The growing pains of the early church, specifically the dissension arising from the neglect of Grecian widows in daily distributions, as recorded in Acts 6. It highlights the apostles' decision to appoint seven men, including Stephen and Philip, to manage practical matters so they could focus on prayer and the ministry of the word. The message emphasizes the importance of spiritual priorities while not neglecting physical needs, and it uses Stephen and Philip as examples of godly individuals who, despite their roles, powerfully impacted others through their faith and the Holy Spirit, ultimately leading to persecution and martyrdom for Stephen. The sermon concludes by contrasting the true Christian's role as 'salt of the earth' and 'light' with the deceptive nature of mysticism, urging believers to focus on Christ and the mysteries of God revealed through scripture and faith.
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You might turn over to Acts chapter six, please. Acts chapter six. And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Christians against the Hebrews. because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them and said, It is not reason that we should the word of God then serve tables.
Wherefore, brethren, look in wisdom, have over his business, but we will give ourselves at any later prayer and to the ministry of the word. and the saying pleased the whole multitude, and they chose, Steve, a man full of faith, and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Eichel, and Tymon, and Parmenus, and Nicholas, Apostolate of Avion, whom they set before the apostles, and when they had prayed, they had their hands on them. the word of God in the priest, and the number of the disciples multiplied, in Jerusalem greatly, and the great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.
And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines and Seremians, Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia, and Asia, disputing with Stephen. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which faith. Then they suborned 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 it, false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law. 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 there being the face of an angel. We've been going quite slowly through the book of Acts, but I think we'll be able to step it up a little now.
I presume quite a number of you have read the books of Ironside. One always admired reading Mr. Ironside's book because he seems to give a synopsis of the chapters. and he doesn't give you a lot of points, he doesn't give you any detail to speak of, and yet he gives you the cream that's in that chapter. And Mr. Ironside was a man with a photographic mind. I don't really know what that means, but he would sit down with a book, and he would just turn the pages, and he would just make those pages turning, and he had run down each page, and then he was through, He would just about tell you the cream of that book.
I remember not too long ago, I think, with our little letter, had a program, and he said he had a young man there who had a very brilliant mind, and he had a photographic mind. He said, I'm going to demonstrate it to you tonight. So he asked this young man if he had ever read this book, and it was a very hard book, full of a lot of detail and so on. No, he said, I never heard of it. Well, now he said, I have read a part of this book, and I want you to start at page one, and I'm going to give you five minutes to find out how many pages you can go through in five minutes.
And in five minutes, when Art Middletter turned to him and said, well, how far have you read? He said, up to page fifty. Imagine reading fifty pages of a heavy book in five minutes. meaning he could have read the whole book with three hundred pages in thirty minutes. And so he took the book, and he said, Now, I read the first fifty pages of this book, and I know what's in it. What did you glean in your five? And as he took the book, he'd run down the page, turn it over, and run down the middle. And it was amazing what that young man, and on his honor, he said, I never heard of the book before, and I never saw it.
But he gave more than what he said than even Mr. Littler had got. That's a photographic mind. Anyone that's got a mind like that, a mind that can concentrate if he's a Christian, he ought to thank God for it. I've had to read every word when I've read the Bible. I can't answer the page and tell you what's in it. Why I'm saying this, There's a difference between going into detail and taking a synopsis of a chapter. We're trying to go into detail in these thirty-eight messages, for this one thirty-eight on Acts, going into the various subjects we find in these chapters, first of all the subject of resurrection, then the spirit, and then the church, and also the tongues.
and healing and repentance and persecution and the five things that caused that persecution, and also that name that was one of the causes and also the life and his work and his way. And we've taken up several messages on ignorant things of which we can be ignorant of. But now, from here on Lord Willingley, just take us a synopsis of a chapter, such night, one night on chapter six and we go through want to make more progress than we've been having and we trust we're able especially if you study this chapter each week we'll just try and hit the high spots and leave the rest your own meditation so we want to take up chapter six tonight you read the two previous chapters i was sitting yesterday afternoon meditating on this chapter and i thought well You can have three these in the three chapters, chapters four, five, and six.
In chapter four, you have the delight of the church in their victory over their persecutors, their end. When they were taken and passed into prison, instead of murmuring and complaining, they rejoiced that they were chosen worthy to suffer shame for sin. There you find the church delighting. rejoicing in Christ and their portion in Him. Is there any wonder the early church stirred up so much opposition? Not only did they stirred up opposition, they stirred up a lot of real interest.
For it's very interesting to note, after each attack of persecution, the disciples of the Christians grew, grew. And there's nothing that will attract me and save more than a Christian on fire. A child of God who is stirred up. Somebody asked me one time, they invited me to go and hear a man, and he happened to be a modernist. Now for the meeting, they said, well, how did you like it? I said, well, I'll tell you, I get stirred up at every meeting I attend. All you do. I said, yes. I either get stirred up by the presence of God or I get stirred up because of the absentee.
In other words, you'd like to feel a little of the presence of God until we find the delight of the church in victory over the enemies in chapter four. And in chapter five, as we noticed last week, discipline in the church. Ananias and Sapphira, smitten dead, they told a lie. They lied to the Holy Spirit. Now, chapter six, you have dissension in the church. You'll notice at the beginning of this chapter, the multitude increased. Believers increased. And whenever you see growth, you're going to see growing pains.
I've experienced a little of that in my life. In fact, every place I've gone to, you start off small. I remember in the home, Winston Salem, Mrs. Sneed, we broke bread there about five or six. And I'll tell you this, the presence of God was so real in those worship meetings that I was afraid to get on my feet for fear I'd interrupt the presence of God. What you would hear would be sobbed, and sometimes little spots of tears where the Christians sat and wept at sufferings of Christ And the person of Christ, by the Holy Spirit, so get their hearts.
They just said, and the presence of God could almost be felt in the front room of Mrs. Snave's home. But you know, people started getting saved and getting saved and getting saved until we had about a hundred and fifty in fellowship. Well, that's wonderful. But you know, we began noticing some growing pain. You know what that means physically. The more you have in fellowship, the more flesh you've got to deal with. The more you have in fellowship, the more great personalities are had, and the more peculiarities.
And so in this case, you have a bright year. The crowd drew, now we love to see crowds, come. But I realize this, there's always danger with great crowds. You'll likely find more spirituality and more godliness in a small congregation, you will a great big one. And so on this occasion you'll notice how believers increased, multiplied, and with that came dissension. The cause was, as you'll notice the Jews, The recent Jews on this occasion were complaining against the Palestinian Jews that their widows were being neglected in the day of the nation.
In other words, here were women, and undoubtedly children too, and they were not being taken care of. All the time was taken up with hearing and order, spiritually listening to these gifted men, and the material matters, such as food, rain, and possibly money for a need because in the previous chapters they brought what they had and distribution was made. But in some way the Grecian widows, saved now by the grace of God, they were neglected. And undoubtedly children, on other matters of that nature, were requiring attention beneath the bottom.
And this brought about dissension. In other words, these Grecian Jews were complained. Yes, you Jewish believers, you Palestinian Jews, you're looking after your women all right, and your children, but the Eastern Jews, our sisters, are being neglected. And so you find the cause of their trouble. Why do you believe with all my heart the spiritual things are first, we know them? Material things are second. The Bible makes that very plain. But let us remember this. Don't get so spiritually minded that you're going to neglect the fisheries of men and women.
I believe oftentimes trying to help a poor family will be one of the steps toward getting that family under the sound of us. And God wants us to be balanced. We've got to live, we've got to be in this world, and there's no need to be neglected in your body. God wants you to care for your body. David Brainerd, the one who ministered to Indians, why he used to be so exhausted from preaching and going around with those Indians, trying to live under Christ and his baptism, he had fallen in the snow and cried to God, and oftentimes he rose to fire in the snow melted by the heat of his body.
and a pool of water there, he was just sweating with passion for souls. He died of twenty-nine. Well, I think he overdid it. God wants us to consider our heads, and if we can live longer by so doing that much the better. But let us not forget the importance of our bodies, our bodies of the temples of the Holy Spirit. And so we find here the spiritual thing must come, needs must come first, and then the physical. When you start to think here, the men that were chosen to look after this, and this was a wise thing to do, they decided to choose seven men.
Now some speak of these of the first deacons. Well, there are some things about them that certainly qualify them as deacons. to Timothy and Titus and read about the qualification of Deacon and so on, so there's a similarity. But here you find a selection of these seven men, and they were to look after these things. The rest of the men, they were going to study and pray and preach the word, and they selected Stephen and Philip and the others who met him. You take care of this situation. In other words, the ones were to take care of the Spirit's needs of the people, and these seven men were to look into the matters pertaining to the material the physical.
And of all people, to be asked or chosen was evil. And what a wonderful tragedy was. In other words, he was placed among the lesser groups. Steven Midas said, Why wasn't our left to administer the word and pray and preach and hear thy master look after the physical being, through the ring? No. Stephen wasn't that kind of a man. Stephen was happy. Whatever he had to do, he did it as unto the Lord.
And you'll notice the reputation of these men. It says here, They were of honest report. It's a wonderful thing to have men in the Assembly of honest report. We read concerning Cornelius in Chapter Ten. It says he was of good report, and also concerning Timothy, he was well reported of by brethren, and also Ananias having a good report. and seven men in this chapter, all of them, of good, honest report. Here you have real leadership.
Men who are qualified to lead God's people. Men who can look after the little things, if you will, the things pertaining to the body of the comfort of the Christians in their gatherings. These men were gifted men. They were godly men who took care of these matters. It didn't detract from their spirituality or godliness to see the food was provided and clothing for these people. Those the church in that day were well balanced. And so you find them made of honest report and godliness. They were full of the Holy Spirit.
Seven men filled with the Holy Spirit. and wisdom of sex. In other words, they were sagacious. They had good judgment. They were men of discernment. What I want to get across is this. If such men are necessary, if such qualifications are essential to look after the needs of the body, what are the qualifications of the minister of the soul? And that's something all of us ought to exercise our hearts with us. If such men, such giants as we would say, are chosen to look after the needs of the body, the qualifications to look after the spiritual need of the soul are greater.
And you notice what you have in verse two, verse four, they pray and minister the word. they gave themselves holy to it. Here's Stephen, the two I want to mention, Stephen and Philip. They were not among this elite group, we would say. Men called and they gave all their time to study in the ministry of the Word. They were men, looked upon as men of deep character, spirituality, insight, foresight, discernment, Yes, but don't think for the moment they didn't have the powerful testimony.
It was Stephen Wright in this chapter that caused them to rise up and demand that he be apprehended because he was so white, he confused them. And here Stephen, he had a wonderful testimony Every word he spake was a word flowed with the Holy Spirit of God. In chapter seven, as we'll see next week, Lord willing, there is Stephen's wonderful defense. The wonderful sermon he preached, how familiar he was, how well acquainted the Old Testament, and you know what his end was.
He was the first martyr of the church age. And yet here's a man who wasn't of a shame. A man like Stephen, so qualified, so gifted, so young, and yet he's taken to heaven. God permits him to go at such an early age. What a loss of the church. And at the end of this chapter, they looked upon a face of Stephen as of a face of an age. Why is not a lovely state, a lovely expression, but a face of an angel, something that reflects a little about heaven in his seat.
And although he was looked upon as a deacon, not among the select group who gave all their time for the ministry of the word. But there was something about Stephen as he went about taking care of the women and the children of the matters. There was something about him. Oh, how convicting his very presence was. His witness, his testimony, so spoke to others. They wanted to know this Savior that Stephen knew. And then Philip. I tell you, Philip had a wonderful testimony, yet he's one of those seven. to look after the main things.
Philip, do you remember how in chapter eight we'll be getting to shortly? How he preached in Samaria and there's a great revival wrote down in Samaria. And who's the preacher? Are there Philip? Philip's the one. In fact, you read more in these open chapters about Stephen. chapters six and seven and eight you read more about Stephen and Philip and you do the others who gave themselves holy to the work, to the study of the word and to prayer. And there in chapter eight there's a great revival breaks out in Samaria and Philip is the instant God is using.
Then when God wanted someone to go into the desert to meet a man in a chariot a eunuch of great authority under candy secret in the open. It was Philip who was led by the Spirit to join himself unto this man. He was so led by the Spirit, so filled with the Spirit, he reached that chariot at the very moment when the man had reached the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, and he said, Do you understand what you're reading? You're reading. How come I? It says, other man, soon. And Philip got up into the church.
He began at the same Scripture and preached unto him, Jesus. And the man got saved, and then Philip baptized him, and then the Spirit of the Lord caught the way of Philip. Now here's a man that you look upon as a godly heathen. Yet God was using, and using him might have Isn't it nice when we can find men like this, elders in an assembly, godly men, not only able to take care of matters pertaining to the material and the visit, but men also who can handle the word and are a strong testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the assembly, in their hold, in the death. These are the men that are pillars in the church. You notice the persecutors here were accusing Stephen of changing customs. No, Philip wasn't interested in changing customs. He was interesting in getting them to know Christ. And you know, Lord hasn't sent anybody out to change customs or culture, but to preach Christ.
Today you find missionaries being sent out by modernistic churches, and they're sent for some foreign land to tie and westernize these people. Well, you should dress like the westerners dress. And you should give up your heathen dancing and your heathen music, and you should become westernized, educated. They're trying to change their dress. You have to put on more dress because we know heathens are very simply dress. Yes, God never sent a missionary to the foreign field to try and change customs and culture.
He has set them up to preach Christ. Let me tell you, when Christ comes into the heart, it'll change your destiny. It'll change your apparel, and you'll be exercised about putting on a little more apparel. For the Bible just simply says something about modest apparel, modest apparel. And when Christ comes in, then Christ will do the change. You won't have to tell these heathens when they come to know Christ to become westernized. They begin to win up. They've got a conscience, and that tells them they should be dressed more modestly.
And we don't have any more desire for the tongue-tongues in the jungle beach, and they're raising dancers. They've got a new song now, the song of the Spirit in their heart. Ah, yes, the Lord Jesus Christ does this. Instead of trying to civilize natives, Christ is the only one who can meet this need. And when Christ comes in, these other things go out. Or when Christ comes in, it will change a person's customs. It'll change his culture, it'll change his living habits, and change his even music.
That's what Christ will do. Look at all the salt of the earth, that we are. God wants us to be the salt of the earth. But remember, the salt penetrates into the meat. But the salt is not meat. We are children. of light we shine in the darkness. The light shines into the darkness, but the light is not dark. Find the salt of the earth, so is every Christian. And we ought to affect that which is around us. We should try and reach the law, but don't become like the law.
We're in the world where knowledge And so just as the sun penetrates the meat that is not the meat, and a light penetrates the darkest that is not the darkest, with a walk as children light. Yes, we can be in a storm, but we're not the storm. I believe Christians have their place. We are to be separate, now no one is more free. free to mingle among sinners and the Lord Jesus Christ. And although that text, he was separate from sin, fully harmless, undefiled, separately, it didn't mean he pulled his robes around them when he came near a fallen man or a fallen woman.
It didn't mean that he went through a crowd with his chin in the air, not wanting to be associated with those around them. The Lord Jesus Christ could be an image of a crowd, and yet in his heart he was separate from God. He was the Son of God, and he had a love for them. And you can see there was just a difference. God said in Exodus, I have put a difference between the view, the children of Israel, and the Egyptians. And God has put a difference between his people. as the word. I wonder how long you were in that officer in that job before the people knew that you were a born-again Christian.
That's the book. Dr. Ironside tells of a young fellow who had just gotten saved, I think, relatively. Somebody mentioned this not too long ago. The young fellow got saved and was going off to a lumber camp which is a pretty rough place for a young convert to go and Dr. Ironside was concerned about it. And when the young man came back, of course, Dr. Ironside wanted to know about him. And he asked him, he said, well, he said, how did you get along up there? He said, I got on just fine. He didn't have any trouble. No, he said, no, so-so. Well, he said, did they know you were a Christian?
No, he said, I didn't tell him. I didn't tell them. The Lord wants them. If you don't come on them, they ought to see it. But I think I've mentioned once before, in this prayer poem, if not twice over, she's seen her seventeen years. The little girl can dance her home. So on Sunday school she said to her little brother, she said, I've got a new heart. God gave me a new heart. He said, let me see it. Let me see it. And if you go into a home or in a community or in a office and you say, I've got a new heart, I've got Christ, okay, we've got a steps on you for a while.
You see whether you've got a new heart. And your testimony as only as waiting as your life. That's just how waiting your testimony is. your life so in this case these early Christians they were salt all right and they penetrated the meat but they were not the meat they were the light all right and they penetrated the darkness around them but they were not part of the darkness I wonder if it is so with us another thing God's people are not mystic know what a mystic is?
They used to call a lot of the out-and-out Christians in Europe on by, especially in the Dark Ages, as was an outstanding character. Madame Guillaume is one wonderful Christian. I read her biography years ago. Wonderly she used to be called a mystic because she was so yielded to the Lord. Her life was so outstanding, and she went through all kinds of sacrifices. It couldn't be sometimes, some of their ways of doing things, but they knew the Lord Jesus, and they were called mystics. Mystics.
I suppose mystics would be just about the same thing. Mystics. I looked up what Webster had to say last night about what a mystic was. A mystic is a person who seeks truth through contemplation of things beyond the range of sense, perception, and evidential reasoning. Can you get that? A mystic, a person who goes and touches himself in a room and he sits in deep thought, a meditation, and he tries to reason himself into some kind of a relationship with God, a consciousness of God.
And the mystic is never really sure. He doesn't have any real solid evidence. No. Can God by searching, or can man by searching find out God, the Bible says no. That is not known or found by searching. God is found only by revelation. You've unlocked yourself in the room and closed your eyes and sit in meditation for twenty-four hours. And if you do that often enough, you go out of your mind. If you're trying to find perfection in the air, or if you're trying to discover the special relationship with God, the only way you can know relationship as a conscious existence the constant presence within your heart the conscience of God is by being revealed to you as a result of your acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ your acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ said to Peter when Peter confessed him he says Peter the flesh and blood hath not revealed is unto thee by father which
is in heaven that's what salvation is And a person goes and tosses himself away from everybody else and shower after hour or leave for hours and tries to become more holy, tries to mortify the flesh. They become mystics. As far as I can see in studying my Bible, friend, the only way you're going to become Christ-like is by reading this book as much as you can read it and spend time in prayer. and through these two things, you'll become Christ.
And I don't see any possibility of you becoming Christ-like otherwise. We are not mystics. We don't believe in this. But I'll tell you what we are. We believe in mysteries. We don't believe in mystics. But we do believe in mysteries. Is there a big difference? There certainly is a big difference. I'm not a mystic, at least I hope I'm not. Dreaming awake, thinking I'm somebody when I'm not, thinking I've been someone else. Mysticism. But we all believe in mystery.
What are some of the mysteries that we believe in? I'll do this over. Here's a good one for you. Great is the mystery of godliness. in First Timothy, three sixteenths is one of the three sixteenths of Scripture. And without controversy, great is the mystery of Godliness. A mystery is something that the unseen, healing of scribblings, he can't grasp. It's something beyond his apprehension. What I just don't understand, I can't see. Until after you're saved, you come to know things that before were mysteries.
Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on the earth, and received up into glory. There you have from glory to glory. You have got the flesh, the spirit, the angel, the Gentiles, the world, and back to the Lord. You try and tell that to a lot of people who were agnostics, people who've never heard about the Bible. They think you're crazy.
Why, they said, that's a mystery. You expect me to apprehend that or take that in. But the moment you accept the Lord Jesus Christ as a Savior... You experience the force of that reality. It's a fact. I know that Christ was God manifestly. I know that the Lord Jesus Christ was justified by the Spirit. The Spirit of God vindicated everything He did. He was justified by the Spirit. Even in this baptism, when the Let the Spirit Lord settle upon him.
Ah, yes. Justified in the Spirit and seen of angels, angels saw him at his birth. The angels saw him during his life. When he was in that temptation, the fourth of Matthew, an angel came and ministered under him. The angels were there in the Garden of Gethsemane when one sustained him. angels looked upon him. Seen of angels, and that one was preached unto the Gentiles. And he's been believed in the world, and if we're saved tonight, we have believed in it.
And he's been received up in the glory, and he, for the forerunner, has what asked him to do. Now, is that a mystery? I don't see anything of a myth about that. If that's been revealed to you, it's an old mystery. Well, until you have believed it, it ain't. And don't get this by searching. You get this by acknowledging you're a lost and guilty sin, and you want to be saved. You accept Christ and God will reveal it to you that Christ was God, man of this, in the flesh. Another mystery, I believe, is the mystery of the church.
This is a great mystery. And I speak concerning Christ and the church in Ephesians chapter five. On the mystery there was a thing before, but now revealed, says the Apostle, how God hath made both Jew and Gentile. One God, he said, this is a mystery. It was a mystery in the Old Testament, but not a mystery now. We know it's true. God made you a Gentile. One. They're one body. They've lost their nationality now. They're one Christ. That's the mystery of the church.
Then I believe in another mystery. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall all sleep. You believe in that mystery. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall all sleep. but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. That's to come Jesus Christ of the church. And I tell you, that's no myth. And it's no mystery to the Christian. It's a glorious fact to the Antichrist. It lives within his heart. You also read over in Romans chapter eleven of the mystery of Israel's protection, preservation, and eventual restoration to God and to the full land.
That's mystery. It remains a mystery down the dark ages. Why is it that little people, the eastern end of the Mediterranean, another little strip of real estate known as Emmanuel's land? How is it that piece of land has been protected down the center when other vast areas of land have been bottled up by big nations. Even Napoleon wanted that piece of property. He said that nation that controlled that piece of property can rule the world because of its minerals and its rich raw materials. There it is today.
It survived the watches of the big nations down the century. It's alive. and the Jewish nation today is recognized as a nation among the family of nations and feared by other nations in the Middle East. The mystery of the revival of Israel. He perversed that as a mystery in Romans chapter in Latin, I believe. Then again, he says the mystery of iniquity does already work. He's speaking about the Antichrist. John is an official. The mystery of iniquity.
Already, he says, there are many Antichrist. The mystery of iniquity has already worked. Of that mystery of iniquity, those forces that are in this world, those forces just like the leaven in the meal. Yes, that mystery is working, and ever there has been a time, in the history of the world when evil, misfit, that mysterious power, that mysterious mood, that mysterious thought was at work. There was a time, yesterday. We've asked the question of the last ten years, what's gone wrong with our young people?
What's got into them? Why all of a sudden they They've come to adults overnight, though some people say. And they want to set everything wrong. Right. They think everything's wrong. Everything in the establishment, whether it's the nation, politically, economically, or whether it's the church. They're all wrong. We belong to another race. We're a super race. Anybody over thirties are no folk. It doesn't know anything. Wisdom belongs up. This is the young man, the young woman of the day. Many of them know love for their parents.
They turn against their parents. They grin for truth, and they grin for other things. What is this? How did this strange thing come about in the last few years? It's the mystery of an exodus. It's been working. And this mystery of iniquity is going to be personified in the man of sin of coming at you. Now the world is preparing for it to make no mistake of our thing. And this universal trend among young people, turning against everything, that God established, marriage, home life, decency, fear of God, no, no, no.
Only something with Satan and behind it that accomplished such a thing as we see before us today in our young people. Wouldn't it be nice if instead of that mystery of equity, that evil spirit, so affecting our young people, wouldn't it be nice if it were the spirit of God that was affecting our young people? preparing them for the personification of Christianity when Jesus cut them. The mystery of iniquity is already at work, and that should be no mystery. You see it every day as you read the newspaper and listen to the news report, that mysterious force that unleashed in the world.
In conclusion, we are told to be custodians stewards of the manifold mysteries of God. Now would God want us to be custodians of something we didn't understand? No. He says you're custodians, you're stewards, you're possessors, you're to you, these mysteries. Every time you preach these things you're making use of these mysteries as a steward, a custodian. of these precious things. And in conclusion, you'll notice, we already mentioned a while ago, spiritual things first.
In Matthew six thirty-three, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness of all these things, material things shall be unto you. A case of putting God's And that of Saul the whole lot in all of our lives, we put God first. God first. All these other things shall be added unto you, said the Lord Jesus. God knows you need a food to eat. He knows you need clothes to wear. He knows you need a place to sleep. He knows you need these material things. He knows you. You put spiritual things first, and God will see that you get those things.
But today they've reversed that. But today we're in the materialistic age. We want the material things, the needs of the body, and the pleasures of the body. We want those things first. And if we've got an hour or two spare, we may go to church on board stairs. When the things of God should be first and foremost in our life. As I mentioned one time before, the old toddlers, was asked, he was a Christian. He was asked, what was his main business in life? He says, servant, look.
Well, he said, aren't you the man that runs the car shop down the street there repairing shoes? Oh, he said, I am on the way to heaven. He says, I am just fending shoes to pay expenses. That's it. In other words, these things are necessary, they're essential. But the main purpose, we are here, please go, to live in the light of eternity, go to the devil's side-track. You keep on the main line, and all these other things will take care of themselves. And seven things noticeable here in connection with Stephen.
I'll just move them rapidly. first of all of the Spirit. He was full of the Spirit. He was full of faith in verse five. He was full of grace in verse three. But that word, grace there, that word faith there, means in the devised version, gift, grace. The gift of