Chosen as a Witness
We have realized how God's choice, as exemplified in the life of Stephen, is dependent on willingness and obedience and faith. I would like to tell you my own experience, for I count it a great and wonderful thing that my Lord has chosen me. I want others also to realize how simple are the means by which He calls and speaks to us, lest they fail to hear when they are called by Him.
Soon after my conversion in the year 1930 in Winnipeg, Canada, I went to a service one Sunday morning. After the meeting I was standing outside, when a man came up and shook my hand. I can still feel his strong grip as he said to me: 'Brother, why don't you go and preach in India ?' I replied: 'Brother, I am an engineer. I have spent so many years studying engineering; and to make things worse I stutterr and stammer and am so nervous that 1 cannot stand before even a small group of people. When I see them my knees begin to shake. How can a stammering and stuttering man ever be a preacher ?' He said nothing more, but for two full years those words were brought before me again and again. I could feel the same hand-grip, with the same words ringing in my heart: 'Why don't you? Why don't you?' I told the Lord: 'Lord, I promise that I will give all my money. I have no desire to build any building for myself, nor do I want comfort. I give you a promise to give all my money. By this means I can employ so many preachers; but please, please do not make me a preacher!'
But God said to me: 'I do not want your money. I want you!' For two full years these words came to me again and CHOSEN AS A WITNESS again. I could not understand how a man like myself, with so many handicaps, could ever become a public speaker. I could not move my tongue at will. I could not sing a word, nor did I know even the ABC of music. How could such a man become a public speaker? I thought, however, I could serve the Lord with my money. In my folly and blindness I went on arguing with God for two full years, and never realized what I was doing. I thought it would be better to keep at my job, but God knew better. He is so loving and long-suffering and patient, and even though we grieve and fail and wound Him, yet He does not leave us. It is a mystery indeed why our God should ever choose us. It is because He has a right over us. He is my Creator and the mighty God, and He knows that when we yield ourselves to Him, and obey and follow Him, we shall know more fully and completely the power by which He works in and through us.
The same applies to salvation also. Why should God choose such as I who was so great a sinner. I remember in the year 1919, in the Punjab, how, in my blindness, I tore the Holy Bible, to show my hatred for it and the Christians. I uttered words of blasphemy against God and His people, and eventually became a stave to every evil device. Yet my Lord, when He revealed Himself to me, never condemned me, saying, 'You did this, and that!' but I myself began to see my sins. His very presence disclosed my sins. Nobody told me what I should do or what I should not do. His presence took away even the wrong desires from me. He Himself came to me; I never went to Him, for I was, in fact, going away from Him. I had turned my back on Him, but unknown to me He was following me step by step.
I thank the Lord that in the year 1929, on December 16th, the mighty Lord said these words to me: 'This is my body broken for you; this is ray blood of the New Testament shed for the remission of your sins.' I heard these words in my own room without going to any meeting, nor did anybody speak to me or give me a gospel, nor did I know the meaning of the words 'salvation' or 'new birth'. I did not know who is Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, nor even the meaning of the word 'Matthew', nor whether it referred to a man or a woman or a city or a village! You may laugh at me, but I was as blind as that! That morning, after my Lord had uncovered my sins, I said: 'Is there any hope for a sinner like me? I have money but no peace. I have education but there is nothing but defeat in my life. Outwardly I am a cultured man, but inwardly a rogue. O Lord, is there hope for a man like me ?'
Then it was those words came to me very clearly and plainly and lovingly: 'This is my body broken for you; this is my blood of the New Testament shed for the remission of your sins.' I replied: 'O God, I am far too stupid to know the meaning of these words.' Then a Voice came: 'My son, go! thy sins be forgiven thee.' The matter was settled. That is how He chose me. I was a blasphemer, a slave to every sin, utterly blind spiritually, yet He sought me and chose me. I know it! I believe it! He is mine and I am His! May the voice of the loving Saviour come also to your ears, and as you go on obeying Him and following Him, He Himself will teach you all His will.
We have seen how the Lord chose this man Stephen. We have seen also in Psa. 106: 4, 5, how the psalmist longs for three things: ' That 1 may see the good of thy chosen; that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation; that I may glory with thine inheritance.' That is true spiritual prayer. How often we pray only for earthly perishing things. In school days and college days we pray before an examination: 'O God, help me to pass!' There are young men and women who. pray, 'Lord, give me a wife, or a husband, with very. high qualifications—with at least the qualification of B.A.' A young man may demand a woman who is not too fat, CHOSEN AS A WITNESS 25
and not too tall, and passably fair in colour, and, of course a graduate!.—th matric! Others may pray for a job, or for promotion. Their prayers are only for perishing things, without understanding the things that are real and eternal. Let them but pray with these words of Psa. 106. 5, and the Lord will surely give all these other things beside.
We have seen how the Lord chose. Stephen. He was just an ordinary man, concerning whose family or parents or circumstances we know nothing; but suddenly he comes on the scene, and we find this chosen vessel being occupied with simple jobs, doing ordinary service for poor people and widows without any reward. All men began to see, however, that he was indeed no ordinary person. His longing was to please God and his life was full of victory. Because he chose to obey God, he was full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, full of faith and power. This is the privilege of those who are chosen by Him. When you have a longing in your heart to do God's will, wait on God, and you will see that, in His own way, He will give you the desire of your heart. You do not have to shout and fight for the fulfilment of your hopes. Just begin to obey Him and His Word, and receive the Word into your heart, and you will find the virtues you have longed for manifested in your life. You will become God's chosen vessel according to His purpose.
In Acts 6: 13-15, we see how the leading men of the nation set up false witness against Stephen. The elders and the scribes were stirred up and came upon Stephen and caught him and brought him to the council, and began to bring accusation against him, and while they were saying false things, all in the council looked upon his face, and were surprised to see it shining like an angel's. There were so many people against one person. The whole Sanhedrim was against him; one by one they brought false accusations; and yet his face was shining like an angel's. It shone even more brightly in that time of persecution. What a salvation! What a vessel! What a privilege to have such a shining face!
The world spends much money on beauty. Men and women use beauty creams and powders and soaps. Women will go to the best beauty parlours in the city, and spend hall" an hour to forty minutes there, in order to come out with face shining with cream and powder. But such beauty does not last. When they go l"or breakfast, cold coffee and stale oopuma may be served, and the face at once changes colour! They are probably thinking: 'Look at my hair so nicely oiled and curled, my fine clothes and shining face, and yet they have the check to give me stale food!' Where has that shining face gone to?
Again you hear perhaps of others speaking against you, or you hear a rumour that somebody has said untrue and shameful things about you; so you come home looking very sad. The wife says: 'Please come and have tea,' but you reply: '1 have no appetite.' She calls you again, but again you say: 'I have no appetite,' and so it goes on. You cannot sleep, and you go about sighing. But when you become God's chosen, anointed and filled vessel, your face will shine the brighter, the more you are ill-treated. liven though men may hate you, and say many untrue and false things about you, your face will still shine like an angel's. In poverty, or whatever your circumstances may be, you will still have a shining face. You may drink cold coffee and eat stale food and still keep a shining face. A shining face wherever you go, that is God's purpose and plan for every believer.
When we come to the Lord Jesus Christ, His light will first of all come into the heart, then on the face, then on the path. A threefold divine light. Have you become in this CHOSEN AS A WITNESS 27 sense God's chosen vessel? Have you such a shining face that your wife is compelled to say: 'Is he really my husband? Is he the same man? Before he was a hard-looking man, but now he has such a loving and tender look on his face. What has happened ?' The Lord, not preachers nor sermons, hut the living God, has given you a shining face; and if this is so, your face will shine more and more day by day, in spite of trials, troubles, tribulations and difficulties. It is by such a shining face that we defeat the enemy. There was no need for an advocate to defend Stephen. His shining face was an advocate for him. It should be the same with you. Even though others may hate you, persecute you or ill-treat you, you should still have the light upon your face as 3 witness and testimony to them. 2 Cor. 4. 6. As you are found waiting upon the Lord, there will be even more light upon your face. Unknown to you, others will see the light of God upon your face, and in that day you will thank God even for suffering.
Note how Stephen defends himself in Acts 7. 2. He is not saying: 'O enemy, hearken !' He says, 'My brethren, hearken!' The whole crowd is against him, yet he is calling them 'brethren', and his face is shining so brightly. Somehow he knew what they were thinking in their hearts, and his message gave the answer: 'The God of glory appeared to Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran'. He speaks of God as 'the God of glory', The Jews were so proud of their forefathers. They would say our Abraham, our Isaac, our Jacob, our Moses, and so on; but they never knew why God appeared to Abraham. There are so many Christians who say proudly that they are not heathen, who boast that they are Christians, but who do not know even what is the meaning of the word: 'Christian'. That was the condition of those Jews. They did not know how or why God had appeared to Abraham. Stephen, being filled with the Holy Spirit announced: 'It was as the God of glory that God appeared unto Abraham.' For what purpose? That as a nation the seed of Abraham might have that very same glory. But Israel had forgotten all about it. From the very beginning it was God's plan for them that His glory might fill them. For this reason, when the work on the tabernacle, and later on the temple, was finished, we read that 'the glory of the Lord filled the place.' Exod. 40, 34, and 2 Chron. 7. 1. Solomon's temple and the tabernacle were both filled with the glory of God. God had not asked for gold or silver from them, but a place to be filled with His glory. They were taught how they themselves could be filled with God's glory. But they had entirely forgotten about it. Their eyes were only on themselves, and on the temple and its magnificence. They were so proud of the temple which was made with hands; but the God of glory had appeared that they might sec His glory, and might themselves be indwelt by His glory. God does not live in buildings made by hands. He wants to live in a Jiving temple. 2 Cor. 6.16: 'And ye are the temple of the living God', God is saying: 'i will dwell in them and walk in them.' God wants a temple that His people may learn the divine law by which they can be indwelt by Him. This does not mean that they shall see God's glory for a moment only, but shall be filled and indwelt by that glory for eternity.
What is God's purpose in choosing you? He does not want your money, your gold or your silver, but He wants you. He wants you that His glory may fill you, that His presence may be with you, that you may live anew and walk anew. God wants your body to be His temple, so that His glory may come into you. That is the reason why He has chosen. you.
Are you willing and desirous and ready to be filled with divine glory? Then your face will shine. You may be anywhere or at any place, among friends or enemies, in loneliness or bad circumstances, hut your face will shine; in any family, neighbourhood or condition, in health or sickness, CHOSEN AS A WITNESS but still your face will shine. Why? Because when you have allowed the God of glory to enter into your heart as His temple, you will know the truth of the indwelling of the God of glory.
May God help us to see His glory and to reflect it in our faces.