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I would invite you this morning to take your Bibles and turn to Acts chapter six. Our verse-by-verse study takes us to verse eight this morning, verses eight through 15, and I've entitled my discourse to you "Marks of a choice servant of God." Follow along as I read the text, Acts chapter six, beginning with verse eight.

"And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.

"But some men from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, including both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and argued with Stephen.

And yet they were unable to cope with the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking.

"Then they secretly induced men to say, 'We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.'

"And they stirred up the people, the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and dragged him away and brought him before the Council.

"And they put forward false witnesses who said, 'This man incessantly speaks against this holy place and the "Law;

"'for we have heard him say that this Nazarene, Jesus, will destroy this place and alter the customs which Moses handed down to us.'

"And fixing their gaze on him, all who were sitting in the Council saw his face like the face of an angel."

I find myself being drawn to Stephen in a very special way. What a fascinating character with amazing credentials - credentials, quite frankly, that the world does not grasp. When you think about it, the world praises men and women today for being successful, for being popular, for being wealthy. You look on the television, and you see them interviewing powerful businessmen, or athletes, or musicians, or some kind of an entertainer, or some politician. And sadly, I fear that we as Christians very often tend to adopt the values of the world, and we join the world by measuring a man by his externals rather than by his character, by his heart, and then without realizing it, we can pass this on to our children. We push them to be successful, to be popular in the eyes of the world, rather than faithful in the eyes of God. You don't believe this? Just watch parents sometime act like fools on the sidelines of their children's games, coaching their children in some athletic event, for example. Oh, they're passionate about all of that, and yet utterly indifferent about training and instructing their children in the discipline of the Lord. Ask a child sometime about their heroes. Who are your heroes, little boy, little girl? And I would venture to say that you'll hear very few of them say Peter, John, Stephen, Paul. You won't hear that. Instead, you'll hear some the name of some popular unbeliever whose name is probably on their jersey or on the picture in their wall.

Well, today's text offers a radically different kind of a hero. Here we have before us, dear friends, a man that God praised. Now there's the criterion, right? I want to praise somebody on the same basis that God would evaluate that person. A man that would certainly never be interviewed on the talk shows today, because according to Scripture, he was four things, and we will study them this morning. He was full of faith in the Holy Spirit. He was full of grace and power. He was full of wisdom and the Spirit, and he was affirmed by God's glory. And I can only pray, especially for some of you young people, that perhaps after today, you will find a new hero, and you will want to be like Stephen, and maybe even put his name on the back of a jersey.

Let me give you the context here. Remember, Stephen was a Hellenist. He was one of the seven that were chosen by the church there in Jerusalem to help resolve the conflict that was going on between the Hellenists and the native Hebrews, and this really marks a transition in the early life of the church because what we're going to see here is the Jerusalem phase of the spreading of the gospel is now being moved to more of a Samarian phase, and we're beginning to see the gospel of Christ now spread to the remotest parts of the earth. And being a Hellenist, Stephen's audience included other Jews that were born outside of Israel, and many of them, no doubt, were victims of earlier exiles. And as you will recall, they had different languages and different cultures. They probably looked different as well.

Now, Stephen's ministry was a very short one, and yet he impacted many for the gospel of Christ, and he especially impacted one man who hated him with a vengeance yet later came to love him and even emulate him. That man was Saul, who later became the Apostle Paul. In fact, as we study especially the life of the Apostle Paul, we see that his disdain for Stephen was eclipsed only by his utter contempt for Jesus of Nazareth. And as we look at Stephen today, and yet again next Sunday, and perhaps the next, we will study, for example, his sermon. And his sermon was not an evangelistic sermon, not one that called men to repentance, but rather a very confrontive pronouncement of judgment upon all who would dare to reject the gospel of Christ. And we know that God's judgment upon Jerusalem and upon the Jews was just a few years off, a few years away, and we know that Stephen would soon be stoned to death, and his martyrdom really further sealed the fate of wicked men - wicked religious leaders that rejected the gospel of Christ - proving their utter hatred for the truth. And frankly, Stephen's death, I believe, was really a harbinger of future rejection and judgment upon the world. And like all of the apostles and many 1000s of other faithful warriors of the faith, Stephen's life came to a violent and tragic end. As I thought about it, nobody celebrated Stephen's life and ministry when he came to the end. You know, it's fascinating, isn't it, every time you turn on the television, it seems like Hollywood has come up with another way to give themselves some type of reward, some other red carpet something, so that they could receive something else to exalt themselves. Ways of getting their handprints, I believe it is, in some sidewalk somewhere, I believe in Hollywood or wherever. Not so with Stephen. No one wanted to interview him. No one wanted his autograph. In fact, to the world, especially the religious world, he was simply a fool that believed a religious lie and died an ignominious death. Stephen was not inducted into some hall of fame, at least here on Earth. But dear friends, he was exalted in a way that is beyond our imagination, exalted by God himself in a far more magnificent and eternal glory, one again, that the world does not understand.

So let's take some time this morning to look at the marks of a choice servant of God, as we look at the divine accolades that God places upon Stephen. First of all, we can look back in chapter six and verse five, and we see number one that he was full of faith and the Holy Spirit. The term "full" literally means he was filled up. He was satiated with faith. Faith being complete trust and confidence in God's sovereign control of all things, including his life. He had complete trust in God, and he was filled with that glorious virtue. And it's sad many times as Christians we don't really trust God completely. For example, the Bible will tell us to do certain things, and we know what it says about various disciplines of the Christian life or various things he would have us to do. Where he says, in essence, if you do this, I will bless you, and if you don't, I will chasten you. And what do we say? "God, I don't really trust you at your word. I think I know better what I need to do. I don't really believe that you have my best interest at heart. So I'm going to disobey what you've asked me to do, and I'm going to go in a different direction." Not so with Stephen. Some people have faith that God, for example, will save them, but they do not trust him to keep them. Some people will have confidence in God's sovereign ability to orchestrate all things to accomplish precisely what he has ordained.  They will have faith that he has really pre-written history, and yet other people will deny that and say, in essence, you know, "I'm not sure God knows everything that's going on. Much less has he ordained that." Not so with Stephen. For to deny the sovereign rule of God over His creation, dear friends, is to have a defective faith and place confidence in man's feeble plans and his abilities to accomplish things that are absolutely, utterly beyond his control and even ability to understand.

So, Stephen was a man full of faith. You know, in Hebrews 11, there is a wonderful text there that is sometimes called the Hall of Faith, not the Hall of Fame, but the Hall of Faith. And in verse one of Hebrews 11, we read, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for..." The "assurance," by the way, means the foundation, the guarantee, or the substance. Faith is the guarantee of things hoped for, "the conviction," or it could be translated even the legal proof, "of things not seen." In other words, what the writer of Hebrews is saying is that faith gives substance or reality to the unseen promises of God. Literally, treating those promises as if we could witness them with our own two eyes, as if we could visually see the realities of God's promises for us, with a certain hope. In verse two of that text, it says, "For by it,",in other words, by faith, "the men of old gained approval." I love that. Don't you want to have God's approval? I do. And how do you get God's approval? By being full of faith. For by it, by faith, "the men of old gained approval." And then you'll recall the text says, "By faith Abel," and it talks about Abel. "By faith Enoch"...by faith Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets," and so on. You see, all of these received the gift of faith and trusted God at his word in faithful obedience, and as a result, they gained his approval.

Now I ask you, as we think of Stephen's life, are you full of faith? Do you trust God completely with your life and all that he has asked you to do? Do you take him at his word? Do you believe in his promises when experiencing some great trial? Do you mourn in resentment towards God, or do you say, "God, you do not demand me an explanation, it's not like you're treating me unfairly. God, even though I do not understand that which you have brought upon me, I trust you, knowing that you have done this for my good and your glory." Is that your heart? That was certainly the heart of Stephen. Do you have faith that God is sovereign over all things, including salvation? Do you trust God at his word? Do you have faith that his word is the final authority, rather than your foolish, lustful ideas and passions.

Well, Stephen was a man full of faith, a virtue that provided for him great peace and comfort, even when the stones of his adversaries began to rain down upon him. But not only did he trust God completely in all things, notice again back in chapter six, verse five, he was also full "of the Holy Spirit." I love this. This means that he was saturated, he was satiated, he was filled up with the Holy Spirit of God. In other words, he had yielded his life completely to the Spirit's control. He chose to be obedient to the word of God in all things. You know, the Apostle Paul wrote on this as well in other places. For example, in Ephesians chapter five and verse 18, you remember the text says, "Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation." And getting drunk with wine was a common way that the pagans somehow practice their religion, which is foolish, but they would do that. And Paul says, don't do that, "but rather be filled with the Spirit." In other words, be intoxicated with, if you will, or be under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

And then later on, he gives us the result of that, and beginning in verse 19 of Ephesians five, he says, "Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God even the Father, and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ." As a footnote, if your heart is not filled with song in all things, even in the difficult times, then you are not filled with the Holy Spirit. You're not walking with him. Moreover, if you have problems submitting to those that God has placed in authority over you, whether it be God Himself, whether it be a boss, the government, a husband, or whatever, then you are not filled with the Spirit, because those who are will have no problem with that. This is how Stephen was. This is really the opposite of being angry and sullen. You show me a Christian that is constantly whining and moaning and sour and sullen and hot tempered, and I'll show you a Christian that is not filled with the Holy Spirit, not satiated by him. Paul also said in Galatians 5:16 that we are to "walk by the Spirit." In other words, surrender to the Spirit's control as he has revealed himself in the Word of God, and let that be a habitual pattern of your life. And then he says, "you will not carry out the desire of the flesh." And then later on he tells us what the fruit of all of that will be in verse 22. The fruit of the spirit is "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." Dear friends, that's how Stephen was.

To help you understand that, let me give you the opposite of the fruit of the Spirit, which would be the fruit of the flesh. If we were to take every one of those terms and give you the opposite, here's what it would be: the fruit of the flesh would be hatred, depression, anxiety, impatience, lack of sympathy, selfishness, being unreliable, angry, controlling, and undisciplined. If those things characterize your life, you're not filled with the Spirit.

Well, Stephen was a man that was full of faith and the Holy Spirit. And I would ask you, what are you full of? Maybe you need to ask the people that know you best. Many people in our culture, yea, even within the church, are filled with things like greed and materialism and anger and jealousy, resentment, bitterness, lust, immorality, selfishness and pride, laziness, gluttony, fear, anxiety, and on and on it goes. What a contrast with Stephen, a man full of faith in the Holy Spirit, but when you are full of faith in the Holy Spirit, that's going to bear another fruit, and we see that here in the text before us. And this would lead to our second virtue of Stephen that the Lord lists here. He says that he was "full of grace and power" in verse eight. "And Stephen, full of grace and power..." in other words, because of God's gift of grace in salvation that transformed his inner man, he was now able to show grace to others, even those who hated him. He was a man that was therefore humble. To be gracious means to be humble, to be courteous and patient and compassionate and merciful and kind when responding to others in need, even your enemies. Stephen was gracious. He was full of selfless love and humility and compassion and consideration and. Frankly, that's one of the reasons why the church chose him to help with the whole dispute with the widows and the poor, remember? Because he trusted completely in God's sovereign rule over his life, he could even pray for God to forgive those who were stoning him. Does this describe you? The opposite of grace would be this: a person who is selfish, self-absorbed, self-promoting, self-centered, rude, unkind, insensitive, demanding, manipulative, controlling, vengeful, unforgiving, and so on. In Second Peter three and verse 18, Peter instructed us to "grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." In other words, we are taught there to mature in the virtues of Christ and in the knowledge of the truths that are revealed in his Word.

But also we see that Stephen was full not only of grace but power. Indeed, any man filled with faith, the Holy Spirit, and grace is going to be a man full of spiritual power. Now, folks, think of it this way: Here was a man that could not be defeated by temptation of sin or by compromise. Here was a man with spiritual muscle. Here was a man that was a formidable foe for any man or any woman that would challenge the truth. Stephen was not some passive pansy that would cower in fear when challenged by the unprincipled purveyors of wickedness and error. And when I think of a man like Stephen, I think of what he was not. And if I can put it just as clearly as I know, Stephen was not some effeminate, pusillanimous, spineless spiritual sissy that couldn't beat his way out of a wet paper sack theologically. I mean, here was a guy that was tough spiritually. He was not ashamed of the gospel. He would never compromise the truth to somehow make it less offensive to those who would reject it. This was a man, dear friends, who was a warrior of the faith. I love that he was a warrior of the faith, full of divine power.

And notice in verse eight, "Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people." God had given him this this gift, and frankly, apart from the apostles, only three other men performed miracles in the New Testament, and they were Stephen, Philip, and Barnabas. And here we see that this was an ongoing ministry of Stephen.

But notice also Stephen's power along with these other spiritual virtues that we've examined. Notice how they all converge together in his confrontation in the synagogue in verse nine, "But some men from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, including both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and argued..." and could be translated "debated"...."with Stephen.” Now, evidently, these were three separate synagogues, and here we see that the representatives, the Jewish leaders from these synagogues, were so absolutely infuriated with what Stephen was preaching, that they verbally assaulted Stephen in a formal debate, and as we will see later, Saul, who later became the apostle Paul, was probably in on the exchange.

But notice verse 10, "And yet they were unable to cope with the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking." And here we see yet some more virtues that flow from the well of being full of faith and the Holy Spirit, grace and power. Thirdly, we see that he was full of wisdom and the spirit. Oh, how I wish I could have been there! Don't you wish you could have seen that? Jewish scholars that were completely outgunned, completely outmatched. I mean, these guys weren't even in the same league as Stephen. Not because of Stephen's brilliance, but because of the power of the Spirit of God that dwelled within him. Now, most likely, many of the indictments that they later levied against him in verses 13 through 14 were primarily disagreements centered around the basic doctrines of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For example, it would have been things like him preaching on the inability of the Mosaic Law to reconcile men to God, and now that now being replaced by the New Covenant by God's grace given to man through faith in Jesus of Nazareth. They were also infuriated, undoubtedly, about what Stephen had to say with respect to the temple and the rituals in the temple that now those things were obsolete in light of the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, and so on. And also they would be infuriated about what Stephen would have said about the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the crucified Messiah that was raised from the dead and that would return again someday in power and great glory, and so on. Now, for the Jews to preach such heresy and to challenge their sacred truths was absolutely beyond blasphemy. This was a crime worthy of death, but they were no match for Stephen's spirit-empowered wisdom and boldness. And again, folks, I just have to come back and think, my, what a spectacular soldier of the cross!

Somebody that most people in the world....you go to you go to the greatest universities and colleges in the world, and you ask their greatest scholars if they know anything about Stephen, and guess what they would say? "Who?" What a hero of our faith! One that we should all endeavor to emulate-a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, full of grace and power.

Now, what do enemies of Christ, when they are filled with some self-righteous rage, when they're blinded by deception, what do these type of people do when they are unable to cope with the wisdom and the spirit with which a choice servant of God speaks? What do these people do when they are silenced by indisputable, incontrovertible, unarguable truth. What do they do? Well, we see this happen all the time in how people respond to the gospel. We even see it when major doctrines of the Word of God are presented. For example, the doctrine of the sovereignty of God, the doctrine of election. When you present people with the truth about the second coming of Christ, or even issues pertaining to moral things like homosexuality or abortion, even when you talk to people about creation. - and sometimes even people that are ostensibly Christian - what do they do when they're confronted with irrefutable truth that comes out of the Word of God? Well, when they're finally silenced, isn't it wonderful that they say, "Oh my, thank you so much for helping me see the truth. I was wrong and you were right." It's not what they say, is it? Not at all. Rather, what they do is they get so infuriated that they begin to slander their opponent as well as resort to violence.

Notice what happened in verse 11, "Then they secretly induced men to say, 'We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.'" Isn't that tragic? This is the old ad hominem argument. It's if you can't win the argument, attack the character of the person, appeal to prejudices of people, and make that person - not his argument, but distract them from the argument because we've lost the argument here - but make people look at the person and somehow demean him in such a way and vilify him in such a way that nobody would want anything to do with him. By the way, this is standard fare in American politics, isn't it? Good old-fashioned mudslinging. Slander is always the preferred tactic of desperate men. Garner some false witness to speak lies about the person, to malign them, to vilify them; and that's what happened here. And sadly, sometimes in religious circles we will see this, and certainly we saw it here in the story here of Stephen. Think about it, under the pretense of having some zeal for the truth - some self-righteous zeal for the truth, even though you've been silenced by the argument - you resort to lying. You resort to inducing 0ther men to defame the character of your opponent-what incredible wickedness! You know, if you listen to rabbis today, Catholic priests, Islamic imams, Jehovah's Witness leaders, Mormon bishops, or whatever they have, or any other spokesman of any false religious system, you will hear the same kind of slander, and it is always cloaked with a religious zeal for the truth. My friends, as long as Satan reigns, blind reprobates will flatter themselves with religious zeal and ape their father, the devil, and they will use every imaginable form of wickedness to somehow speak slander against those who would preach and teach and live the truth. The corruption of man begs language, doesn't it? And we watch this happen routinely on television, for example, where our culture continues to vilify Christians, and with their supposed zeal, for example, for the Constitution's separation of church and state. I have to laugh at this. They will use that, the God-hating secularists, will use something like this to systematically eviscerate every vestige of Christianity from the social psyche. Almost daily, we read, for example, what's going on in public schools, how they are systematically assaulting Christianity. I mean, here lately, I had to go to the internet because I couldn't believe what I was hearing. But we've got some school systems wanting to give birth control pills to 11-year-old girls, children as young as 11 years old without parental consent. Unbelievable.

I was reading a little bit this week to give you just one example of how this type of cruelty is even gaining momentum in our culture, and there's so many examples. I'll just give you one. The National Education Association, commonly called the NEA, overwhelmingly endorses the real far left candidates that despise biblical Christianity. And when you read who they affiliate with, you will see that they are constantly colluding with pro-abortion and gay activist organizations, for example, in an effort to limit parental control in the schools and so on. In fact, in her speech at the national convention of the homosexual activist group Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, commonly called GLSEN, Deanna Dooby of the National Education Association made this most telling statement. Here's what she said: "The fear of the religious right is that the schools of today are the governments of tomorrow." And you know what? "They're right," she said. And then the communications director of this homosexual activist group, a man by the name of James Anderson added, "We're going to raise a generation of kids who don't believe the religious right." Now, folks, that was said back in 1999. You can see what's happening.

Well, such examples abound, but dear friends, what happened to Stephen happened to Christ, and it continues to happen around the world to this very day. And those who are without Christ are slaves to sin. The Bible tells us that they're spiritual cadavers. They're blind to the truth. They're alienated from the life of God. For them, two plus two theologically is always going to be five, and there's nothing you can do or I can do to change that. As a footnote, it never ceases to amaze me to watch sometimes even professing Christians resort to such wickedness and then justify the slander, their slander against another Christian, as an act of zeal for the truth. You know, God makes it clear how he views such wickedness in Proverbs six verse 16. Here's what he says, "There are six things which the Lord hates. Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him." Here's what they are: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, a false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers. Boy, that’s a startling statement, isn't it? You know, having been a recipient of this type of thing myself, and certainly as a shepherd, I can tell you that not only myself, but also the other elders in this church, if we ever see that type of thing beginning to rear its ugly head in the church, we will deal with it effectively, quickly, and certainly every pastor should. But it's such a wicked thing. But you know, friends, as the Lord's return approaches, hypocrisy and apostasy and false witnesses will continue to mount, and most of them, sadly, will come from within the church, and increasingly Christians are going to be slandered. They're going to be persecuted. They're going to be killed. But we must be careful not to retaliate in anger or hatred or vengeance, because folks, these are the ones that God has called us to love. Instead, we must be like Stephen. We've got to be people that are full of faith and the Holy Spirit, full of grace and power, and full of wisdom and the Spirit.

Now let me digress for a moment. The Apostle Paul was from a place called Tarsus, located in Cilicia, and according to verse nine here in chapter six, one of the three synagogues that confronted Stephen and then later schemed to slander and kill him was from Cilicia and Asia, and so there's a real high probability that Paul was among this group, and it's also probably true that Stephen was probably a member of one of these synagogues, and also given the fact that the apostle Paul was first a student of the famous Rabbi Gamaliel, there's a high probability that Paul would have been one of the debaters against Stephen, even though we don't know that for certain. And it's fascinating when we look at chapter seven of Acts, verse 58. We see that it was actually Paul that held the clothes of Stephen's murderers. And in chapter eight, verse one, it says, "And Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death."

You know, as I was thinking about this, I was thinking, my, what a profound impact Stephen must have had on Paul, because Paul, dear friends, witnessed a man that was full of faith and the Holy Spirit, a man full of grace and power, full of wisdom and the Spirit, and we see these glorious themes woven through the tapestry of all of the Pauline epistles. And later we know that Paul knew full well that he was he was guilty of willfully rejecting the truth of the gospel and participating in the cruelties that were perpetrated upon Stephen. I'm sure that is one of the reasons why the inspired apostle would later write in Colossians 3:8, "Put aside anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth." You know, throughout Paul's writings, you read the emphasis upon the virtues that really defined the character of Stephen, and like Stephen, it's interesting, isn't it, that Paul came to the end of his life and ministry receiving no accolades of praise from man, no celebration, no hall of fame for Paul. In fact, in Second Timothy 1:15, Paul wrote to Timothy and said, "You are aware of the fact that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Vigilius and Hermogenes." Evidently, these were leaders who deserted him, probably because of the threat of persecution. Can you imagine that? Spending your life in ministry in these churches in Asia, and now they're turning away from you. You know, I was thinking about that. I pour my life into this blessed church, as many of you do, joining with me. Imagine what it would be like at the end of my life if I looked at you and you deserted the truth, deserted me; and that very well could happen. I pray by God's grace it won't, but it certainly has in many, many cases.

He also said in Second Timothy one, or in chapter four, verse nine, "Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica." Friends, think of this now, and again, I'm wanting you to keep in mind the impact that Stephen would have had on the Apostle Paul. Here, this faithful servant looks back upon his life and ministry and sees all of this desertion, all of this rejection, and now he's about to be decapitated. Interesting. So sad. In Second Timothy 4:13, he says to Timothy, "When you come, bring me the cloak which I left at Troas with Carpus." In other words, he's saying, "I'm cold. I'm here in this Roman dungeon." Here, this powerful, faithful apostle, this one who, according to Second Corinthians 12, had been caught up to the third heaven. He had been caught up to paradise, and he had heard inexpressible words which no man is permitted to utter. And now here he is, cold. He's wanting a coat. He's shivering in a Roman dungeon. And I think, my what irony! The very man that held the garments of those who stoned his brother in Christ Stephen, is now himself longing for a cloak of his own. O child of God, please hear this: those who preach a prosperity gospel preach a lie. There is no guarantee that if you follow Christ with all of your heart, even as Stephen and the Apostle Paul did, and certainly the Lord Jesus Christ, there's no guarantee that you will be rewarded with the world's riches. What a silly thing! What a blasphemous thing! You see, the Gospel of Jesus Christ calls men to deny themselves, not to come to him to fulfill themselves. The Christian's reward is reserved in heaven, not on earth. And Stephen understood this. The Apostle Paul understood this. Yet at the end of his life, what did the Apostle Paul say? "I have finished the course. I have kept the..." what? "I have kept the faith," just like Stephen. The text that I read earlier this morning in Second Corinthians four gives you just such an incredible picture of Paul's ministry, yea, even Stephen's ministry that I'm sure had such an effect on Paul.

Back to Acts six as we close this morning. Stephen was a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit. He was full of grace and power, full of wisdom and the Spirit. And then, fourthly, and finally, he was affirmed by God's glory. Isn't this incredible? Now think about this. While the world saw Stephen as a loser, God sees him as his choice servant, and he affirms him as such. Notice verse 15, "And fixing their gaze on him," this is the Sanhedrin now, all of the Jews that are hating him, "...fixing their gaze upon him.," in other words, staring at him, "All who were sitting in the Council saw his face like the face of an angel." Now, folks, this is staggering. The Sanhedrin glares at Stephen in utter contempt. They have been silenced by his wisdom and by his power, and while they look upon him, the brilliant light of the glory of God, the effulgence of the glory of God begins to radiate off of his face. You would think that would startle anyone and cause them to fall on their face and repent. The only other time this had happened is with Moses. You read about that in Exodus 34. It's staggering when I think about this. Beloved, please hear this: there is absolutely nothing that we can do that will cause men to repent. Nothing we can do. I mean, think of this. Here they witnessed a man that was full of faith and the Holy Spirit, a man that was gracious, a man that was full of divine power, a man whose wisdom was so exceedingly superior to the Jewish scholars that debated him that they were unable to cope with his wisdom. They were silenced, and now, on top of all of that, they see the glory of God refracting off of his face, like Moses, and they want to kill him. Oh, child of God, how we all need to rejoice in the regenerating power of the Spirit of God, because-and please hear this-without it, none of us would ever be saved.

And again, I believe Paul had this very scene in mind when he penned these words in Second Corinthians three, beginning in verse seven, reminding us of the same kind of approval that God gave to Moses. And here's what Paul said, "If the ministry of death in letters engraved on stones came with glory," in other words, referring to the law that came through Moses, "...so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face fading as it was, how shall the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory" In other words, the gospel. "For indeed," he went on to say, "what had glory in this case has no glory on account of the glory that surpasses it. For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory." Oh, dear child of God, how we can rejoice in that new covenant, the new covenant of grace that Stephen preached, that Jesus and all of the apostles preached, the one that we preach even to this day. For indeed, it is God's perfect plan of redemption, his glorious plan of redemption that will never fade away. A glory that radiated off of the face of Moses and even of Stephen, a man that we should all model, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, a man full of grace and power, full of wisdom and the Spirit, a man rejected by the world but affirmed by the glory of God.

Let's pray together,

Father, thank you for this incredible passage of Scripture that gives us such insight to this choice servant, and Lord, may we all see the need to model such a man. We ask this in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen.