Newspaper Page Text
2
(Editor’s Note: During the vacation of Dr.
Len G. Broughton, our Pulpit Editor, in, Ameri
ca, The Golden Age is fortunate in being able
to furnish a sermon every week from Dr. A.
C. Dixon, whose sermons are published regu
larly in The Christian Globe, of London,
England. Dr. Dixon is Dr. Broughton’s
Father in the Gospel ’ and is doing a great
work as pastor of Spurgeon’s Tabernacle,
London.)
TEXT: “Stephen, a man full of faith and the
Holy Spirit.” Acts 6:5.
The word “Stephen” means crown, and he
certainly received the crown of martyrdom,
but Stephen was himself a crown, a crown of
glorq. He performed miracles, but no miracle
he ever performed was greater than himself.
Stephen was a miracle, and it is better to be
a miracle than to perform one. I know men
who are miracles of grace 365 days in the year.
I think we could count at least a thousand
here tonight who would recognize themselves
as saved by the grace and kept by the power
of God and unable to do anything without the
help if God. The Apostle Paul was as great a
miracle as any he ever performed. C. H. Spur
geon in his life and preaching was a miracle.
God worked directly through him. D. L. Moo
dy was a miracle. Jerry McAuley was a mira
cle; the converted drunkard, the reformed pi
rate. His successor, Mr. Hadley, a converted
drunkard and thief turned into a sober and
honest man, was a miracle. These miracles of
grace that exist in our churches today are
proofs of Christianity just as much as the mir
acles of power that were performed by the
apostles, and it is better to have your miracles,
in that sense up-to-date. We believe in the
miracles of the old and new Testament, but to
have one like Lazarus raised from the dead
and standing in our midst and reading the Bi
ble, realizing the fact that God has raised him
from the dead, that is thb miracle that con
victs the people.
A God That Revealed Himself.
We want to look for a moment at this faith
of Stephen that worked with the Holy Spirit.
It has five characteristics. First of all, it was
a faith in a God that revealed Himself. The
first sentence of Stephen’s defense rings out a
clarion note that those who heard never for
got: “The God of glory appeared unto our
Father Abraham.” My God is a God of glory.
My God is one who appears. My God revealed
Himself to our father in the promise that He
made. He revealed Himself to Moses in the
burning bush. He revealed Himself to Isaac
in the quiet of prosperity. He revealed Him
self to Jacob in the conflict beyond the brook
Jabbok. He revealed Himself to Joseph in
deliverance. This Book is a revelation of God.
It is a portraiture of God. We have sketches
of God all through the Old Testament until
by-and by the full-grown picture and substance
is seen in Jesus Christ our Lord. So that He
can say, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the
Father. lam a revelation of God the Father.”
Has He revealed Himself to you? Can you
say that God has shown Himself as your Sa
vior, your Sin-bearer, your Friend, your Guide,
your Deliverer, your Helper. “Oh, but I have
The Golden Age needs your renewal subscription to tide them over these “HARD TIMES.” Won’t you
please LOOK AT YOUR LABEL and send in the amount due immediately. It will help us in our fight for
the right and against the flagrant evils of the day.
“STEPHEN”
A Sermon by DR. A. C. DIXON, Metropolitan Tabernacle, London, England
THE GOLDEN AGE FOR WEEK OF AUG. 28
cried for deliverance and I have not received
it.” The moment you cried for deliverance
from sin through Jesus Christ, and, cried in
faith, you did receive it. I don’t care how
you feel. If you came to God with a sense of
guilt and confessed it, accepting Jesus Christ
as your Saviour, God’s promise is His certifi
cate that you are saved. The work is done,
in the sense that it is begun; a salvation com
plete, to be rounded out in the future years in
your experience. But you have been crying
to God for deliverance from affliction and you
have not been delivered. Well, God delivers
from and in, and I am so glad that He did not
deliver some people from.
If He had delivered Daniel from the den of
lions we would not have had so much encour
agement from Daniel’s life. But He delivered
Daniel in the den of lions, with the lions all
about him, and that encourages me when I
find myself in the midst of lions. Daniel, I
think, made one of them a pillow and slept
very well that night. You can make the lions
that would kill a pillow on which to sleep, if
you are trusting in Daniel’s God. The Lord
did not deliver the three Hebrews from the
fiery furnace and I am so glad He did not, for
if He had the king would not have looked
through and seen one like unto the Son of
Man walking in the midst of the fire. If He
had we should not have seen Him quenching
the violence of the fire.
Do not pray to be delivered from every
thing. That is a cheap, short cut, but it does
not bring the glory to God that being delivered
in so often brings. You were in the furnace
of affliction and the fire was seven times hot
ter than usual, and in the midst of it you per
ceived that the Son of Man was walking, and
oh, what a time of fellowship you had with
Him. He kept the fires from burning, except
the bonds, they all broke and fell. He walked
with you in the midst, and the people on the
outside looked in and saw you bearing it pa
tiently, joyfully, submissively, (-trusting God
in the midst of the fire.
Oh, friend, it is better to go with God into
the fire than to be delivered from the fire and
have no consciousness that God is with you.
God did not deliver Stephen from the fire.
He went with Him through the fire into the
glory. If you think you are having a hard
time, the fire scorches, the burden is heavy,
the darkness is dense, just remember that God
has away of delivering in rather than from.
An old pilot gave me a thought that I have
carried with me for years. Standing at the
wheel, guiding the great ship of the sea into
New York Harbour, he looked at the storm,
saw the waves, took in the situation and said,
“I tell you it is death or deep water. We cannot
do better than turn our prow to the sea.” The
captain knew he was talking wisely. He turn
ed the prow and rode majestically through the
storm. God will not take you in from the
storms. He wants you to ride them. He is the
pilot, and if you will give up to him he will
carry you into harbor, and perhaps into a
fairer and better one than that to which you
think you are going.
The God of Prophecy.
In the next place, it was a faith in the God
of prophecy. “They saw his face as it had
been the face of an angel.” It was a face
made by the faith within him, a faith that
shone out of the midst of his face in the dark
ness gathered about him. Moses came down
from the mount with his face shining because
he had been with God, and Stephen’s face is
shining because he is with God. God is with
him, and while others blasphemed the God that
he worships by accusing him Os blasphemy, his
face still shines.
Now, brother, what we need is a face that
smiles while everybody else frowns, a face that
shines while others gnash their teeth. It is a
face that keeps cherry and bright while every
body else is gloomy. There is no trouble about
laughing while everybody else is laughing. You
can laugh then, even if you don’t know what
you are laughing about. You catch it.
A Faith That Forgave.
It was a faith that forgave. May the Spirit
of God burn that into our souls tonight. “Lord,
lay not this sin to their charge.” Paul said,
“I am crucified with Christ. I live and yet not
I, it is Christ that liveth in me.” “Father,
forgive them,” said Jesus, “They know not
what they do.” Somehow I recognise that
voice coming from Stephen. Is it Stephen that
forgives? The natural Stephen would have
hated, would have wanted to kill. It is the
Lord Jesus, not Stephen, that forgives. The
forgiving spirit on the cross has mastered this
first martyr, and while they kill him he asks
for their forgiveness. Is there somebody you
cannot forgive? If so, you are not happy to
night. You are waiting for them to come
and beg your pardon. Then you will forgive
them, won’t you? These men did not beg
Stephen’s pardon. But he forgave them while
they were casting the stones. Until somebody
treats you worse than they did Stephen. I
think you had better forgive. You will have
a better time. There will be more joy in your
heart. If you harbor malice against anybody
in this world, I wish you would bring it right
up to Stephen and realize in him there is the
shining face, the spirit of forgiveness, the
Christ ready to help. Suppose you are cruci
fied. Forgive like your Master. Suppose you
are lied about. They lied about Stephen.
Suppose you are slandered, forgive. Forgive.
No matter what the crime.
Lastly, a faith that commits. “Lord Jesus
receive my spirit.” The body became uncon
scious. The spirit went to Christ. When your
loved ones tell you they see angels about the
bed when they die, you may believe it. If they
tell you they see glorified saints about the bed
I think you may just as well hold that in re
serve. I doubt very much whether glorified
saints come back here in that way. I am cer
tain they do not come back to write on slates
and tip tables, and things of that kind. But
the angels came and carried Lazarus up to Ab
raham’s bosom. They showed him the way as
they went through space and beyond planets
and stars, to the Father’s house. But in the
case of Stephen, the Lord Jesus Himself came
(Continued on page 6.)