Tonight, we will observe the
Lord's table together, and I'm going to preach on this subject,
adoption. Adoption. What does the Bible
mean by this thing of being adopted into the family of God? And after
the services this morning, Kelly Proffitt's going to confess Christ
and believe her baptism. Look at the verse I read again
with Ben. Verse 15, this description of
Stephen. And all they that sat in the
council, he was on trial, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face
as it had been the face of an angel. Now this refers to the
tranquility, the peace, The confidence. He wasn't worrying about anything. And at the end of this message,
this defense he brought, we read in verse 54 of chapter 7. This one who had the face of
an angel. When they heard these things.
They were cut to the heart And they gnashed on him with their
teeth. But he, being full of the Holy
Ghost, looked up steadfastly with that same angelic countenance
unto heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on
the right hand of God. And he said, Behold, I see the
heavens opened and the Son of Man standing on the right hand
of God. Then they cried out with a loud
voice and stopped their ears and ran upon him with one accord
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. And they stoned Stephen, calling
upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled
down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their
charge. Now, the only hope that you and
I have is found in this statement, that our sin might not be laid
to our charge. And when he had said this, he
fell asleep. Now here we have the account
of the martyrdom of Stephen. He has been called the first
Christian martyr. And I'd beg to differ with that.
I believe Abel was the first Christian martyr. You remember
the story? First story after the fall, Genesis
chapter four, two brothers, Cain and Abel, Both brought an offering
to the Lord. One brought his best, the fruit
of the ground, his works. The other brought a blood sacrifice. He wouldn't come any other way.
And we read in the scripture that God respected Abel and his
offering. What does it take for God to
respect something? And he had no respect to Cain
and his offering, no respect at all. He treated it with disregard. And as you go on reading in Genesis
chapter four, there was a discussion that took place. Cain was upset. How could this be fair for him
to reject me and accept what you did? And I can see Abel replying,
well, Cain, there's only one way God can be approached. That's
through the blood of that coming one that he's promised that this
blood represents. God is holy. We're sinful and
we can't come into God's presence any way apart from the coming
one, the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't know if he knew his name
was the Lord Jesus Christ, but he knew him. He knew him. He
might not have known him by that name, but he knew him and he
knew that was the only way he could be accepted. And I can,
here came, say blood, I'll show you blood. And he hits his brother,
kills him. I can see his brother laying
there with his blood flowing to the ground. There we have
the first Christian martyr. But Stephen is the first one
recorded in what is known as the New Testament. Here in Acts
chapters six and seven, he was one of the seven deacons who
were chosen. And the scripture says he was a man full of the
Holy Ghost, consequently full of faith, full of wisdom and
full of power. Now let's begin reading in Acts
chapter six, verse eight. And Stephen, this man who was
chosen by the church to be a deacon and Stephen full of faith and
power. did great wonders and miracles
among the people. We don't know what all he did
at this time. He performed miracles. He was given supernatural power
to do that. And I know he also preached because
look at these accusations they brought up against him. Look
at verse 13, they set up false witnesses, which said, this man
seetheth not to speak. blasphemous words against this
holy place and against the law. For we have heard him say that
Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place and shall change the
customs which Moses delivered us. So they, yes, he was performing
miracles and yes, he was preaching. Now, verse nine, while he was preaching
and performing these miracles, then there arose certain of the
sin of God. which is called the Synagogue of the Libertines and
Cyrenians and Alexandrians, mentioned three different synagogues, of
them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen. They
didn't like what he was saying and they were arguing against
it. Verse 10, and they were not able to resist the wisdom and
the spirit by which he spake. He was given supernatural wisdom,
a supernatural understanding of the scriptures, and they couldn't
answer him. They couldn't answer him. They
didn't like what he was saying, but because of his message, they
couldn't say that's wrong. So what did they do? When they
couldn't attack his preaching, they attacked his character.
That's what people always do when they can't prove what you're
saying is not from the word of God, they're going to say something
about you. That's what they did about Stephen. Then they suborned
men, which said, we've heard him speak blasphemous words against
Moses, and against God. And they stirred up the people
and the elders and the scribes came upon him and caught him
and brought him to the council, the Sanhedrin, and set up false
witnesses, which said, this man seeth not to speak blasphemous words against
this holy place and the law. For we've heard him say that
Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place and shall change the
customs which Moses delivered us. Now they make a fourfold
accusation against him. He speaks against God, against
Moses, against the law, and against
the temple. That's the fourfold accusation. And indeed he gave God his proper
place. Jesus Christ is God. And he gave Moses his proper
place. Christ said, Moses wrote of me.
He gave the law its proper place. You're lawbreakers. And Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness. And he gave the temple its proper
place. The physical temple is nothing.
It can't hold the God of glory. Christ is the temple of God. Now, his understanding of the
Old Testament was given to him supernaturally. And do you know
if you understand the things that I've just said, God's taught
you something. He's taught you the meaning of
the Old Testament scriptures, yea, the meaning of this whole
book. Christ Jesus is the sum and substance of everything in
this book. But they objected to this and that he has spoken
things against God. and against Moses, and against
the law, and against this holy place that we're so fond of. They had no understanding of
who God is. And so when they brought these
accusations, we read in verse 15, and all that sat in the council,
looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face
of an angel. I love to try to think of what
all this means. I don't know. I've never seen
the face of an angel, but I know this. If there were an angel
here, he wouldn't be worried about any of us, would he? His face was Godward, and he
wouldn't be worried about us. It would be a face of tranquility,
a face of peace, Really a face of sinlessness. And angels hasn't
seen. They know the only reason they
haven't is because God's kept them from it. But this was Stephen's
countenance. He knew in Christ he was sinless. He knew that this mob was in
Christ's hand. And he wasn't worried. He had
the face of an angel. He might have known he was going
to suffer death after this, which indeed he did. But he had the
face of an angel. Somebody says, your face doesn't
look much like a face of an angel. I know. I know. People say, we're
waiting. When are you going to start looking
that? I'm not. I'm not, but Stephen did. Stephen
did, and we can admire him. This is the only time anything
like this is written in the scriptures of this special man. Verse one, chapter seven. Now, the high priest said, are these
things so? These accusations they brought
against you, are these things so? You know, I couldn't help
but think of when the Lord said, destroy this temple. And I raised
it up in three days and they thought he was talking about
the physical temple. And they said, that's blasphemy.
And do you remember when the Lord said in Matthew chapter
24, where not, when they said, look at the glory of this temple,
he said, not one stone is going to be laid on another. It's all
going to be leveled. And he was in 70 AD, according
to the Lord's prophecy and word, he said, that's what's going
to happen. And that is indeed what happened. So maybe Stephen
did say something close to this in quoting the Lord. But in this
message he preaches almost the entire
Old Testament in a very brief time. I'm going to read the passage. I'm not going to make much comments
on it but one of the things that this excited me about is brevity. Brevity. You know a brief message
is the best message. It really is a brief message. And you know, the writers, I
know one time Paul preached all night and somebody fell out and
killed them, you know, broke their neck and killed themselves.
And that's what happens when you preach too long. I reckon,
you know, I mean, you can read about that in Acts. A fella fell
out and Paul was able to give him life once again. But he was
long, Luke actually says he was long in preaching. Y'all ever
heard long preaching? But at any rate, Stephen gives
a message where he tells of the call of Abraham and he gives
three events in Abraham's life. He then speaks of Joseph's betrayal
and becoming the head man in Egypt. He tells how Jacob and
his 12 sons were moved to Egypt through that. He tells about
how 400 years later, Pharaoh seeks to kill the children of
Israel and God raises up Moses and he gives three separate events
in Moses' life. He then spake of David wanting
to build the temple and God saying, no, Solomon would build the temple,
this temple you're worshiping. And Lord willing, over the next
couple of months, I want to consider each one of these events individually
and bring a whole message on it. But I'm just going to read
a fairly lengthy passage without much comment to get to where
Stephen applies the message. So let's read this passage together.
Verse 2, here's his answer to the priest's question, are these
things so? And he said, men and brethren,
fathers, hearken, the God of glory, what a name, appeared
unto our father Abraham, Notice he appeared to him, Abraham didn't
know him and he made himself known. And he was in Mesopotamia
before he dwelt in Charon and said to him, get thee out of
thy country and from thy kindred and come into the land which
I shall show thee. Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans
and dwelt in Charon. And from thence, when his father
was dead, he removed him, he removed him, God removed him
into this land wherein you now dwell. And he gave him none inheritance
in it, no, not so much as to set foot on it. Yet he promised
that he would give it to him for a possession and to his seed
after him, when as yet he had no child. And God spake on this
wide, that his seed should sojourn in a strange land, that it should
bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil for four hundred
years. That was foretold in Genesis 15. And the children of Israel,
under Egyptian bondage, were the ones who built all the pyramids.
They were slave labor for four hundred years. Verse 7, And the
nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said
God, and after that they shall come forth and serve me in this
place. And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. You can read
about that in Genesis 17. And so Abraham begat Isaac and
circumcised him the eighth day. And Isaac begat Jacob and Jacob
begat the twelve patriarchs. And the patriarchs moved with
envy, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him and delivered
him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom
in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And he made him governor
over Egypt and all his house. Now there came a Darth. over
all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction. And our
fathers found no sustenance. But when Jacob heard that there
was corn in Egypt, he sent out the fathers first. And at the
second time, Joseph was made known to his brethren, and Joseph's
kindred was made known unto Pharaoh. Then sent Joseph and called his
father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen
souls. So Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, he and our
fathers, and were carried over into Sycam, and laid in the sepulcher
that Abraham bought for some of the money of the sons of Emor,
the father of Sycam. But when the time of the promise
drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and
multiplied in Egypt, till another king arose which knew not Joseph."
The same dealt subtly with our kindred and even treated our
fathers so that they cast out their young children to the end
that they might not live. You remember when Pharaoh said all
children under two years old are to be put to death. They
wanted to slow down the growth of the children of Israel. In
which time Moses was born and was exceeding fair and nourished
up in his father's house three months. And when he was cast
out, remember he was hidden in an ark In the River Nile, when
he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up and nourished him
for her own son. And Moses was learned in all
the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and deeds.
And when he was a full 40 years old, it came into his heart.
Who put it in his heart? God did. To visit his brother
and the children of Israel and seeing one of them suffer wrong,
he defended him and avenged him that was oppressed and smote
the Egyptian. For he supposed His brethren would have understand
how that God by his hand would deliver them, but they understood
not. And the next day he showed himself unto them as they strove
and would have set them at one again saying, sirs, your brethren,
why do you wrong one another? But he that did his neighbor
wrong thrust him away saying, who made thee ruler and a judge
over us? Will thou kill me as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday?
Then Moses fled at this saying. And he was a stranger in the
land of Midian. where he beget two sons and 40
years were expired. He was now 80 years old. There
appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai an angel of the
Lord in a flame of fire in a bush. When Moses saw it, he wondered
at the sight and said, as he drew near to behold, the voice
of the Lord came into him saying, I am the God of thy fathers,
the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.
Then Moses trembled and durst not behold. Then said the Lord
to him, put off thy shoes from off thy feet for the place wherein
thou standest is a holy ground. I've seen, I've seen the affliction
of my people, which is in Egypt. And I've heard their groaning
and come out to deliver them and now come and I will send,
and now come and I will send thee into Egypt. This Moses,
And here he's making an application. This Moses, they said he spake
against Moses. This Moses, whom they refused
saying, who made thee a ruler and a judge? The same did God
send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel, which
appeared to him in the bush. He brought them out after that
he'd showed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, in the
Red Sea, in the wilderness, 40 years. This is that Moses, which
said unto the children of Israel, a prophet shall the Lord your
God raise up unto you of your brethren. likened to me, a ruler
and a deliverer. He's speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Him shall you hear. This is he that was in the church
in the wilderness, which the angel would spake to him in the
Mount Sinai, and with our fathers who received the lively oracles
of God to give unto us, to whom our fathers would not obey, but
thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back into
Egypt, saying unto Aaron, make us gods to go before us. For
as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt,
we want not what has become of him, And they made a calf in
those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced into
the works of their own hands. Then God turned and gave them
up to worship the host of heaven, as it's written in the book of
the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have you offered to me slain
beasts and sacrifices by the space of 40 years in the wilderness?
Yea, you took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your
God Wrimtham, figures which you made to worship them, and I'll
carry you away beyond Babylon. Our fathers had the tabernacle
of witness in the wilderness, talking about the tabernacle
that pointed to Christ and illustrated him as he had appointed speaking
unto Moses that he should make it according to the fashion that
they had seen, which also our fathers that came after brought
in with Jesus or Joshua into the possession of the Gentiles
whom God drove out before the face of our fathers into the
days of David, who found favor before God and desired to find
the tabernacle for the God of Jacob, but Solomon built him
a house. Howbeit the Most High dwelleth not in temples made
with hands. You're all talking about this
temple. Let me tell you about the true temple. God doesn't dwell
in a physical temple. As the prophet said, the prophet,
heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. What house will
you build me, saith the Lord? What is the place of my rest?
Hath not my hand made all these things? Now he applies this message. Now he is just pretty much giving
a summary of the entire Old Testament. And now the application of this
message, and this is what we want to consider. Now, after
he had brought this out, look at his words. You stiff-necked and uncircumcised. They took such pride in their
circumcision. We're the circumcision. He said,
you're uncircumcised. In heart and in ears, you do
always resist the Holy Ghost. That's all you've ever done. You stiff-necked, hard-hearted,
and obstinate. Now you can be sure these people
were not used to being spoken to like this. They thought they
were the people of God. You stiff-necked and uncircumcised
in heart. The heart is the understanding.
Your understanding is evil. You don't understand anything.
Your affections are wrong. What you love, you ought to hate.
What you hate, you ought to love. Your will is chained to evil. That's what he's talking about
when he's talking about the heart. That's the mind. That's the will. That's the affections. You're
uncircumcised in heart and ears. You can't even hear the gospel
and it's your fault that you can't hear. You know, the Lord
said, why do you not understand my speech? Because you can't.
Do you know you cannot understand the gospel? You cannot understand
anything that's being spoken of in this passage of scripture
unless the Lord gives you ears to hear and a heart to receive. And he says to these people,
you always resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did. So do you. You don't realize that's what
you're doing. But that's what you're doing. Verse 52, which
of the prophets had not your fathers persecuted? And they
have slain them, which showed before of the coming of the just
one. Now, this is what the prophets
did. They showed before the coming. Somebody's coming. That's a brief
statement regarding the whole Old Testament. Somebody's coming
and he is the just one. just one and he's coming to make
a way for God to be just and to justify, to clear of all guilt,
men who are ungodly and sinful. And he said, here's what you've
done. Everyone that's come, you put them to death. The ones who
came to show you the coming of the just ones. of whom you have
now been the betrayers and murderers. This is what you're guilty of.
You have murdered and betrayed the just one." Now, I'm sure
people said, we didn't do it. We weren't even there. Whatever they did, me and you
did. You see, the only way you're
going to really understand what you are is by looking at the
cross. The only way I'm going to understand what I am is by
looking at the cross. The one time that God allows
me to do what I want to do, men to do what they want to do. They
put to death the Son of God. Now that is what you and I are
guilty of. I hope everybody here is guilty
as charged, but they didn't do that. Let's go on reading. He
said in verse 53, who've received the law by the disposition of
angels. And here's the summary of you
in the law. You've not kept it. You've not kept it. You've not
kept one commandment one time. You boast about your law keeping
and you're the biggest hypocrite to ever live to make a boast
like that, because you have not kept the law. All you have done
is broken God's holy law. Now, this was his application
of everything he'd said up to this point. Verse 54, and when
they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they
gnashed on him with their teeth. They were mad. They were offended. They were upset by what they
heard, this application that was true with regard to them. I can just picture this in my
mind, them gnashing with their teeth. Verse 55, but he, but
he, Stephen, being full of the Holy Ghost. What's it mean to
be full of the Holy Ghost? It means to be full of the Holy
Ghost. I don't know how else to explain it. He was given supernatural
power to have this face of an angel, no fear. I'm sure this
face of an angel was still right there when he looked up into
heaven. Verse 55, but he being full of the Holy Ghost, looked
up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God. He began with the God of glory.
And when He gives them His sight, what does He begin with? The
glory of God. And we don't have to guess as
to what the glory of God is. Hold your finger there and turn
with me to Exodus chapter 33. Now there's not a more important
passage of scripture in all the word of God than this passage
of scripture. Verse 18, Exodus chapter 33. And he, Moses said, I beseech
thee, show me thy glory. Now don't forget what Moses had
already seen. He'd seen the bush burning and
not consumed. He'd seen the supernatural power
of God in the 10 plagues that brought Egypt out. He'd seen
the parting of the Red Sea. He had seen manna come down from
heaven supernaturally to feed the children of Israel. He'd
seen water Come out of a rock after he smote it. Did he understand
that was the gospel type of Christ? I don't know. I think maybe he
did, but he saw this. He saw the finger of God right
down the law. He saw the very law of God. Now those things seem pretty
glorious to me, don't you think? And yet he said, I've not seen
your glory. Show me your glory. Now, the
setting of this, Israel, after Moses was gone 40 days, they
made a golden calf and worshipped it and said, these be thy gods,
O Israel, that brought you out of Egypt. Now, Moses comes down
and he sees this. He throws the law down. He burns
up, grinds up the calf. He makes the children of Israel
drink it. And he's angry. He's going to go pray for the
people. And he's praying for these people. He's praying for
their salvation. He says, Lord, if you don't save
and blot me out of the book you've written, that's how much he desired
the salvation of these people. And during the course of this
prayer, he makes this request. Show me thy glory. Verse 19, God answers. And he said, God said, I will
make all my goodness pass before thee. Now understand this, God
is good. Only God is good. And whatever he does is good. And his goodness is seen in his
capacity to save someone as evil and as idolatrous and forgetful
as the children of Israel. They made this golden calf. And
God says, I'll make all my goodness pass before thee. And I will
proclaim the name of the Lord before thee. Now his name is
not just Jehovah. I feel funny saying just Jehovah,
but Jehovah, that's his name is Savior, but his name is all
of his attributes. It's the person behind the name.
It's the attributes behind the name. And all that God is, is
seen in his salvation. Every attribute is manifest in
his salvation, his holiness, his sovereignty, his justice,
his mercy, his power, his wisdom, his grace. That's his name. I
proclaim my name before you and I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. You say, save these people. Well,
I'll save the ones I will. And I'll show mercy to whom I
will. Now that is God's glory. And he begins with the glory
of God. Verse back to Acts chapter seven.
But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly
into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on
the right hand of God, the place of all power. This is why his
face was the face of an angel. This is why he had no worries.
This is why he had such tranquility and peace at this time. He saw
Jesus standing in full, complete control, in regal majesty, standing,
controlling everybody and everything, controlling these people. He
saw Jesus standing as the great high priest and intercessor of
his people. Oh, the place of the right hand
of God. That's the place of favor. That's the place of power. That's
the place of majesty. That's the place of acceptance.
That's the place where all God's favor is. And if I'm in Him,
I'm standing there in Him too. And I have the place of favor
and acceptance. Stephen understood this. He saw
the Son of Man standing. When He had by Himself purged
our sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Father, having
finished His work. He stands as the great high priest,
as the intercessor representing. Stephen knew he had one in glory
representing him. And he saw this supernatural
vision. I don't understand how he saw
this physically, but he did. This wasn't just some kind of
vision. He saw this. That's why he had
such peace and tranquility. He saw Jesus standing at the
right hand of God as his great intercessor. Who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea rather
it's risen again, who is also even at the right hand of God,
who also maketh intercession for us. That's what Stephen saw.
What comfort there is in knowing that right now Jesus Christ is
representing me before the Father. I got nothing to worry about.
He's my Redeemer. He's my intercessor. And here's
words, verse 56. And behold, I see the heavens
open and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. What
he saw, he testified. And that's what true preaching
is. What you see, you testify of. Verse 57. And they cried out with a loud
voice and stopped their ears. I can see them putting their
fingers in their ears. We can't listen to this anymore. And we're
not going to. And they cried out with a loud
voice and stopped their ears and ran upon him with one accord. They were in complete agreement
about this. And they cast him out of the
city and stoned him." Now, I want you to think of the severity
of that. After hearing this man preach, they cast him out of
the city and they stoned him. They bludgeoned him to death
with rocks, throwing rocks at him. And then were introduced
to the instigator of all this, and the witnesses laid down their
clothes at a young man's feet whose name was Saul. Now he would later be called
Paul. Saul of Tarsus, the reason that
they laid their clothes down at one's feet, at his feet, so
they could throw the rocks with more accuracy and power instead
of having those clothes bind them down is because these fellas
knew that Saul was the main instigator of all this. He's the one who
wanted to put every Christian to death. And he was consenting
unto Saul's death. He was in complete agreement
with it. He wanted it to happen. But you know what? He never could
get this vision out of his mind. He watched those rocks hit Stephen. He saw him bleed, and he saw
him die, and he could not get that sight out of his head. The
Lord's gonna use it down the road. But let's look at Stephen
during this death. Verse 59, and they stoned Stephen, calling upon God. Now, folks who have seen the
Lord, you know what they're going to do? They're going to call
on Him. If you've seen the Lord, I know this, you're going to
call on Him. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. If you don't call on Him, you've
never seen Him. But if you ever seen Him, you're going to call
on Him to have mercy on you. You need Him. Lord, save me. I'm calling on your name. That's
what He did at this time. He was calling. upon the name
of the Lord while the rocks were hitting him. He was called upon
the name of the Lord. And you'll trust him. Look what
he says. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God and saying,
Lord Jesus. Oh, he knew he was the Lord.
Even while he was having those rocks hit him, he knew that they
were. According to God's will and God's purpose, the Lord Jesus
Christ was the one who enabled them to do this according to
his purpose, he knew who he was. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. He didn't boast about all the
things that he'd done. He didn't boast about the fact
that he was being used for a martyr. He didn't boast about the miracles
he performed. He had the same prayer as the
thief. Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Lord,
receive my spirit. If you don't receive my spirit,
there's no hope for me. Lord, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, verse 60,
and cried with a loud voice while the stones are thundering against
his body, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. How powerful. The last thing
he asks is for their forgiveness. He was doing the most godlike
thing a man ever does. He was forgiving. He was forgiving. And he understood that the only
way that these people would be forgiven is if the sin was not
laid to their charge. Now that's an understanding of
the gospel, isn't it? The only way that I'll be saved is if
God doesn't lay my sin to my charge. But it was charged to
the Lord Jesus Christ, and he became guilty of it. And therefore,
I don't bear it. And this is the key to forgiveness.
He says, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And I know of at least one person
who was forgiven. Saul of Tarsus. He never could
get this vision out of his mind. And the Lord used this. He heard
this message. He was one of the people that
was gnashing their teeth when he heard it and was filled with
such enmity with this message. But you know what? If you belong
to the Lord, he's going to have you. just like he was going to
have Saul of Tarsus. And later on in chapter 9, we're
going to read where God made himself known to that man. But
here we have Stephen. And some people said, well, Paul
took the place of Stephen. Maybe, maybe. But what an example
of the gospel. May the Lord enable me and you
to be just like Stephen in the sense that we believe the same
gospel he does. And we're going to confess the
gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit without reference to what
men do to us. Thank God for this faithful witness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're thanking Christ. We're
not thanking Stephen. Someone says, I want to be like
Stephen. Well, I want to be like Stephen's Lord. I want to believe
the same Lord that Stephen did. May God give us grace to do that.
Let's pray together.