Stephen, the first Christian martyr, is presented as a model of faith, grace, power, light, the Word of God, and love. The sermon details Stephen's life and ministry, highlighting his unwavering faith in God, his capacity to endure hardship with grace, and the power he demonstrated through miracles. His face shone with the light of God, reflecting his deep immersion in Scripture and his ability to speak God's Word boldly. Ultimately, Stephen's selfless love for his persecutors, exemplified by his prayer for them as he was stoned, serves as the sermon's powerful closing application, urging believers to emulate his Christ-like character.
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I'd rather say that you have a starting time but no closing time but he doesn't know the instructions I get before I come to you. And after all I don't have to live with him but I have to live with the other one. So I'm going to stick to a closing time. I want to read Victor this morning in the book of Acts. We looked together yesterday at a man of God in the Old Testament, and I'd like to look with you this morning at a man of God in the New Testament. The man, the first man of God, has picked up to shed his life's blood for the sake of the gospel.
The first martyr that gave his life for the truth for which he stood. The sixth chapter of the book of Acts, and I'd like to read, verse five to verse eight, and then a little in chapter seven. The Apostles here are talking about that they have picked out some men to look after the needs of the widows so that they might give themselves to the setting of the Word of God. And then it says in verse five, in the saying, Please the whole multitude, and they choose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip and Sir Curius, and Niconar and Plymouth, Phaminus and Nicholas, the proselyte of Antioch, whom they sat before the Apostles, and when they prayed, they aired 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 were obedient to the faith. And Stephen, full of faith and power, full of grace and power, with great wonders and miracles among them. And on verse fifteen of the same chapter, and all that sat in the council, looking step-fast beyond him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. Chapter seven and verse fifty-one. He stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears. He do always resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did, so do ye.
Lifts of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted. They have slain them, it showed before, the coming of the just one, of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the disposition of angels that have not kept it. When they heard these things they were cut to the heart and they gnashed on him with their teeth. But he being full of the Holy Ghost looked up step-fastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus 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 a loud voice and stopped their ears and ran upon him with one accord, cast them out of the city and stoned them, and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet whose name was Saul.
and they stoned Stephen, calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my third. And he kneel down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, enough is sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. I'd like to think with you this morning of seven things that were told about Stephen in this section. And I believe I'm safe in saying that we were told in this section that he was filled with seven different things. Five of them are mentioned by name and the other two certainly are indicated in the portions that we read together this morning. We start by looking at verse five of chapter six and we're told that Stephen was a man that was full of faith.
I believe this is where your Christian life and my Christian life were God starts. Being dependent upon him. Having our eyes taken off some things and some people. And having our expectations from the Lord. He was filled with it. And I would just like to say that I believe faith in the Bible, if I had to use a composition, is made up of three ingredients. In order to have faith, you have to have knowledge. You have to know the person in whom your faith is set. Secondly, I think you have to have facts. Because without fact, faith would be a myth.
And thirdly, your will and your mind has to ascend to both the knowledge and the facts that you know. But if you have to have a knowledge of God, you have to have a knowledge of the fact that God honors faith in the scriptures. Without faith, the Apostle tells us it's impossible to please him. It's that what God looks for in the Christian's life and experience. a constant and a steadfast faith in Him for the life that you and I live down here. Then again, I'd like to suggest to you that faith isn't simply something that isn't active.
Faith isn't active things in extremely Christians' lives. The Apostle James tells us that faith without works is dead. That is, you might say you have faith, but if I don't see any actions in connection with it, I doubt very much if it's there. You can go back to the Old Testament, you look at some of the great men of faith and you see that in connection with all of them, they did something about it. Abram, for instance, we looked at last, yesterday morning, believed God and he went out. He followed the Lord because he had faith in God. He didn't stay in the Chaldeans, but he packed up and he left because he had his eyes on the unseen God.
He was following the unseen path that God had laid out for him in this world. Noah had faith. He believed God was going to send the flood, but he didn't fold his arms. He labored and he preached for the hundred and twenty years. Faith works. It did in Noah's case. It was constantly active. We say we may say we have faith in God and do nothing about it. I doubt very much whether it's anything that means much in our lives unless it produces some result as we live in this world for him. Noah believed God and he started building and he started preaching.
And I suppose during his lifetime he must have been very many many times discouraged because if I read the record of the scriptures right there wasn't one of them that really listened to his message. I don't mean to say that none of them were saved through the preaching of Noah, but certainly we don't read anything of it in the Bible. Abel had faith and he brought a sacrifice to God. He believed that God demanded life and he took a substitute, the producer, to bring into God's presence for himself. And we are taught in this section this morning that Stephen was full of faith. And you know, the peculiar thing about you and me is when we are full of faith, there is room for anything else.
You cannot be full of something and have room for something else. And I believe when we learn about Stephen being full of faith, he had his eyes completely taken off of things, completely removed from this world and from the life in which he lived. And he had his eyes entirely fixed upon God. You and I as Christians are not living by sight. The nation of Israel lived by sight. They wanted signs. They wanted something to see. Thomas wanted a sign, you remember. When the disciples told them that the Lord was risen and had a fear to them, he says, I won't believe it until I can put my fingers in the prints of the nails in his hands and thrust my hands into the wounds in his eyes.
And remember what the Lord Jesus said when he met him the next Lord's Day? Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. Faith is a tremendous power in the Christian's life because it lays hold of every promise that God has given to it. We were talking a little the other day about someone mentioning that it took him years and years and years and he still didn't get to it, counting all the promises of God in the Bible. Now I read an article not too long ago that there is more promises in the Bible than verses. And if that is true, then there is over thirty-four thousand of them. Because there is thirty-four thousand than some verses in the Bible.
And faith lays a hold of every one of those promises. God told you and me as Christians, when we trusted him as our Savior, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. God told you and me as Christians, he never cause us a needless deal. And so on. And you can know the verses that are dear and real to you and you can lay hold of them by faith. Because that's how you begin your Christian experience in this world. We're not looking at things. But with an eye single to the glory of God we're looking at him. And Stephen we are taught in this section was filled with faith.
And let me call your attention to just one more character in the Old Testament who made a choice by faith. Moses. God gave him a choice, or should I say Pharaoh gave him a choice. He could have chosen to remain the second in command in Egypt and spend his life in luxury in the palace of the king. But the epistle to the Hebrews tells us that by faith he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God. and to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. There's pleasures in sin, but the sad part of it is the only first season. And the choice of faith is a permanent choice.
It's something that will last you not only through this life, but will last you as well through eternity. And I mean verse six and verse eight in this chapter you learned that Peter, that Stephen was full of grace. It says faith again in verse eight that the word should be grace. And it's the grace of God implanted in the Christian's life that makes us able to endure the suffering of this life. That makes us able to forgive others for the wrongs that they've done us. The grace that is implanted in our hearts when we learn the grace of the Lord Jesus is a grace that forgives. It's a grace that can overlook slides.
It's a grace that looks at people's good points instead of their badness. And I'm sure that in your experience and in my experience you have met a good many Christians, at least you met some of them, that it was very difficult to manifest the grace of God who, and Stephen Little, was full of it. Not only full of it to the Christians, but even full of it to the world around them. We look into that a little bit later. as he think of some of his other characteristics. He had learned what the grace of God had done for him. And God has used him to dispense that grace to others at whom he came in contact.
It's very easy to love people that love you. But the grace of God is the grace that loves people that don't love you. As I suggested to you the other day, the Lord said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But grace says you should love your enemies. The Lord tells you to do good to them that are around you. Grace tells you to do good to those that despisefully use you. And so on. And Stephen was filled with him. His life was characterized by God's grace. He had a menial task. You know, I'm often discouraged when I read about Stephen for two reasons.
He was picked to do a very menial job. They laid his hands on Stephen and they made him one of the seven that were to look after the sons of what would be dispensed to the four. You remember how this came about? The Greeks began to complain to the apostles and they said that the widows of the Jews are taken care of better than our widows have. So the apostle says, all right, we'll pick out a committee to take care of it. And being full of grace, they picked out six Greeks. and only one Jew. They said, now we are not doing it right, now you do it. And they picked out Stephen. And if there's ever any unthankful task, it's looking after those that are in need.
My father-in-law did it for many years. And he got very little thanks, both from those whom we went to visit and from those whose money he had the privilege to distribute. There was more false finding than anything else. And yet here a man that had the most menial fast that you could possibly think of was the first man that saw the Lord Jesus in glory. And I've always been encouraged by that. We were in California a number of years ago looking at the children's home. I redecorated the whole home inside. I worked ten hours a day, six days a week. I painted every room in the home. I put tile in twenty-two bathrooms. I painted the buildings outside and so on and so forth with my hands.
And I was preaching one time in Riverside. And a lady came up to me after meeting and she gave me the biggest compliment I've ever had. I said, you see you've been painting this week, you've been painting green. I can see it on your fingernails. She was looking at my hands and she saw some of the green paint on my fingernails and she told me I've been painting green that way. And I was very much encouraged to know that people noticed, not only what I said, but that people noticed what I've been doing. The grace of God fills the Christian to do something for others that they cannot do for themselves. To be used of God to encourage others as an essential and a necessity to make their lives a little easier for him.
And then you notice he was filled with power in verse eight. I believe these things follow each other automatically. I think when faith gets a hold of you and me as Christians, when the grace of God becomes active in our lives, you'll find that it filters the power of God too. Whenever I lead a power in the Bible, I'm reminded of the man who lived out in the country. And I have tears, seen lights, and his wife said to him one day, I wish you could do something about the front door. People come to the door and they knock and they knock and I'm in the back of the house and I don't hear them. So a friend of his said to him, why don't you put an electric bell on the door?
Well, he says, I don't have any electricity. We don't have any power. He says, you don't need it. You get your electric bell and you go down to the hardware store and you buy a couple of dry cell batteries and you connect this bell to these dry cell batteries and your wife will have a bell at the door. So he went downtown and he bought the dry cell batteries and he bought the bell and he bought the wiring. And you put the bell on the casing and he connected it in the basement to the dry cell batteries and lo and behold, He pushed the button and the bell rang. And he said to himself, Boy, this is great. Now, why in the world do I have kerosene lights? Why don't I put electric lights in too? So he ran downtown and he bought the light fixtures and he put them up and he put all the wiring in and he got two more dry cell batteries.
And he turned the switch and lo and behold, no light. You see, it takes a lot more power to show light than it does to make a noise. You can make a noise with two dry cell batteries, but you can't show any light in this world with two dry cell batteries. You need a lot more power for that. You need to be connected to the powerhouse in order to produce light. You don't need to be connected to the powerhouse to ring a bell to make noise. Because this world is full of people that are making noise. that they have very little power in their life.
You need a direct line to the place where the power comes from. And that line, of course, is frail. And as you have a direct line with God, you'll find power in your life. You'll be able to light the lights. That's a little the world's feeder to the Christian. And the troll feeder that feeders must follow. I don't know if any of you ever met our brothers. Funny, I can't even think of his name now. He came from Scotland and he visited our brother David Lawrence in in Iowa, Centerville, Iowa. That might make a difference what his name is anyway.
He was a Christian. And he came to Denver one time when we were having our conference. And at that time we had our conference in New Grains building on the twenty-sixth in Steer Boulevard. a large building that presented for the purpose because we didn't have a chapel that was big enough. And they asked him to say a few words in the afternoon, and I'll never forget what he said when he got on the platform. He says, I walked through your parking lot and I counted seven Lincolns and six Cadillacs and nine Buicks. And I said to myself, Lord, I hope there's as much power on the inside of this building as there's on the outside. It doesn't take too much power to be heard, but it takes a lot of power to be seen.
And that's what he's talking about here. And Stephen had power that they saw his Christianity in his life and in his actions. That wasn't a dry cell connected. That was a life cell connected with the God of whom he belonged. And he showed it. and every step of his life. And I'm in chapter six and verse fifteen, I believe you're told that he was full of light. Do you remember what it says? They looked on him and his face looked, shone like the face of an angel. What it was on the inside was apparent on the outside.
And the grace of God will change the most ugly person into a face looking like an angel. That light that was on the inside that permeated this life was visible to those that came in contact with him. All together contrary to this world, this world loves darkness rather than light. If you don't think so, you go to some of the places where they serve drinks in some of the big cities and you find a little bit of a light on the site wall and the drapes all pulled so nobody can look in. When we looked at the children's home in Colorado Springs, some of the high school students who were in the senior and junior classes of high school asked Mr.
Walden one night if he would take him to a basketball game of their school. Nobody was willing to take him. Nobody at the home had the time to take him to the basketball game. I being the kind-hearted fellow I am, I said to John, I said, if you don't mind, if they're permitted to go, I'll take them to the basketball game. So I took them down to the basketball game and set up in the back of the balcony and kept my eye on them. When the game was over, they went back to my car and I took them back to the home. And I left them off at the front door of the home, and I drove around the back while my trailer was parked in which we were living, and parked my car. went in the room and took my tie off and then back to the kitchen because my wife was in the kitchen.
She'd made the girls some hot cocoa and cookies and was waiting to serve her to them as they came in. When I came in the back door and I walked into the kitchen and said, my wife, where are the girls? She says, they're not here yet. Well, I said, that's funny. I let them off by the front door almost ten minutes ago. Where are they? Well, she didn't. No, they hadn't come in. So I called Mrs. Walden and she said to me, I bet you anything. They walked right out of the yard and took the bus back downtown to the basketball court and went to the dance. They were not allowed to go to the dance. So I said to her, says, well, you go with me, we'll go and get them. And I drove Mrs. Walden downtown and we walked into this auditorium probably five, six times as large as this and three times as high.
And on each wall there were four lights. about that big and a dark red globe over them. You couldn't see a thing. And all these young couples were dancing all over that dance floor. And in the darkness I walked around and I stopped every couple and I looked at them until I found one that belonged to me. And then I took it over to Mrs. Walden and she held on to. And I went back onto the dance floor. It took me half an hour to find the six girls that were supposed to be going back to the home. Literally speaking, you couldn't see the hand in front of your face. Dark on the inside and dark on the outside.
But he was the man whose face was shining with the light of God because it was flooding his soul. You and I have something within us that's given to us by God Himself and it's one of the triunes of the Godhead. The spirit of God illuminates our lives and it ought to illuminate our faces. Our outward appearance ought to be such that when the world looks at us, they know we belong to the Lord Jesus. There is a city in Michigan by the name of Cadillac. I suppose it was named after the same man that the automobile was named after. And in this city lived a man by the name of Mr.
Cole. C-O-L-E, he was an associate of Mr. Moody. And one day a letter came to the post office in Cadillac and without any hesitation they delivered it to Mr. Cole. And this is what it said on the envelope. To that man of God in Cadillac, Michigan. The city of eleven thousand inhabitants. And without any hesitation the mailman delivered it to Mr. Cole and it was his letter. I wanted to send a letter to the town that you live in and address it to that man of God in such and such a city if they would deliver it to your house. I'm sure they wouldn't deliver it to mine in the city of a million inhabitants.
I think if they'd send a letter to that day in the place where Stephen lived, they would have delivered that letter to Stephen's house. Because he showed on the outside what he possessed on the inside. He was filled with light. There was no shadow, no shade of darkness in him. And it was manifested to those with whom he came in contact. And I noticed in chapter seven we read together he was full of the Word of God. He's full of the scriptures. He told the nation their whole history. It was the meek and the manner of his life to learn what the Word of God had to say.
He took them back through their life's history and accused them of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. He had learned to feed on the Word of God and consequently he could use the Word of God when he met those with whom he came in contact. Full of the Bible. I knew of only one man in my life's history that was full of the Bible and that was Tom Olson. He could stand on the platform and he could code it by the hour. I understand my brother August learned a whole New Testament by heart when he thought he was going blind some years ago. But you could talk to Mr. Olson and you can ask him about any verse in the Bible and he'll tell you where it is.
He's just filled with the Word. I dare say God to have used him more than anyone amongst us in the years that have gone by. He told me something very interesting about himself. when we saw him last in California. He's a very good teacher, but he's no automobile mechanic. He knows absolutely nothing about an automobile. He was driving from Riverside, California to Indio, which is about a hundred miles, maybe a little bit less, through the desert. And he was about thirty miles away from Indio, and his car became blazing hot. The steam was just boiling out of the radiance. And Tom knows nothing about an automobile. So he stopped alongside of the road, and opened the hood and he looked at the engine, but that's all he could do is look at.
And a kind gentleman stopped and he says, Can I help you, sir? Tom said to him, Yes, my automobile is running hot and I don't know what the trouble is. And the fellow says, Maybe I can help you. And he looked under the hood and he says, Well, your fan belt is broken. And your engine is running very, very hot. But what can I do? Well, he says, The only thing you can do is put a new fan belt on. And he says, How will I get one? He was apparently a very fine gentleman. In fact, he was a Christian. He learned later, he said to him, I said, you know what, I'll do. I'll drive to India and I'll get you new one and I'll come back and put it on. The man drove thirty miles to get a new fan belt and thirty miles back to put it on his car. And when he put it on, Tom Oldson gave him five dollars.
He says, here, I want to pay you for the expenses. He says, no, sir, I don't want your money. I don't want to take anyone. And then Tom says, well, let me give you this. And he gave them a gospel track. The fella turned it over and he says, oh, Tom Olson. He says, you know, ten years ago I read a text from him and it led me to the Lord. And I've prayed all my life that someday I might meet Tom Olson. And Tom says, well, the Lord answered your prayer because I am Tom Olson. The light of his life and the light of his writings have touched many of us all. And your light, the light in your life and the light in my life can touch others. And then he was familiar with the Word of God.
He could give an answer to the hope that's within him. He was filled with the Scriptures. He reveled in them. And so often you and I face someone when the Word of God would be the only solution for the problem that we faced and we fail to be able to give them the words that are necessary. The Lord Jesus was filled with the Word of God and Satan came to him. He never did anything but quote the word of God. He had an answer to every question that the devil put to him. Many years ago we had children's meetings in our home in Michigan.
My wife started it because she saw a number of children on the streets as we lived going nowhere. And she went to the families and asked them if we started children's meetings in our home in the evening if they'd let them come. And most of them, not all of them said yes. But it became so large that it used to come by bus and by car and you had to carry all the furniture, all of our living room and dining room and stack it in the kitchen on Monday nights to get the children in the house. You run as high as seventy in our living and dining room. And I thought the boy be divided and finally, and I thought the boys on Monday and she taught the girls on Friday. And a young boy of twelve years old came up to me one night after meeting.
And he said to me, Mr. Van Dyne, I want to ask you a question. My father and my mother are not Christians. And even if they're not Christian, can I be a Christian? And you know, I stammered and I stuttered to give him an answer. I'm ashamed of myself and I think of that lovely night and I have the privilege and the opportunity to point a young life to the wonderful sage of the world. Words didn't come. Scriptures didn't come. For some reason or another, I wasn't filled with the Word of God. I was filled with other things. And the Word that I should have been able to give to him didn't come.
And then last but not least, in chapter seven and verse sixty, you'll find out that he was filled with love. The stones that they threw at him might break his head, but they couldn't break his heart. He is a man that has done nothing but good. Every place he's gone, he's been a blessing to those at whom he came in contact. And the final payment the world gave to him was stoning him into eternity. But you notice when we read it, he didn't die. I don't know if any place in the Bible that a Christian ever dies, a Christian falls asleep or as it should be, is put to sleep by the Lord Jesus.
Do you know if a more painful death and standing up and being stoned to death by people, having them hit all parts of your body, including your head, all the aches and the pain and all the misery it would cause. And yet as he was going into eternity, he follows the example that maybe he had seen his Lord do a short time before. When they nailed him to a cross, the words came from his lips, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And Peter imitated his Lord and he says, Lay not this sin to their child.
He had a heart that was filled with the love of God, and the love of God was manifested by him through his subtle man. Not a word of complaint, really, came from his lips. Not a word of anguish or a word of sorrow. Not a word of accusation for his accusers. He never defended himself as far as the record goes. Everything that befell him he took from the hand of God And he used that very opportunity to again show us the grace of God and the love of God as there's dwelling in him. Lord, name our Christian to that church.
Let me ask you this morning and let me go back with you again and suggest to you if these things are two of us. Are we filled with faith that discounts things and depends upon God? are the eyes of our spiritual heart-soul, but the eyes which we look with physically take the second place in our lives. People are so occupied with things, with possessions, so occupied with dipping things in this life that the spiritual blessings that God has for them are strange to them and unknown.
God has not only blessed you with things in this world, but God has blessed you with all spiritual blessings in Christ. Everything that God has for you that's eternal, that's permanent. He puts at your disposal, if you must just take hold of it by faith, believing what God says. We believe men, we act, we live and exercise faith toward men constantly. Yet we exercise so little faith toward God. We get into difficult circumstances and trial and sorrows come our way. And we do like the psalmist.
We wonder if God's forgotten us altogether. We read the calendar leaf the other morning and most of you read it too. And God called you and me the apple of his eye. The most tenderest part of the human anatomy. You and I are the dearest to God as we live in this world. Do we have the faith to go on and live discounting circumstances, discounting conditions, and trusting and trusting only in Him? Do we have the grace to suffer for Him? Do we have the power to manifest Him as He's left us in this world?
Are we connected to the source of power? Can we light the lights? And not just ring the bell. Not just make a noise. You can press the button on your car and you can make a noise, the horn blows. But you need a starter to get the engine running. You can get a bell on your door that's six-fold. You need a hundred and twenty-fold to get lights. It takes far more to be seen than to be heard. And then again I'll be full of light. The life of the Spirit of God living within us is it manifested to the world in which we come in contact.
As they look at us do we see that we have something that they don't have? They ought to. There ought to be something about our countenance. It tells the world that we're living in the constant enjoyment of the presence of the Spirit of God in our lives. Nothing can change it. If you're interested in things and in circumstances, you'll have your valleys and your mountaintops constantly. If you're living in the enjoyment of the life in the presence of the Spirit of God, you'll be living on an even keel. It'll always be the same. Happiness depends on happenings.
But joy doesn't depend on happenings. It's something that's inward. Someone has already defined this word, joy. The three letters of it is Jesus first. It's other second. And it's yourself last. J-O-Y. A life that's lived for the Lord Jesus. A life that's lived for the blessing of others. Will be a life that's profitable to yourself. And a life that lasts eternally. Are we filled with it? Is the light of our life manifested to us? Are we filled with the Word of God? Is it the man of our daily life, of our food?
Do we read it daily? I read some time ago about a lady who hired a colored girl to work for her in her home. And the first day that the colored girl worked there, about eleven o'clock, the lady came up to her and she said to her, have you seen my Bible? He says, I'm looking for my Bible. I want to read my Bible and I can't find it. And the colored lady said, yes, ma'am, I found it and I put it in the bookcase. She said, I do that every place I work. And I'm not judged to people by how long it takes them to miss it. They took the Bible off of your table and put it in your bookcase. Would you miss it the same morning?
Here's a man that was filled with the Word of God. He could tell the whole history of the nation up until the day that they stole them today. And then he was not afraid of what men could do to him. He stood before his judges. He might have been easy in what he said. He might have been careful in using his words and choosing them well. But he told them the truth without any softening at whatever. The names that he called them, what he told them in chapter seven. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them, which, O before, of the coming of the just one, of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers.
He wasn't afraid of what men could do to him, because he had committed himself to God, who controlled everything in this universe. And last but not least, he was a Christian with the silver lug to others. No matter how much he was abused, No matter how sad he was mistreated, he still loved them. He didn't love their ways. He showed them that when he spoke to them. But he loved the people. He had a heart that was bursting with the same love with which his Lord had manifested himself to him. I have a little note here in the bottom of my Bible and it says there is no condition in life No offers we may be called to fill.
No testimony we may have to bear. No death we may have to face. But the love of God is sufficient for all of us. I trust that God shall implant in our hearts a greater measure of the love of the Lord Jesus. And as we face men in this world that they might see in us something that they need and something that they want. May our faces be shining for them. Shall we give thanks? Our God and our Father, we thank ye again this morning for this marvelous story of one of thy servants, who was called upon to lay down his life for the sake of the gospel.
And yet we hear not one word of complaint from his lips. No arguments. no words to attempt to excuse himself to those of whom he came in contact because his whole reliance was upon thee. We thank you that the faith that he manifested was a faith that was strong enough to face even death for the sake of the gospel. We thank you, our Father, that the last thing that we hear this servant say is a prayer for those who persecuted him. He prayed that our hearts might be so filled with the love of God in every circumstance of life that was wring from our lips too.
These wonderful words that the sin of the abuse that we may have to suffer be not laid to their charge. We ask our Father that our lives might be manifested in such a way that we might be able to attract people to the Lord Jesus. He committed ourselves truly for the day. We thank He again for the grace that has brought us together, to the love that has united us together. We thank you, our Father, for the center of our gathering day by day, the person of our Lord Jesus. We pray that you might be imitators of him. His message that God bless you, we pray that you, we thank you again for the privilege of speaking to us from thy word, and we ask thee to bless it to us.
We give thee thanks for it in our Savior's name. Amen.