I am going to ask you to take
your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Acts, chapter
7. for a few minutes at verses 54
through 60. And before I read those verses, I'm reminded I know, I know what's
going to happen today. I know what's going to happen. We're going to be here for a
little while, and by the grace of God, we're going to hear the
gospel. And that only according to God's
good pleasure, to allow the gospel to be preached in this place. based on the Word of God. Almighty God has said in Isaiah
55.11, so shall. So I know whatever follows is
going to be so. I know what's going to happen.
So shall my Word be that goeth, directed, out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void. It is not going to come back
to the starting place empty, ineffectual. It is not going to happen. But
it shall accomplish, it shall bring forth That which I please,
the Lord please. That which He is inclined to.
That which He desires. And it shall prosper. That is, it shall push forward
and break out in the thing whereto I sent it. I appointed. Now, I know what's
going to happen this morning, whatever the Lord is pleased
to happen. In a few moments, we're going
to hear the gospel. And as we hear the gospel of
God's grace, men and women are going to be
inclined to do one of two things. They're going to hear it, and
that by the grace of God. Or they're going to refuse it.
And that to their own eternal damnation. But I know what's
going to happen. And this morning, we come with
a heart of anticipation. Brother Henry preached a message
one time, and he said evangelism, preach for a verdict, because
God is going to do what God is pleased to do. I am a messenger, and that's
all. And that by the grace of God.
So this morning, as we come together, I ask now, Lord, do as you will. Lord, have mercy for Christ's
sake. The Lord always has a purpose
in what He does. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to His purpose. Now in the book of Acts, there
were two messages preached. They were almost identical. I mean, content, yes, but almost
verbatim in the wording of these messages. For the sake of time,
I won't read the whole message. I'm going to read the response.
Look at Acts 2. Acts 2. Verse 22. Peter preached a message
on the day of Pentecost. He set forth the glory of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and in setting forth the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ, this is what He did when He came to that part moved upon
by the Spirit of God to confront men with who they are in themselves. He set forth that men in themselves,
born in Adam, are sinners against God. Man was ruined in the fall. And here's what Peter, under
the inspiration of God's Spirit, said in Acts 2.22. After preaching
the gospel, he said, you men of Israel, hear these words.
Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles
and wonders and signs, which God did by Him in the midst of
you, as ye yourselves also know Him. being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God ye have taken, and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain whom God hath raised up, having
loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should
beholden of it." Men are sinners. Listen to me. All of us born
in Adam are rebels against God. There's none good, no not one.
Man in his best state, altogether vanity. There's not a little
good in every person. There's rebellion from the crown
of a man's head, sole of his foot. Putrefying sores, that's
all he is. Unless God Almighty does something
for him, he's going to leave this world in rebellion against
God. Scripture says concerning that message that was preached
in verse 41 and 42, I'm sorry, 37 and 39 first. When they heard this, they were
pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and to the rest of
the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter
said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in
the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is
unto you and to your children, to all that are far off, even
as many as the Lord our God shall call." Repentance is a gift of
God. It's given unto you. It's granted
unto you to repent. A new mind. But with that command,
Almighty God does in His people what He commands them to do.
And the evidence of that is that they believe the Lord. And they
confess Him in baptism. Listen to me. Don't make light
of confessing the Lord in baptism. It's a command. Believe and be
baptized. Not for salvation, but because
God saved you. Because God's called you out
of darkness. The Scripture says in verse 41-42, then they that
gladly received the Word were baptized, and the same day there
were added unto them about 3,000 souls. And they continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of
bread and in prayers. I read that again this morning
and I think to myself, I thought, you know, oh, that the Lord would
bless His Word and the calling out of His sheep. that God would
bless His Word in regenerating mercy and grace, we expect so
little. We expect little, don't we? Lord,
help me to open my mouth wide today. I pray God save the lost. I pray God Almighty grant repentance. I pray God save your kids. I pray God save your husband,
your wife. I pray God have mercy on your
brother, your sister. Lord have mercy. And the scripture
says in verse 46, 47 and 8, continuing daily, with one accord in the temple
and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat
with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having
favor with all the people and the Lord, added to the church
daily, such as should be saved." Peter preached a message. Almighty
God was pleased to bless that message and call out thousands. They were pricked in their heart. They were pierced or broken. Cried out for mercy. Well, not
long after that, over in Acts 7, another message was preached
by a man named Stephen. And Stephen, you can read the
message. Again, I won't read it. Read it. It starts in Acts
7.1. And Stephen went through and
he related the history of Israel. What happened when God called
him out of Egypt that Pat was reading about. And he set forth
the glory of God's mercy and compassion To keep His people. Bringing them unto Himself. Giving
them grace. Mercy to repent. Give them a
new heart. And Scripture says in Acts 7,
verse 51, Peter had preached on the day of Pentecost. And
he told them, he said, this Holy One that you took with wicked
hands. And you slew him, and God Almighty
broke their hearts. And now here's Stephen preaching.
And here's what happened. He told him in verse 51, Acts
7, You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always
resist the Holy Ghost, as your fathers did. So do ye. Which of the prophets have not
your fathers persecuted? They have slain them which showed
before of the coming of the just One, of whom ye have now been
the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by
the disposition of angels, and have not kept it. And when they
heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed
on Him with their teeth." That is, they were exasperated They
were provoked and irritated to the highest degree. They were
cut. That same word cut. Look at Acts
5 verse 33. That same word right here was
cut. Acts 5 verse 33. The Scripture says when they
heard that, they were cut to the heart and they took counsel
to slay a man. A man by nature, left to himself,
hates. He hates to be told what he is.
And he hates God who is sovereign. He hates God being God. Cut to
the heart. Took counsel. Now just for a
few minutes, I want us to consider the difference between a man
whose heart has been pricked and broken by the Spirit of God
and regenerating grace, and those that have been cut by the message
of the gospel. You know the answer to this,
but who made the difference? Who made the difference? I'm telling you we are what we
are by the grace of God if we know Him. If we have a heart
that's tender toward the Lord, by God's grace, that verse 54
back in Acts 7 reveals that those who were cut to the heart, those
that were left to themselves, in their rebellion, enmity against
God. The Scripture says that they
gnashed on Him with their teeth. They grated in rage. They were so mad at Him that
the Scripture said they just pounced on Him. Both messages
were preached Both messages were preached in the power of the
Holy Spirit. That was God's Word. And Almighty
God did exactly what God was pleased to do. Does the potter
have the right to take the message of the glorious
gospel of Christ and bless it in power to the heart of one
of His own, an object of mercy, and call Him out of darkness
and give Him a new heart, and take that old stony heart and
remove it from its throne. I know the presence of sin is
there. But as I've said before, that heart, that old stony heart,
it's beheaded. It's still there. Influence is
still there. We know it. But it doesn't rule. It does not reign. Does God have
the right to do that? Does God have the right to send
His gospel forth and to leave a man to himself
and let him hear the gospel and leave him to himself and in absolute
justice condemn that man to eternity in hell? Does God have the right?
Yes, He does. I tell you a believer, when a
believer hears the gospel, and in the preaching of that gospel,
and rightly so, we've heard this. This will be the fiber that's
woven through every message that's preached in truth. You're going
to hear the fiber of man ruined by the fall. God's preachers
are not going to set forth Man is being something that's able
to respond. A dead sinner. Ruined in the
fall. Redeemed by the blood. And regenerated
by the Spirit of God. That's going to be the very fiber.
But when a believer hears that he's a sinner in himself against
God, I'm telling you a believer will admit that. He'll be the
first to admit it. Somebody will tell him, say,
you know what, I think you're just an old rebel against God. And a believer will say, you
don't know the half of it. You saw my heart. You knew my
heart. I am. I am. In myself, I am. That stiff neck and uncircumcised
in heart and ears. And it left to myself, that old
nature that I was born with, God would justly deal with me.
Thanks be unto God that He's justly dealt with me in a substitute. Leave me to myself. Leave me
to myself, I would always resist the Holy Ghost. That's the sign
when an unbeliever resists the gospel. No, I'll not have that
man to rule over me. A believer truly is broken for
that person. Lord, have mercy. Have mercy. Those hearers of old Stephen,
they heard him set forth that they were sinners. And they wanted
to do one thing. They wanted to kill him because
they couldn't get to the God that Stephen was preaching. We're
going to get to Stephen. We can't get to the Lord's, but
we're going to get to you. They hated the message. They
hated the Christ that Stephen preached. But for the ones whose
heart had been pricked, pricked, broken, to see the Savior, a
mediator between God and men, Stephen evidenced that. And again,
there was no difference. There was no difference in Stephen
and the ones he was preaching to, but the grace of God. And here's what the Scriptures
have to say about the man that was doing the preaching that
God had done something for. Verse 55, But he, that is, Stephen,
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. Full of the Holy Ghost. Covered
over. Covered over. Furnished. Filled with divine comfort and
grace. By the grace of God, here he
is in his last moments. Just a few moments, he's going
to be dead. And here the Lord who promised, I'm not going to
leave you. I'm not going to forsake you.
And here Stephen in boldness, To set forth the truth. The fear
of man bringeth a snare. But for Almighty God to give
a man a heart, to stand firm, and to preach Christ and tell
men who they are, and who He is, strong in faith, preparing
him, the Lord was. To die, or to live, truly, to
live. The scripture says, and he looked
up steadfastly into heaven, eyes directed by the grace of God
to behold his faithful Savior. Gave him eyes to see, truly. He saw, the scripture says, Full
of the Holy Ghost, he looked steadfastly into heaven and saw
the glory of God. And Jesus, standing on the right
hand of God, He saw God's glory. He saw Christ Himself. That's
what Moses asked, remember that? Show me Your glory. The Lord
answered him, I will make all my goodness. Here's the purpose
of God. Here's the thought of God. Here's
the mercy. Show me your glory. I'm going
to make all of my goodness the Lord Jesus Himself. Here's the
fullness of the Godhead bodily. Here's the very visibleness of
Almighty God, I will make all my goodness pass before Thee,
and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before Thee. Oh,
that the Lord would give us this morning eyes of faith to truly
see His glory, to see the Lord Jesus Christ as His Word is set
forth, as Christ Himself You're going to know the truth, the
truth Himself and the truth of His Word. You'll know the truth
and the truth Christ Himself as He's preached in His gospel. The truth is going to make you
free, set you free. The Lord told Moses, I'm going
to cause my goodness passed before your face. It's by the grace of God that
this church has been allowed to see the goodness of God, to
hear the gospel. Why would God raise up the gospel
here? Because it pleased Him to do
so. Why would the Lord allow the gospel to be preached 60
years? because it pleased Him to do
so. Miracle. The Lord told Martha
at the tomb of Lazarus when she questioned the Lord, saying to
move the stone, the Lord said, said, I nod unto thee that if
thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God. Didn't
I tell you that? The Spirit of God revealed, as
Stephen saw, the glory of God. And the Spirit of God told us
who Stephen saw. He said, I see Jesus. He knew
him. He knew him that had eternally
known Stephen. Revealed himself unto him. I
see the Savior. I see Jesus. And Stephen, his
heart being full of the Holy Ghost, he voiced What he really
saw. What's going on around us is real. We just don't see it. Right now, remember when Elisha
asked the Lord to open his servant's eyes? He saw the Syrian army. That's what the servant saw.
And Elisha said, Lord, would you open my servant's eyes? Scripture
says, if the Lord opened his eyes and there were all the chariots
of fire, and Elisha set forth, they that be with us are more
than they that be with him. Stephen, verse 56, said, Behold,
I see the heavens open, and the Son of Man standing on the right
hand of God. Stephen saw God's salvation. Stephen saw the mediator between
God and himself. I see the Son of Man. That's who the Lord revealed
Himself to be. And Stephen was just relating
what the Lord had said about him. In the days of his humiliation,
I, the Son of Man, God in flesh. And Stephen verbalized. He said,
I'm looking at the one that you rejected. I'm looking at God
Himself in human flesh. I'm seeing, I'm looking. The heavens has been opened to
my eyes by the grace of God and I see I see God standing. The one you rejected and spit
on and crucified, I see him standing to receive me unto himself. Here is the accomplishment of
that which the Lord Jesus Christ set forth that he was going to
accomplish. O Father, this is life eternal,
that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom Thou hast sent. Stephen said, I see Him. And
those that love darkness rather than light, who would not received
the love of the truth. Verse 57-58, 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. But even in those words, we're
reminded of the Lord's promise that we started out with in this
message. My Word is not going to return
void. It is going to accomplish the purpose for which it was
sent. Some of them would not hear.
They would not hear. And the Scripture says that they
were going to die in their sins. But there was one of God's chosen
in that crowd. Saul of Tarsus was standing there.
Saul, according to Paul the Apostle's admittance, he said in Acts 22.20,
and when the blood of thy martyr, actually the word martyr means
witness, when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also
was standing by and consenting unto his death and kept the raiment
of them that slew him. Paul said, I watched him. Surely the wrath of man shall
praise thee. The remainder of wrath shalt
thou restrain." They heard Stephen preaching. And they thought that
he was blaspheming God. And according to the laws, those
who cursed God were to be stoned. And they thought they were doing
God a favor. And they took those rocks and
they started just throwing them at Stephen. And Saul held their
coats, consenting unto that. That chosen vessel of mercy,
Saul of Tarsus, he heard Stephen preaching. He heard the gospel. The power of God and salvation.
Saul of Tarsus heard the gospel. Does a man have to hear the gospel
to be saved? Yes, he does. Paul said it's
the power of God. under salvation. Does it matter
what a man hears? Yes, it does. Paul the Apostle
said, if any man preach any other gospel than that which we've
preached unto you, let him be accursed. There's one message
that God blesses. The message of God's free and
sovereign grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. And verse 59 says, And
they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus,
receive my spirit. Our Lord said, setting forth
through His preacher, Acts 2.21, whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord, whosoever shall appeal, whosoever shall worship,
whosoever shall invoke for aid, I've said before, we're not ashamed
of the word whosoever. I'm telling you, everyone sitting
in this congregation this morning, if God's called out of the darkness,
you are a whosoever. Whosoever. Whosoever shall call
on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Almighty God is pleased
to take His whosoevers. Give him a new heart, a new tongue. And in his dying moment, Stephen
exhibited a miracle of God's grace to call on the Lord. Now, he was a man and he felt
those rocks. He felt the pain. I know he did. But the grace of God gave that
man a heart to say, Lord Jesus, take my spirit. Receive my spirit. There is the exhibition of mercy.
Dying grace. And the Scripture says in verse
60, he kneeled down and he cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay
not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he
fell asleep. As the Lord, the Son of Man,
stood to receive Stephen into his presence, Stephen knelt down
before him and worshipped him and blessed his holy name. And
in adoration, in his dying breath, he prayed for God's will to be
done. I'm convinced Stephen uttered
the words by faith that our Lord uttered from the cross in absolute
knowledge, perfect knowledge. The Spirit of God moved on that
man. He was full of the Holy Ghost.
And the Spirit of God gave Stephen the words. Remember, I know of
one that we are told. who was an object of God's mercy,
who was an object of God's electing grace. There was Saul of Tarsus. Saul didn't know it yet. Nobody
else did either. But when it pleased God, God
was going to call him out of darkness. And here was Stephen
praying, praying for God's will, praying for God's purpose. Lord,
lay not this sin to their charge. Lord, you who die to redeem your
people, Lord, you who put away, Lord, don't charge them. I pray for your sake, for your
will, according to your purpose. Lay not this charge to their
account." And Stephen cried with a loud voice, crying unto the
Lord. And the Scripture says he fell
asleep. He left this world. He left this
world by the grace of God. That precious death that was
precious in the sight of the Lord. The confession of a dying
saint. Lord, I pray that we read of
your mercy and your grace to keep your people. This is what
I pray for myself and for you. Lord, leave us not to ourselves.
Lord, help us, keep us, for Christ's sake.