. Let go, and let go of. Perhaps we can sing that lovely hymn, Sermon's Own Room. Blessed it not. Oh my God, my God, Oh