Stephen and Saul
(No. 2948)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, AUGUST 10, 1905.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, MAY 13,
1875.
"And cast him out of the city, and stoned him; and the witnesses laid
down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul." Acts
7:58.
THE Holy Spirit does not tell us much about the deaths of saints at any
time and He says very little about the deaths of the martyrs. He gives
us much more about Stephen–the first of them–than about any other. A
few words are made to suffice for the death of James, the brother of
John. As to the deaths of Peter and Paul, they are incidentally
mentioned as yet to be, but we have no account of them whatever. I
suppose there was no need and the Holy Spirit never gives us
superfluous information. There were hundreds of years to come in which
martyrologies might be written and the Lord has taken care that there
should be eye-witnesses with ready pens to record the deaths of
martyrs. Hence we have many volumes and, especially in our own country,
the renowned Acts and Monuments of John Foxe which record how, through
seas of blood, the martyrs swam to their crowns! The noble army of
martyrs has never been without a chronicler and there was no need that
the Holy Spirit should give us the details of the deaths of the
witnesses for Christ because we should have plenty in another form.
And it is noteworthy that in this one, which is the fullest we have,
there is nothing said about the sufferings of Stephen. Have you not had
your feelings harrowed by descriptions of the burnings in the reign of
Queen Mary–how the wood was slowly lighted. How, sometimes, the
martyrs actually cried out, "For pity's sake, give us more fire!" And
how they writhed in agony and yet cried out, "None but Jesus"? Such
details may be very proper, but I think that they minister to our
sentiment rather than to our edification. The Holy Spirit takes a
different line and tells of the triumph of the martyr, of the light
which shone upon his face, of the vision which he beheld, which cheered
his spirit, and of the blessed calm which came over him as Jesus rose
up, rebuked the winds and waves that gathered around his boat, so that
the martyr entered into the Port of Peace in a perfect calm. I believe
that every incident which is recorded is intended for our profit–but
it is not always profitable to have sensational descriptions which
upsets one's feelings. There is something better than that, namely, to
teach us the true source of strength and to guide us to a Heavenly
calm, come what may.
However, in this instance, the Holy Spirit was pleased to direct the
pen of Luke to record that the witnesses laid down their clothes at the
feet of a young man named Saul. According to the Jewish Law, the
witnesses were bound to be the first throwers of the stones. They were,
in fact, the leading executioners, for they gave evidence against the
accused and on their witness, he was condemned to death. They had to
take the responsibility of his death and to throw the first stones. In
order to do this, they took off their long flowing robes and, casting
them down, they left them in the charge of one who would appear to have
been much delighted with the death of Stephen, as he had probably given
his vote against him in the Sanhedrin and was looking on to see that
the dreadful murder was fully accomplished. Now, why is it recorded
that these witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of the young
man whose name was Saul? It was not to gratify our curiosity, but it
was doubtless for some good reason–so let us try to find out why it is
recorded and learn some lessons from it–God helping us.
I. And, first, does not the Holy Spirit here suggest to us A VERY
NOTEWORTHY CONTRAST?
Here are two men–Stephen and Saul–both in Heaven now. I wonder how
they felt when they first met there? What joy they must both have
had–Stephen to see Saul and Saul to see Stephen! I suppose it is
incompatible with the
Heavenly state for Saul to have any apologies to make, but, certainly,
if they could have been indulged in there, he might have made them most
lovingly and tenderly. The joy of meeting there must have been
exceedingly great. Look at the two men–the one about to die and the
other taking care of the clothes of the executioners. Let us do them
justice.
They were both sincere men. There was no hypocrisy about Stephen. You
could see that the words that he spoke came warm from his heart.
Neither was there any hypocrisy about Saul. He really thought that he
was doing God's service in what he did. He was quite as sincere, in his
own way, as was the martyr who was about to die. What is more, they
were both thoroughly earnest men. It was not in the nature of Stephen
to quench his convictions, or to silence his testimony. Neither was it
in the nature of Saul to keep quiet when he thought that a miserable
imposter ought to be crushed out of existence. He is all on fire from
the first moment when we meet him to the last record we have concerning
him. He had a zeal for God, though not according to knowledge and, as
he sat there, and took care of the executioners' garments, he felt in
his conscience perfectly satisfied that what he was doing was for the
glory of God. Sometimes we cannot understand how this could be, yet I
do not doubt that many who have persecuted the saints of God, have done
it ignorantly in unbelief and it has not struck them that they were
really rebelling against the Most High and fighting against the Lord,
Himself. It is very difficult to estimate the amount of darkness that
may come over the human conscience and to imagine how blind a man may
become, or how fully he may put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter–
but certain it is that an unrenewed heart may become as darkened that
while we are going posthaste to Hell, we may imagine that we are making
good headway towards Heaven! These two men, Stephen and Saul, were
unlike one another in many respects, but they were alike in this
sense–that they were both sincere and both thoroughgoing in their
sincerity.
But, now observe the difference between them. Look first at Saul, a man
wrapped up in self-righteousness. He will tell you that he has kept the
Commandments from his youth up. If you gave him time, he would,
perhaps, tell you that by descent he was a Hebrew of the Hebrews–that
as touching the Law, he was blameless–that he belonged to the
straitest sect of his religion and was a Pharisee. If you began to
charge him with sin, you would see the fire flame from his eyes as he
declared that concerning the righteousness which was by the Law of God,
he was without fault. If any man was accepted before God, he felt that
he was. And there he sat, in all the pride of self-righteousness,
assisting at the murder of a truly righteous man. Had you spoken to
Stephen, you would have found a man of quite another class. The
martyr's only hope was in the Crucified Christ of Calvary That which
gladdened him was not a sight of himself, but a sight of his exalted
Lord. He drew his comfort, not from what he had done, but from the
finished work of Him who was, at that moment, standing at the right
hand of the Father.
What a difference there was between those two men! Perhaps there may be
two such persons here, sitting very near each other–the one
self-righteous and self-reliant, depending only upon his own good
works–the other humbly looking away from self and trusting only to the
Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. Of you two, I would sooner be you who
is looking to Christ, even though you are to be executed tonight, than
I would be you, Sir, wrapped up in the robes of your fancied
self-righteousness, even though you are honored and respected by all
mankind!
Look again at Saul and you will see a man Ritualistic to the utmost
extent–a formalist of the deepest dye. He is a man who highly esteems
everything that has to do with the Temple, the priesthood and the Law.
You will find that his phylacteries are exceedingly broad and if you
speak to him about the sacred roll of the Old Testament, you will find
that he can debate and discuss with you upon every letter of it, for he
has a great attachment to the letter. He is a man entirely taken up by
the externals of religion–the shell is everything to him. But now look
at Stephen and you will see a man who has put external matters
altogether on one side. That last speech of his shows that it is so. He
has not despised the Temple, but he has said of it, "However the Most
High dwells not in temples made with hands." He has not despised the
chosen people, Israel, but he has spoken of them as "stiff-necked and
uncircumcised in heart and ears." He has not despised the outward forms
of religion so far as they were ordained of God, but he has shown that,
in themselves, they were useless because even when they were in the
full tide of their glory, they did not change men's hearts, for many of
them remained idolaters and murmurers in the wilderness. Stephen is the
spiritual man and Saul is the formal man.
Both these classes may be represented here and I would have you see to
which of them you belong because it is the spiritual worshipper whom
God seeks. It is the spiritual worshipper who is God's friend–the
formalist is no friend of the King of Heaven, though he may seem to be
so! He fights for the letter of the Word but, in despising its inner
meaning,
he has despised the very essence of it! He fights for rites and
ceremonies but, in neglecting the inward and spiritual Grace, he has
neglected the vital matter and he remains as much a foe of God and of
His Christ as was this young man named
Saul!
The great difference between Stephen and Soul, however, lies in
this–Stephen is defending the cause of Christ at the cost of his own
life and Saul is opposing him with all his might. Even in a
congregation like the present, there may not be many, yet there may be
some who are opposing the Gospel. There may be some here who, although
they would not stone Believers, yet would make a jest of them–perhaps
they have been making merry today over those Christian Brothers [Moody
and Sankey] who have of late been prominent in the matter of
revivals–some foolish jest they have perpetrated about them–and done
their best to lower them in the esteem of their fellows. Ah, dear
Friends, beware what you are doing, for the Lord of Hosts says
concerning His people, "He that touches you, touches the apple of My
eye." Nothing brings the color into a man's cheek sooner than any
ill-treatment of his children! And if any of you want to provoke God to
speedy and sudden judgment against you, you have only to join in
treating, in a cruel manner, those who are really His children. May God
keep all of us from such a shameful sin as that!
The contrast mentioned in our text is a very painful one and though we
see it illustrated every day, it is none the less painful. We ought to
look at it with weeping eyes, praying that the young man named Saul may
yet be converted to God. "But," says one, "there are none of us who
would be like Saul." No, you would not stone the saints, but perhaps
those who do so would be permitted to lay their clothes at your feet.
You do not invent the jest against the saints but, perhaps, you repeat
it and laugh at it–and give approval to those who use it.
There are many persons who are keepers of the clothes of open sinners.
For instance, I believe that very often a merely moral man may exert a
very detrimental influence upon sinners because they will say, "Look at
So-and-So! He is not a Christian, yet he is a man of good repute," and
so they are led to believe that they may stay where he stays–out of
Christ! O dear Friends, may there be nothing about your walk and
conversation which can be used to oppose the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
But there will be unless you are wholly on His side, for He, Himself,
said, "He that is not with Me is against Me; and he that gathers not
with Me scatters abroad." If you are not on the side of Christ you are
on the side of His enemies, for this is a fight which admits of no
neutrality. And if you cannot feel that you would, like Stephen, defend
the cause of Christ, then I fear you only lack the opportunity and the
circumstances, if not to stone Stephen, yet, at least, to let those who
do the dreadful deed lay their clothes at your feet! The contrast
recorded in our text is a very vivid one. I wish I could depict the
equally vivid one between unconverted persons and Christians, for there
is a contrast between them, a contrast which will come to this one
day–there will be a great gulf fixed between them, across which there
will be no passage. At the Last Great Day, the righteous shall be upon
the right hand of the Judge and the wicked on His left hand and Christ,
Himself, shall stand between them, so that the division shall last as
long as Christ Himself shall live!
II. Now, secondly, our text affords us A REMARKABLE INTRODUCTION OF A
PERSON TO TRUE
RELIGION.
Perhaps there may be someone here whom you know who has never yet come
into contact with real, vital godliness, and you are very anxious that
he should do so. I am equally anxious that he should and I think it
ought to be your earnest endeavor that not only he, but all who are
like he should, somewhere or other, come into contact with real
religion. Now, as far as we see in the Bible, this is Saul's first
introduction to anything like real Christianity. We have not his name,
before this verse, in the Acts of the Apostles, so here, for the first
time, he steps forward into the arena of conflict–"a young man, whose
name was Saul." Was he favorably impressed at once with Christ and His
people? Certainly not, but quite the reverse! The impression made upon
him was that of intense hatred and enmity towards Jesus of Nazareth and
all His followers.
But perhaps he saw a bad specimen of Christianity. Perhaps he listened
to a very poor sermon that misrepresented the Gospel. Perhaps he never
saw any sign of the working of the Spirit. On the contrary, Saul's
introduction to Christianity, in the person of Stephen, was of the most
favorable kind. His own heart, however, was so desperately prejudiced
against Christ that we find him no sooner brought into contact with
Christianity than he becomes the keeper of the clothes of those who
stoned the servant of the Lord!
Notice, then, what his introduction was. He saw a Christian of the
noblest type–a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. And he saw
him at his best, for his face shone like the face of an angel. I wish
that when men of the world look upon us, they could see such Christians
with shining faces. Perhaps, dear Friend, the person about whom you are
concerned, may have taken a prejudice against true religion through the
faults of Believers, but that was not the case with Saul. I suppose
that all the Christians that he had ever met with in Jerusalem–for it
was the golden age of Christianity–were of the very best type, as
Stephen was. And yet, though he looked into that face which was burning
with the light of Grace and glory, he hated that face and gnashed his
teeth against the man whose glorious, calm demeanor ought at once to
have won him.
And then he listened to a noble discourse. It was a discourse specially
fitted to the Jews. They always liked to hear the history of their
nation–their national pride was gratified by it. In later days, when
Paul had to address them, he gave them a summary of their history very
similar to this of Stephen, and wisely so. It was the best and most
suitable discourse that could be given, yet the only result produced
upon Saul and others was that they ran upon the preacher to stone him
and put him to death! Now, dear Friends, if you have brought some
relative or friend to listen to the minister and the sermon seems to
you to be most suitable and admirable, do not be surprised if, instead
of seeing any good result come from it, you find, on the contrary, the
provocation of the whole nature of the casual hearer and a stirring up
of rebellion in his heart! Think it no new thing and no strange trial,
for this was the case with the young man named Saul when he was
introduced to a Christian with a shining countenance, and to a ministry
which was in all points admirable! Yet, for all that, he was the more
hardenedin his enmity against the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
But the young man named Saul saw something else. He saw a Christian die
a triumphant death and many have been converted by such a spectacle as
that! There have been some who could ridicule the life and ministry of
a Christian, but the dying speech–the bright and lustrous glance of
the closing eyes–the triumphant hymn of the departing saint– these
have been irresistible arguments and they have been compelled to yield
to them. But it was not so with Saul, for we read after Stephen was put
to death of, "Saul, yet breathing out threats and slaughter against the
disciples of the Lord." Even that spectacle which might have convinced
an infidel, convinced not this young man whose name was Saul! And our
first introduction of the Gospel to our friends may not at first end as
hopefully as we could have wished and expected, yet we ought not to be
discouraged, for Saul did become a Christian after all. It was no proof
that he never would be converted that, at first, he grew more hardened.
It was no evidence that the Gospel would not conquer his heart that at
first, his heart shut all its gates against Jesus Christ. We have a
proverb which reminds us that, "Rome was not built in a day," and we
cannot always expect the new Jerusalem to be built in men's hearts in a
single hour! There are some who are struck down at once, as Saul was
afterwards, but there are others, against whose strong fortress the
battering ram of the Truth of God must come with all its might year
after year–and it is only when God strikes the effectual blow of
Divine Grace that, at last, they yield, subdued by Almighty Love!
At any rate, whether they yield or not, your duty is clear. Bring them
to Christ! Bring them under the sound of the Gospel! Do all that you
can for their salvation, so that, if they perish, when the funeral
knell startles your ears, you will be able to say to yourself, "Whether
he is lost or saved, I am not responsible. I am clear of his blood, for
I told him the way of salvation, I pleaded with him for God and I
pleaded with God for him. I persuaded him to go with me and listen to
the preaching of the Word–and if he has rejected it, and trampled it
underfoot, I cannot help it, though I would have helped it if I could.
I must leave his fate in the hands of God." I think this case of Saul
is a very encouraging one to any of you who are seeking to win sinners
to the Savior. Did a man swear at you when you spoke to him about his
soul? Well, there is sometimes more hope for a man who has enough grit
in him to denounce us, than of one who seems to agree with all that we
say! He says, "Yes, Sir. Yes, Sir. Very good, Sir." And then he passes
it all off. Perhaps it shows that there is a bigger soul in the man
even when he becomes a persecutor than when he simply waves his hand
and says, "Go your way for this time; when I have a convenient season I
will call for you." A downright opposition may only prove that there is
good soil where we may sow the good Seed of the Kingdom of God.
III. In the third place, I think our text is AN INSTANCE OF THE
SECURITY OF THE APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION.
Do not be frightened at that expression! I am not a believer in that
Apostolic succession which is supposed to come by the laying of human
hands upon human heads, but I believe that there has always been, in
the Church of God, a succession of faithful men so that when one has
died, another has been called to take his place. And I believe that it
will always be so until Christ Himself shall come. What a dreadful
thing it was for the Church to lose Stephen! She had many
useful men in her ranks, but Stephen seemed, just then, to come to the
front–he had made a stir all over Jerusalem. Though especially
appointed to look after the poor, there never was a deacon who was more
thoroughly in the front rank of the Church. He was worthy–I was going
to say–to be an Apostle, for his holiness and daring. He convinced
many of the Truth of the Gospel of Christ. If he had been ill, his
Brothers and Sisters would have prayed that his life might be preserved
and if they had known that he was going to be put to death, they would
have said, "It is better that we should die than that Stephen should.
We cannot afford to lose him." It is a calamity for the Church of
Christ when her best men, whether ministers or deacons, are called
Home, yet dear Friends, it often is the case that God takes His
servants Home just when they are most useful. When would you have Him
take them Home? When they are least useful? When they are little or no
good, here, would you let the Lord have them? That is not very generous
on your part! The Lord is entitled to the very best. Some are getting
ripe for Glory, so it is but natural that the Master should take the
ripest of them. You need not be astonished, therefore, when the most
useful people are taken to Heaven.
But now, look, Stephen is going Home. Who will take Stephen's place? Do
you not see him? The witnesses have laid their clothes at his feet and
no doubt Stephen's mantle was among them! So, as surely as Elijah left
his mantle to Elisha, the mantle of Stephen was lying at the feet of
Saul He did not put it on at once, but he did put it on afterwards. And
oftentimes, when men ask, "What shall we do when Mr. So-and-So has
gone?" The Lord will send a man who does just as well as Mr. So-and-So
has done! I have often been asked, "What is to be done with the
Tabernacle, and the College, and the Orphanage when you are gone?" Dear
me, the Lord got on very well before I was born and I am sure He will
when I am dead. That question never troubles me. Did you ever sit down
and think, "What will my wife do when I am gone?" You do not like to
think of it? Then do not think of it, for it is no business of yours!
The successor of any man whom God makes useful will be found in due
course. He may be at present among the haters of the Gospel! He may be
among those who are railing at the Cross of Christ! Where was the great
successor of John Huss found? Why, he is over there in a German
monastery. What? A monk? Yes, a monk who goes crawling up the stairs of
the Santa Scala at Rome, trying to get merit enough to save his father,
mother and himself–and wishing he could always be there accumulating
merit! Yes, Martin Luther was the man to follow Huss and God raised him
up in due time!
The saints in Jerusalem did not know where Stephen's successor was, but
God saw him among Stephen's enemies and He brought him out and Saul was
a mightier Apostle than Stephen could ever have been! The Church lost
Stephen, but she gained Saul–and that was a very good exchange for,
though nothing may be said that would be derogatory to such a
high-souled man as Stephen was, yet the Church of Christ has never had
a servant who, taking him for all in all, has been so useful to her as
the famous Apostle Paul who was once that young man named Saul! How
much we owe, through Divine Grace, to his Epistles for their clear
teaching of spiritual Doctrines! No other Apostle, though each one was
excellent in his own way, ever had so clear a Revelation of, or so
clearly taught, those grand Doctrines of Grace which are the very
backbone of the Gospel of Jesus! And who else ever labored as he did?
He says himself–and he was always modest–"I labored more abundantly
than they all: yet not I, but the Grace of God which was with me." When
Stephen was taken away, it was a great mercy that he was succeeded by
one who even surpassed himself!
And, my dear Friends, at this very time, we need not be asking, "What
shall we do without So-and-So?" God has enough servants somewhere or
other, so we need not say, "Would that He would raise up more
evangelists!" He has already spied a man out in Chicago and, without
going so far as that, He could find one in any part of London, or in
any hamlet or village in the country, wherever He chose to look for
him! The Lord is never short of men to serve Him–
"Remember that Omnipotence has servants everywhere"– and out of the
ranks of Satan's army He can take the boldest champion of evil, arrest
him by Almighty Grace and lay upon him the charge to become a leader to
the hosts of the living God! Never despair, and never doubt, nor let
even a desponding thought concerning Christ's cause flit across your
mind! They tell us that dark days are coming–that is quite true, but
the Sun of Righteousness will never be eclipsed! They tell us that the
powers of evil will grow stronger and stronger. Suppose they do–the
Almighty will never grow weak. We will fall back upon the Omnipotence
and All-Sufficiency of Jehovah and then we shall know what it is not to
feel any distrust or fear concerning the present or the future of the
Church of the living God!
So you see, in the case of Stephen and Saul, we have a clear instance
of the certainty of true Apostolic succession.
IV. Now, next, and briefly, our text seems to me to be A GRACIOUS
MEMORIAL OF REPENTED SIN.
Saul became Paul and there is a great deal of good recorded of him
under the name of Paul. But the Holy Spirit has caused this fact to be
remembered, "The witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's
feet, whose name was Saul." Then does God write down the sins of His
people before they are converted? Yes, He does, and in this case He
writes it down in the Book of books, so that, wherever the Bible goes,
there goes the information that Saul of Tarsus was once a persecutor!
When we read of Rahab, we are told that she was "the harlot." Why is
this memorial kept of Saul's sins before conversion? It was meant to
keep Paul humble–and it always did that. You notice how very
sorrowfully he always speaks about this matter. He say that he was not
meet to be called an Apostle because he persecuted the Church of God.
Once, in speaking to the Lord, he said, "And when the blood of Your
martyr Stephen was shed, I, also, was standing by and consenting unto
his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him." He never forgot
that and it always made him walk humbly before God. He wrote to
Timothy, "I was a blasphemer and a persecutor, and injurious; but I
obtained mercy."
Do not try, Beloved, to forget your old sins. Let them always be before
you to keep you humble. I have heard of a certain high ecclesiastic who
had been a fisherman. And while he was rising in the world he used to
hang up his net that he might be reminded that he had once been a
fisherman. At last, the Pope made him a cardinal and no one ever saw
his net after that. They said that he had caught what he had fished
for, so he put his net away. You and I had better always keep our nets
in sight to remind us of what we once were. Look at the pit from where
you were dug, and when God gives you any special mercy, say to
yourself, "What a miracle of Grace is this, for I was among the most
undeserving of all."
This sin of Paul's was always on his mind and so it continually
increased his love. He was like the woman who loved much because she
had had much forgiven–like the debtor who, although he owed the most,
was most grateful because his lord had freely forgiven him all. Who was
as zealous as Paul? He counted all things but loss for the Glory of God
and surely that was because he felt himself to be a debtor beyond all
others to the Grace which had washed away the scarlet sin of murder
from his guilty soul!
And, again, dear Friends, this sin of Paul's was recorded in the Bible
and retained in his memory because it kept him to the Doctrines of
Grace. I have generally noticed that those professors who were always
so very good, and had nothing very marked about their conversion, have
gone off to that form of doctrine which I do not find in the
Scriptures. But those of us who know how base we were before our
conversion feel that there is only one kind of Doctrine in which we can
believe, and that is the Doctrine of Sovereign Grace. It would take a
great deal to grind me down into a belief in free will because it is
contrary to my whole experience. I know this, if the Lord had not first
loved me, I never would have loved Him. And if there is any good thing
in men whatever, it must have been implanted there by the Holy Spirit.
If salvation is of works, then I can never have it–and if it is the
reward of natural goodness, then I shall never have it. I feel that it
must be of Grace, and of Grace alone. No doubt, the recollection of his
sin helped to make Paul what he was–the grand Evangelical
preacher–the man who brought out the glorious Doctrine of God's
electing love–the man who, beyond all others, proclaimed the Doctrine
that salvation is of Grace and Grace alone, and that God will have
mercy on whom He will have mercy and will have companion on whom He
will have compassion. It would have been incompatible with the
experience of the Apostle to preach anything else and, therefore, was
the remembrance of his sin kept before him that he might always make
known those precious Truths of God!
And, perhaps, dear Brothers and Sisters, this sin of Paul is recorded
that we might always be hopeful about other people. You know, from the
moment he was converted to the moment he died, he was always a
persecuted man. His life was divided into two periods–first he was
persecutor and then he was persecuted. When he had been driven from
city to city and many times stoned, how he must have thought of Stephen
and the stones that fell on him! When he had been hated of all men for
Christ's sake, he might well have despaired of the Gospel ever
spreading had he not said, "Ah, but as it converted me, it can convert
others. Did I not take care of the clothes of those who stoned
Stephen–those rebels who took the pearls that fell from his lips and
trod them underfoot like swine?" This would encourage him to stand
before the cruel Nero and to tell him the Gospel of Jesus, for He who
could convert a Saul could convert a Nero if He willed to do it. You
never find Paul drawing back or flinching, but he went preaching almost
to the ends of the earth, feeling himself to be a debtor both to Jew
and Gentile, barbarian, Scythian, bond and free because, he said, "I
obtained mercy, that in me, first Jesus Christ might show forth all
long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on
Him to
life everlasting." Oh, yes! it is good for you to remember what you
used to be, for you will have hope for other people when you remember
that!
V. Our text, in the fifth place, is AN INSTANCE OF THE OVERRULING OF
GOD.
If you look very carefully at it and look long enough, it will appear
not altogether a bad thing that Saul should be there taking care of the
clothes of the murderers of Stephen. Possibly you cannot, at first, see
how any good can come out of it, but there was never a bad thing out of
which God could not bring good. Even the death of Christ, which was the
culmination of human sin, was the crowning point of Divine Love. If
Saul had not been there, Stephen would not have prayed for him.
Augustine says, in a sentence which is always quoted in every
commentary on the Acts that I have seen, "If Stephen had not prayed,
Paul had never preached." But Stephen's prayer, "Lord, lay not this sin
to their charge," was such a comprehensive plea for his murderers that
I can well conceive of his fixing his tearful gaze upon that young man
named Saul and in his thoughts including him in that petition and
beseeching the Lord not to lay it to his charge! And the Lord did not
lay it to his charge "because," Paul said, "I did it ignorantly in
unbelief."
I believe it was a good thing for Saul to be there and I have sometimes
thought, when I have heard a man swear in the street, "That is an awful
thing, but if he had not done it, I would probably not have prayed for
him." I always make it a rule to pray for a man when I hear him swear,
so, in that way God may bring good out of evil. Take care, all of you
who love the Lord, whenever you hear or see anybody doing that which is
wrong, to always pray–for this is the way we are to be "the salt of
the earth." The salt is always to be put where the rottenness begins.
This is the way in which we are to be "the light of the world." The
candles are to be brought when the darkness comes out–you do not need
them till the sun has gone and the darkness has come. So, when you
perceive the darkness, light your candles! When you perceive the
putrefaction, scatter the salt by bringing the sinner before God in
prayer!
But there is also something more than this. If Saul had not been there,
he would have missed the benefit of Stephen's discourse. And Stephen's
sermon is the text from which Paul preached all his life. If you
examine it carefully, you will find that Stephen's speech is the root
out of which, through the blessing of the Spirit of God, Paul's
theology grows. Stephen gives him the clue of all that argument in the
Epistle to the Romans about Sarah and Hagar. And all that discussion
about father Abraham being justified by faith is there in Stephen's
speech. And the Epistle to the Hebrews is another plant that grows out
of the seed which Stephen sowed in Saul's mind. There are several
phrases which are identical. I think that the reason why we have the
speech of Stephen recorded so fully is that Paul traveled with Luke,
who wrote the Acts of the Apostles, and Paul told Luke what Stephen had
said, for it seems to have gone right into his soul and to have stuck
there! It must have been so, for it molded all his Epistles and you can
trace the influence of Stephen in every parchment upon which Paul put
his pen. It may sometimes happen that men who are opposed to the Word
of God may actually be influenced by a man at whom they sneered. That
may be the very man at whose feet they humble themselves. Perhaps,
after he is dead and gone, that man's piety may color the whole life of
a young man who now hates him. You cannot tell, but this I know–that
out of many an evil thing God has often brought great good–as He did
in this case, both through the prayer and through the preaching of holy
Stephen!
Whenever you think that an unconverted man has formed some plot to
allure you into sin, have so much of the Holy Spirit about you that
instead of his overcoming you, you will overcome him! Have you never
heard of the soldier who reported that he had taken a prisoner? The
officer said, "Bring him along, then." He said, "I cannot." "Why not?"
"Because he is dragging me the other way," replied the soldier. He had
not taken a prisoner–he had become a prisoner himself! And many a
Christian, instead of doing good to the world, is being led away
captive by the world. Let it not be so with you. Make them turn to you,
but do not turn to them. It is well, in the firmness of faith, to draw
them towards the Savior, but may it never happen that their evil
example shall master your good and their revelry shall overcome your
piety. God fill us with the Holy Spirit and with faith so that we may,
like Stephen, be the means of transforming Saul, the persecutor, into
Paul, the Apostle!
I leave this subject with you, only asking you to pray for any whom you
see to be distinguished for sin, or infidelity, or heresy. Pray God to
save them! The more mischief they are doing, the more earnestly you
ought to pray for them, for it is very likely that if they were
converted, the more good would they do. I read a strange speech of John
Bunyan's once, with which I did not wholly agree, though there was some
truth in it. He said that he had great hope for the next generation
because the young men that he met with were so intensely wicked and he
thought that if God, by His Grace, changed them, they would make grand
saints. So, when you meet with intensely wicked men, pray God to make
grand saints of them! They are the raw material, ready to His hands for
Him to work upon. The very obstinacy and rebellion of their nature
shows that when Divine Grace comes into them, they will make the most
outspoken Christians. Therefore, pray for such and may God hear your
prayer, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.